Dressage: Exercises to Make My Horse Light in the Rear?
So I have an OTTB mare who has lately been giving me trouble (specifically at shows) with keeping her on her rear.
We’re getting consistent comments on my Dressage scores about how she needs more "engagement of the hindquarters" and "lightness of the forehand," as the tests describe it.
A little about her Dressage history:
She’s an OTTB, which contributes to her wanting to use her front end for everything.
She has been worked "on the bit" for about 4 years now, but only in the last 2 years have I really come to understand and be able to tell the difference between the feel of her every movement (i.e. being on her rear, or being on the forehand; a nice balanced turn, or dropping a shoulder; etc).
But my trainers kind of held us back a bit (crazy, I know), so recently we moved to a new barn, and I don’t have a trainer at the moment.
I work her on my own, but the problem I’m having has been with her ever since I’ve been working with her (my trainers just never introduced how to fix it…)
Some days at home, she is /incredible/, and extremely light in the forehand, and others she isn’t. But it’s most noticeable at shows, as she /is/ a crazy TB mare after all, and most of her concentration ends up elsewhere.
ANYWAY, do you all know any exercises I can do with her during our regular workouts that will help her /consistently/ remain light in the forehand, and get more hock action?
Also, she’s built just the tiniest bit downhill (prominent withers, high back-end, so the saddle goes a bit downhill until her withers).
What I do when she starts falling forward (as well as falling behind) is push her up and forward with my legs, and I raise the reins a tad bit for a second to give her the idea to raise up her head some, aka "picking her up."
If she’s being really naughty about it, I’ll sit trot for awhile so I can use a really consistent deep seat to be able to push her with.
No worries about being a bit speedy 
I’ll take speedy over downhill any day.
She doesn’t really have a problem collecting though, she gets on the bit and collects nicely and I can feel her moving forward, yet I can nearly get her to canter in place.
And just to give you some feel of where she is in her training (you all who are helping :]), right now she knows…
her transitions, halt-canter, all inbetween, and back down, can halt squarely from the trot, laterals (at the stand still, and also at walk/trot) except halfpass, can lengthen her trot & canter (not extend it though), and flying changes (she won’t perform them through the rear though, so lately I only ask for them when we’re jumping).
To get your horse to use her haunches, sit deep in the saddle, and drive her forward with your legs and seat. Even if she speeds up more than you want, she needs to be reaching well under her body with each hind leg, and pushing off from that big motor (her haunches). You’re not looking for her to feel hurried, just to feel powerful under you.
Some exercises that help are circles, jog-over poles, and nice calm rollbacks. My favourite is this one: lope her in a nice relaxed circle, moving forward but not rushing; sit deep, say whoa and stop her; without hesitating, roll her back (turn on the haunches to the outside) and immediately lope off on the other lead around the circle; repeat. She’ll get the idea that she needs to be "under herself" and using her hind end to do this exercise properly. She’ll be setting up for the stop, turn, and the departure over her hocks. You can check how well she’s doing by how smoothly she flows from the stop through the turn into the lope. If it’s 3 choppy, bumpy maneuvers, she needs more practice. If it’s one smooth motion, she’s got it.
Now that she’s using her haunches, she’ll automatically be a little lighter on the forehand. You can do more to lighten her up by making sure you keep your chin and eyes UP, and your shoulders back. That keeps your weight back over the pockets of your jeans, instead of falling forward. If she drops her head too low or feels to you like she’s "plowing" around the arena, try squeezing with your legs while lifting upward with a soft bump of the reins. You can do this with just the inside rein if you’re on a bend, or both reins at the same time on the straightaway.
ALSO, use Shoulder in, travers, revners, half pases….and circles will help!
Good luck!
All answers here have a lot of sense:
) is plenty of half-halts do wonders to lighten a horse in front. As you describe raising your hands helps then also a LIGHT upwards "ticking" with your little fingers on the reins in conjunction with impulse from your heels will give her a reminder and a "lift". But getting a horse to present itsself "uphill" when the bodyshape and nature are not that way inclined is difficult. That is why Warmbloods are normally quite easy to get uphill as they have a bred-in ability to do this.
Without writing a novel, my experience (and that is over MANY years!!! – old fogey –
Remember the lightness in front, and head carriage, does not come from the hands, but from the seat of the rider and the hindquarters of the horse.
Some trotting poles with a small bounce jump at the end will also help
What your teachers are talking about is that your horse has trouble collecting, or at least from the way you describe her.
Collection basically means that your horse carries more weight on the hindquarters and less in the front, so she’s not "falling" onto the forehand. It involves shortened gaits with smoother action.
The horse I ride dressage in, a Trakhener, collects when I tighten the reins slightly (to get her to slow), but keep my legs tight around her to keep her in the same gait. When I first tried this with her, she got confused and either stopped or changed out-of-gait, but gently (GENTLY!) tapping her rump with the whip helped her keep going the same speed instead of slowing down.
Eventually, as you and your horse get more experienced with the idea, you’ll be able to use more subtle cues. It’s all a matter of time and training.
Just canter/trot her around an arena and don’t let her stop until you feel her slow and her strides become shorter and smoother. Do what I described and she’ll raise her head and arch her neck and pull her jaw inwards toward her chest, and you’ll feel as if you’re riding uphill, even if you’re not. Her back will become slightly convex (curving up).
Just do what I described in whatever exercises you do normally, regularly, and you’ll feel her collect. It might not be particularly pretty or graceful like the upper-level dressage horses you see at first, but keep working on it, and it’ll come.
Watch some dressage videos; I’d link some, but I’m too lazy to cruise youtube for them. XD
Hope this helps!
BACK HER UP!!! Sorry about the caps…. Backing a horse up makes them use their hind end. I have to do this a lot with my horse because he hates using his back end. It works though….