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A New Way of Looking at the Training Scale

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A New Way of Looking at the Training Scale

My understanding of the training scale is constantly evolving and changing, based on my practical experiences and observations. The first time I heard about the Training Scale (Skala der Ausbildung) was during theory lessons for the German Bronze medal, which is the prerequisite for participating in recognised shows. For the exam we had to memorize the terms Takt (rhythm), Losgelassenheit (relaxation/suppleness), Anlehnung (rein contact), Geraderichten (straightness), Schwung (impulsion), and Versammlung (collection). - And that was pretty much it. There wasn’t really any explanation for what these terms or concepts were about, or what the relationship between them was. We only had to be able to name them and to tell how to recognise them.

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Don't lose sight of the whole picture

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Don't lose sight of the whole picture

This week’s blog is another practical tip that comes out of mistakes I made in the past. Every time something goes wrong it is an opportunity to look more closely at what is happening, how it is happening, and why it is happening. It is a great chance to learn something new and to gain deeper insights into the biomechanical and psychological causalities in riding. So, in many ways mistakes are blessings in disguise because they can push us further along and help us attain a higher level of understanding and competence.

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Self Carriage, Balance, and Lightness

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Self Carriage, Balance, and Lightness

We are often asked how to get a horse light in hand and off of the forehand when he is leaning heavily on the bridle. Both issues are closely related to each other. The rein contact that the horse offers is not a localised affair that is limited to the rider’s hand and the horse’s mouth. It is, rather, the result of the horse’s balance, overall posture, and muscle development. That’s why it usually doesn’t help to change bits, because the underlying causes are located somewhere else.

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Developing the Horse’s Body Awareness

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Developing the Horse’s Body Awareness

Yesterday I worked with Patrick and Solo, his Kladruber gelding. It was a lesson about developing the horse’s body awareness and connecting the horse’s feet to the ground and to the weight. Over the years I noticed that many horses don’t have good body awareness. They don’t seem to know exactly how many legs they have, or where they are. It always reminds me of quantum physics. If you know where a particle is, you don’t know where or how fast it is moving, and if you know where and how fast it is moving, you don’t know where it is. Horse’s legs are sometimes a little like that, too.

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How to improve your horse's body awareness

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How to improve your horse's body awareness

One important aspect of horse training is that in teaching a new movement or a better posture the rider first has to improve the horse’s body awareness, coordination, and balancing ability. This includes teaching the horse to place his feet differently, to distribute his weight differently, and to use different muscle configurations than he has been up to now.


This only works, if the horse knows where his feet are, of course. This means creating neurological connections between the brain and these muscle groups, so that the horse learns how to find them and activate them.

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