Shirley Botma-Moraal and Chester

Photo courtesy of Shirley Botma-Moraal

I vividly remember my ninth birthday. Much like Ralphy and the Red Ryder BB gun in the movie "A Christmas Story," all I ever wanted was a pony. On my ninth birthday, my parents went to look at a farm that was for sale in Wyoming, Ontario. My uncle promised that, if my parents bought the property, he would give me the pony my cousins had outgrown. The farm was purchased, and the pony became mine. My father must have had a yearning for his homeland, for when I was 15, he was the first Canadian to import Friesian horses. Along with several Americans, he was one of the founding members of FHANA, the Friesian Horse Association of North America.

Between college, getting married and starting a family, I was away from the horse scene temporarily. When my oldest was about 5, I started riding lessons at a friend's barn.

They had a dressage clinic with an instructor who moved to our area from the States, and that was the beginning. I had been under the impression that I could ride, but one session showed me how little I actually knew. Thus began my dressage journey. I became one of the adult amateurs that drives the dressage world and her coaches crazy at times.

I had imported an Oldenburg gelding at my coach's urging but, after five years, I ended up with a horse that I could not ride. A combination of bloodlines and being pushed too far too fast had soured him. I traded him to a friend who had a Canadian-bred Prix St. Georges horse. She had tried out for the Canadian Young Riders Team but couldn't compete against the expensive imports. She did well with my Oldenburg at first, but both of us ended up selling the horses we had traded to each other for various reasons.

My riding was not where I wanted it to be so, out of sheer desperation, I started taking lessons. All my years of riding Friesians had given me a pretty good sit trot, or so I thought. But, for some reason, I could never canter properly. In my lessons, I rode a 15-year-old Melbourne Warmblood-Melbourne being a small hamlet where the barn is. I was amazed at how this straight-behind, upside-down-necked Trakhener cross responded to my aids for laterals. Leg yields and shoulder-in came with the simple shift of a seat bone. A testament to slow, steady, careful training. Although at that time I couldn't connect him, he moved off leg and seat aids effortlessly. During one session, I said to Marianna, "You have to sell me this horse." It was the best money I ever spent.

Chester was, and still is, the toughest horse to ride. He is very sensitive and not truly built to be a dressage horse. He has frustrated me to tears more than once. I almost gave up too many times to count. My goal was Third Level, and I ignorantly thought I should be able to do it a year after I bought him.

I was still taking lessons from Marianna, although working primarily on my own, and hitting a wall one day I went out and bought a double bridle. Everything changed from that day onward. I could connect him on the bit in the snaffle, but a combination of my poor seat and his physical drawbacks made it impossible for me to keep the connection. Putting him in the double stopped him from pulling on me and helped me to improve my seat. I finally did Third Level the year Chester turned 20. I never made it to sanctioned shows, only schooling. It was never brilliant, and one change was "sticky," but I still did it.

Two years ago, I went to Germany with the idea to purchase another warmblood. Through cancelled flights, lost luggage and the language barrier, I realized that what I was looking for I already had at home in Chester. I found another place for that money and, with what was left over, I bought one of the horses of my youth--much to my American friends' chagrin--a Friesian. Friesians are wonderful horses. They can be difficult to keep in front of your leg and tend to be more of "leg movers" than "back movers," but most of them have wonderful temperaments and are easy to work with.

We run a small, insignificant barn on the very farm my father bought when I was 9--the circle of life, I suppose. We have several boarders, who I am quick to say are among the best. We all ride together and do a bit of showing. Although nothing is ever perfect, just like a 20-meter circle, we all get along mostly. Chester is now retired. I still ride with Marianna when I can, and also get help from my friend Meredith and an ex-Young Rider who lives near me.

I have schooled a number of horses from getting on for the first time to Grand Prix. Over the years, I've changed my mind about what I look for in dressage prospects. Like most people, I started out thinking that I wanted a horse with exceptional thrust and air time in his stride; that aspect was most important. I looked at how a horse trotted, how much cadence he had, how much expression there was and so on. I was looking for a big mover--a floating trot and a big, off-the-ground canter. This often took precedence over the quality of the canter and walk.

