How To Dressage

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Article Categories
    • The Scales of Training
    • Dressage Theory
    • For The Rider
    • The Horse’s Paces
    • Dressage Movements
    • Dressage Competition
    • Horse Care
    • Dressage Troubleshooting
    • Interviews with GP Riders
  • Our Book Range
  • Our Podcast
  • FREE STUFF!

logo

How To Dressage

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Article Categories
    • The Scales of Training
    • Dressage Theory
    • For The Rider
    • The Horse’s Paces
    • Dressage Movements
    • Dressage Competition
    • Horse Care
    • Dressage Troubleshooting
    • Interviews with GP Riders
  • Our Book Range
  • Our Podcast
  • FREE STUFF!
Dressage Troubleshooting
Home›Dressage Troubleshooting›How to Improve Your Horse’s Suppleness

How to Improve Your Horse’s Suppleness

By How To Dressage
February 18, 2018
4851
0
How to Improve Your Horse's Suppleness how to dressage


The importance of suppleness is reflected in its place in the scales of training – second, only after rhythm.

But when you consider that we are talking about whole body suppleness (and we should even include mental suppleness in there as well) you might begin to get an inkling of the size of the topic.

Here’s an overview of suppleness, together with some advice on how to improve this quality in your horse.

Areas of suppleness

To split suppleness down into smaller chunks, consider:

  • Longitudinal suppleness – top line, to include back, neck, poll, and jaw
  • Lateral suppleness – even and equal bend to the two sides
  • Suppleness of the joints – essential for activity and ability to engage (weight carry)
  • Mental suppleness – full acceptance of the aids, without any resistance

Improving longitudinal suppleness

It should go without saying that to carry a rider’s weight in a healthy, functional manner requires your horse to work in a round outline.

Only then will the back swing, the correct ligaments and muscles support the frame without compromise, and the horse be a ‘body mover’ as opposed to a ‘leg mover’.

A correct acceptance of the bit is integral to this, with a relaxed jaw not held clamped around the bit by a tight noseband used to disguise an open mouth.  And of course, this requires that you have taken the time to find the correct bit for the shape of your horse’s mouth – not always easy to do.  A horse must be able to softly chew the bit, which is integral to flexibility at the poll.

Provided the above components are in place, improving the suppleness over the back is then a matter of frequent variations of the outline; putting the horse up into a shorter, taller frame for a short period, followed by stretching down and round.

Within the stretched frame, you can do exercises such as leg yield, and smaller circles to further elasticize the top line.

Trotting over poles with a lower round frame is also valuable, but you should always ensure that someone is with you in case your horse trips over!

Lunging in low-positioned side reins, trotting up hills with a lower neck frame, and riding in jump (or light) seat can all be valuable too.

Improving lateral suppleness

Mostly this involves the obvious – circles, ridden equally on both reins and paying attention to the correct alignment of the horse to the figure.

Horses are all naturally crooked; they fall in one way, and out the other, depending on which shoulder their weight gravitates towards.  This is genuinely natural, not your horse trying to evade you!

Taking the most common example, where the horse falls towards the right shoulder, you need to:

On left-hand circles (where he falls out), keep a firm outside rein and ride with a straighter neck than your horse offers.  Ensure your own weight remains to the inside of the saddle, not allowing yourself to be pushed outward.

On right-hand circles (where he falls in), maintain a feeling of constantly leg yielding outward, to prevent the circle from deteriorating.  Don’t be tempted to hold him out with your outside rein – he must move away from your inside leg.

Still taking the above example, another good exercise is to ride spirals in and out on the right rein, encouraging him to step away from the right leg and connect into the left (outside) rein.

At a more advanced level, all the lateral work can be used to increase lateral suppleness, provided it is ridden correctly.  Always bear in mind that:

  • Going too fast will cause loss of balance and subsequent stiffening
  • Having the rein too short/too tight in your effort to make the correct bend, also stiffens the frame and steps

Improving suppleness of the joints

Here we are talking about a higher level of work, around elementary level in British Dressage, where the first real engagement is required.

Two main groups of exercises are used here:

  • Transitions
  • Lateral work

Transitions should be both between paces and also within the paces.

The more direct your transitions, the more value they will have.

Therefore, as well as ensuring that the horse is prompt to your aids, also work on more extreme variations of transitions, e.g. walk to canter, canter to walk, trot to halt, halt to trot, even canter to halt and halt to canter, and don’t forget to use rein back too.

All lateral work is valuable too, but see above.

Mental suppleness

This is all about confidence and compliance.

A scared horse will be tense and stiff, so you need to ensure your horse always understands what you are asking and that you teach him new things in a logical, progressive manner that make learning easy and fun.

In conclusion

Suppleness is a very broad topic, and there are many aspects of your horse’s training to which the term can be applied.

The areas are all interlinked, and you will find that as one improves, others will do too.

Use the guidance above to help improve your horse’s suppleness and watch your dressage marks improve!

Related Reads: 

  • The Scales of Training: Scale 2 – Suppleness
  • The Scales of Training: Scale 1 – Rhythm
  • Why ALL Dressage Riders Need to Know The Scales of Training
  • How to Ride Your Horse on the Bit

 

Previous Article

How to Manage Dressage Competition Nerves

Next Article

Rules You Must Follow When Warming up ...

