Major Lindgren’s Trot Warmup: Proven Exercise for Forward, Straight, and Supple Horses
Classical Warmup, Modern Proof: The Major’s Trot Oval Demonstrated by Zanny the Dutch Warmblood. The forward-riding system and the classical masters all spoke with one voice in their instructions to us—and Major Anders Lindgren, himself a master, distilled their principles into a clear, disciplined, and logically progressive workbook. His manual organizes every word they taught us into structured exercises, giving us a direct path to applying their wisdom in the saddle. The first exercise, the trot warmup on the OVAL, lays the foundation for correct forward-straight riding while developing loose throughness and precise rider influence through the natural aids.
In this post, we break down the ‘oval’ warmup from pages 15 and 20 of his manual, explaining each step’s significance. Then, watch as #Zanny the Dutch Warmblood performs the exercise exactly as the Major intended—proving its effectiveness in real time.
Make it to the end, and you’ll find a challenge to test your understanding!
Major Lindgren’s Warmup: The Oval Exercise Explained
PURPOSE:
“Ride your horse forward and make him straight.”
INSTRUCTIONS & DIRECTIVES. To correctly ride this classical trot warm-up, follow Major Lindgren’s exact directives below. This structured approach builds a horse that thinks forward with self-carriage while developing strength and flexibility. By riding precise lines and mastering weight aids, you’ll set the foundation for true straightness in all horsemanship and horse sports, including dressage.
Ride on the quarter lines.
Long sides: Uphill, forward, straight.
Half circles & short sides: Round, longer, lower.
Maintain discipline: Ride as a jumper or eventer looks for the next fence.
Master weight aids: Learn to apply them correctly on straight vs. curved lines.
OBSERVE:
What to Observe in Major Lindgren’s Trot Warmup
Back, Footfalls & Rhythm
How the riders begin to understand how to navigate and direct their horses.
That the horses steadily begin to ‘find their backs’ and their footfall.
That the horses work in a relaxed manner and find their rhythm.
That the work is performed on an oval, thus avoiding deep corners.”
Now let's dig in.
The Purpose of Major Lindgren’s Trot Warmup: What Every Rider Must Know
The Major was deliberate in his instruction – every word packed with meaning.
He tells us first off: the purpose of the trot warm-up on the oval is "ride the horse forward and make him straight".
This isn’t a suggestion—it’s the first main principle of correct horse training. Without this, everything else—balance, rhythm, engagement—is moot. That’s why we start with it. We don’t save the essential for later!
“Ride your horse forward and make him straight,” isn’t philosophy or theory. It’s the only real horsemanship. The Major placed the 2 golden rules up front because everything in the horse’s way of going depends on ’these two main principles of the art’. I'm sad to say that this idea is absent from the minds of most trainers and riders these days. But it is top of mind in this program !
If forward-thought and technical straightness isn’t established first, the entire interaction is a fruitless exchange of fiddling and offsetting—when you should be RIDING.
This isn’t just a warm-up technique. It’s the structural foundation of any training system that dares to call itself classical—or athletic. That’s why Steinbrecht, the Major, and every true master of the equestrian art keeps it as their keystone. If your horse isn’t carrying himself straight and truly technically ‘forward’ from the first steps, his development is compromised.
When you start with these principles, every ride does what training should do—build:✔ Strength✔ Suppleness✔ Throughness ✔Confidence
(…Instead of nursing flaws, misunderstandings, and mistakes).
Every exercise. All conditions. All circumstances.
This is how great riders train—and how sound, keen, and confident horses are made. Which way do you want to ride?
Pre-Requisite for Major Lindgren’s Trot Warmup: 20 Minutes of Marching Walk
A brisk, active walk on the buckle for 20 minutes is the non-negotiable start of every training session. If you don’t have time for this, you shouldn’t be riding. This phase isn’t optional—it’s the foundation for soundness, suppleness, and the mental readiness of both horse and rider.
