Reaching collection in training is extremely rewarding. Feeling those moments when your horse is listening to your seat, pushing from behind and stepping up into an elastic contact feels like you are half floating, half being propelled upwards with your hands allowing the energy to flow forward and "out the front door."
As you begin to feel those moments in training it becomes very frustrating on the days when -- no matter if it is a rushed warmup or a stiff day in the saddle -- you cannot seem to allow your horse to reach that all powerful moment of what I like to call “attentive energy” (collection). I prefer to name it like that because "attentive" means the horse has to be with you, listening to your seat and ready to engage at any moment. At the same time he needs to have the desired energy and impulsion so that he can push off the ground from his back to his front.
If you horse is listening but with no energy, then he will listen to you ask and ask and ask with the same aid until he no longer feels your aid, and you will reach the point of exhaustion. If you horse has energy and lift but is not attentive to your seat, then you will have the forward power, but be forced to hold with your hands, or alternatively (and more fun) take off around the arena out of control.
Only when the two powers combine do you have the recipe for collection. Of course the more times you feel the cocktail, the better you become at recreating it, and you can better recognise what you are doing that is blocking the horse and preventing him from finding his vibration channel.
However, riders beware, that establishing collection at home and finding the recipe on the day of competition, is a different ball game. Suddenly you have all these other ingredients thrown into your recipe, distraction, unfamiliarity, rider tension, and the "silver lining of all, the mixing all those ingredients in a 20x60 arena that has just become as big as a cardboard matchbox.
O-Judge Maribel Alonso advises that “great masters and trainers as well as riders have written about collection for generations, and no matter which words they used , they all mean the same. Collection is the last point you reach in the scale of training, it amalgamates all the other steps mentioned before collection, and each step serves to systematically develop the necessary strength and power to reach the so desired thoroughness," said Maribel.
Collection, according to Maribel, is built up throughout the horse's training, and cannot be improvised out of thin air. “The most successful riders give their horses the needed time to discover the necessary power and strength, and balance to develop collection," said Maribel. "Collection is about shifting the horse's weight towards the hind legs, making the forehand lighter, and we help the horse to maintain balance by the use of repeated half halts. The centre of gravity shifts more backwards and you see the horse in self carriage,with increasing suspension, expression and cadence. Slowing down the pace but not blocking with the hands will allow the horse to keep the hind legs active and at the same time allowing the forehand to become higher and lighter."
In the test, Maribel can tell if a horse is in true collection when she sees the horse becomes lighter and freer in the shoulders, when the connection with the mouth remains stable and soft, when the poll stays as high as the level that the horse requires, and the horse becomes supple. While riders may be able to grasp this concept at home, or in lessons with great trainers, we often see them get into the arena and then either have too much energy with no listening, or listening with out of control energy, and in either case the rider must learn to generate impulsion and then transform it into collection, without pulling on the reins.
So how do we tell if the rider is getting collection or is just making a muck of it. “Collected horses show the beautiful and expressive uphill attitude, the strides become shorter but higher, not quicker but rather with more cadence, but without being flat,” said Maribel.
The problems Alonso sees in the arena are that horses start lacking self carriage and being ridden from front to back, using too much hand and therefore blocking the horse. “Riders start using hands in an attempt to "pull" into collection and what we see then is the gaits flatten, the horses get behind the vertical, they lack straightness, and all of the above immediately produces stress and tension," Maribel stated. "The horse will try to liberate from this pressure and this is when we see so many contact problems, hind legs not engaged, hollowed backs, tongue problems, etc.”
Working on collection at home and mastering it in the test is about controlling your seat and thinking about what conditions you have when you get those aha moments. If you know that when you are out your horse is no longer in attentive mode, you may need to make him wait, halt, stop and stay with you before you trot off and ask for the half halt. Alternatively if you know that in a test he is waiting, but also know that he can just go to sleep, you need to work out strategies for how, on the lazy days at home, you get him back into response mode.
Riders feel a lazy day at home and can be complacent about it. When they get in the test and their horse is lazy again, they have no tools to remedy the no-vibration situation. If you are not sure whether you have collection, get someone to video you and look for the signs. Are you pulling on the reins, or are you gliding into elastic reins? Is your horse expressive and uphill, or flat, behind the vertical and wobbly?
The first step in fixing the problem is recognising that the problem exists. Once you do that, you will begin your journey towards attentive energetic lift and a happy, stress-free horse.
by Sarah Warne