Getting a shorter frame for dressage

[Keket]

I'll be doing some dressage with Coquette this summer (assuming she's working well). She's first and foremost a Western pleasure horse, so she goes long and low. Her prefered outline is to have her poll level with her withers. She does move properly and steps underneath herself in a really nice forward trot, and we're working on her trot. But her frame still seems to be too long for what dressage wants. So how do I encourage her to take a shorter frame? Is it a matter of she's not collected enough, or am I not taking a short enough rein?

[coss]

probably a combination of the two things you've mentioned. if she mainly does western she will be used to the longer and lower frame and her muscles will have built up to do this. to get a shorter frame you need to think of lifting the front end so she sits on her back end more rather than it just coming under. exercises like 10m circles should get her to do this more. it will have to be gradual as you are using different muscles. the more rein contact you have though, the more you will have to use your inside leg to keep the impulsion. to bring it together make sure the pace is not too fast, to start with it is better to be slower as you can increase the tempo later

[KateWooten]

You are going to have to find a way to differentiate between the two disciplines. Most likely, her headset for Western Pleasure has been trained by release of pressure .. now you have to reeducate her that she won't find that release, when doing dressage, until she adopts a more compact frame. I guess you start each dressage session by warming up long and low ... and then change your demeanour, and thinkk 'ok, now let's work on contact' ... within the dressage frame, you will keep contact, but offer mini releases whenever you feel her push from behind, and with her nose slightly higher than she's used to. She'll get that fairly quickly, if you can make the distinction very clear between when she's doign western pleasure, when dressage. e.g. different tack, different place, different exercises - make the dressage workout as different from the WP workout as you can. btw is she still going to be doing western pleasure sometimes ? it's not easy, but it's possible.

with that in mind, I think the single most important thing you can do to develop her dressage skills are transitions. Remember, the outline is the most obvious thing, but it's really just a symptom of a very different 'way of going'. Youneed to develop push from behind and lighten the forehand. You might consider buying a book like 101 schooling exercises, or 101 dressage exercises to inspire you whenevr you're flagging if you're schooling on your own. The more good transitions you can do the better .. for example, with my ex-hunter mare, I might do 10 to 20 halt-walk-trot transitions down each long side of the arena. And I might spend some time doing 'ever so nearly transitions' from halt almost to walk and back. Also, when you get the lateral work started, turn on the haunches, shoudler in, and haunches in also work well to develop the 'frame' as a side effect because they're very difficult for the horse to do strung out. If she has any reining in her background, see how she is on roll-backs, and if she's any good at roll-backs over her hocks for a fast inside turn on the lunge. All those things will get her hocks underneath her more.