The walk phase can take place on the road, a perimeter track, a trail, or in the arena itself. No matter the location, the effect is the same:
The horse’s breathing activates and deepens, oxygenating his muscles and preparing his entire body for work.
Tendons and ligaments begin to soften in use, reducing injury risk.
Most training problems and physical breakdowns stem from neglecting this phase.
Skipping it isn’t just a disservice to the horse—it exposes a lack of rider discipline and maturity. Many riders try to shorten or rush this step, but if you don’t have time to warm up properly, you are too busy to ride. If an assistant performs this phase for you, they must be a skilled enough rider to do it correctly—at which point, they’re probably qualified to ride the whole warm-up.
Anyone who can warm-up a horse properly is already an expert. Save yourself frustration and commit to the 20-minute march.
Are You Riding Your Starting Walk Actively Enough? A Self-Check for Riders
Look and feel for the "the top of the walk.". When a loose horse crosses a pasture toward you at feeding time, he walks with a purposeful, whole-body stride -- that's the feeling you're after. A correct walk -- one that has an athletic benefit -- travels through the entire body, with a rhythmic bounce through a forward reaching neck, face, and eye.
A Simple Test to Assess & Improve Your Horse’s Walk Quality
If the horse’s neck is level, reaching, and has a soft lilt or swing, you’re on track. The prerequisite walk is like taking dough out of the fridge and letting it warm to room temperature before kneading—it’s softening, not forcing.
Riding the Walk for Maximum Athletic Benefit: Can You Trust Yourself ? Or Do You Need an Expert Eye on the Ground ?
Both. An instructor can confirm it first, but ultimately, the rider must learn to feel when the horse is truly marching forward, STRAIGHT ON A LINE, with SELF DETERMINED energy and REMAINING LOOSE. Chances are: your horse needs to march more actively. And make sure both sides of him match !
🛑Whoa.
Catching Yourself Skimming? Here's your First Challenge and the First Half-Halt.
If you feel the urge to skip, skim, or rush to “get the gist” of this article, halt a second. That urge you feel is the first thing that must be retrained. It’s not a moral failing—there's nothing 'wrong' with you -- it’s just how most of us consume content these days. All of us have been 'trained' to half-read, half-watch, half-learn. But this? This is real riding. It cannot be skimmed. The horses know if you skim. If your first impulse is to glance over the details and move on, that’s the first habit that's sabotaging your riding.
So here’s the deal:
✔ Take a breath and blow your nose like a horse does.
✔ Read every word.
✔ Let this process TRAIN YOU—to see, to think, and to ride with actual precision. Because if you skim this, you’re skimming in the saddle. And that’s the difference between riding the right way and riding wrong way. I don't care if you've skimmed every horse article for the last 5 years -- that urge to just get through the crap might have been legit. But this time, for your own sake, festina lente, ride each word. Ride verbatim. ❤️
Onward we go.
"Ride on the quarter lines."
Why Riding the Quarter Lines is the Game-Changer Most Riders Avoid
Because horses—and riders—are addicted to the track. It’s the crutch no one talks about. The arena wall, the fence, the track—they make riding feel easier, but they lie to you about your horse’s true straightness and his education in the natural aids.
Stay off the wall!
Saumur puts it bluntly:
“When executed on the track, an exercise has the bad effect of teaching the horse to be guided by the wall and not by our aids.”
Yikes.
Want to know if your horse is truly straight? Take him off the security of the wall. Ride on the quarter lines—where he has to carry himself, not lean on the fence. Your eye and the weight of your soft, disciplined seat determine the straightness—not the arena’s boundaries.
This advice is the biggest freebie in riding. As the Major would ask: “Are you convinced?”
At first, you might be horrified by how much your horse wanders (or drifts like a shopping cart with a bad wheel), but stick with it. You’ll be amazed how quickly his way-of-going improves.
