french dressage for gaited horses | Naturally Gaited Horse

Nothing beats one-on-one coaching.
My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse and I put 7 years of DVD and book study to practice at the Légèreté clinic with Linda Kaye Hollingsworth-Jones.

USA Légèreté with Linda Kaye Hollingsworth-Jones

By Jennifer Klitzke

In October 2019, owners Rick and Kari of the Schmitt Training Center in Sommerset, WI hosted the first Midwestern Légèreté clinic with Certified Master Instructor Bertrand Ravoux from France. This year COVID-19 put a halt to Bertrand’s USA travels. We’ve also learned that further clinics with him need to be filled with committed instructor-in-training students to expand USA Légèreté.

So this year Rick and Kari reached out to USA Légèreté Level One Certified Instructor Linda Kaye Hollingsworth-Jones of Idaho to continue our study. I was thrilled to participate as a student with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse, Makana. She was the only gaited horse among impressive breeds: Lusitano, Zweibrücken, Selle Français, Holsteiner, Dutch Warmblood, Norwegian Fjord, Arabian and Thoroughbred. Horses and riders ranged from starting Légèreté to those schooling, extended trot, tempe changes, and piaffe.

*My DVD library of Classical French Dressage Master Philippe Karl that I continue to resource as I learn this method with my naturally gaited horses and trotting horses.*

Last year’s clinic with Bertrand Ravoux was a perfect introduction to Légèreté. This year, Linda’s clinic took me to the next level of understanding. Not only is she a knowledgeable and experienced rider, trainer and teacher of Légèreté, she is hilarious, personable, and gives each student and horse 110% attention.

The first day, Linda began by riding each horse through the Légèreté program to realize the horse’s needs.

The Légèreté program begins at a slow, organized walk in this sequence of exercises:

Fléchi droit: stretching the outside neck muscles while the horse’s body remains straight
Neck extensions: stretching the spine and top line while maintaining balance
Counter bends: checking shoulder mobility
Shoulder in and haunches in on a circle: checking hindquarter mobility
Transitions between shoulder in and haunches in along the wall in preparation for half pass
Half pass to reverse pirouette
Then checking the trot (or gait) and canter

We watched Linda ride each horse in relaxation and lightness to the hand and leg through this sequence of exercises and beyond. We watched her organize her aids to organize each horse into balance. Within 20 minutes, we even watched her ride the advanced horses in extended trot, tempe changes and piaffe!

Riding unfamiliar horses. Horses that didn’t know her. Some were new to the program of Légèreté. Within 20 minutes Linda had a plan to meet each horse’s needs. This truly demonstrated her vast riding and training knowledge and abilities. Plus, she had the endurance to provide each student 110% through the three-day clinic. Wow!

Each student rode the remainder of the lesson(s) while Linda coached them through the program of Légèreté and into their horse’s training needs:

Teaching the rider to organize their rein, leg, seat and weight aids
Coaching the rider to organize the horse into balance, lightness, and engagement beginning at a slow organized walk and then into an organized trot (or gait) and canter
Organized for the horse means as slow as needed in each gait so that all four legs are under the horse’s body mass

Some of the horses at the clinic were gifted with elegant, long-striding movement. This includes Makana, my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse who loves to be long from nose to tail. Long-striding gaits make up part of the full range of motion. Horses also need to develop shorter, collected, carrying steps. These body-building movements develop different muscles and a more balanced posture by folding the hindquarters and bending the hock joints. This collection helps the horse sit behind more in order to raise the wither and lift the chest, head and neck.

Since long-striding movement comes naturally for Makana, Linda introduced her to a more collected and organized walk and smooth gait using the exercises and progression of Légèreté . The organized smooth gait is shorter steps that are more balanced where all four legs are beneath the body mass. This is new for Makana as I have always pursued the longest stride length in her smooth gait. This doesn’t mean I replace the long striding smooth gaits, the organized smooth gait is another smooth gait on cue that builds new muscles for the full range of motion.

The purpose of the shorter-striding movements are not to replace the long-striding gaits, rather improve them and expand upon the full range of motion.

fléchi droit — Fléchi droit is a warm up exercise that stretches the outside neck muscles while riding the horse’s body straight. This teaches the horse how to travel in a straight line with the neck bent 45-90 degrees to the inside before teaching circles. This exercise teaches the horse to be balanced equally on both shoulders without collapsing to the inside shoulder. It is important to establish this shoulder balance before teaching circles, otherwise the horse will learn to fall onto the inside shoulder.

*Neck extension: Allowing the horse to stretch out and down, yet not lower than the poll (between the ears) at wither height in order to maintain balance.*

*Counter bend neck rein turns are the next exercise to see how mobile the horse’s shoulders are. This can be done on a serpentine, circle, square or random squiggle.*

Shoulder in, Travere or Haunches In on a circle are great exercises to test the mobility of the hind leg stepping under the belly. In Legerete, the angle varies according to what the horse needs in building mobility instead of sticking to a rule of three tracks.

*Renvers or haunches out is another exercise to check the mobility of the hindquarters.*

Then we proceeded to shoulder in and haunches in along the wall to prepare for half pass. Linda rides Makana from the wall to the centerline in a half pass at a walk. Then at the centerline, she directs Makana into a reversed pirouette.

