Upper level movements require basic principles found in the Pyramid of Training
Many times when you are around dressage trainers and riders you will hear discussions about the training pyramid. The training pyramid isn’t a structure made of stone that houses all of the secrets to great dressage riding. What it is, is a practical way to illustrate the basic principals of dressage training. Have I lost you yet? I hope not…I am going to try to put an explanation of classical training principals in a way we amateurs can comprehend. Remember I am not a certified instructor, so any certified instructors out there please feel free to chime in.
Originally “Classical Training” came about as a way to train horses to prepare for military work. Back then they did not have all of the neat stuff we do now such as tanks, hummers, stealth airplanes, etc. They had their best companion in transportation, the horse. Now, horses are ultimately 1,000 plus pound flight animals. When you are riding a huge animal that by instinct is determined to flee from danger, teaching that animals to do the opposite and charge into battle… let’s just say takes a LOT of good training. Earliest evidence of classical training methods exists with the Greeks in 400 B.C. not Spain or Germany. Are you surprised? I was a little.
Below is my drawing of the training pyramid. It closely represents the pyramid in the USEF rule book and USDF directory. I put it in a bright yellow color so we can feel happy about learning about it!
The "Classical" Pyramid of Dressage Training
Let’s compare pyramids to give you a good example how this one works. Is anyone familiar with the food pyramid? They just re-did the food pyramid. I don’t really like this new version so in this comparison, I am referring to the old version. The version we learned about in elementary school. The food pyramid has all of the foods that should be the foundation of our diet at the bottom. Then it goes up to the top where we find foods we sometimes would rather eat, but should only be a small portion of our entire diet. That classical training pyramid works in a similar way. Foundation principals are at the bottom of the pyramid and each principal builds upon the previous. To have success at one of the items higher in the pyramid, you first have to have developed the skills towards the bottom. You can’ t skip principals because then the pyramid won’t fit together correctly and your horse may develop behavior issues or possibly injury. Here is a brief explanation of these training principals. Don’t tune me out yet because I will try to keep these definitions interesting.
Rhythm – You musicians and dancers get the extra advantage with this principal. The rest of us will have to rely on plain old practice for mastery. You can really see a lack of rhythm in young horses with little training. When training a young horse you are lucky to get the correct gait no matter have him or her travel rhythmically. Tempo is an important part of rhythm. You can determine tempo by listening to the sound of the footfalls your horse makes. Sometime when your riding listen to those footfalls and ask yourself “are the sounds spaced evenly apart and stay consistently the same?” If so, your horse has good tempo. Your horse should be putting some energy into his or her gait and that energy should be consistent. You don’t want your horse to do three bouncy, prancy, trot strides and then do three dragging their toes on the sand. Usually in that case your tempo would change too, but I think you get my point.
Relaxation – I think this is a tough one just because of the nature of horses. When riding our horses we are asking them to do a very unnatural thing. Another living creature is sitting on their back (remember they are flight animals) with a bit in their mouth and squeezing their sides. If I was a horse I think I would say, “And you want me to relax! Are you SERIOUS?” I think relaxation comes through lots of practice with our horses, building their trust, and being a good rider conscious of how our riding is impacting our horses emotions. How can you tell if your horse is relaxed? Your horse should feel calm, not nervous or anxious, elastic and supple. Elasticity means we can shorten or lengthen our horses stride. Suppleness refers to our horse’s bend and a having a loose swinging back. Relaxation is shown when you do a stretch circle on your dressage test. Relaxation is important which is why the stretch circle usually has a coefficient score and counts quite a bit on your test.
Connection – Refers to your horses acceptance of the bit and the only way for your horse to accept the bit is to accept your aids. This is one of my favorites with the current horse I ride. When we have a day where the connection is truly there it is a really cool feeling. I think of connection as a path of energy flow. The energy should come from your horses hindquarters over their top-line and softly into the bit. When you have a good connection you will feel like you have all of that energy sitting at your fingertips and seat and you can do whatever you want with it. You should be able to release one rein or the other and your horse maintain his or her balance to show a good connection.
Impulsion – Impulsion is the creation of energy and forward thrust in your horses movement. Impulsion takes strength training and conditioning which is why it is higher in our training pyramid. Judges start to really look for impulsion in a First Level Dressage test. Again, judges out there feel free to correct me! I know with a previous horse I had that is where she struggled. She was built downhill and getting her hind end underneath her to propel her forward could be difficult. The impulsion was not there and therefore the collection the highest on our pyramid could not come either. Impulsion should apply to the trot and canter, but we don’t think of a walk as having impulsion. In first level ,your impulsion is shown the most to a judge when preforming a lengthening.
Straightness – Now many of you might think this should be at the bottom of the pyramid. I mean if your horse can’t go straight then how are you going to do any of the other things successfully. Straightness here does not just refer to the path your horse travels it also includes your horse’s balance. Humans and horses are all slightly crooked. None of us are perfectly straight. Two legged and four legged we all have our stiff and weak sides. Through exercises to supple and strengthen, we can build and stretch our muscles to help our straightness. This is why it is higher on the training pyramid. I felt this the most when riding an upper level horse. I went to canter and he went into almost a half pass. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong until his owner yelled “Straighten your shoulders.” I did and Wah-la nice canter. Our horses will attempt to mirror us sometimes no matter how crooked we are. They will attempt to perform what we are asking of them wrong or right. Many times we have to “straighten up” ourselves before we can ask our horses to do so.
Collection can be shown through movements such as canter pirouettes
Collection – Whew… we made it to the top of the training pyramid. Do you like to hike? I love to hike. Of course one of my favorite parts of a hike is when you reach a summit. Usually there is a beautiful view and you get to look down at the long journey you just took to get there. Collection is at the top of our training pyramid. When our horses begin to grasp collection it should increase engagement, lighten the forehand, and develop self-carriage. What that means is our horse should feel more “up-hill.” To collect, our horses will step underneath him or herself and the energy will come slightly more vertical than horizontal. Collected gaits we love to watch at upper levels include passage, piaffe, and canter pirouettes. Collection can be more difficult for horses built down-hill due to the extra fight with gravity. Attempting too much collection with a horse early in training can be a reason for behavior problems.
I hope you have enjoyed traveling with me thorough the training pyramid. If this is new to you, you can now say… That’s what they are talking about! If this is old news to you maybe it was a good refresher. I thought it was a good time for this article because as we begin to put our horses back into training to get ready for spring, we need to have these training principals in the back of our minds. I’m sure your trainer or instructor will gladly help guide you and your horse through these important principals. You don’t have to go to Egypt to learn the secrets of dressage, but if you do decide to go… let me know because it sounds like a really neat trip!
Hi again — This is a wonderful and clear explanation of the training pyramid. It would be really helpful for each of us to sit down and write it out as you have done here, because, by writing it out in our own words, we gain so much better understanding as you clearly have done. I would like to clarify one thing. The now standardized lingo for judges and instructors in this country is that “rhythm” refers to the sequence of footfalls — for instance, the 1-2-3-4 of the walk, the even two beats of the trot, and the equally spaced three beats of the canter followed by a moment of suspension. So a horse with a “lateral” walk, for example, has a “rhythm” that sounds like 12-34-12-34 instead of 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4. This would be an incorrect “rhythm. The “tempo” is the speed of the repetition of the “rhythm.” So young horses frequently have a correct “rhythm” but an inconsistent “tempo” meaning that they get quicker and slower instead of maintaining an even, appropriate “tempo.”
What a great explanation! Thank you for the clarification and giving us a judges and instructors perspective on this subject. I was so hoping some of you would chime in because I don’t have the education that some of you would have on the subject. The differentiation between tempo and rhythm is important for us to understand, especially as it is the foundation of the pyramid and the the basis for the other principals.
I love your title and great article!