Then, the success came to a grinding halt. As soon as we tried to compact and get him to collect in his gaits and make him lift instead of push his body forward, he became frantic. He had always been a very sweet and willing horse as long as he did not have to collect. We finally sold him, and he is now a happy amateur jumper. Ever since, I've seen many dressage prospects that were huge movers and were impressive at the lower-levels, but when it came to collecting the horse more and moving up the FEI levels, the movement often became a hindrance.

Today when I go out and look for horses, I always think Fédération Equestre International (FEI). When I see a young horse in the pasture with a big, floating trot often combined with a big canter, I still enjoy looking at his movement and it makes me stop and go, "Wow!" But my first priority is the horse's ability to collect well, which can already be seen at a very young age without riding him. When I watch a potential 2-year-old dressage prospect move in the field or loose in the ring, I look for athletic ability and power coming from his hind end, not his movement. For instance, when the horse gallops forward and then suddenly stops, I want to see that he uses his hind legs to balance the rest of his body. When he canters and comes to a wall or has to stop and turn, then I want him to sit and almost slide stop, like western horses. I love it when they just twirl, do a roll back and go the other way.

Also, I like the horse to be happy to canter. He must like to go to the canter and not just prefer to always trot around. If horses only trot when you let them loose, I get a bit suspicious about the canter. Another thing I like to see--and this might sound funny--is when they lie down, flip from one side to the other easily, get up and just buck.

Together with a good collecting ability, the horse also must have absolutely clean gaits, which means the rhythm has to be pure at the walk, trot and canter, because flaws at the walk and the canter are incredibly difficult to improve, even with good riding. You have to be very skilled to make a better walk out of a walk that tends to be lateral and the same thing with the canter. The trot does not have to be exceptional; it can be a somewhat mundane trot, even a little bit flat. I do look for a nice bend in the knees and articulation with the hind legs under, which you can find in a "normal" trot. There is an enormous amount you can do with the trot, as long as it has a clean rhythm. Any good rider can create a better trot, as long as the trot is regular and the horse is built reasonably well for collection.

If the trot is not enormous, it is also much easier to make the horse understand piaffe, and then you can bring him from piaffe to the passage. Rather than using the exceptional trotting horse and bringing him to passage because that is so easy for these types of horses, I prefer to go the other way. Then you don't have to slow the trot to get the passage but rather the opposite. This way, I also find it a lot easier to control the transitions between piaffe and passage.

My schooling sessions for Second Level and up have six phases: (1) Walk, (2) Stretching trot and canter, (3) Suppleness (developing collected paces), (4) Schooling (reviewing learned movements and schooling new ones), (5) Warm-down (similar to the second phase, but not as long) and (6) Walk (if possible out of the arena).

Phase 1. I first like to warm-up my horse at the free walk. When I feel that my work is relaxed after a few minutes at the free walk I like to ask for a connection, developing a medium walk while making sure that the strides of the walk remain fairly long and energetic. While in the medium walk I like to ask for few meters of shoulder-in, making sure that I keep the quality of the medium walk by moving the horse forward into the contact during the shoulder-in. I also like to perform a few strides of travers if I feel that my horse is able to maintain the longitudinal connection by marching into the contact with the bit while he bends around my inside leg and crosses his outside legs over his inside legs.

Phase 2. After ten or so minutes, depending on how long it takes for my horse to loosen and relax, I begin warming up at the trot. Large circles and changes of rein are good warm-up patterns. I think of the dressage arena as an oval rather than a rectangle when warming up young or green horses. Corners are a lot to ask early in the schooling session. The goal of warm-up is to have my horse stretch down and out with his neck while he fills out my outside rein as a result of his bending around my inside leg. The horse should become softer in his contact with the inside rein. An energetic but not quick tempo of the trot is ideal.

When the horse establishes the correct connection in one direction, I change rein and work on the horse filling out the outside rein in the other direction. Most of this bending, stretching warm-up is best practiced on the 20-meter circle.

When my horse becomes rhythmic and supple in both directions at the trot I ask for canter. In canter most horses carry themselves more uphill and don't need to be stretched as far down as in trot to get the stretching over their topline (too deep of a stretch might put the horse on the forehand in the canter, since only horses with a good canter carry themselves uphill). It's important that he continues to fill out my outside rein to prevent him from falling on his inside shoulder and therefore on his forehand. When I feel the horse is using his back well and bending and stretching both longitudinally and laterally it's beneficial to practice transitions back and forth from trot to canter and back to trot again.

