Transitions within pace/gait

[SaddlePsych'D]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips or resources to share to help me get my head around transitions within gaits (particularly trot)?

My instructor is helping me with this but I like to read up about things/watch videos as well to help things click in my brain! I think I get the basic idea that strides can go quicker/slower and be longer/shorter, and that how we ride/use our body can help or hinder the horse in adjusting themselves. I think I also understand (very happy to be corrected) that you still need energy when collecting and that going quicker isn't necessarily the same as extending.

I know the feel for things like this will come with practice, but I'm really keen to learn more so any tips to think about or videos etc I could look up would be great!

 

[doodle]

You can put out poles. You can put them slightly closer together to shorten the pace and then slightly further apart to lengthen the pace. Can do different sets of poles or the same set but on a curve so the inside of poles closer and outside further apart. Probably easier to slightly lengthen to start. Lengthen by a small amount initially and think of pushing forward to reach the poles.

I also find it easier to shorten round the short sides of the school and then lengthen either along the long side or across the diagonal. The short side and curve helps the horse to stay balanced while shortening and then they have the space to lengthen.

 

[paddi22]

what really helps is to get a lesson on a dressage schoolmaster and feel how the different ranges of paces feel, but feel how they should feel on a correct and balanced horse.

another vital thing is where your horse is physically in its education and where it is on the training scale. it's pointless to watch videos of strong balanced horses doing exercises if your horses is physically somewhere else on the training scale. you need to get a base level understanding of where your horse is at. at a very very fundamental level your horse is either in one of three conditions - lacking impulsion, balanced with good impulsion or rushing.

I found it super helpful to get a session with a good dressage instructor and really understand what kind of pace I was doing at any stage and was it correct. so it was tons of lessons with her roaring at me 'he's on the forehand' 'now he's rushing' 'now he's balanced' and me getting a feel for it.

 

[milliepops]

I agree that it's helpful to get a feel for this on an experience horse and that it's important not to try and achieve things beyond the horse's fitness and abilility.

That said... transitions within the pace are really important in building balance and strength and an ideal way for a rider to develop their understanding of the relationship between speed and power.

OP you're right that you need power and forwardness to collect, the ideal is that the horse takes shorter, possibly higher, more powerful steps rather than short shuffly slow ones. and going quickly can just mean the horse is running rather than really extending his strides. In a really good extension it can feel like you're almost going slower because the stride becomes longer but the tempo (speed of steps) doesn't change.

just playing around with riding bigger and smaller steps but trying to keep the horse's balance and impulsion feeling the same is a good way to start. can you make smaller strides in trot or canter without the horse feeling like he starts to lean on your hands, or breaking the pace. and when you push on to bigger steps, again looking for the horse to remain in balance and take longer steps using his hindlegs to propel him forward rather than pulling with his shoulders. if the horse is a bit green or rusty then just trying to go forward or collect for a few steps at a time is enough.

extending on long sides and collecting on short sides is a bit of a classic exercise and it can be helpful for horse and rider to get the idea, however I like to swap round quite often to ride longer strides on the short side and shorter ones on the long side, so the horse doesn't just begin to flatten and run on the long sides because he is anticipating the exercise. Because there's not so much room to get going, that also gives a good opportunity to check the responsiveness to your leg aids is as good as it should be, as you don't get a run up before the next corner comes along

there are loads of ways you can play with this, on diagonals, on circles, all sorts of school figures and working on being adjustable is always beneficial to the horse

 

[iknowmyvalue]

Lots of good suggestions above! Another thing I’ve found helpful that various instructors have suggested is to either set up 2 poles a good distance apart, or pick 2 letter markers. Then between those 2 points try to vary how many strides of any pace you get between them. Eg. go down in normal working trot, get 10 strides, then try and collect to get 12 or push on to get 8. Obviously the more adjustable the horse, the more you can vary it!

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Thank you for the replies, very helpful.

Having a schoolmaster lesson has been on my to do list for a while, I really need to get on and book something in as it does sound like it would be good experience!

It's interesting to hear about the relationship between balance and strength, and this type of exercise. I'm not really sure where share horse is in terms of these things, I think his owner has mostly been hacking him over the last year or so and not sure how different it is for him to work in the school. My (admittedly novice) guess would be that it's fairly different because the hacking is mostly straight lines so in moving into the school he needs to use his muscles in a different way? Today we trotted and cantered a nice 20m circle and it felt 'good' - I couldn't tell you the qualities of it other than it feeling good to me, but I am sure that when I first took him in the school a 20m circle in trot didn't feel good at all! I think at least part of this has been improved by instructor's guidance for warming up and me getting a better feel for when he's loosened up. No idea if these things are related to the subject, feels like I'm guessing a lot but good to share thoughts and happy to be corrected.

We have poles at the yard and I think my instructor got me started on counting strides a couple of weeks ago, I'm not very good at it so might try to video it so I can watch back and count too!

 

[LEC]

I really like the You Tube videos made by Hayley Watson Greaves - should give you some ideas.

Ride Along With Hayley Watson-Greaves - Dressage Training Series - Developing Expression in the Trot - YouTube

Ride Along With Hayley Watson-Greaves - Dressage Training Series - Talking Half Halts - YouTube

Ride Along With Hayley Watson-Greaves - Dressage Training - Medium Trot Exercise - YouTube

Ride Along with Hayley Watson-Greaves - Dressage Training Series - On and Back Transitions - YouTube