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Sloggity: I talked about this word last time, but since then have been studying some videos: including Edward Gal on Morelands Totilas, and a bunch of Anky van Grunsven’s. I’ve also been reading a new book called “Selecting the Dressage Horse” by Dirk Willem Rosie with comments by Anky. On page 69 the author states “only hind legs that can ‘accelerate’ and step far under the body enable a horse to move with an elevated forehand.” So how does one explain Totilas? I don’t know. That horse is absolutely amazing! As one commentator said, “he has to be careful he doesn’t hit himself in the teeth with his knees!”

While teaching yesterday it occurred to me, that I have a whole vocabulary of terms that I use as shorthand explanations to the student. I spend plenty of time initially defining them, but thought a review might be fun. The first, and one of my favorite terms, is "sloggity." It means the horse has slow hind legs and a soggy (i.e upside-down) back. You see this often when a rider has deep heels, pinching knees and/or an arching back herself. Next time you see a picture in a magazine that illustrates a lack of hind leg activity, you can almost count on the horse being sloggity. Often we value this because it looks slow, often elegant, and apparently pretty. So what's wrong with that? Well, you can't piaffe with a sloggity horse, you can't pirouette or do any good collection, let alone extension. So, when a rider looks like she's dying trying to cross the diagonal at extended trot, you can figure the horse is sloggity.

While teaching the other day, I asked one of my students, (Mary) who is also a riding teacher, what she finds valuable about riding with a teacher present, as compared to reviewing a video that has comments on it, at at later time. She said, “If I didn’t have immediate feedback, I wouldn’t be able to remember the feel I got when it was good.” As I thought about that, another benefit came to mind: I help my students get their “feel” by persistently and repetitiously telling them, during their ride, when they don’t have it right. Then, when they get it, or improve it, I tell them so immediately so they get that feedback and add to their “feel.” It takes years to develop the skill to ride expertly, but all along the way are little “feel” improvements that add a critical piece to the riding  puzzle. Riding is an incredibly fascinating mystery.

The latest craze is to be able to spread yourself so thin you don't even need to be there!
What I mean in this case is, teaching from a video, etc.

I really can't see how a teacher can do a good job when they are
teaching from a chair, let alone teaching from 200 miles away (I'm
confined right now-- following ankle-repair surgery --to a chair, and
feel frustrated with my limitations). Teaching should and must be a
hands-on job. Most of us think we can see a lot more than we really can,
and putting the hands on the rider's body or the horse's rein is
extremely educational.

For example, often I'll walk alongside a student
and hold the reins to help her get the horse round. The horse often
won't get round until the rider gets the position just so. Then the
rider figures out what was needed. Now how do you do that from afar?

Additionally, the best tool I have for my visual learners is to hop on

Dressage saddles have evolved greatly over the past two or three hundred years. Here is my brief summary on their history:You can look at some of the oldest paintings and see riders with VERY straight legs, and often leaning back, sitting on their fannys, with heels way down and horses heads behind the vertical (very baroque).   Latter, during the 1930s to the 1970s you saw what looked like a modified jumping saddle with more forward flaps. These riders usually jumped as well, since this was the era of the masters coming from the military, i.e., the calvary. The saddles accommodated a rider who wanted to jump and do dressage in one saddle. These riders often had horses that weren't quite round by today's standards, and they rode with a fairly short stirrup and usually a deep heel, but their upper body was sometimes more forward.  

Been out of the saddle now for a few days with my ankle surgery. Lots of time to contemplate. My latest thought is, "No wonder horses with bad shoeing jobs have sore backs!" Walking around on crutches with one leg longer than the other due to the big cast on it, is killing my back! Looking forward to the end of this week when it comes off and I even get to swim during my non-weight-bearing phase of recovery. All my muscles seem to have gone into immediate atrophy (a real problem with stall rest!)

Lucky us, we chose one of the most comprehensively complicated tasks to pursue in life. But hey, it's fun trying! So, what makes it so hard? I think it's because you have to become the consumate multitasker, while doing the zen thing -- nothing! Ponder that! 

Try standing up regularly during your ride. Don't stand up high, just a little. Like a jumper's two point, sort of, but with your butt toward the front of the saddle. Then just barely sit down. You should be able to do everything in the standing postion that you can do in the sitting position. That position is used to help keep you still. You must be still or you ruin the horse's balance.

There are many ways to encourage your horse to engage his hind legs. One of my favourites it to leg yield with the horse along the wall, pushing his hind end toward the inside and leaving the front end on the rail. You must do this in walk and then in a fast posting trot. Do not sit down as you post! You’ll go straight into what Mary Wanless calls “the man trap” and I call “the pocket.” It’s the hole the horse makes for you in his back when it is down. The back goes down when the hind legs don’t work properly under the horse.

They took out the second level stretching circle at the canter. Big mistake in my opinion, except perhaps it should have been in third level, because it is very difficult to do well. But, if you have no stretching circle in canter, you have no balance. So, practice it, even though it’s not required.

First I must say, dressage tests are really brilliant. As I continue to learn and grow as a rider I appreciate the way the levels lead the training process. However, there are a few weak links in the tests. One is the first level lengthening: how many times have you read, “running” as a comment on the first level lengthening. It’s one of the favorite comments of judges. So, you slow down to get a better score. Now you are well on your way to getting a sloggity horse and copying the pictures in the magazines showing NO engagement and an extravagant front leg.

This is a tremendously hard job. Can anyone really do it well? Man! I’ve been riding for 30 years and I still have better feel than eyesight and I miss more than I care to admit in my students’ work during lessons. However, I try to solve that problem by getting others to watch the ride I create on a horse and then helping me get that ride from a student. It helps greatly that I have several teachers and competent riders at Sunborn Stables. This way we can all help each other. And, that allows us to see what it should/could really look like.

This is a horse that has a soggy back and slow hind legs. This is a serious flaw because nothing can be built on a soggy back and without quick hind legs there isn’t enough motor (impulsion) to convince the hind legs to step under the body, and without this impulsion there is nothing pushing the back up.

You can look at many of the pictures in Dressage Today and see sloggity horses.  Everyone looks and says, “See how light he is.” I look and say, “Where is the connection? This horse isn’t really round, and he’s not stepping under. This may be pretty to some, but it’s not correct!” The only way this horse and rider will win is if the judges are political or the execution is so precise that they overlook the lack of throughness. Dressage tests give a lot of points for precision.

Read the first part here

 Ways to get your horse to step up to the plate and not depend on you bailing him out (i.e. carrying him around, or killing yourself trying!):

Dumb! This is a great place for a judge to reward students and friends. It’s a political nightmare! Furthermore, it’s bad practice because this is so subjective! Everyone rides differently and many get results with positions that are out of the mainstream. So what! That’s how the sport should evolve and improve. If a great high-jumper or swimmer used a different technique, everyone would be copying him/her. In this sport we try to funnel everyone into a straightjacket.

Welcome to the Sunborn Stables blog. The articles from our stable are written by me, Julie Penshorn, unless otherwise noted. I welcome your input, thoughts, questions, difficult training problems, etc., So please feel free to comment! Here’s what I’m thinking about today: