Collection

[vimto92]

Right... this is going to sound weird and without an exact point.:p;)

I know how I should be collecting a stride but I can't seem to put it to practice very well.... :confused: LOL.

Any tips?

[xloopylozzax]

erm...
make sure you have a good forward going "whatever it is" before asking for collection.
otherwise you will end up at a standstill/ downward transition
and squeeze with your thighs and bum (thats what i do i dont know whether it is correct though)

[andreaB]

what level is your horse working at ? & to what degree are you aiming to attempt to collect him to?

[vimto92]

Thanks loopylozza

what level is your horse working at ? & to what degree are you aiming to attempt to collect him to?

Its not my horse, I ride at a riding school.

We were doing a jumping exercise, but first we had to collect the horses stride between 2 poles. If our average stride was... lets say 5 strides between the 2 poles, we had to try and get it down to 4 - so no, not an excessive amount at all.

She was forward and enjoying herself a little but thats no excuse as I should've been able to collect her.

We're working on just collection next week so any tips are welcome.;)

[IrisSilverMoon]

if you are jumping i'd imagine you are in jump position, in which case for collecting the stride i generally find its best to sit up a little, open your shoulders and half halt on one rein. Ideally you just want to be able to sqeeze the outside rein and the horse will slow up. Sitting between the fences helps if you have time, but with four-five strides you probably don't.

[Bay Mare]

erm...
make sure you have a good forward going "whatever it is" before asking for collection.
otherwise you will end up at a standstill/ downward transition
and squeeze with your thighs and bum (thats what i do i dont know whether it is correct though)


I don't agree that you need to be forward to get collection. If anything you get extension through collection. Pushing forwards can put a horse onto their forehand which can make it very difficult to get them back off it again.

We're working on the French rather than the German system which uses balance before movement rather than balance through movement. Effectively everything is slowed right down which helps to bring the weight back and lighten the front end. If you see any of Anja Beran's riders working they work at a counted walk which is very, very slow and also in slow trot (they also do loads of lateral work and rein backs). This way of training is working really well for us and it means that the horse works more and more in self carriage meaning that you need a very light contact on the reins. I wish that we'd used it before as it seems to be a lot more effective for us than the other methods.

Once you're working in collection it is so much easier to push it out into extension and also so much easier to work in correct piaffe and passage etc (although we're not at that stage yet and won't be for some time!). You get engagement of the hindquarters rather than the hindlegs!

We tend to use seat aids (squeezing the butt) to slow down the movement.