And imagine the disappointment of realizing, after years of lessons, that your horse can’t carry himself without the arena holding him up.
That won’t happen here. This is basic military riding.
Ride on the quarter lines. Make your horse carry himself. Make yourself ride.
The Major instructs:
Long sides: Uphill, forward, straight.
Half circles & short sides: Round, longer, lower.
Master and Ride the Trot Warmup Oval Like a ****Grand Prix Course
This oval is deceptive because it looks like nothing much. No fences, no rollbacks, no hairpin turns, no tricks. It's quiet. It's open, plain flowing lines. But don’t be fooled—the simplest line is the hardest test to ride of all.
Here’s the truth: The greatest riders in the world don’t get their discipline from difficult exercises. They don’t rely on obstacles, gimmicks, or tricks to keep their horses engaged (both literally and figuratively). They cause the engagement themselves—out of nothing.
So here’s your challenge: Ride every centimeter of this oval like a Grand Prix jumper calculates math for the next line of fences… or an eventer rates his gallop at a five-star combination. Every stride means something. Every phrase and every line of travel is an answer—either correct or incorrect. Are you making decisions or just moving around? Are you riding? or are you just letting things happen to you?
Navigare necesse est! Every inch of the arena is there to be ridden, mastered, and claimed. The question isn’t can you stay on a line—it’s can you make that line matter? Can you make the line that you’re on profit both you and your horse ?
And here’s the real test—the one that divides top riders from everyone else: Can you make your horse obsess over precision as much as you do? Can you train him to feel invested in his own straightness, his own precision, his own timing—until every ‘routine’ oval is a masterpiece of athletic benefit?
Solve this, and you’re not just training—you’re redefining what elite riding even means. Which way do you want to ride ?
"OBSERVE:" says the Major.
What does he mean by that ? To observe is to notice or perceive something... and register it as being significant. He sometimes used the Swedish word ‘Titta’ – ‘lookit’ in American slang. He pronounced it, “Teeee-tahhh,” sweet and slowly. Pay attention! or Achtung, baby :)
OBSERVE: "How the Riders Begin to Navigate and Direct Their Horses"
The primary instigating natural aid the horse feels is the rider’s SEAT—specifically, its soft weight aids. Riders need to learn to apply them correctly, and to calibrate them daily! on straight and curved lines.
This is where riding begins. Nobody can ‘steer’ horses into becoming gymnastically agile—the 'riding must be ridden'! It’s three-dimensional, dynamic, and entirely dependent on how we use our selves our body our weight through our SEAT in coordination with our EYE—and our horse’s eye.
If you want to sound fancy, this is “vestibulo-ocular-coordination’ x 2. Imagine syncing two nervous systems to operate as one ! Too sci-fi for you? Not for the horses. They always say YES—because they feel the physics of it!
Straight vs. Curved Lines in Riding:
How to Master Both with Precision & Gymnastic Benefit
There are only two fundamental scenarios when riding:
✔ Curved lines (turns, circles, corners; “sections of circles or arcs thereof”) – These require one-sided (lateral) inner engagement. The horse follows the bending line introduced by the rider’s eye and with the degree of the bend described to the inner haunch by the weight of the SEAT. This is very important.
✔ Straight lines (including long sides, centerlines, diagonals....and of course, quarterlines) – These come from level, bilateral weight. When correctly introduced, the horse carries himself plus me! straight, forward, uphill —on his own. This is very important.
This is how we “make” a horse straight—not by fiddling, nagging, or dicking around with the reins, but by addressing each hindquarter individually through alternating exercises. This prepares the haunches for symmetrical bi-lateral carrying.
Straight can’t be ‘installed’ by the hands—it’s earned through the hindquarters – back to front. When done right, straightness becomes self-sustaining and automatic.
The Forward Riding System in Action: Why It’s the Only Correct Training
Understanding this simple warm-up means understanding the entire creed of the forward riding system. And that’s the whole game.
