If you’ve been around horses for any period of time, you’ll have heard plenty of discussions about whether a dressage horse should be worked deep or not. If you consult ten riders on this issue, they will give you a dozen viewpoints. Many riders believe strongly in ‘long and low’ warming up and cooling down of horses, for example would get the horse’s muscles to stretch out and loosen up. Other riders choose to school in balances appropriate for the frame being worked. These riders don’t stretch horses much. Lots of trainers like to school only in deep frames during movements, when they come above the bit as a matter of habit. Yet other riders like doing work awfully deep, with their horses’ noses almost down to their chests; they allow the noses back up just when competition time is up.

How do you handle this issue within the context of your own horse?

You need to let benign enmity (do the opposite) concepts make the choice.

Assume you are astride a real ‘dirt sucker’ your horse leans so much on his forehand you get the definite feeling you are doing somersaults. It is best to ride such a horse more ‘up’ the long and low versions of such horses are not correct, and while their heads and necks may stretch down and out, my first concern would lie more with the hindquarters. If the hind legs trail out to the rear of the body, and the horse is thrusting himself hard on the forehand, the balance is unquestionably bad. You can get his rear legs underneath his body by shortening your reins and by riding your pony just a bit more up. This way, he is going to carry better.

Let’s go on another, totally different presumption. Your dressage pony is a ‘stargazer’, with the practice of going around inverted to such a degree you can practically go level eyeballs with him. He moves with a shortened neck, a lowered back and with his neck and head in the clouds. You need to force him to the opposite shape so that you can retrain him and get some strength into his topline muscles. You must get the hind legs further beneath the body in such a way the back is up and the head and neck are low. Resort to connecting half halts for changing your horse’s shape. Once you are done giving a connecting half halt, let the reins go a bit longer to allow him to seek contact to the front and down.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers read more