Passage to medium trot transitions
Posted by Irina Yastrebova on Monday, September 17, 2007 11:20 PM
I was working today on passage-collected trot transitions. Then I remembered from Charles de Kunffy's book "Athletic Development of the Dressage Horse" that "passage is gathered medium trot and medium trot is extended passage". So instead of asking for collected trot I asked for bigger fuller steps of a medium trot. At first he was rushing and hesitant to come back. After a few transitions back and forth the extensions started to feel very elastic, like I was slowly unwinding what I have gathered in the passage without losing a single ounce of engagement or energy. It felt fantastic. It was so easy to sit, like a big and smooth wave. Our transitions back were a little bit less dramatic and more messy, but he retained energy from the medium trot into passage. He felt fuller and more round (not just in the neck, in the whole body). I enjoyed that work immensely. His passage is not a complete slow passage. It needs more engagement and more caring power, but today it felt closest to the final result, with a few steps as good as they can be in his passage. Such work makes him charged, sensitive and sharp and at the end I asked for couple diagonals of extended trot, letting him go as much as he can handle without losing it. He blasted flying through the air for so long his tempo actually was slower then in the collected trot. Mind you after that I needed a few minutes to calm him down and finish with a nice quiet trot stretching down.
Happy riding...
 
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