Lengthening the Strides

[Kelly_Milton]

I want to start to get some lengthened strides in trot. How do you start this? We have been doing dressage for a year now and we got our first, first at the weekend. I'm thinking about starting Novice but need those lengthened strides.

[Mehitabel]

i usually teach it by starting out over trotting poles - you gradually lengthen the distance between the poles, and use a particular voice aid with the leg aids each time you go over them. the horse knows that the idea is to go over the poles correctly, so this method avoids the common problem of the horse not understanding and just speeding up. when you're reasonably established over poles, then introduce a few lengthened strides without them, and make sure that for the first few times, you use the same voice aid, so the horse gets the hang of it.

there's also a thread on this in the dressage forum somewhere, which had some good ideas and explanations on it.