Tense horses often take more time to get them to relax and stretch their muscles. One of my FEI level horses, on some days, takes at least 20 minutes to relax enough so that he can stretch down and bend around my inside leg filling out my outside rein. When I finally feel him relax, stretching and bending on the circle, I alternate trot and canter transitions on the circle. After cantering, this horse will often tense up again, hurrying his rhythm and tightening his body, so bending is difficult to achieve. I take the time to reestablish the rhythm, relaxation, stretching and bending. When this horse truly relaxes and supples his body, his gaits become long, springy and high off the ground. During the schooling session if I feel this horse tighten his back, I use the supple, stretching circle to again loosen his tight back muscles.

Phase 3. Being supple becomes important at Second Level with the introduction of collected paces. It takes time to develop the uphill balance of collection from the working paces at the second phase. Collected gaits need to be developed before I can begin to school the lateral movements required in Second Level as well as medium gaits. Half halts are the key to developing collected gaits. I often alternate some short lengthening of stride at either trot or canter, depending on how my horse reacts, with half halts to develop the collected gaits. I try to use the half halts to engage my horses without making his strides too much shorter than in the light lengthening he is performing. As a result of the half halts the horse will elevate his shoulders, lighten and free his forehand, as well as elevate his shoulders. If my horse doesn't respond to the half halts, I may ask for a full halt. From the full halt, I ask for an immediate forward response from my leg and seat aids to go forward. If the horse doesn't immediately respond, I give a sharp push with my leg and if necessary, a light tap just behind my leg with the whip. As soon as the horse responds, I immediately lighten my driving aids as a reward. I always remind myself that only the reward (in this case, the lightening of the driving aids) trains the horse. Punishment (discomfort) only tells him what not to do. Reward (more comfort) tells him what I want him to do.

1976 Montreal, Canada
While a 14-year-old Romanian gymnast by the name of Nadia Comaneci was grabbing headlines for earning no fewer than seven perfect 10s at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, the unheralded U.S. dressage team made its own history: It was the first American Olympic dressage squad to win a medal since 1948 where the U.S. won silver. Coached by Col. Bengt Ljungquist, the all-female trio of Hilda Gurney, Edith Master and Dorothy “Dottie” Morkis won the bronze medal, finishing third behind the formidable West German and Swiss teams.

Morkis recalls that winning a medal was a very big deal. Gurney agrees: “Nobody thought we’d do well. It was beyond anything I could have imagined.”

Master, who rode Dahlwitz, a Hanoverian with Trakehner roots, was an Olympic veteran, having ridden in the 1968 and 1972 Games. The alternate, John Winnett, had also competed in the Munich Games in 1972. But Gurney and Morkis, who had been part of the gold-medal-winning U.S. dressage team at the 1975 Pan American Games, were Olympic neophytes. Gurney had had a winning year with her Thoroughbred gelding, Keen, and felt confident they would make the team. “He’d done well at the selection trials, so I didn’t feel in jeopardy, but it was very difficult for everyone else,” she says. It probably didn’t help that the team was named the night before the Games.

I should mention that my journey with Rafalca has been long and emotional with ups and downs and more than a few bumps along the way. This is typical in the career of an international dressage horse, and many of my colleagues have experienced similar frustrations, but I will tell you my story.

In 2007, Klaus Balkenhol [former U.S. dressage chef d’équipe] had dedicated much of his time to working with some of the top riders in the country, focusing on the developing horses. I’d spent a lot of time working with Klaus, and I was encouraged and proud that he thought it fitting that Rafalca and I do the test ride at the 2007 World Cup in Las Vegas. At the end of our ride, we received a standing ovation. I could not have had a more exciting time, as we were not really expecting to wow the crowd. Rafalca wasn’t bothered by the people, the proximity of the seats, the clicking of the cameras or even the occasional burst of applause. Klaus and I had wanted her to get some valuable experience, and now we knew she had the ability to be a top contender internationally.

