collected trot tips?

[Nosey]

Doing my 1st Ele soon...any tips? Thanks all!

 

[daffy44]

Hi, good luck with your first Ele! Firstly, please remember collection doesnt mean slower, and at Ele, the amount of collection required is really only as much as is necessary to do the movement well. Hope that helps.

 

[Nosey]

Thanks for the good luck vibes daffy. I prob didn't word my request v clearly. Has anyone got any tips on how to ride a good collected trot as trot work in test is either collected or medium. Had a lesson last week to run through but didn't get round to it & ended up with a critique of my position instead. Which I'm sure was needed & v useful.....but I'm still a bit underprepared re collected trot aspects & what judge will be looking for. Thx.

 

[Sol]

Never got around to actually doing an elem (doesn't help when you have no transport!) but I've always been told just to only collect as much as needed for the movement - so if the movement was say, a 10m circle in 'collected trot' then just balance the horse enough to do the circle. Try watching a few elementary tests on youtube, look at the scores they got too, but you never really see the horses looking collected as such, so I would not worry too much

 

[Polotash]

The advice here is correct, the horse only needs to show enough collection to perform the movement, if you perform the movements in a balanced "school" trot (i.e. not an out spanking along a track trot!), you won't be marked down. You will be marked down if you shorten or slow the pace too much, so just aim for a nice balance and you'll be fine.

More important is that he shows a clear difference when asked for medium trot, make sure he really moves forward from your leg when you reach the given marker. You can get away with a more gradual transition back to collected.

Same applies to the canter re collected and medium...

Practice your extended walk, this is worth double so good to get decent marks for (I haven't cracked this yet!)

 

[crabbymare]

Try thinking of the trot as just being a slightly shorter frame than a working trot and you will be fine and if the horse can do the movements easily you have enough collection. have fun with it

 

[Nosey]

Oh brilliant..thanks guys. That's really put my mind at rest. Like the you tube tip too...I'll def have a look. It's an easier ele (53) so have dared myself to do it having faffed about at novice long enough!

 

[Polotash]

Oh brilliant..thanks guys. That's really put my mind at rest. Like the you tube tip too...I'll def have a look. It's an easier ele (53) so have dared myself to do it having faffed about at novice long enough!

Good luck, they are MUCH more interesting to ride, prelim and novice tests are v boring once you've started Ele!

I'd say 53 is one of the hardest by the way, because everything comes up so fast, so make sure you ride it through a couple of times to get the feel for it. Preparation for each movement is key, so use the corners well to give yourself as much time as possible.

 

[Tonks]

Not sure if you meant test riding or schooling but here goes:

Collected trot is a shorter and higher stride, rather than longer.

Collection is trained through repeated gait and stride length transitions. That is, plenty of direct transitions (eg, halt to trot) and transitions within the gait (eg, working trot to medium and down again.)

The actual aids should be clear: a) back of the calf for 'go' and back of heel for lengthen. b) rein aids should be longer in duration with more pressure for a direct transition (stop/slow.) When asking for shortening the rein pressure should be of less duration with less pressure. This is the precursor of collection.

These transitions should occur within 3 beats of the rhythm to train it to happen with the lightest of aids.

I think as the other posters suggested as long as there is a distinction and difference between the gaits when required you'll be fine.

Good luck.