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Quotes of Gustav von Dreyhausen
"By shifting his weight back, the rider gets a greater part of the horse’s body mass in front of him and his aids. Furthermore, the horse in motion who is stepping under and carrying the load with his hind legs is induced to flex the angles of his hind legs more, to cease to resist with his haunches and loins, which results in a longer stride. He is induced to yield his back, i.e. not to brace against the rider’s weight, and to stretch his spine into the rider’s hand, unless the rider’s clumsiness makes it impossible for him. The back is lowered towards the croup and raised in the withers. The horse expands his rib cage. He ‘comes into the leg’. What the driving seat aid cannot do, however, is to produce and maintain the motion of the hind legs itself. It can only bend the hind legs once they are in motion and make them assume more weight and thrust off more energetically. Driving forward itself must be done by the purely driving aids, calf, spurs, whip. This means that the driving seat can only be used if the horse is prepared for it. The green horse is not ready for it yet. Its measure in training always depends on the horse’s ability to step under.
If it is used too strongly and exclusively without relieving the horse by an inclination of the rider's weight forward into the horse's center of gravity, i.e. if the rider's torso remains permanently behind the vertical, the horse will step shorter behind than in front. The loins are dropped, and since the hind legs do not step under enough, the front legs have to carry too much weight, and the knees suffer. Such horses often cannot be helped in any other way than by driving energetically with the calf until the impulsion is restored, while the torso is slightly inclined forward, in order to relieve the back and to facilitate the stepping under of the hind legs.
The collecting seat aid differs from the driving seat aid in that it consists of a more intense feel of the seat bones that can be increased to a downward pressure. It is independent of the position of the rider's torso (vertical, or inclined forward or backward) and is produced with the rider's back, shoulder, and abdominal muscles."
"A seat aid that lasts too long makes the back stiff and the gait jarring. The rider is thus able to raise the horse's back behind the withers and to lower the head and neck by leaning behind the vertical with a soft lumbar back. By relaxing his muscles, he is able to lower the back and to resolve resistances against the rein. Applying both driving and collecting seat aids at the right time and to the right extent produces the swinging back, one of the foundations of the pure gait. Eventually, when the gait is correct and the seat is soft, the rider can improve the gait with his elastic weight alone - always provided that the calves guarantee the lively stepping under."
"Temporarily it may even be necessary to bring the torso behind the vertical, in order to teach the horse the weight aid and to respect it. A hind leg that does not step under cannot be flexed, but the hind leg that steps under must be flexed. Otherwise, the horse would make no progress."
"The relaxed horse will perceive the forward inclination of the rider’s torso with a passive hand as a relief for his back and his haunches, regardless of whether he is going in a narrow or elongated posture. He will thus reach more forward with his hind legs in order to support the load that is shifted forward. He will consequently stretch and lower his neck in time, move his front legs farther out but closer to the ground. He will flex his haunches less, but step more under." (1951)
"The vertical torso that is in the center of gravity of the system horse-rider has a stretching effect on the horse’s spine, provided that the reins are not too short and the hand is not pulling back. This induces the horse to stretch his neck towards the bit as well and to make contact with the hand, which results in the horse stretching his poll forward and his nose downward, if this contact is received passively by the hand. As a result of this weight aid, the hind legs will bend more in motion, push off more, step more energetically, and transmit their impulse to the front legs via the back muscles." (1951)
"Leaning back behind the vertical, possibly in connection with pushing the seat bones forward, will bend the back and the hind legs even more, sends the horse more into the hand, and is considered to be the active, driving seat aid. It really pushes the horse’s body ahead if itself, and I would prefer to call it the forward pushing seat aid, not least of all to make a clear distinction between it and the purely forward driving calf aid that sets the horse’s legs in motion. It must always be followed by a driving calf aid and cease, when it has had an effect. It must never be accompanied by a backward hanging of the hand, since the horse’s hind legs would otherwise lag behind, and the back would drop, so that the back activity, the connection between haunches and forehand, would be interrupted. The horse would run away from the leg, because it would be impossible for him to keep up with his hind legs.