Our aim as riders and trainers is to develop both forces of the hindquarters:➡ Carrying power (load-bearing, engagement)➡ Propulsive force (thrust, energy, drive)
These two forces are wedded together by elasticity, enabled by practice, and deliberately trained so that the rider can summon their effects at will, in precise ratios.
Putting Forward and Straight Into Practice: Optimal Equine Biomechanics—"Carrying Governs Thrust"
On the short side, curved line, we activate the carrying power of the inside hindquarter.
On the long side, straight line, we prove the propulsive force—which is governed by the carrying power we addressed on the short side before it.
Every stride, every transition, every moment in the saddle builds this interplay – this ‘coaction’. This is how we ‘make’ true straightness and true forward. Rideability.
Steinbrecht put it simply: "Carrying governs thrust."
Are you building carrying power—or just wishing for better movement?
Are you proving the thrust—or just letting it leak away?
OBSERVE: How the Horse Begins to Find His Back, His Footfalls, and His Rhythm
His back. His footfalls. His rhythm.
Watch carefully as the horse begins to place his feet according to the precise and alternating lines of travel: his left hind stepping into the print of his left front, his right hind tracking into the print of his right front.
This single act—"this following alone"*—determines his way of going. It decides his overall use of self.
And we already know the purpose of this warm-up: we ride the horse forward and make him straight. So how he addresses these lines with his own body is everything.
When he begins to track the lines easily, something profound happens: he starts to “find his back”. He organizes himself according to the path he’s traveling. His spine covers the line.
As Steinbrecht says:
“The horse becomes the line.” (p.72*)
I say it this way: “Spine over line.”
And since there are only two types of lines—straight and curved—a spine that follows the line will naturally begin to gymnasticize. This is how the warmup begins its work.
From Finding His Back to Bona Fide Throughness:
The Progressive Phases of Training in the Forward-Riding System
In a progressive, organized training system, the horse eventually becomes through—meaning that all motion, momentum, and impulse (including neurological transmission) conducts easily through all his body from back to front.
This isn't just through the skeleton—it involves every physical tissue. And it requires tremendous suppling and softening at every stage.
But let’s be clear: this does not involve “lifting” the back. That’s a common but completely false phrase—one of the many misunderstandings floating around in the modern horse world.
Lifting the back is a tight, one-dimensional stress-indicating activity—often a precursor to bucking. A horse that is properly finding and using his back is not hunching, ‘arching’, bracing, or stiffening. Instead, his back is dynamically involved in his overall gymnastic development as the main stem of his movement.
Steinbrecht on training the horse’s back:
“The direction of this main stem primarily determines the activity of the individual limbs during movement. To work it correctly—to make it flexible—is one of the main tasks of a trainer.” (p.73 GYMNASIUM)
And this is where that task begins: on the OVAL ❤️.
How the Horse’s Back Develops in the Forward-Riding System: A Step-by-Step Progression
So: to re-cap, the horse develops and works this ability in clear stages:
"First, he finds his back. (This is a task in the warm-up)
Then, he starts to use his back.
Finally, he works through his back."
This is a three-dimensional transformation and progression.
A truly “through” horse has zero resistance—his entire body–all tissue- transmits motion, momentum, and impulse freely, unblocked by tension, unperturbed by external forces.
You can research the ideas of ‘Schwung” and “Durchlassigkeit” to learn more about this wonderful outcome.
[INSERT buttons for these defintions here]
So how do we begin?
By ensuring that the horse starts to find his back according to the lines of travel that we identify by our eye and our riding. Only then can he even find the line. When he sees it too, he starts to ‘become the line’.
And it is our task to arrange him, by our riding, so that this can happen. Not by force. Not by gimmicks. Not by chasing trends or hollow jargon. Not by well-meaning ‘intention’, 'mindfulness', or just ‘trying’. It’s only by our rider’s impartial, navigating mind, and our clear natural aids through our discliplined soft adhesive seat.
