Dressage helps the naturally gaited horse develop long striding pushing gaits and engaged carrying gaits that improve the former to form full range of motion.

Collection and its Effect on Stride Length

By Jennifer Klitzke

If you are like me, training your naturally gaited horse using humane methods appeal to you. No mechanical devices. No artificial enhancements. No pads or heavy shoes. No harsh bits. No tight nosebands. No dominating methods. You like training your horse in a kinder way from a relaxed state to bring about harmony, balance, rhythm, connection, symmetry, engagement, and smoother gaits.

My epiphany

For me, that’s why dressage has been my choice for my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse, Makana. However, I hit a wall when we began to explore collection and introduce lateral exercises like shoulder in and haunches in. I had been expecting my horse to move with the long strides and head nod of flat walk while in collection.

Then I traveled to a dressage clinic with my naturally gaited horse. We worked in a posture of collection as we introduced the lateral exercises. The collected walk felt too slow. My horse’s stride length shortened. She didn’t have a head nod. After a few steps of shoulder in and haunches in, we released my horse into an extended posture with longer strides and a head nod.

The wall came tumbling down when I realized the carrying gaits of collection and pushing gaits of extension are two distinctly different postures of training. Both serve a role in developing the full range of motion. One does not replace the other, nor are they meant to be merged into one. This was an epiphany for me and a relief to my horse. I stopped expecting what is biomechanically impossible and embraced the carrying posture of collection to develop strength and balance with my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse.

Just as the naturally gaited horse can learn to develop maximum stride length and head nod at the flat walk and running walk, the horse can learn the collected walk.

The collected walk doesn’t permanently shorten the stride, as if my horse is unable to perform long strides again. The stride length is temporarily shorter while in the posture of collection. Collection doesn’t replace long strides. Collection improves the quality of long strides. Pushing gaits and carrying gaits are two different postures that benefit the naturally gaited horse to develop the full range of motion and quality smooth gaits.

Here’s why.

stride length decreases as collection increases — Pushing vs carrying: Notice the difference between flat walk (pushing gait) and collected walk and half steps (carrying gaits). The pink line shows how much the horse uses the hind leg to push forward for stride length or carry for engagement. Collection and increasing engagement shorten the stride length. Dressage helps the naturally gaited horse develop long striding pushing gaits and engaged carrying gaits that improve the former to form full range of motion.

The collected walk

A collected walk is a carrying gait that develops strength. During a collected walk, the hind leg doesn’t push from behind the tail. Rather the hind quarters carry more weight. Without the hind leg pushing from behind the tail, the stride length becomes shorter because the horse’s four legs carry the body mass upward and forward. In the collected walk the horse bends its hindquarter joints and engages its abdominal muscles to lift its back. The horse also engages the chest muscles to lift the shoulders, wither, head and neck. The horse moves with more balance, poise and elegance. The collected walk also has a much slower tempo than the flat walk with little to no head and neck nod.

Training through the levels of dressage doesn’t mean that the collected gaits replace the big, long striding gaits. Rather, the horse develops a full range of motion: the long striding, scopey ground covering pushing gaits as well as the balanced, light, engaged and elegant carrying gaits of collection. Switching from one posture to the other is as simple as applying the cues.

The carrying gaits of collection along with lateral exercises produces balance, suppleness, and strength which in turn improve the quality of the pushing gaits as the flat walk and running walk.

I own and train my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse, Makana and have shown her successfully at rail class breed shows. Developing big strides with a head nod is highly prized. Dressage and rail class are different in the way dressage introduces the collected walk and lateral movements to develop and improve the full range of motion.

While natural smooth gaits like the running walk “push” from the hind legs to create big strides, collected gaits “carry” from the hindquarters to produce balance and engagement which in turn improve the quality of the pushing gaits.

For the rail class competitor, the thought of slower, shorter strides, with little to no head nod may seem pointless. Yet teaching the naturally gaited horse the collected walk and lateral exercises like shoulder in and haunches in, counted walk, half steps and piaffe improve balance and engagement, which in turn improve the quality of the flat walk and running walk. These collected exercises use different muscles than the long striding pushing gaits.

As a dressage rider, I’ve labored to develop a big striding, head nodding flat walk and running walk for rail class events. Then I began schooling Second Level lateral exercises like the shoulder in and haunches in. I tried REAL hard to maintain the same length of stride and head nod when introducing collection and lateral exercises. Then I realized the flat walk and the collected walk are not the same posture. Lateral exercises are developed best at a collected walk.

The collected walk means SLOWING down and encouraging the horse to carry its body mass instead of pushing it from behind. This shortens the stride length for lateral exercises to improve balance, engagement, softness, and strength to further develop the horse’s symmetry, strength and flexibility.

While applying dressage with my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse, I realized the demand for maximum length of stride in the collected walk isn’t realistic. Dressage lessons have confirmed this. Carrying gaits and pushing gaits produce different results. Working in the slower, engaged collected gaits with shorter stride and no head nod builds balance and strength which then improve the quality of the pushing gaits of flat walk and running walk with maximum length of stride and head nod.

Engagement and disengagement

The late Jean-Claude Racinet, a classical French dressage master of Baucher’s theories describes engagement and disengagement in a horse’s stride. He described engagement as the amount of stride under the horse’s body mass and disengagement as the amount of stride length behind the horse’s tail that pushes. In addition, the horse’s head and neck become still in the “collected” four-beat gait of walk.

For the Tennessee Walking Horse, the flat walk and running walk both seek to reach a maximum length of stride. This stride length consists of the distance from the foot beneath the body mass (engagement) and the foot pushing behind the tail (disengagement) along with the head and neck nod with each step.

The biomechanics of a collected walk produce a different effect than the flat walk. Both are needed to develop full range of motion and quality smooth gaits.

Yes, I want a maximum stride length and a pronounced head nod while riding the flat walk and running walk. Yet it is not realistic to expect these qualities from a collected walk. For me, this was a light bulb moment. I realized that I needed to change my expectations about stride length and head nod at a collected walk.

Working in a slow, collected walk through shoulder in, haunches in, and half pass doesn’t mean replacing the flat walk and running walk. It just means I don’t combine the expectation of big strides and a head nod to the collected walk. The collected walk is just one more posture I develop to help my naturally gaited horse more balanced and athletic.

The collected walk has helped my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse find balance. The tempo is slow and deliberate enough for her to learn lateral exercises. These exercises develop balance, strength, flexibility, and suppleness. After we apply moments of shoulder in and haunches in at a collected walk, we transition to a deep striding, head shaking flat walk in a neck extension and WOW! These transitions between strength training and stretching have improved her range of motion and quality of flat walk and running walk!

Neck extension at a flat walk allows the horse in a maximum stretch from nose to tail.

If you’ve ever seen the DVD of classical French dressage master Philippe Karl training High Noon, you’ll see how he trains his horse like he would play an accordion. He works his horse in a long and low frame for a few strides and then gathers the horse up for more collection and engagement in lateral exercises and then releases the horse to more strides of a long and low frame. This is what is known as gymnasticizing the horse to develop its full range of motion: pushing and carrying gaits.

I believe our naturally gaited horses benefit by developing full range of motion: From maximum length of stride and stretching at a flat walk and running walk to slower, engaged, balanced steps in a strengthening posture like a collected walk, and to lateral exercises to improve flexibility, suppleness, and symmetry. Dressage improves the quality of natural smooth gaits.

Applying transitions between the collected walk and moments of an expressive flat walk have been the perfect recipe for me and my naturally gaited walking horse Makana.