Haunches In: Naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse (18 years old)
Haunches in is an excellent exercise for gaited horses―especially the pacey ones. It diagonalize the horse’s steps, breaks up pace to begin smooth gait.
Since 2007, I have learned so much in my application of dressage since I began this journey with my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse, Makana. If I could turn back time with the knowledge I have today, I would have started lateral exercises in hand before saddle training. It wasn’t until 2014 that I began to learn the value of in hand work.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Haunches In (Five years old)
In any case, Makana and I began haunches in exercises from the saddle after she had a good grasp of the leg yield exercises. As with any introduction, the haunches in was clumsy at first. We began with a couple consecutive steps at first, and I added more steps as she was ready for it.
Haunches in vs leg yield
Three ways the haunches in is different from the leg yield:
In the haunches in, the horse travels into the bend where the horse steps away from the bend in a leg yield.
Another difference is that the haunches in is a bending exercise on three tracks while the horse is a fairly straight from poll to tail in a leg yield and the horse steps forward and sideways at the same time.
Finally, the haunches in helps the horse engage from the hindquarters and collect where the leg yield does not. The leg yield is an introductory exercise to lateral movement for horse and rider.
Rider aids for the haunches in
While maintaining a light and even contact with both reins, the rider softens the horse’s lower jaw by squeezing and releasing the inside rein.
At the end of the arena, the rider directs the horse into a volte (small circle) at a slow walk.
Just before the horse reaches the fence, the rider helps the horse’s shoulders, head and neck to remain straight along the fence while encouraging the horse to continue the bend of the circle with the back half of the horse. The rider does this by applying the inside leg at the girth and the outside leg slightly behind the girth.
The rider sits slightly on the outside seat bone and encourages the horse to step its outside hind foot under its belly and towards the inside fore foot.
Viewing the haunches in from the front or back, the horse travels on three tracks. The horse’s front legs are fairly perpendicular to the fence, while the outside hind leg steps under the belly.
Benefits of lateral exercises for gaited horses
Lateral exercises, like haunches in are excellent for the naturally gaited horse―especially for those the pace. Why? Because lateral exercises actually diagonalize the horse’s steps. This breaks up pace. Since lateral exercises diagonalize the horse’s steps, why are they called lateral?
Great minds want to know.
Shoulder In (Five years old)
Haunches in is one of several lateral exercises. Others are shoulder in, shoulder out, and haunches out. These lateral exercises offer other wonderful benefits to the naturally gaited horse. Lateral exercises supple and strengthen the horse as well as help the horse become more flexible, balanced and engaged. All of these qualities improve the quality of natural smooth gaits.
Haunches in on a 10-meter circle: I learned this more advanced exercise during a lesson with Makana (16 years old).
Dressage training has helped my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse with her rhythm, relaxation, connection, impulsion, straightness, and collection. Yet quickness hasn’t been something I have practiced on a regular basis, and it really becomes apparent when we sort cows.
Recently I took my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse mare Gift of Freedom (Makana) to a Wednesday evening cow sorting league. We are clearly the odd ball in the group among quarter horses that are naturally built for this sport. These horses are highly engaged from behind and can lope, stop, pivot and spring off in a new direction in half a second.
Will my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse ever be as quick and responsive as the quarter horses? Not likely, but being lowest on the pecking order seems to motivate her. Makana LOVES having something to push around. Each week we get better at moving the cows from one pen to the next in order, and have more clean rounds than DQs.
Watching the riders warm up their quarter horses, I’ve noticed that they often use rollbacks as an exercise of choice, so I began adopting rollbacks into our warm up.
Rollbacks have great benefits. They increase engagement and make her think about quickness and responsiveness. This is helping us in the hole as we attempt to keep the unsequenced cows from sneaking through before their turn.
P.S. As a side note, I show up at sorting league as a cross dresser: my horse wearing Western attire and me wearing breeches, half chaps, and my riding helmet. I figure if I’m going to be the oddball among all these spur wearin’, shank sportin’ cowboys and cowgirls riding their cowy quarter horses, I might as well go all out!
Video: Rollbacks for the Gaited Horse
(Take it from me, it is easier to ride rollbacks in the security of a Western saddle.)
There’s nothing like trail riding on a naturally gaited horse. You can cover lots of ground and your body won’t pay for it later. But who ever said that dressage has to stay in the four walls of an arena? Why not take dressage to the trail and transform a ride to a dance?
Introducing the Gaited Trail Horse to Dressage
My friend’s naturally gaited horse fox trotting horse, Lady has been living at our place the last two summers. She doesn’t get out to ride much so she has encouraged me to ride Lady as much as I have time for.
Lady was purchased by my friend as an 8-year-old unregistered Walking horse. Registration didn’t matter to my friend since she just wanted a beautiful black trail horse. And Lady is all that—beautiful, black, and an exceptional trail horse.
When Lady first arrived she had two distinct gears, a dog walk and a hard trot. Over time Lady has developed a naturally smooth fox walk and fox trot. She’s more diagonal versus lateral on the gait spectrum.
Lady is used to being ridden bareback on the trail with a long, loose rein, so the concept of being ridden on a light contact and in balance have been new to her.
Here’s how balance and connection all started…
Resources for Naturally Gaited Horses to Improve Relaxation and Connection
A month ago, I began applying classical French dressage methods of training as taught by Philippe Karl from his DVD series Classical Dressage and Classical versus Classique, as well as principles taught from the late Jean Claude Racinet in his book: Another Horsemanship and his student Lisa Maxwell from her DVD: Getting Started in Lightness.
These instructors have taught me the importance of teaching the naturally gaited horses I ride to be soft in the mouth, jaw and poll to create relaxation in the mind which is critical before moving on to body exercises.
A relaxed mind is a teachable mind while a tense jaw and anxious mind bring about a resistant body that will not produce quality movement. Teaching the horse softness in the mouth, jaw and poll is best introduced in hand on the ground using a mild snaffle bit. These videos all provide excellent teaching in this and I highly recommend owning them for your personal library.
Relaxing the Naturally Gaited Horse for Trainability
Once the naturally gaited horse is soft and relaxed (in the mind and body); relaxed in the jaw and mouth, and licking, salivating, and chewing, then I proceed to teaching the horse exercises that bring the horse into balance. This is where the horse begins to engage the hind quarters by bending the joints, stepping under its body, engaging the abdominal muscles to lift the back, and lifting its whither to lighten the forehand for a few steps. This also can be introduced to the horse in hand which the videos encourage.
Separating the Stop and Go Aids
The French dressage philosophy differs from the German dressage philosophy I had been trained in for 12 years. While the German philosophy taught me to use my legs and seat to drive my horse into a rein contact, the French method separates the brake pedal (reins) from the gas pedal (seat and legs). Separating my seat and leg aids from my rein aids has been one habit that I have been working hard to break, and it is worth the results that I am seeing in the horses I ride. Lightness, harmony, and more willingness to go forward with less cueing on my part are among these benefits.
Timing of Aids
In addition to the separation of aids, is the crucial timing of my aids. My rein aids cue my horse’s front and my leg aids cue my horse’s hind legs. It is critically important for me to correctly discern the feeling of when my horse’s leg is in a cue-able position so that I get the desired result.
For example, if I am asking my horse to leg yield along the fence going to the right, my left calf needs to touch my horse at the girth as my horse begins to step its left hind foot forward. As I release my calf, I squeeze and release my outside (right) indirect rein to tell my horse to remain straight and not lead with the right shoulder. If my horse begins to get tense in the jaw, I squeeze the left rein with my middle, ring, and pinky fingers, and release by opening these three fingers as soon as the horse gives. At all times, I maintain a very light contact with the horse’s mouth on both reins with my thumb and index fingers.
Also, here’s an excellent blog post “The Wonder Whip” written by Manuel Trigo which was forwarded to me from a fellow gaited dressage friend. This blog post talks in detail about the timing of aids, and I find it very insightful.
Below is a video showing Lady being introduced to light contact as we leg yield along the fence. I am riding her in a Level 1 Mylar snaffle bit with white reins so that it is easier to see the amount of contact. The first leg yield is nothing short of a “hot mess,” and I explain what we worked through to “clean up” the second pass.
For Lady, establishing a soft contact and a relaxed mind before moving on to body exercises for balance have been the winning combination. Together they have brought out a beautiful transformation in Lady’s fox trot that is simply a joy to ride. The video below begins and ends just after the leg yield exercise which shows the most balanced, supple, and elegant fox trot Lady has achieved thus far.
Video: Introducing the Gaited Trail Horse to Dressage
Here’s a sequence of cues that produce a soft, round, and relaxed halt without the use of force or pulling back on the reins.
Cues to a Softer Halt
Back in the days before owning horses, I looked forward to the hour-long trail rides each summer. Before our group mounted up, the trail guide would give us these handy instructions: “kick” to go and “pull” on the reins to stop.
Now that I’ve been a horse owner for a few decades, I’ve learned better approaches than “kick” to go and “pull” to stop which produce softer and rounder responses. The cues are a blend of tips I have learned from classical French dressage and natural horsemanship philosophies.
Each test begins and ends with a halt and salute where the horse stands square and immobile for three seconds.
I ride my naturally gaited and barefoot Tennessee walking horse in a mild snaffle bit and have been competing at schooling dressage shows since 2010. We consistently earn scores of “8” on our center line halt and salute.
Below is a sequence of cues that produce a soft, round, and relaxed halt without the use of force or pulling back on the reins.
