A horse who is working into a contact will be submissive to your aids and feel relaxed underneath you. However, achieving a contact can be difficult, especially if you have a young or inexperienced horse whose mouth isn’t very receptive yet.
If you achieve a contact correctly it will help to bring your horse off the forehand and balance himself, which is important if you really want to progress within your training. This workout from dressage rider Nikki Crisp is designed to help you develop a consistent contact by asking for flexion and softening your horse’s neck.
Before you start, warm up by trotting and cantering you horse on both reins, going large around the arena for five minutes.
Exercise 1: Transitions into the corner
Time: 10 minutes
- Go large in trot.
- As you approach the first corner, push with both legs and gently flex your horse a fraction to the inside, keeping a steady contact on both reins. Before the corner, transition to walk and walk through the corner, going as deep as you can into it.
- Trot immediately out of the corner.
- Repeat this exercise at each corner of the arena five times on each rein.
Exercise 2: Turn from the corner
Time: 10 minutes
- Trot your horse down the long side of the arena.
- About 10m before the first corner, on the right rein, make a transition to walk.
- Halt just before the corner, then, using your left leg behind the girth, ask your horse for a turn-on-the-forehand.
- You are now facing the long side of the arena on the left rein.
- Give both hands forwards and ask your horse for a positive working trot down the long side.
- Repeat the turn-on-the-forehand in the next corner of the school.
- Repeat four times.
To do a turn-on-the-forehand your horse will need to step under with his hind leg, which helps supple his back just behind the saddle as he pushes into your contact.
Exercise 3: Learn to use transitions
Time: 5 minutes
Simple transitions are great for keeping horses in front of your leg and reactive to your aids.
- Trot your horse down the long side of the arena.
- At C, ride a 20m circle in rising trot.
- Stay in a steady, collected rhythm.
- Transition to walk while still on a circle by gently applying pressure on the reins and maintaining your normal leg position.
- Walk three to five steps and then immediately trot forward. Make sure that as you ride forwards into trot you soften both hands forward for the first couple of trot strides. This allows your horse to push confidently from behind in the upward transition and seek the rein.
- Try to fit in three transitions on a circle.
- Repeat on the other rein and, when you’re ready to make this exercise more difficult, you can ask for transitions within the pace (medium walk to extended walk, for example).
Finish by walking your horse on a long rein around the arena so that he can stretch his neck and relax.
Meet the expert: Nikki Crisp is a dressage rider who’s been a member of several British Nation Cup teams. She was shortlisted for the London 2012 Olympics, where she was the guinea pig test rider with her mare, Pasoa.