This might sting so get ready:
Horses that aren’t ridden don’t get hurt.
Any moment on horseback that isn't technically ‘forward and straight’ is, as Steinbrecht says, either ‘breaking him down or making him boss.’
The moment we influence any way except the right way, we are compromising him at best, ruining him at worst.
"Horses go as they are ridden.” This is a fact we can’t escape. Most horses WILL cover up our failures— for as long as they can. Is that what you want?
So the question is: Which way do you want to ride?
OBSERVE:
"That the work is performed on an oval, thus avoiding deep corners."
Soft Lines & Precise Riding: How the Oval Warmup Develops Self-Carriage & Contact
A good sporthorse warmup doesn’t dodge difficulty—it future-proofs the horse for deep corners, tight turns, high collection, big gaits, and instant adjustments. We must prepare him for these athletic feats, or we risk hurting or discouraging him. The preparation begins with soft lines and quiet work.
Soft doesn’t mean easy. In fact, navigating an arc that is more shallow demands more education than causing a sharp turn. A 90-degree angle is more obvious to a green horse than a correctly navigated half-circle. Why? Because a half-circle, when done well, engages, activates, and loosens the entire body on a precise yet softer bending continuing line by the natural aids alone.
(This is why the French and US Army placed "The Turn" at the start of a horse’s education, before it spells out circles. See #Section17).
Straightness or Bending? Decoding the Horsemen’s Terms for Correct Biomechanics & True Forward Riding
Why Every Line Matters: The Rider’s Role in Gymnasticizing Straightness and Bend
The soft half-circle of the short side can’t be delineated by walls or fences—it must be decided by the rider’s seat, leg, and hand. The horse must understand these aids, translating them into physical movement.
Each time he addresses the short side of the oval, he deliberately loosens to prep for engagement. Then as he exits the curved lines and enters the straight again, he knows to use himself forward, uphill, and straight—because this idea has been enabled by prior practice.
The same principle applies upon all lines:
Straight lines: Uphill, forward, self-carried.
Curved lines: Round, Longer, lower (engaging on the inside.)
Each line prepares the upcoming line; they co-act, setting up the mechanics for what comes next.
Where Horses Truly Come Through:
Mastering Transitions Between Straight & Curved Lines
The greatest gains in looseness and throughness occur during the exchange between curved and straight lines.
The rider doesn’t force this event; rather, she prepares the horse with information and allows him to respond. He makes it happen, through is body…inside his body. He develops his own elasticity, which is the quality that ‘binds’ or ‘connects’ his carrying power to his propulsive force. (Remember the ‘Aim’?).[ ]
Each phase of riding carries a checklist, tasks to confirm:
Is the straight line truly straight and is he self-carrying uphill upon it?
Did he enter curved line in preparatory loosening? Did he engage inside ?
Is he translating the aids or relying on external structure (like the wall)?
The warmup isn’t passive; it’s a conversation between horse and rider, a routine and deliberate process where the horse finds his footfalls, his rhythm, and his angles—his own angles.
The Giant Hinges of the Haunches: Unlocking the Horse’s Angles & Power
"That he has more hinges..."
The Major would observe this every morning as horses found their own hinges!
The warmup isn’t about power or thrill; it’s about the horse deliberately waking up his own joints…that he flexes in his hindquarters by load-bearing.
The angles of the huge big hindquarter joints determine and/or gauge:
Power and thrust
The length of the individual stride
The trajectory of the stride
The online horseworld spectacle (#ohs) largely ignores this phase.
Influencers skip to the lateral work in their reels, publishing snippets of collection, the flashy highlights. Their 'audience', fans, and followers are bedazzled and don’t seem to pause to consider that the ‘exciting’ collection COMES out of a logical and somewhat boring education and warmup !
But if you don’t understand this process, you won’t understand how to get to those moments.