How to produce a soft, round and relaxed halt
Well fitting equipment: Beginning with a practical note, an uncomfortable horse is unable to perform a soft, round, and relaxed halt. So, it is important to ride your horse in a well-fitting saddle, bridle and bit. Also have your horse’s teeth checked and floated regularly by an equine dentist or qualified veterinarian.
Following seat: The next thing I do is develop a following seat (versus a driving seat). I encourage my horse forward with my seat, followed up with the use of my voice, a bump and release of my lower calf, and a tap of the dressage whip if needed. Then I follow the motion of my horse’s walk (in a toned sort of way) as if my hip joints walk with my horse’s hind legs. I do not drive my horse forward with my seat (by thrusting my pelvis forward and backward) as I believe this annoys my horse and eventually causes her to tune me out.
Stilling seat: When I am about to come to a halt, I gently squeeze and release the reins with my middle, ring and pinky fingers to soften and round my horse. At the same time, I still my seat and no longer follow the motion of my horse. If the horse is listening to my seat, the horse will stop.
Alternating squeeze and release of the rein: Plan B: If my horse doesn’t halt with the stilling of my seat, then I follow it up with an alternating squeeze and release of each rein in sequence with each hind step. As if to say, “Stop your foot. Now stop your other foot.” I will keep alternating the squeeze and release of each rein with each step combined with a stilled seat until the horse slows to a stop.
I have found that this approach produces a softer, rounder, more relaxed and square halt than when squeezing both reins at the same time, and definitely better than pulling back on the reins.
Repeat the exercise: If the horse didn’t stop by my seat, I will return to a forward walk and repeat the exercise a few times before moving on to something else. Then I’ll come back to the exercise a couple more times during our riding session.
Practice: I practice this exercise each time I ride. Every horse I ride becomes more and more responsive to my seat, softer, rounder, and more relaxed with the halting, less dependent upon the reins for stopping, less depended upon the voice, legs, and whip to move forward and more responsive to the seat.
Video: Cues to a Softer Halt
A square halt from the medium walk is required in NWHA Intro tests, a square halt from the flat walk is required in NWHA Training Level tests, and a square halt from a canter is required in NWHA Fourth Level.
Video: Soft Halts from the Medium Walk, Flat Walk and Canter
Here’s a dressage exercise that can improve a gaited horse canter while improving a rider’s balanced position and timing of rein, leg and seat aids.
How to improve a gaited horse canter using dressage
By Jennifer Klitzke
In the short time Jennie Jackson was in Minnesota this year I learned so much. Here’s an effective exercise she taught me and my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse: collected walk-canter-walk transition on a 15-meter circle to improve our gaited horse canter.
This exercise helps the rider organize their rein, leg and seat aids; develop effective use and timing of the aids; maintain a balanced riding position through the transitions; direct the horse into a relaxed, forward balance canter transition; and develop quality canter steps.
Here’s how…
Establish a collected walk on a 15-meter circle:
Establish a forward moving collected walk in a shoulder-fore position by applying inside lower leg calf through the ankle at the girth. This helps to bend my mare’s body and step her inside hind leg under her belly toward her outside front leg.
My outside indirect rein is held slightly against the neck with more contact than my inside softening rein. The outside rein keeps the outside shoulder from falling out and keeps the neck rather straight.
The inside rein massages as needed to soften my mare’s jaw so that she flexes at the atlas (poll) slightly into the circle enough where I see the corner of her eye.
It is important that her ears remain level without tilting her head to the side.
The energy from her hindquarters travels through her body and into the connection with my hands which feels like her shoulders lift, and she becomes lighter in front while I feel her back puff up under my seat as she engages her abdominal muscles.
Develop collected walk to canter transitions
The timing of this transition is important. The outside hind leg is the first step in the canter sequence. When I feel my mare beginning to step her outside hind leg forward, that’s when I need to apply my outside lower leg behind the girth.
Maintain the inside lower leg at the girth and the rein connection so that my mare holds the bend through the canter transition.
Focus on a still riding position during the upward transition without tipping my upper body forward. This allows my horse to step into a balanced canter.
Teach the gaited horse canter transitions to quality canter steps
Bring the horse back to a collected walk before the canter quality falls apart. Over time, the horse will build more and more consecutive quality canter steps.
During the downward transition from canter to walk, grow taller in the saddle while applying a slight half halt with the seat, a brief closing of the fingers on the outside rein, and a release as the horse moves into a forward moving collected walk.
Watch: Walk-Canter-Walk Transitions on a 15-meter Circle
Thank you, Jennie Jackson, for coming to Minnesota. I have finally connected with a coach who not only has the applied knowledge and proven experience through the highest levels of dressage with Tennessee walking horses, but someone who communicates gaited horse concepts in ways I understand. My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse has never moved better!
You must be logged in to post a comment.