This is very important: There are many riders who drive with their torso all the time. They do not notice the moment in which the horse approaches the bit, or the moment in which the leg has to drive. They lean even further back and keep driving even more with their seat, which creates horses that roll over the hand. It is the calf that loosens the horse up off the hand, makes him permeable, and maintains the gained balance by asking the hind legs not only to bend in response to the weight aid, but also to step diligently forward and under." (1951)
"The passive receptiveness of the hand must be just as strong as the incoming pressure. The active half halts must not be stronger than absolutely necessary to achieve the purpose. They must cease immediately, when they have been effective. Otherwise, they would bring the horse behind the hand, i.e. they would make the hind legs step short."
"Stirrups that are too long destabilize the seat, thereby ruining the rider’s most important aid, and are therefore incorrect under any circumstances."
"Some riders don’t realize that a conditio sine qua non for a successful communication with the horse is on the one hand to apply the aids with increasing intensity, as needed, and on the other hand to cease the aid as soon as it is effective, regardless of whether it is a seat, leg, or rein aid."
"The order in which the aids are applied plays a role in collecting work as well. The calves come first, asking the hind legs to step under. The weight is second, bending the hind legs and directing the horse’s body towards the hand. Finally come the limiting and flexing aids of the hand.
The final result must be an elastic horse, an unweighted hand, and a rider who joins the movement in the horse’s center of gravity with an elastic seat and an active leg that maintains impulsion and hence collection. The horse has to step underneath the rider’s seat by himself on account of the impulsion from the back, and he must absorb the rider’s weight with his hind legs. Triggering himself the flexion of the haunches as well as the impulse to swing, the horse must absorb the rider’s weight with his hind legs.
When the rider gradually feeds the reins, the correctly collected horse has to follow the bit, while remaining in front of the leg and in the same tempo. He may adjust his posture only gradually to the lengthened reins without changing the rhythm of his footfall sequence. If he does not do that, the collection was surely incorrect. "
"Every aid can achieve the exact opposite of its intended effect through exaggeration and poor timing. The continual rein aid lets the horse get stuck and resistant. The poorly timed or rough driving calf can bring disorder into the legs, the gait. The seat that drives too long and too intensively makes the horse roll away on the forehand.
It is too often forgotten that the horse is no automaton, no machine. He may react mechanically to mechanical aids. But he will react correctly only if they are applied at the right time and with the right intensity. The rider must “listen into the horse”, in order to judge when the moment for an aid has come, which aid is needed and how intense it must be. He must know how to create or wait for the right circumstances, to prepare the horse. Otherwise, even the greatest physical skill and strength would not help him. Being able to let the horse carry oneself correctly under any circumstances, and being able to wait is perhaps the greatest art in riding. One needs first of all a quiet, supple, and firm seat. Any major deviation from the basic form that has been recognized as correct will entail a mistake in the aids and consequently also in the horse’s gait."
"Seat and legs cooperate in driving the horse forward. Initially, the leg had to enable the seat to drive by sending the hind legs forward and under. In cases where the calf met with resistance, because the hind legs did not want to comply at all, or not enough, the more or less energetic seat aid backed it up, broke the resistance, stretched the back, and brought the horse into the bit, which is its domain. These two aids complement each other, yet have their very own individual responsibilities. Just as the calf cannot bend the hind legs by itself, the seat cannot send the hind legs forward and under by itself – especially over a prolonged period of time. That is exclusively the task of the legs, or the spur and whip aids, respectively. They set the hind legs in motion for the seat and position them so that the seat can have the optimal influence over them. The calf aids literally “bring” the hind legs to the seat, and make sure that weighting and bending them with the seat does not make the horse evade by getting strung out. One could even say that the seat can only bend what the calves bring and maintain. Finally, the driving calf loosens the horse up off the rein into which the seat has sent it, because the leg makes the horse step lively and diligently, which robs the horse of the opportunity to oppose the engagement and the aids. It softens all the muscles in the horse’s body, including back and neck, by stimulating them to lively activity. However, what hand and leg cannot achieve together is the flexion of the haunches, which seems to be a specific result of the engagement and the stretching of the back."
