The collected trot is a dance between horse and rider. When you watch the top riders, the collected trot is about an energy created between the two entities, an energy that ideally flows from the back of the horse to the front and up, through and out the top of the rider’s head. It is difficult and requires a great degree of impulsion and engagement.
The extended trot can only be achieved if a rider has first established the correct engagement from behind and lightness in front, and a horse that is on the forehand in the collected trot, will only increase that tendency when they attempt the extension.
“Trot extension, the rider must ask for it through a marked increase in impulsion established in the shorter gait that precedes. Again, it is all about preparing. Otherwise if we prod (use the spurs) during the extension the horse will become hollow and the rider will not be able to sit as comfortably as if the horse has stayed round,” said Nuno Oliveira.
Preparing the extension is usually done in the corner preceding a diagonal and we must remember the importance of riding a good corner and creating enough energy in the preceding steps to help the horse lift into the extended gait.
“Think about the degree of energy every required before the extension. Sufficient but not excessive, in order to maintain control. Prepare and execute the second corner, as well as possible. Stabilise the neck for the first two strides of the diagonal, then let the neck stretch out a little without losing the contact, It is only in the high-level tests, that the horse must extend with the neck in a high position," Oliveira explained.
How many times do we watch riders fall prey to the many loop holes of the extended trot? Falling around the corner, or starting the extension before they are straight on the diagonal, not allowing the horse the room in the front but instead pulling with both reins and pushing with the legs at the same time, thinking of the extended as an increase in speed instead of what it really is; an increase in activity, engagement, impulsion, and length in front, not length behind? The other pitfall is to have a horse that expresses himself in front, but becomes more and more out the back door, losing the impulsion and becoming less and less engaged as the diagonal proceeds.
“To judge the quality of an extension we must look at the hindlegs as much as the forelegs. The hindlegs must push," said Oliveira.
So, once we have properly ridden our corner, asked for more activity, and then set up our horse on a straight diagonal with an even contact, we must ask the horse to extend keeping in mind two very important things. Do not ask what you cannot come back from.
“When we start an extension on the diagonal you must remember that at the end of the diagonal you will bend to go back to the slow trot in the same state of mind," Oliveira wrote. Ask what you know that you and your horse can maintain without losing the rhythm and balance.
“In an extension we must be satisfied with what the horse can offer. It is better for the extension to have less speed and keep his cadence, rather than achieve more speed and rush.”
A slower, less active, and controlled extension, is much better than a hectic steam train of uncoordination, and only when we can control and “ride” an extension, do we allow room for improvement. Then, once we have asked the horse to increase his engagement, length, and activity, we must remember the all important return to collected trot.
“After an extension we must take control delicately again in order not to hollow the horse and make him rigid, otherwise we damage the work done previously.” Do not pull the horse up in one abrupt step, but just as we entered the extension with balance and control, so too must we return to the collected trot with the same amount.
“Then think about the way you slow down the horse at the end of the diagonal, in suppleness and without force. If force is necessary the horse will stiffen his back and we risk losing the benefit of the work done.” The idea to keep in mind before, during, and after an extended trot, is that the horse must come up and out the front door, staying engaged and lengthening his frame, and not becoming flatter, or stiff in the poll, or jammed in front, or letting the energy go to waste out the back, or down through the shoulders.
“Contrary to what many riders do, we must not let the horse get on the forehand in an extension. The horse must stay collected in the extension.” (Nuno Oliveira)
Most of all, think lift the energy up, not push the energy forward!
“The good extension is one in which the horse starts energetically from the beginning. It is successful because he has been properly prepared. Instead, if the horse falls on the forehand after a few strides, he has not been prepared and the rider is pushing during the extension.”
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
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