After that performance, I obtained a U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) training grant to train with Klaus in Germany and compete in Europe. Our goal was for Rafalca to be a top contender for the 2008 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, the trip started in disaster. On her third day at Klaus’s, Rafalca took a bad step and sustained an injury, and it took 60 days before she could be worked again. That set her training back about a year. Although we were able to compete in 2008 at Grand Prix, Rafalca was ranked 13th and just missed the cut to compete in the dressage national championships, which also served as the Olympic selection trials. Rafalca’s owners—Beth Meyer, Ann Romney and my wife, Amy—were very disappointed. Nevertheless, I stuck to my schedule and set as my next goal qualifying for the 2009 World Cup. I was excited when Gil Merrick, then the USEF director of dressage, called to say that I’d received a wild card to compete in Las Vegas at the Final. I felt that my hard work was paying off and that, finally, Rafalca could show the world the brilliance I experienced every day at home.

At the Final, when we came down the chute into the Thomas & Mack Arena, I thought we were going to have a super ride. She was forward and went in nicely, but when she hit X, all of a sudden, it was over. And that happens—either your horse loses it or you as a rider lose it. People said later they thought it was the smoke in the air or the judge in the white outfit or the noise or the photographers or the lighting—everybody had a reason for her refusal. I never knew what it was and I don’t really care. My horse shied and refused to go—end of story.

I received a lot of positive press for finishing my ride and smiling. That’s part of who I am. I don’t quit. I got a lot of support afterward from rider friends like Robert Dover, who was there when I came out of the arena. He said, “Do you remember at the Los Angeles Olympics when I could not get my horse out of the piaffe? Stuff like that happens to all of us. Be done with it, and get on with life.” My coach, Wolfram Wittig, told me, “That’s horses. Today there was nothing you could do.”

The 2009 World Cup was a very dramatic event for my wife, Amy, because she’s so supportive of what I do and puts so much effort into it herself. I think she almost took it harder than I did. I was certainly upset, mostly with myself, but I would never blame the horse. The horse is an animal, and she was afraid of something, and it’s my job to train her so that she is not afraid even of something that’s really scary. It was my failure. I went back and thought, What can I do so this doesn’t happen again? Of course, you’re never really covered 100 percent. Your horse can always shy or make a mistake. But after reflecting on the previous few years, I saw a trend: I’d get close to reaching a goal, but I wasn’t able to finish. I had to take a hard look at my program and make some important changes.

I believe in every rider’s life there comes a moment when you have to be brutally honest about the structure of your program. If there’s a problem, you have to probe deeper instead of just chalking it up to bad luck. You make transformations that make a difference.

Fortunately, good warm-up arena techniques, like any skill, can be learned. Did you know that the U.S. Dressage Federation (USDF) publishes an official protocol for warming up at a dressage show? This should be required reading for all competitors (usdf.org). The following are tips, insights and rules for the warm-up arena at a show from instructors who have taken many students to shows over the years: Bill Woods, Sarah Martin, Jessica Rattner and Tracey Lert give sound advice for every competitor.

Follow the Basic Code of Conduct
Riders should pass each other left hand to left hand. This is the first, most elemental rule riders must observe, say the experts. If you are traveling to the right and you see a horse coming toward you, steer your horse off the track so that you will pass with your left hands nearest to each other. This rule is easy to remember if you have your driver’s license since the same rule applies when driving (in the United States, at least). Circles are an exception. If you are circling, stay to the inside of oncoming riders. If you are passing another rider who is circling, you can stay your course on the rail. It’s not necessary to try to thread through her circle in order to pass left hand to left hand.

Slower gaits take the inside track. As Florida author, judge and instructor Bill Woods succinctly puts it: “If you are walking, whether you’re going to do a Prix St. Georges test or Intro, for heaven’s sake, get off the track!” Look up, he insists. This simple habit is critical to harmony in any warm-up arena. If you are studying your horse’s neck, not only are you not looking where you are going, you are also probably lost in your thoughts.

The warm-up arena is for work. If you need to take a break for any reason, exit the warm-up arena. Parking your horse on the rail will cause traffic-flow problems for the rest of the riders trying to get ready for their tests. You will encounter all kinds of good reasons to stop—to strategize with your trainer, to chat with a friend about your last test or to put on your coat and get the last-minute boot buff. Whatever the reason, just take it outside the gate, and make sure you aren’t blocking the entrance or exit either.

Control your whip. Just the sound of a whip can disturb other horses. Horses need their personal space. If you are close enough to touch another horse with your whip, you are too close. Keep at least one horse’s length away from other horses in all directions. “Treat every horse like they might kick,” advises Jessica Rattner, rider and head trainer at Devonwood Equestrian Center. “You never know when a horse will decide that close is too close and fire out. It’s just better to be safe than sorry!”