"As the seat cannot drive forward by itself, neither can it engage and collect by itself – with the exception of a perfectly trained horse. The counterpart towards which seat and legs work and with which they shape the horse is the hand.
In this sense, it should be basically passive, but even this principle must not become a false dogma out of an exaggeration, which would achieve the opposite of what is intended. Although the hand generally receives the pressure coming from behind passively, until the horse releases his poll, but it can very well squeeze backward to regulate this pressure. It actually has to squeeze backward if the pressure becomes excessive, and the horse leans onto the hand, “throws himself onto the forehand”, i.e. shifts his weight onto the forehand against the rider’s will and aids, thereby jeopardizing the rider’s upper body posture. In other words, the hand must become active as soon as the seat is no longer effective and becomes overburdened. Obviously, the hand must never get stuck. It must only be used as intensely as necessary. Then it has to soften or yield again. By squeezing backward – even closing the fingers is a backward squeeze, because more weight is applied than the horse puts into it – the horse’s front lever is raised, the rearward lever is lowered. The horse has to “sit down” behind. Getting stuck, however, would make the horse brace and stiffen against it, whereas yielding as soon the aid has been successful invites the horse to carry himself in the requested posture. "
"Another thing is important. It (the hand, TR) must let the seat and legs bring to it what it needs to be able to work the horse. It must not be hasty, but it has to wait patiently until the result has been achieved. If the hand has to elevate, raise the front lever, it will wait until the calf has driven the hind legs under. If it has to flex the poll, it has to allow the seat to send something towards it that it can receive and that the calf dissolves again. Waiting calmly and patiently is the fastest way to the goal. If the horse has come above or behind the bit for whatever reason, the hand has to wait until seat and legs have done their job. Pulling back would only make the horse contract those muscles that he needs to stretch, i.e. the exact opposite of what is correct."
It is necessary that the half halt begins lightly, is gradually increased elastically until it takes effect, and ends at this very moment. The hand returns to the original position, and the fingers and forearm muscles relax. If it lasts longer, it has the opposite effect: The horse feels the prolonged pressure as an increasing discomfort and eventually pain, which makes him evade by bracing with his entire body, from the hind legs to the mouth, i.e. by rushing, sucking back, or refusing to go forward altogether.
If the rider does not achieve his goal with a single half halt, he has to apply several that must be interrupted with a release, even if it is only a small release, so that the horse has the opportunity to relax the muscles that were engaged by the half halt. Getting stuck with the half halt has to be avoided at all costs (hanging on the rein)."
"The Rider can easily feel on the moving horse how much he can arrest the movement and how much he can flex the haunches. The level of impulsion on a permeable horse determines how much he can arrest the movement with a half halt. If the horse is going correctly, he will and must execute the half halt correctly. Conversely, the horse cannot sit down correctly, if he is not going correctly. The livelier, the more elevated he goes, and the more he swings, the easier it is to apply half halts.
