Lecture Notes on "Balance in Movement"

February 13, 2019

Susanne von Dietze lecture at Yellow Bird Farm, Wellington, Florida:

Balance in Movement – The secret of invisible effective communication between rider and horse

The following is my bullet point summary from her excellent lecture:

-          Riding requires elasticity, not strength

-          Use your abdominal muscles as seat belt

-          Sit TO the inside, not on the inside in the canter

-          Aids ALWAYS need to have a FORWARD tendency

-          Outside aids give security to the horse

-          Use the outside rein in a forward and elastic way

-          You need to be able to open both front and back lines of your body

-          Hand to shoulder is the elastic part, NOT the rein

-          To become elastic, we need to expand

-          Picture a heart on your back that opens the shoulders and the lower part of the heart anchors your seat

-          You carry not just your arms, you carry also the bit

-          The principles of classical riding stay the same

-          The moment a rider gets on a horse he/she influences the balance of the horse / you always influence the horse with your weight aids (if you want or not)

-          Aids (as the word says) are there to help, not to force

-          Rhythm: Harmony and Movement, Timing of the aids

-          Balance: Symmetry of movement and weight, only exists in motion

o   Aids should support the balance

o   You need to let the horse move to balance (think of a bicycle, if you are too slow you wobble or topple over)

o   Allowing forwardness – young horses can’t canter slow

o   “Dressage riders want every thing slow”, but you need forward motion. The old masters often had an eventing background, so they knew how to let the horses canter forward.

-          Suppleness: Positive tension, dynamic, stability

o   Suppleness is elastic, like a tent spread out and holding

-          Positive tension = expanding, growing taller, reaching, stepping under

-          Negative tension = Shortening

o   Susanne explained that when she judges she looks for a horse to grow in the transition. If the horse shrinks it’s a 5

-          Rhythm: “The music starts in the hind quarters”, suppleness in the shoulders. Think dancing couple

-          Pelvis: Connection point between horse and rider

-          Seat bones are shaped like a sleigh, they are not just pointy spots

-          Having seat bones like a triangle gives a stable ground

-          We want horses narrow behind, wider in front

-          Every shift of weight has to be FORWARD, going sideways always must be more FORWARD

-          Every corner: FORWARD

-          When you start a pirouette, you are half a meter ahead of the turning point

-          Moving your leg should NOT influence your seat bones

-          Pelvis is an elastic ring, distributes the weight of the upper body

-          Change the big movement of the legs into refined impulsions into the spine

-          One seat bone will always influence the other

-          Movement starts in the MIDDLE of the rider’s head (not in the neck)

-          You need to lift the chest to have a stable neck position

-          What I ask of the horse I must do in my body

Movement of the Horse                               Movement of the Rider

Flexion-Extension                                            Same

Rotation                                                               Lateral Flexion

Lateral Flexion                                                   Rotation

-          Horses have rotation mainly in the trot

-          To ride good half-passes the rider’s body should bend equally well both sides

-          The rider sits on the rotation center of the horse, through the rotation there is influence on the horse

-          Curl and Arch = Flexion and Extension

-          Exercises: Turning from waist; Patting horse on the opposite side of the neck; diagonal stretches through body

-          Through rotation we get strength. Rotation = Activation of the spiral inside the upper body

-          Think diagonal strength like a soccer or tennis player, more powerful on the diagonal

-          Balance of the highest degree should look effortless

-          Interplay of rhythm and balance = correct timing and positive tension

-          Balance enhances rhythm / Rhythm enhances balance

-          You are the conductor (like an orchestra can play on its own but not as well), the best horse in the world needs a conductor

-          Rider needs to provide anchor – need to anchor shoulder to give, otherwise horse falls on the forehand

-          Ueberstreichen – without anchor your giving is worth nothing

-          To control your horse on your seat you need to give

-          The most important part of the half-halt is giving

From the lecture hand out:

Susanne von Dietze-Pollak is a world-renowned seat, balance, and position expert and has written two excellent texts on the biomechanics of riding (Balance in Movement, Rider & Horse Back to Back). Susanne earned her Physiotherapy degree at University Goettingen in 1987 and for the next 10 years worked actively in the field, focusing on back pain and spinal injuries. She is trained in manual therapy as well as PNF. During that ime Susanne also worked as a trainer at the German Academy of Riding, Warendorf, and also Mannheimer Reitverein.