Correct?....or not?

The debate around dressage lately is good, but sometimes also a bit black and white. Or blurred.

We get a lopsided view if the discussion only relates to the position of the horse's head - which is one part of the picture, but not the whole.
We also have to discuss how the horse is using his entire body, and in particulary his back and hind legs. 

The position of the head should be a consequence of educational level and correct training. 

If you look at the correct body posture and neck position of a young horse, and compare it to that of a Grand Prix horse, it differs quite a lot.

Jan Brink/Björsells Briar

Within the training, you might also need to position the horse's head and neck differently.
To loosen up the back you often work the horse in a lower outline in the beginning and end of a training session.
It is also important that you vary the form throughout the training.
The horse's individual preference and body conformation also comes into play; a horse that wants to work deep often tends to be on the forehand and needs some more "up" work, and a horse who wants to work high often gets tense and needs some deeper work to loosen up.

A correctly educated dressage horse will get stronger over the years, and will be able to collect more.
The forward energy that the young horse shows will become more expressive as the older horse develops collection and "schwung".
Collection in a dressage context means stronger in the hindlegs which again creates more upwards movements and posture - including a higher neck and head position.
This is not something you can achieve with your hands, it is something the horse offers when he is getting stronger.

During the time it takes to educate the horse, we will experience periods where the horse is not working correctly.
All of us are working towards an ideal; a soft and agile horse, strong and straight - but sadly we will not get it from day one!
The horse needs to learn how to balance the rider, and the work towards the ideal is not always that easy.
A horse that works with the head behind the vertical is not working correct, but a horse that works with the head in front of the vertical, or aligned with it, does not necessarily work correct either.
(And by the way - behind the vertical does not equal rollkur. Rollkur is an extreme, forced position of the head. Behind the vertical can happen due to a number of reasons, and is an overall indicator of incorrect work.)


I managed to lure my daughter the Photographer out to take some pictures of Fame and me, to get some illustrations from a normal rider's daily struggles.
I will use our shortcomings to show what I mean, because this is definetely work in progress.
Please chime in with your thoughts and comments, if you want to - I am happy to get some feedback and discussion here, whether you agree with me or not.
I will present the photos first, without any comments.
Look at them, and compare your own thoughts with mine at the end.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

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What are your thoughts?

Here are mine:

Picture 1: Position of the neck and head is correct, isn't it?
But what about hind leg activity?
My horse happily plods along here, if allowed, saving her energy for another day.
As you can see, she is not tracking up - so this is not good enough. We are starting to work here, and I have to get her back and hind legs into action. We need some more energy!

Picture 2:  Time to start with some canter work.
We are not working correct here either.
I am asking for some more activity, and Fame gets a bit strong and is pushing into the sidepull, closing the angle under her chin and coming slightly behind the vertical.
Her strong contact is a result of having slightly too much weight on the forehand.
I try to fix my body position so she is not pulling me out of balance, while I soften slightly in the contact to avoid her taking too much weight there. Then we start with some transistions within the gait to improve balance and get the hind legs working better.
A more correct form would show a more open angle under her throat/chin, more like an inverted U instead of a V, and a more even curve from the poll to the top of the neck.
When it gets better I'll get a feeling that the poll is rising up, and the contact in my hands softens. What I am looking for is a more uphill canter, without her losing the activity or tensing up in the neck.

Picture 3. Compare the trot here with the trot in picture 1.
She is a bit open in form, but as you can see there is much more activity in her body.
See how the legs are moving compared to pic 1.

Picture 4. I am trying to get her to work in a slightly rounder form here, while keeping the activity. She gets a bit strong, and pushes into the sidepull again. I am trying to fix my position (a bit more difficult when riding without a saddle) and balance her through a halfhalt.

Picture 5: Better!
Far from perfect, but she is working actively in a rounder form and with a nice contact in my hands.
Now we can get some work done.
We still need to work more on building strength so Fame can carry herself in a more collected form.
It takes time as she often gets a bit tense, too high in form and tightening in the back - which is not correct.
The blame is above the saddle for sure, but we are working on it.
Transistions, shoulder-in and half-pass are good tools to use..

Picture 6

And - picture 6: 

Half-pass. They are finally starting to come along, yippeeee!

We have also played around with flying changes lately. 

It seems as if she understands the aids a bit more so we are starting to place them also on straight lines, unrelated to changes in direction.
It is faaar from perfect, but great fun!

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You might also be interested in: The crooked horse and The wiggly horse

(It was good to get the photos as I can see that the cheekpieces are getting too close to her eyes when riding. I have changed the browband.)