Collection just happens
Dutch Olympian Tineke Bartels discusses the skills needed to achieve the ultimate goal for your dressage horse.

By Tineke Bartels with Beth Baumert

For dressage horses, collection is the goal. The collected horse takes you on a very comfortable ride - as if he is carrying you majestically. You can sit easily because the horse's back is relaxed and his hindquarters are engaged. You don't have to do anything but think, and the horse does what you think. Some runners get this same feeling, calling it "the runner's high" - when the body is in an automatic state. The athlete can look to himself and say, "My body is running, and I don't have to do anything. It feels great." Physically, collection occurs when the horse comes together in a shorter frame, but although the strides are shorter and slower than in the working ,medium or extended paces, they are very lively. The horse's neck rises out of a lifted wither because of more marked engagement and activity.

do not ask for collection
Almost everyone knows these facts on the surface, but achieving the ideal state of collection is not so easy. Developing collection is a long process - years of making the horse stronger by developing his muscles and increasing his psychological willingness and understanding. I seldom mention "collection" in my training. That is, I never tell my students: "Collect your horse, "because psychologically, when the rider makes collection his primary goal, the result too often ends up in pushing and pulling. The rider who asks for collection is inclined to use hands that are too strong and which create too much of a connection, preventing self-carriage and impulsion. The rider also might become restless in his seat and aids, and the upper body might become too active-all of which create a tense situation in which collection can never happen. So when the rider concentrates solely on collection, he inevitably gets the reverse of what he wants because his efforts, too often, interfere with the relaxation and throughness that must always be a part of collection. The rider can never say: "Today I'm going out to develop collection. "Rather, collection is the outcome of a step-by-step training process that establishes the essential basic principles every day, year after year. If all of those basics are correct and the horse is absolutely on the aids, then I would say that collection just happens."

the basics
When I want a student's horse to be more collected, I only talk about the basic principles and riding on the aids. First, what are these basics? In Holland, some of us have adopted the German system of training horses, which outlines the six basic points of the training scale. This is a useful system for education.

1. tact
The first of these basic points is the German word Takt. In English, the word Takt means "regularity of the rhythm, correct sequence of the footfall and purity or evenness of the gaits." It is the most important point of the scale because preservation of the gaits is our primary intent in dressage.

2. relaxation
The second point is relaxation, in both the mental and the muscular sense of the word. The German term, which is often used worldwide, is Losgelassenheit, and this is also a prerequisite because collection cannot exist with a horse in a state of tension.

3. connection
Third is what, in English, we call connection. This is called Anlehnung in German, which is a steady, continuous, elastic connection in which the horse seeks the contact and accepts it lightly with no pulling! In the connection, the rider must always have control of his horse's position, which is the height of his head and neck and also the flexion at the poll to the left or right. When I ask for flexion to the right, for example, the horse needs to maintain this position to the right until I give a new aid. If I position the horse deep or low in order to relax him, I need to be able to position him higher again whenever I wish. This ability to influence the height of the neck and the flexion of the jaw is part of the rider's ability to supple the horse and connect him to develop the throughness necessary for collected work.

4. impulsion
The fourth point is riding forward with impulsion, which the Germans call Schwung. Books define Schwung as the "powerful swinging thrust, emanating from the hindquarters, propelling the, horse forward and raveling through an I elastically swinging back and relaxed neck. We will revisit this point later when we talk about putting the horse on the aids and refining the aids.

5. straightness
The fifth element of the training scale is straightness. We can't even think of collection if the horse has lost his balance on one of the four legs, that is if either a shoulder or a hind leg is falling out or in. When the horse is straight, he can carry his weight equally on each hind leg and thrust equally through each side of his body. The rider often can't feel lack of straightness-especially if he just rides one horse a day, so a minor or a ground person is very helpful.

6. collection
Finally, the sixth point is our goal of collection, which evolves quite naturally when you start, again, with a rhythmic, relaxed, connected horse. When you add forwardness, the horse must retain his rhythm and the muscular relaxation of his cheeks, neck and back. The horse then becomes totally elastic, free and durchlässig, which to me refers to a through and supple horse with an unblocked, smoothly moving body. These basics help to set you up for successful collection. But there's more to it than that.

science
Science can show us about the importance of tempo control and high energy in collection and then we can put that information into practice. In the early 1990's, Hilary Clayton, RVMS, PhD, MRCVS, worked in Holland at Utrecht University on a research project to study collection. At that time, I went to the university several times with my Grand Prix horses and did piaffe on a weight sensor scale that registered the weight of each foot in collected work. Clayton published her findings in the Equine Veterinary Supplement on Equine Locomotion in 1994. Clayton's scientific information helps riders in practice, which, in fact, is the only thing that really matters. She found that the average speed decreases progressively as horses become more collected, but, on the other hand, collection is a relatively "expensive" pace in energy terms when compared to the working, medium and extended paces. Although the collected pace is the slowest pace, there is high energy to it, and this is the point to remember.

disaster
If the rider directly tries to create the short-strided slowness that is the hallmark of collection, he will certainly end in disaster unless he develops high energy. There will be insufficient balance, lack of suppleness, lack of throughness, sluggishness and lack of clarity in the gaits. The rider will get exactly the opposite of what he is aiming for. So in the same way that I don't ask for collection, I also don't talk about half halts or slowness unless they are in combination with high energy. The horse's balance in collection evolves as a result of refinement of the rider's aids, which gives him control over the tempo. Refinement of the Aids and Tempo Control On a daily basis, the rider needs to get the horse very obedient to the leg and I rein aids. When the horse is on the I aids, he immediately goes forward and increases his speed from the rider's leg aid. Likewise, he comes back to a slower tempo from the finest rein aid. I think of these aids as the "gas" and the "brake" and they should give the rider total control of the tempo or the speed of his horse.

Think about driving your car
In your car, you never use the gas and the brakes at the same time. The horse's balance in collection evolves as a result of refinement of the rider's aids, which gives him control over the tempo and the brake at almost the same time. Many riders unconsciously make the mistake of keeping the brake on a little bit when using the gas pedal-which the horse will not understand. The aids must be logical for the horse, and when he gives the right response, the rider should pat the horse and repeat the aid in exactly the same way so the rider can confirm what he is trying to teach his horse.

You are the teacher
It's worth mentioning that the rider is a teacher in this respect- that he, on a daily basis, teaches and confirms his horse's the understanding of the go and stop aids. The process of teaching requires that we clearly tell the horse what to do. We do not tell him so often what not to do. The rider can only achieve refinement of the aids when he can be refined himself. When you don't get the right reaction from the leg aid, you have to touch the horse twice in exactly the same way, I call it a "double leg." With a less sensitive horse, you may even have to push a little more or give a "triple leg" or even a kick until you get a result. Then if the horse jumps too far forward or goes into the canter, it's OK. you must praise him for quickening and going more for award.

a thousand leg aids
There are so many different horses, and there are a thousand different leg aids, but the basis is always a totally relaxed leg hanging on the side of the horse and not interfering with him. The better you can do that, the better the horse understands when you touch him lightly. If the leg is always pushing, it is like the girth of the saddle. The horse won't feel it because it is always there and, therefore, has no effect at all. The principle is exactly the same with the rein aid. The lighter the contact, the better the horse will understand a light rein I aid. The quieter the leg aid, the better the horse feels a light leg aid. The response to the rider's leg or hand should be like electricity. you push a button, the light goes on and it stays on.

the half halt
Collection Happens When the horse understands the very light go-and-stop aids, the rider can use them very close together in order to bring the horse into the right balance and the right tempo for collection. This is the half halt. The half halt is the forward reaction from the leg, which creates quickness and higher energy. Then a split second later, the horse comes back because he is completely obedient to a touch of the rein aid. When it all happens in a very refined way, it is a half halt. It is refining the horse's reaction. The rider gets his horse on the bit in this way and the same methods produce collection Then you get an end result that you can describe in terms of "collection from half halts."

tempo control
When the aids are this refined, even the most experienced riders run into common problems: many times the horse runs away or gets back by himself, loses his engagement and comes out of balance. It is simply further training "in the same basic skills", that has to be repeated over and over again if the horse is going in a tempo that the rider doesn't want. It always should be the rider who dictates the horse's tempo and proves his ability to make his horse quicker from the leg or slower from the hand. The rider often doesn't realize that the horse is in control of the tempo because riders often ride in the tempo that the horse gives them without thinking about it. So sometimes I ask a student: "Is this the tempo you want?" And the rider often looks at me in surprise and says, "I don't know!" In this case the rider first needs to realize that he no longer has tempo control and the horse has taken over.

frustration
Sometimes riders get frustrated, so I always like to mention that Olympic champions also get frustrated. Grand Prix riders often go from a top Olympic mount back to a young horse who is bucking, being resistant and occasionally throwing them off. Sometimes Olympic riders have to start all over again, too. Dressage is a challenging sport that takes years and years for each horse. I have been riding for over 30 years-seven or eight horses a day, seven days a week, working with the best trainers in the world, and I always face the challenge of putting the basic concepts into practice. I simply work every day, testing that the gas and the brake are still working, and aiming to improve the basics. In your riding, patiently work on the basics. Eliminate all force and tension, and be positive. Tell a horse what to do; don't tell him what not to do.

be positive
Training is a positive thing, and forcing is absolutely the other side of the story. Forcing the horse into collection never ends with a positive result. Collection just happens when everything is correct. Guiding and inviting the horse to collection is the way to go. The horses are glad to offer collection to the rider when the training is a positive process.

© Dressage Today USA