January 2008
Progressive Training for Your Young Horse
Scott Hassler, national young horse coach, gives training plans and show advice for youngsters.
By Scott Hassler with Jessica L. McTaggart • Photos By Susan J. Stickle
In the United States, about 5,000 warmbloods are born each year. That may sound like a decent amount until you realize that, in Germany, more than 50,000 are born yearly and, in the Netherlands, it’s 12,000. Relatively speaking, we don’t have as much to work with at the starting point, so every single product that we put on the ground is extremely important, and the path chosen for each of those horses is critical. In the end, all we’re trying to do is give each one a foundation so they can have a future career. Every single horse must be preserved—trained classically at his or her individual pace.
Young horses are like kids—they are basically in elementary school. They need recess and variety. They have different personalities and developmental levels. Some are behind schedule, some are ahead and some are gifted. Those that enter Young Horse classes are like the gifted children, who have a program designed especially for them.
Before showing, it is important to take the nerves of a young horse into consideration. Your best defense against nervousness is to prepare him properly for the experience with road trips and trail rides. This is the only way you can gauge how he will handle a new environment. This takes time, which is difficult in the fast-paced horse world, where you must train horses, talk to customers, answer phones and e-mails and then drive to shows. Young horses need their owners to be patient on the path and not to be in a hurry to get to Grand Prix. By taking time, you give them the best chance to perform well.
Young horses also need recess. Too often a spirited young horse is longed like mad to take the spirit out. That’s more like a student having a tutor when he gets home from school.
Young horses need to be ridden outside a lot. Riding on the trails helps to clear their heads. This variety is important even within everyday workouts. Try to mix it up. For example, stretch the frame a lot. Stretch the horse for a while, bring him back up again, working him in that frame. Then, stretch him again. Also, mix it up with sitting and rising trot.
Each age demands its own specific focus and understanding to maintain a happy and willing athlete.
Basics for the 3-Year-Old
All horses, regardless of their ultimate path in life, are given the same foundation. At my farm, I like starting horses in their 3-year-old year. We’re lucky in this country not to be pressured to do things too early. That’s where I believe we have a slight advantage over Europe, which offers a Young Horse 3-year-old class and national championship. We can take more time to train our horses, which is great.
At this early stage, you must already be evaluating, asking yourself, “Which way should I go with this horse?” Maybe he should be started for two or three months, then given a break so he can get stronger. Three-year-olds are delicate subjects, and it takes a lot of horsemanship to make good decisions.
When starting a 3-yearold, the goal, first and foremost, is that the horse develops trust and confidence. He must also learn to move forward by himself. Contact and straightness are established and from that comes self-carriage and balance. In general, 3-year-olds should get outside and be ridden with other horses. They need to see the world. Each workout should be short—under 30 minutes. Sometimes, you only ride for 10 minutes and go for a walk. Think of it as kindergarten, where school is only a half day.
As for competitions, the owner/ breeder/trainer has the option of USEF Materiale and Suitability classes or Training Level dressage tests. Materiale and Suitability are group classes, and the only difference between the two, aside from slight scoring variations, is that Materiale is for 3- and 4-year-old horses, while Suitability includes 5-year-olds. The advantage of group classes is they are less technical. They allow the horse to have a positive experience with other horses in the ring without being too demanding. Whether you decide to compete or not, just bringing the 3-year-old to a show without entering any classes is beneficial.
1. Ensure variety by stretching the frame often. 2. Longeing helps develop trust and confidence.
Susanne Hassler rides Renoir WF, a 2004 Hanoverian stallion owned by Cathi Bunker.
3. The horse must learn to go forward by himself early on in training. 4. Rides should be short. Some days work for 10 minutes and then go for a walk.
Suppling the 4-Year-Old
For the 4-year-old horse, keep in mind that these guidelines are assuming that the horse has gone through each stage. So, when I talk about a 4-year-old, it is understood that he has completed all of the 3-year-old training elements. Therefore, I am not talking about a 4-year-old straight out of the field. If this is the case, I would back up and do the same things I would for a 3-year-old. This is progressive training.
