The correct way to post the trot is by posting on the outside diagonal. The rider’s seat rises when the horse’s outside hind leg is anchored on the ground and his inside hind leg and outside foreleg are lifting and moving forward. The rider is reached by the saddle and thus becomes seated when the horse’s inside hind leg impacts on the ground and his outside hind leg is suspended.

If the rider sits correctly while posting on the outside diagonal, he will feel the inside seat bone touch the saddle more firmly than the outside one. The reason is that the rider touches the surface of the saddle when the horse’s inside hind leg touches the ground. At that time, the bulk of the rider and the bulk of the horse meet with each other for a moment. The rider’s bulk is lowered, the horse’s bulk is stabilized on the inside. The resultant feeling is a stronger pressure under the inside seat bone.

This feeling may be further exaggerated when trotting on an arc, whether it is through a simple corner or on a full circle. When a rider bends a horse laterally onto an arc, he not only uses his legs to do so, but also his torso. While bending a horse laterally, the rider’s shoulders and hips parallel the position of the horse’s shoulders and hips respectively. As the inside shoulder of the horse travels slightly behind the further-advanced outside shoulder, so must the rider’s shoulders parallel that position with his inside shoulder slightly back. While the rider pivots his shoulders around the vertical axis of his spine, he should draw an imaginary horizontal line through his own shoulders that points exactly to the center of the circle. The rider’s weight should be more on the inside seat bone when riding on a circle because his outside leg is kept back and his inside shoulder is back. The imaginary line through the rider’s shoulders should point to the center of the circle like the spoke of a wheel points to the hub.

Every instructor has preferences as to the appearance, equipment, and preparedness of students. I can only speak about mine, while trusting that they correspond to some of the expectations of fellow instructors. Expectations may vary somewhat, depending on the frequency of instruction for a particular pupil. An instructor may have pupils seen only once a year or much more frequently.

The horse should be in continuous training and athletically prepared for a dressage clinic. He should be strong enough to take an hour of gymnastic work, although intense work limited to exercises in a manege should last only thirty minutes. Good muscle tone and good cardiovascular functions result from regular training and correct feeding. A horse regularly schooled should also have a prolonged attention span and the ability to concentrate on his rider. Horses benefit immensely by frequent rest periods, which must not be long and may even be limited to one minute. Resting periods are more for the horse’s mind than for his body, unless, of course, he is in strenuous training for cross-country work. Resting for a minute is the most effective reward and it also allows the horse to realign his body and work as his own “chiropractor” with a loose neck. Resting could be as frequent as every six minutes for young, weak, or nervous horses. Even the most educated and willing horse needs a rest period after every fifteen minutes of work.

The rider should also be athletically conditioned. Sick, injured, or weak riders have low physical and mental tolerance for learning. They should not participate in clinic lessons. Unfit riders cannot be given proper education and athletic guidance through a clinic format. Unfit riders should not take lessons because their learning abilities are impaired.

Ideally, riders with an independent, balanced seat benefit most from an occasional clinic. I believe that the seat and aids of riders need serious attention. Few riders have been started correctly, and therefore equitation becomes the most important part of a clinic. During a clinic, an instructor must teach the horse using the skills of his rider. Daily instruction or supervision, however, may still be the best for riders who need to learn an independent, balanced seat and riding theory in a thorough manner. Poor riding habits are much harder to correct than giving good riding skills and habits to beginning riders. Bad riding, habituated during many years, is well learned. Unlearning it is a monumental task, all the more so because the bad habits feel “normal” and good to the rider who habituates them.

The horse’s equipment should include a dressage saddle, well-adjusted headgear and the proper bit for the level of the horse’s schooling needs. (Regulations concerning equipment for competition are found in the rule books of national and international regulatory organizations.) Many riders come to lessons with unevenly adjusted stirrup leathers. They are accustomed to riding in uneven stirrups in order to compensate for a crooked seat that shows in a collapsed hip. Or they did not notice that over time, one leather stretched. Stirrup leathers should be checked and measured weekly. All tack should be clean.

The rider’s equipment and attire should approximate, as closely as possible, that used in competition. Competition attire is standardized because in it riding can be done well. In it, the rider can also be accurately observed. By all means, do wear clothing that reveals the position of the torso and the use of the back. Wear leather riding boots for correct feeling and effective aids. Gloves are indispensable in any weather as protection for the rider’s hands and as instruments for “generalizing” the feeling on the reins.

Carry a riding whip. Both the rider and the horse have two equally important sides. Therefore, carrying two whips might be a great asset with lazy horses. Changing the whip from side to side could be very disturbing to the horse, destroying continuity of the contact and regularity of rhythm, unless skillfully done by an educated rider. Correctly changing the whip skillfully from hand to hand should hardly be noticeable to the horse. Basic training should be schooled without spurs. Prior to the horse’s ability to collect, spurs are useless because their function is occasional and “percussionary,” to enhance cadence or to increase engagement. In any case, spurs are instruments for refinement and should not be worn by riders who cannot keep their heels away from the horse’s sides and who cannot ride with draped, effectively driving calves. Sensitivity to mild leg aids is paramount in dressage riding and, even on phlegmatic horses, can best be developed with the help of reinforcement of the leg aids by the whip. Spurs are useful when collection and cadencing work commence. They are instruments of sensitivity, similar to the double bridle. However, their use should slightly precede the use of the full bridle.

At the beginning of a lesson, the rider should walk up to the instructor and halt there. They could exchange greetings and the instructor could ask the student about essential information concerning the horse and the rider’s experiences. While the instructor inspects the equipment and adjusts it if necessary, the rider should offer a short and relevant report on the horse. This should include the horse’s age, training background, current schooling plans, and particular problems or strengths in performance. After the equipment has been inspected and, if needed, adjusted, the lesson proper may begin. An instructor should adjust the rider’s skeletal position while still at the halt. This is the time to sculpt the rider’s torso and leg position.

“The horse on the bit” is a misleading expression, yet it is one we are accustomed to using and, by consent, we pretend to understand, in spite of its mischievous suggestion that it has to do with the rider’s hands and the horse’s bit exclusively.

Being on the bit is the most important concept in classical horsemanship. Only a horse that contacts and accepts the bit and moves toward the bit is athletically correct. Using a human analogy, let me suggest that there is a great difference between people who are moving about in a grocery store buying mustard, for example, and those working out in a gymnasium. Both are moving and are engaged in some mental activities, but only the one working out in a gymnasium is improving himself physically and mentally. He will show muscle development and skeletal coordination that one cannot acquire by shopping for mustard. Likewise with horses; just by moving a horse around, the rider traveling, the horse covering ground without using himself properly, no improvement can take place. One can only make athletic and gymnastic improvements if the horse is longitudinally flexed. Therefore, the horse must be flexing toward the bit before any gymnasticizing can take place.

Being on the bit, or longitudinal flexion, as it should be called, has to do with the total horse. When a horse is on the bit, his skeletal position as well as his use of his muscles changes. To be on the bit connotes relaxation, suppleness of muscles, elasticity in the joints, elegance, and obedience. That is both the foundation and the substance of all dressage work. The most important feature of a horse on the bit is that he is longitudinally flexed, thereby becoming a shorter horse, capable of moving deeper under his own weight with the hindquarters, lifting the weight up rather than pushing it forward. The longitudinally flexed horse is well poised to carry his rider, and therefore will be able to surrender his haunches to the rider’s will and become obedient rather than subservient to force.

The horse’s neck is naturally more supple than his bulky trunk, which includes a relatively unyielding rib cage and heavy musculature. A horse can remain rigid throughout his trunk and still bend his neck to reach a fly or scratch his body way back. However, correct lateral bending occurs only when the horse is evenly bent throughout his body, along his spinal cord.

At the beginning of dressage training, the major task is to teach a horse to carry his rider in balance on a straight line. The horse should move evenly and straight without pushing his shoulders or haunches in or out, his hind legs following the forelegs so that the horse’s spinal cord remains the center axis from which the hoofprints are equidistant. The rider should never become a passive traveler, and even on a running horse, he should keep his legs intimately in touch with the horse’s sides, teaching the horse the concept that he may move only under conditions of aiding.

Most of the time, a horse moves on a bent line. Only seldom is there a straight path to move on. In our small riding arenas, there are two long walls and two short walls where a horse should move straight. Otherwise, most riding is done on various arcs and circles or in the combination of them, whether it is jumping or other gymnastic disciplines that the rider may pursue. Lateral bending can be practiced qualitatively in two different ways.

