A horse working in contact will be submissive to your aids and will feel relaxed under you. However, achieving contact can be difficult, especially if you have a young or inexperienced horse whose mouth is not yet very receptive.
If you make contact correctly, it will help get your horse out of the forehand and balance, which is important if you really want to progress in your training. This workout from dressage rider Nikki Crisp is designed to help you develop consistent contact by asking for a bend and softening your horse’s neck.
Before you begin, warm up by trotting and galloping your horse on both reins, riding around the arena for five minutes.
Exercise 1: Corner Transitions
Duration: 10 minutes
- Go big at a trot.
- As you approach the first turn, push off with both legs and gently bend your horse a fraction inward, keeping steady contact on both reins. Before the corner, transition to walking and walking around the corner, going as deep into it as possible.
- Immediately trot out of the corner.
- Repeat this exercise at each corner of the arena five times on each rein.
Exercise 2: Turning the corner
Duration: 10 minutes
- Trot your horse down the long side of the arena.
- About 10m before the first bend, on the right rein, transition to a walk.
- Stop just before the turn, then, using your left leg behind the strap, have your horse turn on the forehand.
- You are now facing the long side of the arena on the left rein.
- Give both hands forward and have your horse into a positive working trot on the long side.
- Repeat the bend on the forehand in the next school corner.
- Repeat four times.
To turn on the forehand, your horse will need to step under it with its hind leg, which helps loosen up its back just behind the saddle as it pushes into your contact.
Exercise 3: Learn to use transitions
Duration: 5 minutes
Simple transitions are ideal for keeping the horses in front of your leg and reacting to your assists.
- Trot your horse down the long side of the arena.
- In C, complete a 20m circle at a rising trot.
- Stay in a steady, collected rhythm.
- Transition to walking while staying in a circle, gently applying pressure to the reins and maintaining your normal leg position.
- Walk three to five paces, then immediately trot forward. Make sure that as you trot forward, you soften both hands forward for the first two strides of the trot. This allows your horse to confidently push from behind in the upward transition and seek the rein.
- Try to integrate three transitions on a circle.
- Repeat on the other rein, and when you’re ready to make this exercise more difficult, you can ask for transitions in rhythm (medium walk to extended walk, for example).
Finish by walking your horse on a long rein around the arena so he can stretch his neck and relax.
Meet the expert: Nikki Crisp is a dressage rider who has been a member of several British Nation Cup teams. She was shortlisted for the 2012 London Olympics, where she was the guinea pig trial rider with her mare, Pasoa.
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