Tex-Over Farms, Articles

work comparable to today’s second level in dressage. The Training Pyramid was crystallized in the Training Manual – HDv12. You can look at the six words that form the Pyramid as the headings of chapters in that manual. They are Rhythm, Relaxation, Connection, Impulsion, Straightness, and Collection. I mentioned earlier that the longer range goals must be stated in general terms. Look at these words. Other than Rhythm, they are all general and allow for a wide range of degrees. For instance, the Collection of a second level horse is much less than the Collection of a Grand Prix horse. The progression of balance, strength, and obedience of your horse is what training is really all about. You already know that, and this is about planning, so let us return to that.
     Your ultimate goal is Grand Prix. Fulfilling the requirements of the Training Pyramid is your halfway point. Up to here, every horse, regardless of its specialty, should follow the same line of work. The dressage specialists are now starting at third level.
At this point I would like to congratulate the persons writing the new tests. At least in my judgment they have finally written tests that reflect the progress of training in the dressage horse. In the shows we judge the horse’s ability and quality of training by observing them performing exercises that the trainer must use correctly to move the horse along in its development. Let me say that again. What we produce to the judges is a short segment of our work at home with this horse. The judge then scores that performance against what it ideally does look like. The reason I digress into showing and judging is my belief that your score must be a true reflection of the degree of correctness of your work. Only correctly executed exercises will improve your horse!
     Look at training level test one. All you are asked to show is that your horse has found its balance under you, moves rhythmically and with relaxed muscles, is obedient to your aids, and is through enough to execute transitions up and down in all gaits without tension or loss of balance.
     Connected, balanced, and supple is the short version for the definition of throughness. Like strength, coordination, and the horse’s ability to focus on its work, throughness is also progressive. The reason I give throughness special attention here is that it is one of the conditions in training without which nothing else works. By looking at the Training Pyramid and at the demands of training level you see that your horse must satisfy steps one to three in order to do well. First level adds the demand for impulsion (lengthenings) and a degree of straightness (ten meter circles). At second level we add collection (simple changes, counter canter, shoulder in). Then there are the medium gaits. Remember we asked for impulsion at first level (lengthening), now we need to step that up to a medium gait. Everything is progressive – nothing is ever finished because the next level demands more until you reach Grand Prix.
You may have noticed that in developing a training plan for your horse we are moving from the top down and from very general to more and more specific. Let me remind you how it went so far: We started with the ultimate goal (Grand Prix) then we moved to fulfilling the requirements of the Training Pyramid (end of second level). The next smaller step was preparing your horse for tests of the various levels starting with training level. This brings us to our daily work.
     Here a distinction must be made between the green horse (first half year, at three to five days of work) and the mature horse. The green horse is weak in its topline and therefore cannot carry its rider for more than thirty minutes at a time. After that it should have developed enough strength and found its balance under the rider to extend that time. So in order to plan my work with the green horse I walk for ten to fifteen

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