Symmetry In Motion: Finding Balance And Harmony

There are few things in life that are guaranteed. One of them is certainly riding your horse in total balance and harmony, every single ride, though it's one of those things we strive for as riders, trainers and exhibitors. Let’s define symmetry: “A sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance.”

When we look at the classical Dressage training pyramid, we take note of how foundation plays a key part in the training of our horses, these are all essentially the building blocks of ensuring the horse will be capable of moving onto the next phase of training. Rhythm, or tempo, is at the bottom. What rhythm gives us is a baseline upon which to build. A horse showing rhythm will be forward, loose and steady; before achieving this you really cannot move forward with training. I always begin rhythm training exercises with circles of 20 meters, which helps build correct tempo. Remember though, we are assuming the horse already has a solid walk / trot / canter and an understanding of the aids.

As we move through the steps of the pyramid – relaxation, connection, impulsion, straightness and ultimately, collection, there will be a marked difference in your horse’s performance as well as his attitude. That’s because we are preparing both his body and his mind to perform the tasks requested of him with ease. This doesn’t just go for Dressage, I use these steps in training any horse, for any job. Even with Western Pleasure horses, for them to fully express the form-to-function capability they need in order to be competitive, they've got to have Dressage basics, or you'll have a horse obviously rushed with shortcuts. To any educated judge, those will be blatantly obvious.

Some of you are probably thinking, these are pretty blanket and vague statements I’m making, so I’ll go back to the beginning. How do we create a balanced, well rounded horse? Baby steps. Plus, it all depends on if we’re talking about an unstarted youngster (or unbroke horse of any age, really), a greenbroke horse, or one that just needs a tune-up in their training. As stated above, for the purposes of this post, we're going to assume the horse has a nice walk, trot and canter, is out of the round pen, and being ridden in an actual arena -- I'm not going to address the unstarted horse here.

Too many folks seem to think they've got to start out with their horse having a 'headset'. Okay, those of you who have desires to show have seen that you just can't compete if your horse's head is flinging up into the air, but what you may not know is how to correctly get that headset. Two words: Self carriage. I've discussed many times before, self carriage is created through true collection, and that collection comes from behind. And also that a headset IS NOT collection. But, yes I do like a pretty headset on my horses by the time they're show ring ready. That might cause a stir among the 'natural horsemanship' crowd, or the old-time Dressage purists, however, a headset is simply icing on the cake.

Our goal in training any horse should be symmetry. Remember that definition I quoted above? Horses in motion ARE beauty and harmony. When you have the building blocks in place, take your time and help your horse understand how to perform to your satisfaction, there will be no doubt you've achieved that goal.

~SFTS