Organized Smooth Gait — *Once Makana became more balanced, light and engaged through the exercises, Linda asks for an organized and balanced smooth gait which is on the fox trot spectrum.*

Rein back — *Linda coaches me through several transitions of rein back to organized walk. The rein back steps need to be smaller so that she sits behind.*

*Makana maintains a nice poll flexion in the rein back, organized walk, and lateral exercises yet tends to open the poll at the organized smooth gait.*

Then Linda coached me through transitions of organized walk travere (haunches in) on a small volte to the organized smooth gait, as well as transitions of rein back to organized walk and organized smooth gait. These transitions help Makana fold more behind, sit, engage and be higher in the wither and lifted in the chest, head and neck. Her organized smooth gait still has a head nod, yet not as pronounced as the flat walk.

piaffe steps — Linda says that a true piaffe is when the hind quarters bend and lower, the base becomes shorter, and the wither raises. A true piaffe doesn’t need a jump step. Some horses gifted in passage have a harder time learning piaffe and tend to passage in place. They have a harder time shortening the base.

cantering the gaited horse — *The final exercise Linda coaches us through is rein back to steps of piaffe to canter. Because piaffe is a diagonal gait, it is great for the gaited horse to learn in order to improve canter quality.*

For me, being a student with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse in this Légèreté clinic connected many dots in my book and DVD studies. Linda thanked me for bringing such a well-schooled Tennessee walking horse to the clinic—something outside the norm (both a gaited horse at a Légèreté clinic and a well-schooled Tennessee walking horse in Légèreté principles).

My biggest Légèreté clinic takeaways with Linda

The importance of being an organized rider

The organization and effective timing of the rider’s leg, rein, seat, and weight aids in order for the horse to become organized

The importance of rider awareness of the horse being light to the hand and leg

Becoming immediately aware of heaviness on the rein with a prompt demi-arête and immediate release when the horse stops being heavy
Becoming aware of the horse’s light responsiveness to the leg and following up with the whip when needed and an immediate cease of the leg or whip when the horse responds

The sequential progression of the Legerete program

Flechi droit: stretching the outside neck muscles
Neck extension: stretching the spine and top line
Counter bends: checking the mobility of the shoulders
Shoulder in and haunches in on a circle: checking the mobility of the hindquarters
Shoulder in and haunches in along the wall in preparation for half pass
Half pass to reverse pirouette
Then checking the trot (or gait) and canter
Then once my horse is in balance, maintain it through the next neck extension; the importance of not throwing the horse onto the shoulders once balance has been established

Redirecting Makana’s ideas of opening the poll at will by teaching her poll flexion

Allowing the horse an open poll is one thing; the horse choosing an open poll is another and Linda helped me become aware of this

The importance of continual transitions between exercises, gaits, and direction to improve balance, lightness, strength, and lightness

Riding transitions often pointed out to me my need to ride more of them, such as preparing Makana in an organized walk on a counter bend volte or a haunches in volte before releasing her to an organized gait down the long side of the arena and transitioning to an organized walk volte at the other end instead of riding several minutes of consecutive unorganized gait

The importance of working the horse’s full range of motion not just the gaits that come natural for the horse

This means educating the horse in stretching and body-building exercises both laterally and longitudinally, actively forward and long elegant strides, as well as slow, engaged, short, balanced, carrying steps to improve the quality of all gaits and full range of motion

Using diagonal exercises to break lateral movement such as improving canter quality using diagonal transition exercises as rein back to piaffe to canter and shoulder in and travere on a volte at an organized walk to an organized smooth gait

Teach the horse how mobilize its shoulders in balance

Last year Bertrand introduced the counter-bend turns to mobilize the shoulders which has made both of my naturally gaited horses much lighter, more balanced and has improved Lady’s gaits
For the horse that is heavy on the forehand (collapsing one or both shoulders) and continually leaning on the hands, a terrific exercise is counter bending the horse just enough to see the outside eye and neck reining with both hands to the opposite direction in timing with the shoulder movements. This is key!
By neck rein, it means that the rider draws both hands to the opposite side of the bend. This teaches the horse to move the shoulders. If the horse isn’t moving the shoulders, then the rider makes sideways nudges in timing with the front leg steps until the horse moves or a light tap with the whip on the outside shoulder. (Don’t use the inside leg in this exercise because it will talk to the hind leg instead of the shoulder). This is also key!
This counter bend neck rein exercise can be done on a circle, figure 8, or serpentine changing the bend at each short side to the counter bend and walking straight between bends to the next counter bend loop. Or in a random squiggle so that the horse has to pay attention to the rider

Friends, I highly encourage you to purchase Philippe Karl’s DVDs and books.

Book: Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage

DVDs: Classical vs Classique
Classical Dressage, Parts 1-4
The School of Légèreté, Parts 1 & 2

You will not be disappointed. If you live near a Légèreté clinic, it is a must see! There is discussion about having Linda back for another clinic. No doubt, I will be there as an auditor or rider for sure.

Ecole de Légèreté

I will continue to share approved photos from the Ecole de Légèreté community on the Naturally Gaited Facebook page. Make sure you “like” and “follow” to stay connected.

*Practicing flechi droit at home after the clinic.*

Stay tuned. I share my application of what I learned in the clinic with my naturally gaited horses in future posts. I am especially excited to apply all that I learned with Lady, my naturally gaited fox trotting horse in helping her be light to the hand and help my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse be more balanced.