We want to work on suppling a 4-year-old horse. So we begin with exercises, such as turning lines, moving away from the leg and some shoulder-in work. We also start transitions within the gaits. We begin to analyze the horse for his highlights or strengths and his weaknesses or developmental pieces. I like to use the strengths of the horse to encourage him and build confidence. Over time, we gradually improve his weaknesses, but we use the highlights of the horse to make him feel really good about himself. For example, say you have a horse that likes to go forward and has great self-carriage. Well, we want to ride young horses forward, so that’s a horse you want to ride lengthenings in canter for short distances and come back. Ride forward trot and come back, so he enjoys going forward.
Horses that have weaknesses, such as rhythm problems, cadence issues and stiffness, should not be ridden so for•ward. In these cases, spend more time suppling and riding turning lines. You work that weakness by emphasizing one of his strengths. Maybe he has really super lateral work. Then advance his lat•eral work. Keep working on getting him stronger and more collected in this way.
Leg yield is an exercise I introduce to my 4-year-olds. While riding it, keep in mind that leg yield is not a sideways movement. It is a suppling movement, which means the horse gets more power from the leg yield as opposed to flattening. Pushing the horse sideways is not a leg yield. A leg yield asks the horse to move away from the leg so he gets more suspended and animated in his joints, while remaining in a soft, steady contact. When asking the horse to yield from the leg on an opening line, you are teaching him about your directional leg. Your inside leg sends the horse into the outside, receiving rein. Ask for leg yield on what I call opening-up lines, such as off the quarter line or on a circle. It’s the idea of a leg yield, but it’s much more gradual. It feels similar to spiraling out of the circle.
Along with leg yield, I begin to work on the responsiveness to the aids—the horse goes from light aids to light leg and light rein. Play with some transitions, such as trot–walk–trot. This leads to what you need to do with a 5-yearold, which is ask for a canter–walk transition. If the horse isn’t sensitive to the aids and in good self-carriage, he is going to lean on the reins and fall on the forehand.
Competitively for 4-year-olds, we now have the first USEF Young Horse test, which is in its second year. The options are the USEF Young Horse test for 4-year-olds, Training or First Level dressage tests, Materiale and/or Suitability classes. A combination of all of these is possible. There is a lot of discussion right now among riders and owners as to whether to enter the USEF 4-year-old class or to go in a traditional Training/First Level test. This decision requires thought (see "Should You Enter the Young Horse Classes?" below).
1. Transition within the gaits, trot forward then back. 2. Responsiveness to a light canter aid is expected. 3. Leg yield on a gradual line supples the young horse.
Kelly McGinn rides her Dutch Warmblood gelding, Windsor.
Develop Carrying Power in the 5-Year-Old
For a 5-year-old horse, responsiveness to the aids, advancement of suppleness and an emphasis on the regularity of the gaits are now incorporated into the workouts. The 5-year-old is also learning how to shift his weight onto his hind legs, developing true carrying power.
Once the horse learns how to carry effectively, he can make the difficult transitions, showing off a brilliant, forward lengthening while coming back properly in both the trot and canter. The balance developed by canter–walk transitions is necessary for the development of true uphill counter canter and in self-carriage. Counter canter tests the balance of the horse.
A simple exercise I use for introducing and strengthening counter canter is riding shallow loops off the track. As the horse becomes stronger, you can make the loops deeper. This way the horse slowly develops his balance and carriage in counter canter.
Competitive venues include the FEI 5-year-old test, USEF Training, First, even Second Level or Suitability.
This exercise introduces and strengthens counter canter. 1. Pick up true canter. 2. Ride a shallow loopaway from and back to the original track, using your outside leg to guide him in counter canter. 3. As the horse becomes stronger, you can make the loops deeper.
Susanne rides Davidoff Hit, an Oldenburg stallion owned by Harmony Sporthorses.
Teach the 6-Year-Old Collection
You will ask a 6-year-old for more maturity carrying weight in collection, which relates to his responsiveness to the aids. At this age, the work turns to building the horse’s self-carriage power by collecting more within the gaits and regulating within them. The focus is also on advancing the horse’s suppleness until he starts to keep more suspension and balance in the lateral work.
