Self carriage means that the horse has the strength and balance to hold himself in the correct outline, steps under and up to the contact from behind but with a light contact, and does not use the reins/rider’s hands to lean on for balance. Collection does not mean slower, nor does is mean that the rider is pushing power and holding it with their hands. The horse must achieve self carriage in order to be able to hold collection, riding should not be about strength. So, in practice, if I collect my horse, I must be able to give the reins by allowing my hands forward in the direction of the horse’s mouth and the horse should stay in the right frame/outline and stay in collection. The way I do this is by using lots of half halts, gently but sometimes quick and several until I feel the reaction I want. Each half halt is followed by a give in the reins, I don’t always want to throw my reins at the horse and break the contact completely but I want the contact to be soft and alive, not static. My outside rein is always the the main contact and controls the tempo along with my seat, the inside rein plays with the flexion and is more giving. It is important to practice collection by first riding transitions and being able to create the reaction from your horse and immediately be able to give. If we hold the collection by pulling on the reins and not giving, then we slow the horse down and ride as if we have a handbrake on, we block the hind leg and the horse cannot swing under or carry himself. In order to swing and move lightly, the horse must carry itself rather than being pulled short in the neck, otherwise we are blocking the back muscles needed for the correct way of going. Self carriage can be tested in every corner where we bring the horse back a little, demand a little flexion and then let go, as we let go the horse that is in self carriage will stay there and hold itself using its core muscles, the horse that is not in self carriage may drift in or out with its hing legs, may lean on the hand and dive down or may run through the hand and speed up again.

There are two possible reasons that you are not getting your centre line correct, either your horse needs to be more supple in order not to drift out or you need to be more accurate. Looking at the suppleness first, in order to make a turn onto the centre line, the horse needs to be able to make a correct half 10m circle, keeping the same bend throughout his body during the turn. If he is a little stiff, or uneven in the contact, he will find this difficult. Practice riding circles of 20m, decreasing to 10m and back to 20m to improve his suppleness. Be sure that the horse has an even bend through his body on all sizes of circle, and that he is not falling out or in. Make sure that you are turning the shoulders of the horse, not just the nose. For example, if you attempt to make a turn to the left by asking only with the inside rein, the horse will turn his head to the left, but his shoulders will drift to the right. Use your inside rein to ask for the turn, and your outside rein to control the shoulders, and turn the horse’s shoulders in the direction you wish to go. Your inside leg will ask for the bend through the ribcage, your outside leg will guard the haunches from swinging wide. Make sure that you are sitting correctly, with your weight central and an even feeling in both reins, as even the most supple horse will struggle with the balance if the rider is crooked. If the problem is accuracy, first of all get used to riding straight lines by riding on an inside track, to wean you and your horse away from reliance on the fence for straightness. To help you find the centre line, place a pole on either side of the centre line, leaving a gap of about one metre. As you commence your half ten metre circle which will bring you onto the centre line, look down the line at C and allow the poles to guide you to the point you need to touch onto the centre line. Once you have found the ‘reference point’ you will be able to negotiate yourself onto the centre line without the poles. Overshooting the centre line usually occurs because the rider leaves it too late to turn. Keeping forward will help you to stay straight, and again placing poles one metre apart down the centre line will help to guide you initially, until you feel confident enough to ride without them.

The first thing that you need to do is have a look at the test sheet and make sure that you include all the compulsory movements required for the level in your floor plan. I always choreograph and film my floor plan first to make sure that my performance is the correct length of time. Once this is the case, I then sit down with the video to choose the music. I feel it is important to do it this way around because the music must fit your horse, rather than the horse fitting the music. When selecting music I also take into account the temperament of the horse that I’m choosing it for. I think that the music has to reflect their personality to a certain extent. I also make sure that for walk and trot especially the music is in the correct time signature, in four for walk and two for trot, and that the music also emphasises your horse’s best paces. If you have a horse with a very good walk, for example, the music should make the most of this. You may want your music to have a theme running through it, such as film or show music. However I would avoid having any vocals as I feel this can detract from your performance and it may be an irritant to the judges. I am sure you will know that copyright is something to be aware of when selecting which music you would like to use and there are some excellent internet sites that allow you to sample music when you sit down with your video. There are many people now that offer professional services of editing and even composing music for your horse. You can also download free programmes from the internet to enable you to edit music yourself, however, I wouldn’t advise doing this unless you have some experience and musical ability, as poorly edited music will spoil your performance rather then enhance it. I think that it is very important from a competitive point of view that your music sounds professional and that the transitions are all well edited and fade into each other smoothly. The music can then enhance your horse’s natural rhythm and balance through transitions. Once you have your edited music it is very important to make sure that you practise your test to your music several times until you become confident at riding it and have learnt where the transitions in the music come, so that you can match them with your transitions between (and within) the paces. I always upload my music onto an MP3 player and ride to it several times prior to the competition, I also make sure that my horse is familiarised with the music so that it doesn’t cause them to jump or spook at any point, particularly if the music is dramatic. If you have a particularly sensitive horse I would suggest you put a CD player outside their stable with the music on repeat fairly loudly until they become used to it.