hello everyone thank you so much for tuning in to my channel today's video is a little
different but basically it's help i'm having a problem with my dressage horse and any of us that
have trained dressage know that you're going to have problems things are going to come up
and you need a framework and a system to help you figure out how to solve that problem so give this
video a thumbs up it really helps me out let me know in the comments what problem you're
currently having with your horse because it's always changing and then i'm going to show you a
solution a framework that you can use to help you with the problem so first of all some of the most
common problems people have number one they can't get their horse to go forward number two they
can't get their horse to slow down and relax those are the kind of the two extremes number three they
can't get their horse straight they can't pick up the canner they can't get their horse on the bit
these are all really common problems in dressage in dressage training and today i'm going to talk
about a framework that all of us trainers all of the judges everyone in dressage uses to help
correctly train your horse install the correct basics in your horse and troubleshoot when you run
into a training problem so it's not a big secret but what i'm talking about today is the dressage
training scale if you're watching this in real time check out the link below if you
want to learn more about the training scale and check out my masterclass on the training scale
but the way the training scale works is that the training scale is the framework it's the basics
of dressage so when we look at the training scale we always work from the bottom up in the training
scale a lot of people say that rider position is the base of the training scale so before you
even can start thinking about training your horse you need to be in the correct position so always
check in with that first whenever you're having a training issue make sure you're you're in the
correct alignment make sure that you're giving the correct aids all of those things always come first
now once you've checked in with your position the second thing is rhythm so a big part of dressage
is enhancing the horse's natural gates that's how when we see those top riders they have just those
beautiful extended trots and beautiful extended canners and it's really enhancing the natural
beauty of the gate in your horse and that always is first and foremost the second level of the
training scale is suppleness suppleness has to do with both physical and mental and they go hand in
hand but in order to train your horse they need to be relaxed in order to train them if your horse is
afraid if your horse is tense you're not going to be able to train them so that's the second
level of the training scale the third level of the training scale is contact and connection
and there's kind of three main points so contact has to do with the relationship between your hand
and the horse's mouth connection has to do with the whole body of the horse and the hind leg
through the back and to the hand and also thinking about your seat and your legs that's connection
then we have impulsion straightness and finally collection so what i want to do today is we're
going to go through some of the common issues that you might be having with your horse and
i'm going to show you how you can use the training scale to fix that issue so i hope this is good for
you guys okay so issue number one is help i can't get my horse to go forward like i mentioned before
the first thing you want to check in with is your rider position so do you have an independent seat
and legs are you using your legs correctly meaning that you put your leg on to get the horse to go
and then you take your leg off once the horse is going that's the most important thing
now the second thing that you want to look at is suppleness so in order to get your horse going
forward which is impulsion your horse has to be supple there's a big link between suppleness and
impulsion so if your horse is all stiff and their muscles are all locked up and they're
really braced and against the hand you're not going to be able to get the horse to go forward
so you need to do some suppleness exercises some bending exercises some moving your horse a little
bit sideways exercises just to get their muscles loosened up so that they can actually go forward
and then the next level of the training scale is connection so acceptance of the bit in order for
your horse to go forward they need to be connected and accepting of the bit they cannot be curled
and they cannot be braced so ask yourself is your horse not going forward because of one of
these two things are they either curled behind and afraid to take pressure on the bit or all that are
they braced and too much against your hand either one of these things could be the problem so a
great exercise to work on getting your horse to go forward to work on impulsion is transitions lots
and lots of transitions quick transitions where you walk two or three steps trot walk two or three
steps trot and then checking in with all these things checking in with your position checking in
with the suppleness and the connection so that's how i would use the training scale to help with a
horse that doesn't go forward okay second scenario this is a good one is help my horse is on the bit
but the second i asked for the trot his head comes flying up and i know i have a horse right now that
does that like he's all nice and round i ask for the trot his head goes straight up in the air
so this is a connection issue this is an issue that you don't really have that flow of energy
from the hind leg through the back and to the hand so again we're gonna look at the training scale
and try to figure out what we can do to help so that we have a better connection and that we can
keep our horse round through the transitions so we start off always at the base of the training scale
and work your way up so rhythm being the first thing you want to make sure that you have a good
rhythm so like if you're in the walk that you have a good rhythm with an active enough tempo in that
rhythm so that you can make the transition so it could be that your horse is like too slow and not
active enough and that's causing the problem in the connection when you go to do the transition
now the second reason could be suppleness so it could be that your horse is like really
tense and really tight in their body so when you ask for the walk trot transition
they don't really want to lift up their back and instead they just hollow and put their head up
in this situation what i would recommend doing is combining a suppleness exercise while you do
the transition so like a little bit of a leg yield to the side into the transition will help keep the
connection better during the transition another common issue is horses that are tense and horses
that tend to rush so this issue really has to do with suppleness suppleness is the second level of
the training scale it's really important that you have your horse supple and relaxed before moving
up the levels because if you don't have your horse supple relaxed and with you you really can't go
on so some really good exercises for suppleness are counting exercises or singing where you just
establish a really steady tempo and that helps your horse get too relaxed some other great
exercises are serpentines and i like to do my serpentines kind of tight like really small turns
on a hot horse and that helps to control the tempo so you don't have to just be pulling back but
you can use a little bit of a bending and turning line to keep the horse with you so that's another
great exercise and then finally the last thing how do you actually apply the training scale so
this little diagram here will help you out but basically you always work the training scale
from the bottom to the top and this is just a guide so it's not to say that you need to master
each level of the training scale before moving up there's definitely times for example where
you know you need to get your horse straighter in order to get more impulsion but in general this
is a guide and it's really important that kind of the focus of your ride is always on those bottom
three levels that you really are focusing on the basics and then moving up from there i see a lot
of people make the mistake of just starting with collection like once their horse knows collection
that's all they work on and they forget all the other levels of the training scale that causes
a lot of training issues and a lot of problems so you always want to start your warm up with
the base of the training scale and work your way up then when you have a problem so whatever your
problem is that you commented below you want to again start at the bottom of the training scale
and work your way up and figure out which level of the training scale is falling apart that you need
to go back and fix so i really hope this video helped you guys the training scale is something
i use with every horse and every student and i've learned it had it drilled into my head
over and over again like i mentioned before check out the link below if you're interested
in the training scale master class the master class is a super program i only offer it twice
a year so if you're lucky it will be open now if not you'll have to wait till the next session
but i hope this video is helpful let me know in the comments and i'll see you in the next video
you