Of course, there’s no recipe that always works with every dressage horse, but over the past decade I, Uta Gräf, have, with the help of my partner, Stefen Schneider, developed my own training system, consisting of several ingredients I consider essential for creating the proverbially “happy athlete” about which so much is discussed. In this article, I will take you through these components, which let you and your horse work together in harmony.

Remember that whatever goals we aim for with our horses—may it be elementary or Olympic level—we absolutely have to treat the horse as a unique individual. What does this mean? It means that we have to take into account the nature, the personality, the character and natural abilities of every horse. If we do so, we respect the horse, and this I would call the moral obligation of a rider, which is the premise of everything. It doesn’t matter if we train a talented or an average horse. Respecting a horse also means respecting his mental and physical limits and working within them. Then we have the possibility that the horse likes to work with us and likes to be ridden, which has to be the common goal.

Since I started riding as a 7-year-old horse-crazy little girl, I had no physical or mental limitations and would ride any horse in any tack under any conditions. That is until I experienced mind-numbing back pain following a day of judging a horseshow for eight hours from a metal chair with my legs crossed for most of the day. I went to see a chiropractor, Dr. Brad Weiss, who adjusted me, which yielded some relief but I still had tremendous, searing pain whenever I sat for more than 30 minutes at a time. After getting an MRI on my lower back, Dr. Weiss clipped the images onto the light box in his office and said, “Oh! That disc looks like a jelly donut that someone stepped on! I can’t help you with that. I will refer you to a pain specialist.” In retrospect, I believe that the training technique of my first dressage instructor of telling me to keep my shoulders “behind my hips” in arched back alignment to correct my hunter “hovering forward” seat 15 years ago was partly responsible for my herniated discs.

One week after getting my second epidural shot from the pain specialist to relieve the pain from the disc pressing incessantly on my sciatic nerve, my husband and I conceived our first child. I continued to ride and show my Grand Prix mount pregnant and with two herniated discs until I was five months pregnant. This should come as no surprise since horsewomen are really tough cookies and patch themselves up to crawl back into the saddle all the time—especially to show Grand Prix.

Fast forward to the delivery room. After carrying my son for 41 weeks, he was induced and 19 hours of labor with “failure to progress” finally ended in a c-section delivery. I really didn’t want to have my abdominal wall cut for several obvious reasons, not the least of which was the longer recovery and challenge to the core muscles required for riding. Two months after Benjamin was born, I was back on the operating table for a discectomy, laminectomy and spinal fusion of the L-4/L-5 and L5/S1. Basically, they scraped out two bad discs, inserted artificial discs, secured a supporting plate to the side of my spine with titanium screws and closed me back up with the intention that the three vertebrae would be fused together permanently. I also awakened from surgery with a condition called “drop foot” in my left foot, in which the nerves associated with foot extension or dorsiflexion are damaged.

During my pregnancy, I invested in personal Pilates sessions to improve my core strength and alignment. The techniques and exercises that I learned will stay in my toolbox for the rest of my riding career. Many other riders have sung the praises of Pilates for maintenance and core strength improvement. I also spent six months in post-operative physical therapy with Dr. Richard Asaro, a physical therapist who helped me to regain strength in my core muscle structures, back and recover foot extension/dorsiflexion.  The exercises that he had me do three times a week during our training sessions will also become part of my fitness repertoire from now on and I think they could be helpful to others with similar weaknesses.

Dr. Asaro also encourages “drawing-in” of one’s abdominal muscles and proper alignment of hips, spine and shoulders for all exercises. Naturally, during the first month, we saw the best rate of progress since I started from a place of considerable weakness all the way around my torso. The three exercises I share here are the most helpful exercises that contributed significantly to my recovery. These exercises are important to promote lumbar spine and sacroiliac stability, which has been particularly challenging in my case since my lower abdominals were damaged during the c-section.

When it comes to lumbar spine stability, what we are looking for is to strengthen the deep multifidi, which are the deep para-spinal muscles in the lower back arranged at a 45 degree angle and the deep abdominal muscles. Of these, there are four layers: the transverse abdominus, the internal obliques, the external obliques and rectus femoris. As athletes, we are most concerned with the transverse abdominus and the internal obliques contracting with the deep multifidi simultaneously to provide a stiffening effect of the intervertebral segment of the lumbar spine. When it comes to the lumbar spine, we are most interested in the five vertebral levels with a disc in between each. Every vertebral level is comprised of a vertebra, a disc and a second vertebra. The reason that the deep multifidi, transverse abdominus and internal obliques are considered segmental stabilizers is because they have attachments at each and every vertebral level. Conversely, the rectus abdominus is the top layer of abdominals which has attachment from the sternum to the pubis. It doesn’t attach directly to each vertebral level.

