Copy of `Horse and Rider - Dressage terms`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

Horse and Rider - Dressage terms Category: Animals and Nature > Horseriding Date & country: 04/09/2015, UK Words: 17

Turn-on-the-forehand
This helps a horse's obedience to the sideways pushing aids. In this, the horse's hindquarters move around the inside foreleg. You must have a good walk rhythm to start with, with the horse bent in the direction away from the movement of the hindquarters. Therefore, he bends to the right if the quarters are pushed to the left. He must also cross his hind legs while stepping with his front legs almost on the same spot.

True way of going
In balance and with self-carriage, with no leaning on the rein.

Travers
The horse is flexed in the direction of travel. The forehand (shoulder) stays on the outside track, the hindquarters on the inside. Travers is a good suppling and straightening exercise. It is best performed along the wall or fence line of the school, or on the centre line at an angle of 30 degrees to the direction in which the horse is travelling. The wall (or fence line) helps the rider control and maintain the angle of the bend.

Throughness
means encouraging your horse to accept the aids willingly and without any tension. It is the term used to describe the energy coming from the hindquarters working ‘through' a supple and swinging back into an accepting and elastic contact with the bit, which allows the horse to develop elasticity and cadence within the paces.

Suppleness
This term is applied when a horse is able to work through his back without any signs of tension in the muscles. In fact, he should be physically and mentally free of all tension, so that he can apply himself fully to the task in hand.

Straight
A horse is said to be ‘straight' when his forehand (shoulder) is in line with his hindquarters and he is using both hind legs equally. This then helps ensure that the horse's weight is balanced over the front and back end of his body. It is developed by consistently working both sides of the body equally - ie, on both reins. This is important as most horses are crooked, in that they have a strong and a weak side, much the same as we are right or left-handed.

Put the horse up together
Work through from behind from an engaged hind leg into a steady rein contact.

Shoulder-fore
This is an exercise often used to straighten the horse in canter. The shoulders are very slightly positioned onto an inside track, with the horse being very slightly bent away from the direction he is travelling.

Shoulder-in
As shoulder-fore, but the forehand is brought in from the track to an angle of about 30 degrees with the footfalls forming three distinct tracks (outside hind on the outside track, inside hind and outside fore on the middle, inside fore on a third inside track), with the horse adopting a clean and uniformed bend from nose to tail away from the direction he is travelling. Shoulder-in is the foundation of all lateral work. Not only is it good for encouraging straightness, but it's also a good suppling exercise and a great collecting movement.

Pirouette
The horse is turned through 360 degrees - in walk, canter or piaffe - by pivoting around the inside hindleg.

Piaffe
Very collected trot on the spot.

On and back
(shortening and lengthening for a few strides) is good for improving elasticity and ground cover in the paces. You simply ride a few medium strides, then bring your horse back to a more collected pace to establish engagement. However, the difference between the collected pace and the medium pace must be dramatic with your horse surging forward out of the transition.Passage

Leg-yield
This is where the horse moves forward and sideways - ie, usually from the centre of the threequarter line towards the outside track - slightly bent and flexed away from the direction in which he is travelling. The horse's body should be straight, but with a slight flexion (bend) at the poll, so that the rider can just see the horse's nostril.

Flying change
This is performed to change direction. For example, as the rider asks the horse to canter on the right lead, she moves her left leg back behind the girth to ask the horse to change leg while in the suspension phase.

Half-pass
The horse moves forward and sideways at the same time, flexed in the direction of travel. It is simply quarters in (travers) ridden across a diagonal.

Contact
This refers to the consistent connection the rider has on the horse's mouth through the reins and which the horse should accept at all times. There should be no resistance, no open mouth and no grinding of the teeth.

Engagement
Engagement is the connection between the horse's hind legs and the rein. It is achieved by the forward movement coming from an active hind leg into a consistent, elastic rein contact. The horse should be encouraged to move forward freely, energetically and rhythmically to the rein and must not be held in an outline.