If the rider was wrong and demanded too much, or if the half halt fails for some other reason, it has to be aborted immediately. The forward movement must be re-established by driving aids, and the aids for the half halt must not be reapplied – this time more carefully – until the rider feels that the horse is going well again. If the horse leans on the hand and runs away during the half halt, it would be just as bad to resist with the hand, not to mention yanking backwards, on a young horse, as it would be incorrect to follow the mouth backwards with the hand on a horse who is evading the rein contact by coiling up. In both cases, the rein aid would meet with a stiff, braced hind leg and would be unable to fulfill its purpose, flexing the haunches elastically. "
"The entire seat has to be mobile and elastic from the seat bones upward and from the knees down, so that the horse’s motion is absorbed by the rider’s knees, the supple, slightly curved lumbar back, the shoulders and elbows. "
"The rider has to be carried by the horse and to give him the best, the most conducive posture for carrying and going. The rider’s role is thus an active one, in so far as he has to establish and to maintain this posture and this gait. Once he has succeeded in this respect, his role is a passive one in so far as he has to do nothing else than to avoid interfering with his horse and to make the task of carrying and going as pleasant as possible for him. The main tool that makes the otherwise so different parts, rider and horse, into a unified whole, that allows the rider to control his horse, that gives the horse posture and gait, and that makes him in turn a part of the whole, is the seat."
"The horse that has left the posture that the rein length, seat, and driving calf aids indicate pushes against the bit. The hand now has to either receive this pressure passively, or return it actively. In order to be able to do this, it needs a secure support base, which only the torso can provide by toning the muscles as much as needed. This muscle tone further increases the pressure of the seat bones onto the horse’s back, which is thereby induced to yield. It has a bending, i.e. collecting, effect on the hind legs. In other words it regulates the motor."
"Shifting the rider’s center of gravity backward also shifts the center of gravity of the system horse-rider back. As a result, the horse will step less far forward, adjust his own center of gravity, sit down behind and rise in front. He will stretch his neck more upward than forward and offer the rider a shorter rein: Elevation. It finds its limit in the ability of the haunches to carry, which is defined by their natural strength and muscle development. If the horse becomes hollow between the rider’s legs, the elevation is incorrect. This hollowness is created because the hind legs are no longer able to step underneath the dropped back that is robbed of its activity. This is a dead giveaway for the horse’s incorrect posture."
"However, if the reins are shorter than is appropriate for the horse’s flexibility, especially if the hand pulls the neck backwards on top of that, the horse will drop his back and either bend his hind legs without stepping enough underneath, or he will get completely strung out and go above the bit. The dropped back does not create a sufficient connection between forehand and haunches. The hind legs touch down with a more or less perceptible delay compared to the front legs that step high but short due to the rigid seat. The rider has to lean far back or brace his back in order to keep the horse in a frame. He has to keep his calves too far back in order to stay in touch with the rib cage that has become narrow, and the disunited horse that is broken into two parts is finished. If one lengthens the reins, he runs away above the bit and from under the seat.
The danger of splitting the horse into two separate parts is especially great in the walk and in the collected trot and canter work, because he is the least required to step underneath here. This makes it easy to lag behind, if the rider is lacking the reliable feel for correct gaits. The mistake shows up most clearly in lengthenings, because the horse does not find the necessary thrust right away and either sucks back or throws himself onto the hand. Any posture that the rider has to maintain by tightening the reins backwards with his hands, which the horse does not maintain on his own at least for a little while even after the reins have been yielded, and in which the rider cannot lengthen the stride easily by simply driving, is wrong, even if the horse performs all kinds of movements in it.
Many horses who go with high elevation and poll flexion have dropped their back. Their neck is cranked up, and the hind legs are dragging behind. "
"I want the rider who is on a young horse that he is going to train to have the cavesson reins that are attached to the horse’s nose, and the two bridle reins separated in both hands, i.e. two reins in each hand, one cavesson rein and one bridle rein. But the curb reins have to be more slack than the cavesson reins, because the horse is not yet familiar with the bit.
To the degree that the horse can be guided without the longe line that the trainer on the ground is holding, one removes the longe line altogether, so that the rider controls the horse himself with the cavesson and the bridle. He lets him taste the bit of the bridle more and more, without, however, dropping the cavesson reins, for fear of spoiling the mouth that is not yet accustomed to the bit. As I have said, the rider must have a tactful hand, and when he begins to feel that the horse obeys the bridle alone, he has to use it. "
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