The simpler lateral exercises are those done on circular lines, while the horse’s hind legs continue to follow in the direction of the corresponding forelegs. These are called “single track” lateral exercises. The path of the horse proceeds on an arc. Such is the case with all the corners of a riding arena, since they are parts of an incomplete circle. To that, we can add the riding of a full circle, which can be of any size, usually larger for a stiffer, novice horse and smaller according to the horse’s ability to bend as he improves his suppleness. Then we can ride serpentine lines, which are more difficult than simple circles, because the horse is asked to bend from side to side in succession. Finally, we can ride figure eights, which are rather difficult to do well, as the horse must sustain bending for a long while on each side, yet is given only one straight step to change the bend from one side to the other side.

The progression should be from simple to complex in riding on arcs, from a simple circle, to serpentine, to the figure eight. We also proceed from generous arcs to tighter, smaller ones as the horse’s ability to bend onto them in a continuum improves. Note that the horse should be tutored in lateral bending at the walk first, then in trot, and, finally, in canter.

The more difficult or complex lateral bending exercises are done on multitracks. These require that the horse’s hind legs do not follow directly into the footprints of the forelegs on the corresponding side. Rather, the horse will leave either three or four distinct traces of hoofprints behind on the ground. In general order of difficulty, these exercises are as follows:

The shoulder-in and shoulder-out exercises can only be done at the walk and trot. In shoulder-in, we ask the horse to bend around our inside leg, stepping with his inside hind leg toward the footprint of the outside foreleg. As a result, he leaves three tracks behind and bends the joints of the inside hind leg generously by striding deeply under his center of gravity. The horse progresses in the direction of his outside shoulder, however; he bends opposite the direction of his progression: to the inside.

This is the only multitrack movement where bending opposite the direction of motion is required.

The shoulder-out is the reverse of the shoulder-in. It is not necessary to do it, for by changing hands a rider can supple equally both sides of the horse with shoulder-in alone.

The haunches-in and haunches-out exercises are a little more sophisticated in their demands on the horse’s musculature than the shoulder-in and the shoulder-out.

In the haunches-in, the horse is once more bent evenly around the rider’s inside leg. He moves toward the side on which he is bent with his hindquarters displaced inward away from the rail. The forehand proceeds along the rail. The outside hind leg of the horse strides toward the footprint of his inside foreleg.

The haunches-in can be done in all three natural gaits: walk, trot, and canter. However, I discourage practicing it in the canter. Horses have the natural tendency to canter crookedly, usually with their haunches in, anyway. This is highly undesirable, because it allows the horse to avoid bending his joints correctly and causes him to move in stressful lack of balance. Indeed, the rider must teach and encourage his horse to canter very straight. Thus, the haunches-in at the canter, while horses are eager to offer it, should be avoided.

The haunches-out, just like the shoulder-out, is an exercise that is not necessary to practice, as it can be replaced by changing hands and performing a haunches-in, again in the opposite direction.

The half-pass is a more sophisticated lateral bending exercise than the previously described ones. It serves to strengthen the horse’s use of his hips, stifles, and shoulders, as opposed to the shoulder-in, which aims to strengthen the hocks for-collection and suspension. The haunches-in strengthens the stifles and the lumbar back most.

In half-pass, the horse moves on a diagonal across the arena, with his bent body somewhat parallel with the wall toward which he progresses, yet with his inside shoulder slightly leading. The horse is once again bent around the inside leg of the rider, proceeding in the direction of his bending. Most important are the maintenance of the forward urge and the evenness and clarity of motion. Half-passes can be done at the walk, trot, and canter and should be done in all three gaits. The horse moving in half-pass will leave four tracks behind on the ground. It strengthens all the joints, especially the hips, and therefore, will improve the horse’s ability to extend his strides.

Pirouettes are also lateral bending exercises. They can be performed only in the walk and in the canter. While pirouetting at the walk is a relatively simple gymnastic exercise, doing the same in canter is one of the most difficult. Young horses can soon pirouette at the walk, but only the most advanced horses will be able to do the same at the canter, usually some years later.

At the pirouette, the horse is asked to turn around his inside hind leg. Both hind legs are to remain active, but on the spot where the movement was started. One can ride quarter, half, three-quarter, or full pirouettes, depending on the horse’s level of advancement. During these turns, the horse is gently bent around the rider’s inside leg toward the direction of the turn.

The following is a summary of some of the properties of lateral bending:

• During all lateral bending exercises, horses are evenly bent along the entire length of their spinal column toward one side. The “inside” is the hollow or contracted side of the horse. The other side, called the outside, is stretched longer and feels “full.”