These are the primary stabilizers of the lumbar spine and the sacrum. There are additional secondary stabilizers of the lumbar spine and the sacrum which are the latissimus dorsi, the gluteals, the hamstrings and even the hip flexors. The latissimus dorsi and gluetals provide stability through the thoracic lumbar fascia. The hip flexors provide anterior support to the lumbar spine and have some element of segmental stabilization. The hamstrings provide stability via its attachments to the pelvis. Dr. Asaro and I have chosen to share these particular exercises to provide stability and training to stimulate the deep segmental stabilizers. Once those are performing well, we can incorporate the more global secondary stabilizers like latisimus dorsi, gluteals and hamstrings.

I love riding the extended trot on my dressage horses. When I ask my Grand Prix dressage horse Alina to move into an extended trot as she straightens onto the diagonal, it feels like it is her idea—a controlled explosion with maximum confidence. An extreme combination of fully loaded carrying and thrusting power, the extended trot is absolutely fantastic to ride.

While Alina’s rectangular shape makes her well-suited for the movement, her extended trot is the result of a training framework that builds flexibility and impulsion in any dressage horse. When I first met Alina four years ago, she was a Young Rider’s dressage horse with plenty of fire and a great work ethic. I bet that as she developed better looseness and carrying power, I could channel her desire to go while we developed her ability to collect and extend. It was a gamble that’s now paying off in the extended trot.

In schooling for the extended trot then and now, we focus on exercises that require a lot of thrust from the hindquarters and collecting exercises that require her to carry more weight on her hindquarters, hence playing the two ends of the spectrum. As a result, her range has widened to achieve an extended trot that takes your breath away.

Here are some training techniques that will help you safely expand your horse’s range and teach him to perform the extended trot as if he’s thrilled to show off his ability to do what the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) refers to as a lengthening of his steps to the utmost of his capability.

Working Gaits with Integrity
As the cornerstone of dressage training, the working gaits create the basis for developing the qualities and reactions needed for collection and extension. I focus on creating and maintaining my horse’s flexibility, rhythm and impulsion as I warm up in working gaits. I want to feel and reward natural enthusiasm for work, and spending time in the working gaits really helps.

One of the integral ingredients in producing extension is impulsion. The following simple daily warm-up will help set up any horse—from Training Level to Grand Prix—with the all-important desire to go forward and stay relaxed while doing it. It includes schooling simple upward and downward transitions on circles to teach the horse that every transition should have a basic level of carrying and thrusting power. Try transitions by following these steps:

1. Establish your 20-meter circle in a steady, active, rhythmic working trot. Make sure the shape of your circle is correct. This forces you to control the horse’s lateral balance. If you make a wishy-washy circle, you give him permission to fall in or off the track. Anytime impulsion goes left or right instead of straight through the horse’s body, you lose forward power, like a garden hose full of holes. Control and channel all of your horse’s power in a specific direction. Also make sure you have the correct bend, which starts with correct flexion. Crest muscles should be positioned so that they fall to the inside and you can see the horse’s inside eye. His jaw should be loose and accepting of the bit.

2. As you prepare for an upward transition to canter, think about riding with the lightest-possible aids. I know that my horse is truly in front of my seat when it takes next to nothing to change gears.

3. Switch from rising to sitting trot by putting weight on your inside seat bone and whispering “canter” with your inside leg.

4. As you canter, gently increase the swing of your seat, backed up by your leg, voice and whip (if needed), to achieve a prompt increase in the volume of your horse’s gait.

5. Transition back into working trot with the use of your outside rein. Half halt while maintaining flexion and bend to the inside. Continue to encourage and reward enthusiastic forward motion without loss of rhythm.

Continue with these transitions while adding changes of direction until your horse is loose, warm and happy in both his desire to go forward and in his willingness to wait on your downward transitions. There is some magic in this simple exercise to freshen the lazy horse, relax the hot horse and loosen the back and neck structure of all horses.

