Has a judge ever written on your score sheet “downhill,” “on the forehand,” “needs uphill balance,” or “more self-carriage”? These comments are very common in a dressage test (or from a dressage instructor in a lesson), but as riders what can we do to get the horse more uphill?
The first thing to consider is the conformation of the horse. Some horses are built naturally uphill while other horses are built downhill. Quarter horses and Thoroughbreds tend to be build downhill. Warmbloods are bred to be more uphill. Don’t worry though, just because your horse is built downhill doesn’t mean that you can’t train them to be more uphill.
Horses can rotate their pelvis down and under and they can actually lift their withers up between their shoulder-blades using the thoracic sling muscles. Activating these muscles is what gets the horse uphill, engaging the hind end, and lifting in the withers.
Here are 3 ways to get your horse uphill:
Riding position: Simply sitting up straight and putting your weight back more on the hind end will help get the horse uphill. Leaning forward and looking down will put the horse on the forehand.
Transitions: Upward transitions (walk-trot, trot-canter, walk-canter) will get the horse to engage the hind end, lift in the withers and momentarily push themself uphill.
Shoulder-In and shoulder-fore: These exercises require the horse to engage and lower the inside hind leg and lift through the outside shoulder and withers.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas for how to get your horse uphill so that the next time your instructor or a judge tells you that the horse is on the forehand you know what to do!!! Happy riding everyone!!!