• While lateral bending exercises can never be done with a straight horse, their purpose, however, is to help straighten a horse. Lateral bending exercises have a very high suppling value, which ensures the eventual development of the desired straight-moving horse.

• There can never be any successful lateral bending without the horse first being longitudinally flexed. In other words, lateral bending can occur only when the horse is accepting the leg aids for increased flexion in his joints without hurrying. This elevates his back, rounds his topline, arches his neck, and allows his head to hang while seeking the bit.

• While longitudinal flexion is a prerequisite to lateral bending, each reinforces the horse’s ability to do the other. Hence, successful lateral bending will consolidate the horse’s ability to remain in longitudinal flexion, which in turn will make this prerequisite position more often available to do additional lateral bending exercises.

• Always repeat each lateral bending exercise in both directions.

Never exercise the horse’s hollow or stiff side more than the other. Always “mirror” lateral exercises and do it in close succession. For example, circling to the right should be followed by circling to the left.

• Always combine longitudinal and lateral gymnastics. All transitions are powerful longitudinal flexing and balancing exercises. Riding transitions after each lateral exercise makes for a successful combination. As an example, ride a half-circle right in the trot and reaching the opposite rail, depart into canter on the left lead. Or pirouette left at the walk, and then depart at the canter on the left lead when the pirouette is completed. The possible combinations are infinite.

Gymnastic riding can be meaningful only when a planned strategy is pursued by the rider. No exercise should be done on the spur of the moment and without due preparation. During riding, a quick succession of changes may indicate well-planned gymnasticizing. There is no specific value in endlessly riding in the same gait, on the same line, in the same exercise for a long time. The frequency of transitions is in direct proportion to the value of gymnastic development in the horse.

Two major dressage principles contribute to the improvement of the walk. The horse develops in his totality. While a broken-down piece of machinery may be repaired by fixing the malfunctioning part, a horse can never be improved by attempting to work on the faulty part alone. Therefore, appropriate gymnastic work at the trot and canter contributes remarkably to the development of the walk.

It is never the quantity but rather the quality of aids that improves the gait. Therefore, a sluggish walk will not be improved by vigorous kicking. Aids too strong for comfort or too rapid for the rhythm of the footfalls will fail to create improvement. The most effective aids are comfortably gentle, exquisitely coordinated with the horse’s movements, and given when the hind legs leave the ground. No gait requires more “feel” than the walk!

The rider can improve the walk through correct aiding and also by logical gymnasticizing. The rider’s legs should be adhesive but should not tightly pinch the horse’s sides. To an observer, they should appear as if they were painted there with heels down to increase the strength of the calves by stretching without stiffening. Invisible pressures with these legs are always in rhythm and harmony with the horse’s movement, coordinated with seat activities, and have proper strength without inhibiting measures. A deep knee position and well-elevated toes maintain quiet legs. With draped legs, the rider should insist on keeping his horse’s spine parallel with the path of progression (while working on single track exercises). Often the walk fails to develop properly because the horse evades the rider’s leg aids for straightening. Only well-attached legs can ensure that the horse does not step off the line of progression with one of his hind legs and that he progresses with equally long strides with both hind legs.

The rider should always be aware of the activities of the horse’s hind legs, otherwise he cannot influence and control their activities. Only steadily adhesive legs can increase the feel of the seat in knowing where the horse’s hind legs are and what they are doing. When the left hind leg is striding under the rider’s weight, the rider’s left leg is pushed out on the expanded left side of the horse’s rib cage, while his right leg sinks in on the other, hollowed side of the rib cage. Simultaneously, on the horse’s stretched side, the rider’s seat bone is elevated, while on the contracted side, his seat bone sinks. Riders should train themselves to feel the horse’s strides by closing their eyes periodically and calling out “right” and “left” to indicate the side on which the horse’s hind leg is leaving the ground to stride under the center of gravity.

Both the direction and impulsive activity of the horse’s hind legs can be influenced only when they are leaving the ground. A rider can redirect the left hind leg of the horse back to the straight or send it forward in a longer stride only when the left hind leg is leaving the ground. Should the rider fail to detect the instant of elevation or should his legs be too distant from the horse’s side to give pressure at the required instant, the window of opportunity for improvement will be lost. Dangling legs, loosely banging, or kicking legs are meaningless annoyances that may disrupt the horse’s rhythm. Even worse, they cannot synchronize with the horse’s activities in his hindquarters and they can never be on time for aiding.