How To Dressage

How To Dressage

We are an information blog breaking down the How To's of dressage. All of our articles are put together by British Dressage judges to help you train your horse correctly, get higher scores and win your next dressage competition.

Related articles More from author

  • How to Stop Your Horse From Resting a Hind Leg in Halt how to dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Stop Your Horse From Resting a Hind Leg in Halt

    January 14, 2019
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Keep Your Horse up Through the Corners Dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Keep Your Horse “up” Through the Corners

    January 12, 2021
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Keep Your Horse's Attention Whilst Riding How to Dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Keep Your Horse’s Attention Whilst Riding

    March 15, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Refresh a Horse That has Become Stale in his Training How To dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Refresh a Horse That has Become Stale in his Training

    March 3, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Ride a Horse That is Sensitive to the Leg and Rushes dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Ride a Horse That is Sensitive to the Leg and Rushes

    June 5, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Stop Your Horse's Poll From Getting Too Low How to dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Stop Your Horse’s Poll From Getting Too Low

    July 30, 2018
    By How To Dressage

Leave a reply Cancel reply

0

WANT MORE?

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • troubleshoot dressage problems

    How to Troubleshoot Dressage Problems

    By How To Dressage
    April 13, 2021
  • suppleness of the joints dressage

    How to Improve ‘Suppleness of the Joints’ for Dressage

    By How To Dressage
    April 6, 2021
  • mental suppleness in horse and rider dressage

    How to Improve Mental Suppleness in Both Horse & Rider

    By How To Dressage
    March 30, 2021
  • longitudinal suppleness over the back stretching dressage

    How to Improve Your Horse’s Longitudinal Suppleness

    By How To Dressage
    March 23, 2021
  • how to improve your horse's lateral suppleness dressage bend

    How to Improve Your Horse’s Lateral Suppleness

    By How To Dressage
    March 16, 2021
  • How to Get Your Horse to Track-Up and Overtrack Dressage

    How to Get Your Horse to Track-Up & Overtrack

    By How To Dressage
    March 9, 2021
  • How to Create Cadence in the Dressage Horse

    How to Create Cadence in the Dressage Horse

    By How To Dressage
    March 2, 2021
  • Dressage Training Plan

    How to Structure a Dressage Training Plan for Your Horse

    By How To Dressage
    February 13, 2019
  • how to create the ideal arena surface footing for dressage

    How to Create the Ideal Arena Surface Footing for Dressage

    By How To Dressage
    October 31, 2019
  • How to Import a Dressage Horse

    How to Import a Dressage Horse (from Europe to the U.S.)

    By How To Dressage
    October 19, 2019
  • How to Fit Horse's Noseband

    How to Fit Your Horse’s Noseband

    By How To Dressage
    October 5, 2019
  • How to Safely Ride and Lead horses

    How to Safely Ride and Lead

    By How To Dressage
    March 13, 2019
  • How to Keep a Consistent Rein Contact How to dressage

    How to Keep a Consistent Rein Contact

    By How To Dressage
    June 13, 2018
  • How to Ride a Good Trot-Canter Transition how to dressage

    How to Ride a Good Trot-Canter Transition

    By How To Dressage
    May 1, 2018
  • How To Dressage
    How To Dressage
    on
    April 5, 2021

    How to Ride a 10-Meter Circle

    Hello Amanda, Thank you ...
  • Avatar
    Amanda Harper
    on
    April 4, 2021

    How to Ride a 10-Meter Circle

    I am delighted to ...
  • How To Dressage
    How To Dressage
    on
    March 24, 2021

    How to Develop Your Horse’s Engagement in the Canter

    Hello Sarah, So glad ...
  • How To Dressage
    How To Dressage
    on
    March 24, 2021

    How to Develop Self-Carriage

    Hello Liz, Thank you ...
  • Avatar
    Sarah Houldey
    on
    March 24, 2021

    How to Develop Your Horse’s Engagement in the Canter

    I think your howtodressage ...
  • Avatar
    Liz Steele
    on
    March 23, 2021

    How to Develop Self-Carriage

    How would you begin ...
  • How To Dressage
    How To Dressage
    on
    February 15, 2021

    How to Keep Your Horse Straight

    Thanks so much! :)

Article Categories

  • Dressage Competition (28)
  • Dressage Movements (45)
  • Dressage Theory (53)
  • Dressage Troubleshooting (47)
  • For The Rider (32)
  • Horse Care (39)
  • Interviews with Grand Prix Riders (8)
  • The Horse's Paces (23)
  • The Scales of Training (8)

Free Email Courses

how to dressage newbie email course

how to dressage scales of training email course

how to dressage competition email course

WANT MORE?

Useful Pages

Home
About us
View Our Book Range
Join Our Facebook Group
FREE STUFF!
Contact Us

See our social side

Our Podcast

how to dressage podcast
Copyright © 2018-2021 How To Dressage
Privacy Policy
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links that are included on this website are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you make a purchase. If you would like to support this website in some way, using these links will help you do exactly that. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT