Gaited Dressage Exercises

Below are videos that show gaited dressage exercises that have helped improve the movement and balance of the naturally gaited Tennessee walking horses and fox trotting horses I ride.

Exercises include cantering over ground rails, rein back, transitions between gaits, circles, serpentines, and lateral movements.

These exercises have helped improve connection, balance, suppleness, harmony, partnership, and strength which in turn have improved our gaited dressage test scores in both western gaited dressage and english gaited dressage over the years.

Walk-Canter-Walk Transitions

After Makana and I have established a balanced canter, we dabble with walk-canter-walk transitions. A few things of importance:

1. I maintain a still position without falling forward with my upper body as that would encourage her to lose balance and fall on the forehand.
2.  I work Makana into a balanced walk before I ask for a balanced canter depart and then into a balanced canter.
3. I transition back to walk after a few quality steps of canter. My naturally gaited dressage teacher Jennie Jackson always says, “Don’t practice a poor quality canter. Always practice good quality transitions and good quality canter steps.”

Canter-Halt-Rein Back-Canter Transitions

I love this exercise because it gets Makana to engage more from behind and produces more connection from back to front. Makana likes to halt, however, we are working on her halting from behind instead of stopping with her front feet.

Rollbacks with the Naturally Gaited Horse

Rollbacks are another terrific exercise to help my naturally gaited TWH Makana engage more from behind. Makana really like this exercise, too. Anytime I feel like our canter is getting flat, the rollbacks are a great exercise.

Exercises to Improve Flat Walk

Counted Walk to Flat Walk

What the heck is Counted Walk?
That’s what I thought when I first came across this gait taught by the late classical French dressage Master Jean Claude Racinet. I learned of it from his student who produced a video called: Getting Started in Lightness by Lisa Maxwell. It is one of the best videos I have ever owned and I watch it again and again. The counted walk has improved our balance, engagement, and softness and has improved my naturally gaited TWH’s flat walk and canter. Any time I feel my horse lose balance and feel heavy on the bit or forehand, I transition to steps of counted walk to re-establish balance and then continue with what we were doing.

Benefits of Trotting the Naturally Gaited Horse on Cue

Lots of gaited horse riders freak when they hear about teaching a gaited horse to trot on cue. There is a big difference between letting the gaited horse trot when they want to, and teaching a gaited horse quality trot on cue. Trot isn’t for everyone, yet it offers wonderful benefits to the horse in establishing rhythm, breaking pace, breaking cross canter, and developing engagement and top line muscles. I encourage those who give quality trot on cue a try, to be rather experienced and knowledgeable in dressage methods and/or learn this under good dressage instruction.

Circles and Serpentines

Fifteen and twenty-meter circles at a flat walk and serpentines have really improved the connection, balance, and quality of my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse’s flat walk.

Halt

Cues to a Softer Halt

Here’s how to get high scores on your center line halt and salute. This video shares tips I’ve learned to help my naturally gaited horses  develop a softer, rounder, and more balanced halt without the use of force, a harsh bit or spurs. It is important to become aware of the horse’s footfalls in order to cue at the right time.

Rein Back

A quality rein back is an engaged and soft motion backwards where the horse steps under its body by bending its hindquarter joints, engaging its abdominal muscles to lift its back and lighten its forehand by growing taller in the wither.

The aids are a closing of the hand (not pulling back) to signal stop moving forward, the heels are drawn back behind the girth, and my pelvis draws forward to signal the rein back.

Fléchi droit

This video shows a naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse in a Fléchi droit. An exercise I learned from Ecole de Légèreté. The horse is traveling at a slow walk on a straight line with its head and neck bent 45 to 90 degrees inward. Or in this case, the horse is traveling with its body bent along on a 20-meter circle and the head and neck are bent inward 45 to 90 degrees. This is a great exercise to stretch the outside neck muscles, help the horse find balance equally on both shoulders before performing a circle. Often when a horse learns circles, it over weights the inside shoulder which is out of balance. The Fléchi droit helps the horse find balance equally in both shoulders thus making circles more in balance.

Improving Canter in the Naturally Gaited Horse

Ground Rails at a Canter

There are so many fun exercises and ground rail patterns to ride the naturally gaited horse over in canter—starting from simple to break the lateral and four beat canter to a course of rails.

Lateral Exercises and the Naturally Gaited Horse

Shoulder-In

Shoulder-in on a circle and shoulder-in at an easy gait have improved balance, softness, connection, and engagement. In these videos my horse is crossing with the legs nicely, however, she needs to be straighter with less bend in the head and neck.

Leg Yield

Leg yield at a flat walk is a required movement introduced in First Level dressage tests. Leg yield is also a terrific exercise to teach the naturally gaited horse at a slow and big striding walk as well as in the easy gait once the horse understands the exercise. The leg yield can be taught to the horse along the fence, from the quarter line to the fence, from the rail to the center line, from the centerline to the rail, and as a zig zag from the rail to the centerline and back.

The goal is to keep the horse straight while riding the leg yield and not let the horse overbend in the head and neck or jack knife in outside the shoulder.

Pivot the Fore

This is a great exercise to teach the rider the application of aids: use of the inside calf in conjunction with the horse’s inside hind leg to the outside indirect rein and the inside softening rein. In this video Lady is crossing her legs nicely, I just need to remember to keep her straighter in the head and neck and not so over bent.

Walk Pirouette

It is important that the horse continues to step through the exercise and not pivot around a foot.

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