You can start to ask for more expression, power and definition—do you want it now or later? With the 5-yearold, you are more forgiving. You worked your way into a lengthening, for example, and worked your way back from it. For a 6-year-old, you can say, “Hey, let’s really go; let’s really come back.” You have the collection and the self-carriage, which leads into the critical stage of teaching flying changes.
Transitions are an excellent point of emphasis at this time. They help the horse learn to carry his weight, while maintaining the responsiveness to the aids. Do shorter transitions, going forward and back for improved expression. Emphasize lateral work—half pass or shoulder-in. At this age, the horse works on tighter radii, spiraling in and out of circles.
Six-year-olds also have competitive options. It’s a big jump from the FEI 5-year-old Young Horse test to the 6-year-old test. You can fake your way through the 5-year-old test to an extent. The judges certainly will notice it, but you can ride the test. In the 6-year-old test with four flying changes, walk pirouettes and half passes in trot, your horse has to be truly collected. You have other options, which include the national
tests—USEF Training, First, Second, Third and even Fourth Level. The overall goal is to train each young horse to do his best with his long-term career in mind, and that takes patience. Let’s hope we’re building a foundation that allows all horses the chance to become FEI horses.
1. The 6-year-old horse learns to carry more weight behind and show more expression, power and definition. 2. Half pass at trot demands suspension and balance. 3. Transitions help maintain responsiveness. Scott rides Locksley.
Should You Enter the Young Horse Classes?
For gifted young horses, the U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF) offers a 4-year•old test. Movements include 15-meter canter circles, 10-meter half circles and lengthened stride in trot. The FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) offers tests for 5- and 6-year-olds. Five-year-olds must do rein-back and turn on the haunches at walk, 10-meter circles at trot and canter, counter canter, medium canter and and single changes. Six-year-olds must do shoulder-in, half passes, half pirouettes at walk and flying changes. U.S. Dressage Federation (USDF) Materiale or USEF Suitability classes are also available for young horses. These classes may be ridden in addition to traditional USEF dressage tests (First through Fourth Levels).
When deciding whether to take your horse into the Young Horse classes or to go the more traditional route, keep in mind that this decision can change with each developing year. I’ve seen 4-year-old horses who didn’t move that well at the time become great 5-year-olds simply because they started getting more balance and self-carriage. Maybe a 5-year-old that wasn’t moving so great starts to get supple and carry the weight. He may make a great 6-year-old.
I don’t think you have to label the horse and say, “This is a Young Horse candidate and this is not.” There are some horses that you start in the Young Horse format, but then you have to back off. Some don’t show all the qualities of the Young Horse but then develop them. So, once you make a judgment call about your horse at age 4, reevaluate him again at 5 and 6. Horses often change every few months, and you’ve got to take that into consideration.
For the gifted horse, the Young Horse tests have advantages over the traditional route. If, in the Young Horse test, the horse makes a canter transition from the trot with extra enthusiasm—puts his head up and isn’t quite through— that’s not going to be marked off unless he does it on both leads and shows a connection issue throughout the test. If the same thing were to happen in a Training Level test, the score for the canter transition would be penalized.
The FEI Young Horse classes should never be the ultimate goal, as this may lead a person to force a horse into something he’s not ready for. If someone were to say, “My goal is to ride the 6-year-old test,” they may also think that to do this test they need to “install” flying changes by May or June. They start doing a ton of flying changes, causing the horse to get nervous so the changes are all late, which is the start of more problems. Thus, we’ve potentially lost one of the 5,000 U.S. horses produced each year.
It takes horsemanship and good judgment to say, “If my horse isn’t making a good flying change, maybe something else is missing. I should just back off and finish training my horse correctly.” By the time he is a 7-year-old, he may be making tempi changes nicely.
A horse may simply not be ready yet for the movements that are necessary in a Young Horse test. Deep down, to make a decision, look at what is successful. My feeling is that being successful is fun, and sometimes not showing at all is successful because, next year, your horse might be better.
It is easy to see why people want to do Young Horse classes. The horse that captures you—when you watch him in this Young Horse format—is brilliant, has well-balanced movement with an uphill expression, has nice self-carriage and three expressive gaits. He looks fun to ride. This horse is the gifted athlete.