Coil the Spring
Once your horse can make seamless transitions on the circle in a good rhythm and maintain a relaxed posture, the rest of your session should include any of a limitless number of exercises that build both thrusting and carrying power. Any exercise that you choose based on your horse’s current level of training should incorporate a sense of “coiling the spring.” Here is one way that I do it:

1. Frequently check that the horse has the desire to go forward in an instant. I do this by deliberately swinging my seat while imagining that my horse is increasing the volume of his movement. As I think “forward,” I let my fingers “breathe” and allow for slight lengthening of his frame. I follow through on my original driving aids with an invisible aid, using my upper calf, lower leg, spur, voice and whip in that order. When your horse understands this aid sequence, his sensitivity to the more subtle aids increases, and he helps you by being self-propelled.

2. Check the collecting aids. The basic collecting aid is the half halt. For me, that’s closing my knee and thigh, stabilizing my back and seat, vibrating my fingers and thinking that I want my horse to coil back toward his hind legs. The important point here is that my horse reacts by shifting his weight over his back into his croup and closing the joints of his hind legs. Just as with the driving aids, I must follow through on the collecting aids. If my horse doesn’t react clearly and efficiently to this initial aid, I do three things: Repeat the original aid and, if need be, promptly make a stronger aid. Second, make a downward transition. Third, transition to halt.

By reinforcing my horse’s willingness to promptly expand and contract (like a rubber band), I increase his sensitivity to both aids and I expand his range of motion between collection and extension, coiling the spring.

Extended Trot Transitions
This is one of my favorite exercises for developing great collected–extended–collected trot transitions. The idea is to use your horse’s natural desire to please and his ability to anticipate. I learned it from dressage icon Conrad Schumacher about 15 years ago. It’s a very simple exercise that rewards a horse for beginning to explore the outer boundaries of his range.

1. Start out in working trot, tracking on the long side of the arena.

2. Walk at the letter before the corner, maintaining a good bend.

3. Promptly make half a walk pirouette to the left, which turns you back to the same wall, facing the other way.

4. Using the lightest-possible aids, straighten your horse and transition back to the working trot.

5. Before you get to the corner, transition to walk and make half a walk pirouette to the right. Stay on the long side, heading in the other direction.

Jan Brink and Briar

There is something to be said for successful dressage horse breeding. Dressage Olympian Jan Brink rode the Swedish Warmblood stallion Briar in a long and consistently successful partnership at the international Grand Prix level. Jan Brink and Briar participated in three Olympic Games and eight World Cup Finals. Jan Brink and Briar won four medals at the European Championships and have been Swedish champions seven times. As the breeder of this world famous stallion, Hans-Yngve Göransson has received much attention for dressage horse breeding. At his Dalhem stud farm in Fuglie, outside of Trelleborg, the southernmost town in Sweden, his dressage horse breeding program continues with the same methodology that has proven successful for decades.

The Dalhem Method
Göransson’s philosophy is to let horses be horses. He firmly believes that box-stall isolation is bad for the mentality and strength of the growing horse. “Young horses that are isolated and treated so carefully so that they won’t get hurt are being killed with love instead of letting them be horses,” he says. “They are always worked on perfect, flat footing. Everything must be just so. They are like hothouse flowers. Take them out into the real world and they may wilt.”

At Dalhem, all horses live outside on grass 24 hours a day until the winter weather becomes too harsh.

The farm produces about 10 foals a year. After weaning, the youngsters are divided into groups by age and sex. During the winter, each group comes into the barn and shares a large communal stall, as is common in many European studs. During their time inside, they are handled, separated from the group and the older ones are free-jumped several times a month. “This gives us a chance to evaluate them not only physically but for temperament and trainability as well,” says Göransson. Groups are turned out simply by opening the right combination of gates. “This is a big time saver as opposed to turning each youngster out individually.”

Young stallions are kept together until they are 3- or 4-year-olds. “Naturally, the stallions play and have nicks and scrapes, and some people don’t like that,” says Göransson. “But they really use their bodies and become well-muscled, developing their joints and tendons. Plus, they get good socialization. The uneven ground helps them develop balance and strength. Of course, if there is any serious fighting then they are separated.”

The young horses are brought in and separated when they are started under saddle and go into work. When the youngsters are ready to show, it is in moderation. “When Briar was young, we only did about three competitions a year,” says Göransson. “I think the young-horse competitions we have these days are good, but one needs to look at the individual and his growth to determine if it is right for the horse. It is too easy to get caught up in going from one show to the next, especially with a talented horse for which things are easy. You must pace him so as not to burn him out. Too much too soon will kill the spirit of the horse.”

Göransson believes in a variety of work for his horses and includes galloping on a racetrack and jumping, even for dressage horses. This variety is especially important for upper-level horses that already are quite skilled. “It’s more a matter of keeping them fit but not bored,” explains Göransson. He tells how Brink regularly worked outside the ring with Briar, and it kept the stallion guessing. One day, he might go into the ring and just warm up, jogging for 10 minutes or so. On other days, the pair would do intensive ring work. Still other days would find them riding outside in the woods. “This way, the horse never knows what he will be doing in the ring—a light, relaxing jog or some heavy work—and he doesn’t associate the ring with constant hard work.” Göransson believes in getting young horses outside and having variety in their work.

Breeding a Champion
Göransson grew up on a breeding farm and has been involved with breeding horses all his life. Briar was the culmination of a lifetime of careful bloodline selection based on competition results. The line that produced Briar started in 1926 with the importation of the East Prussian mother line that produced the mare Diana (also the grandmother of Amor, an important stallion in Dutch Warmblood breeding). That mare line was then crossed with such Swedish luminaries as Drabant and Gaspari to produce the mare Medea, purchased from Flyinge, the Swedish State Stud, by Göransson’s father in 1971.

Looking to add some elegance to their mare, the Göranssons chose the imported stallion Illum by Hanoverian foundation sire Der Löwe xx, a Thoroughbred. “At the time, there was a strong nationalistic tendency in breeding,” says Göransson, “and we were heavily criticized for using a foreign stallion and a half-Thoroughbred as well.” The resulting mare, Mickaela, became one of the foundation mares of Dalhem’s modern breeding program.

In choosing a stallion for Mickaela, Göransson looked to the Swedish stallion Krocket. “This was in the early 1980s when the fashion was to use stallions from abroad,” he notes. “This time we were criticized for using a Swedish stallion. Krocket was fantastic, a really good stallion,” he remembers. “Eddie Macken was jumping him in the warm-up at Falsterbo as a young horse before he retired to breeding, and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. He was so impressive.”

Krocket was a grandson of the imported Hanoverian stallion Utrillo, who was one of the top producers in Sweden. He also had Thoroughbred blood on the dam’s side. Unfortunately, Krocket was not used much by other breeders. Göransson believes two factors led to this: “It was at the turning point where shipped semen was becoming the standard, and the owners of Krocket only stood him for live cover.” Also, Krocket went straight into breeding instead of having a competition career, so many mare owners never saw him. Both of these factors caused him to lose mares, and he never had much impact on the Swedish breed as a whole. But for Dalhem, the stallion produced two mares that Göransson kept for his program. One was Charis, the dam of Briar. For her, Göransson chose Magini, a local stallion he had been watching for several years. Magini, a Utrillo grandson, had good gaits and jumping ability and seemed to stamp his offspring. Briar was the result of that breeding and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Frequently Briar is [criticized] because he is a Swedish stallion,” says Göransson. “But if you actually look at his pedigree, you will see he is a truly international horse with a mixture of Swedish, Hanoverian, Trakehner and Thoroughbred blood.” Briar is now approved by the Hanoverian, Oldenburg and KWPN registries, among others, and he has 10 approved sons in different registries. He breeds more mares abroad than in Sweden. In 2011, he stood in the Netherlands so he could be more accessible to Europeans during the recession. Standing in Holland means an easier and less-costly process for customers. Briar is also one of the few stallions whose fresh semen can be shipped to the United States from Europe (Tailwindsfarm.com).

Following the Trends or Not
As a longtime breeder, Göransson says he is disappointed in what he calls “the fashion” in breeding. “Breeders want the new young stallions from the stallion shows, and they breed to a handful of the high-scoring stallions at the approvals even though they are totally unproven in sport. It’s sad that the top stallions in sport do not get as many breedings as the current hot young stallions. Many times the top stallions at the approvals with the flashy extended trots are not seen in sport, at least at the higher levels. The stallions that don’t score quite as high are often the ones who are successful in sport.”