This is how.
We start to allow the horse to find his 'bend', his one-sided engagement, on the short side.
The curved-line naturally encourages one-sided engagement, this germ seed of collection, but we deliberately ride it too.
Then we express the collected energy on the long side, where the straightness proves whether that engagement was real.
Miss this idea, and collection either won’t happen—or worse, it will be counterfeit.
3 to 5 Minutes That Decide Everything:
The Critical Warmup for Forward Engagement
Some may find this dull. But three to five minutes of precise, thoughtful warmup determines everything that follows.
Is the horse thinking forward?
Is he loose, so he can engage?
Does he engage ?
Is he attentive, yet relaxed?
Can he navigate soft, unsudden lines with accuracy?
This is how we teach horses to be detail-oriented.
How he does one thing is how he will do everything.
The Self-Checking System: How the Warmup Proves Itself in Every Ride
The soft pattern of the warmup isn’t random—it is a self-policing sequence.
Each line informs the next.
Each exchange tests the prior phrase of work.
At the end of the sequence, the goal is clear:
The horse is loose and forward-thinking.
He's automatically responsive to the rider’s ideas.
He goes straight on his own.
He follows the bit with his entire self. This is 'way-of-going'.
That’s quite a checklist. And we achieve it not by forcing shapes, but by proving the riding through soft yet precise lines lines with sensitive, deliberate progression.
If it were just a shape from a sharp turn, it would be easier.
Instead, we test ourselves—and the horse—with the biggest challenge: accuracy on long and soft lines.
“This is discipline.” —Major Lindgren
OBSERVE:
"That the rider acts positively – with spontaneous rewards – as soon as the horse responds to the aids."
We must inform our horse positively, immediately, and on time.
Communication travels through us—through our SEAT—directly to him, telling him:
"Where to go, when to go, how to go."
— A maxim of Saumur
As training progresses, this information becomes highly specific. Our precise, uniform communication forms a language of sensations: the four natural aids.
This language is equitation.
If we expect the horse to recognize a particular “phrase” within this language, we must notify him when he gets it right.
How? With the reward of PRAISE.
And timing is everything. If we don’t reward him as the event is occurring, he won’t know which part of the riding we’re praising him for!
"The ultimate objective of training must be to guide the horse with invisible aids (that he FEELS). Two creatures, the one who thinks and the one who executes the thought, must be fused together.This is the ideal of classical riding."
— Colonel Alois Podhajsky
At the start of the day the praise is verbal.
Can you hear this happening during the demonstration?
Since we’re off the wall (wink), how does the horse know when the curved line begins and the straight line ends?
How does he recognize the transition back?
Because he is 'listening' to the natural aids—feeling the language of sensations—coming from the rider’s soft, elastic, connected seat. 105, 108
So:
1) First, we teach the horse the language of the aids.
2) Then, we communicate with it—conducting information between two bodies.
3) And finally, we acknowledge him for:
Listening
Trying
Interpreting and executing correctly
This is WHY rewards must be spontaneous.
The voice—"AhhGGGOOd, Booyyy."—is the most immediate and effective way to say: YES.
('How' he learns to love doing well—'how' we teach him to TRY—is another lesson for another day… 🥰)
In the warmup, we’re establishing foundations.
The horse must know when he’s on the right track—literally and figuratively.
We must inform him of our request, and we must inform him that he heard us correctly!
"Give him a receipt."
— The Major 🤩
What does spontaneously mean?
An open, natural, uninhibited manner.
It is SINCERE.
And may I add? IMMEDIATE.
OBSERVE: The Horse’s Profile & True Engagement—Major Lindgren’s Training Prescription
“The horse’s profile is like a rainbow. He seems to ‘like to eat sand.’ Then the body-building of the horse has begun.”
This is the Major’s description—and prescription.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room.
The idea of “long and low” is one of the most misunderstood—and misused—concepts in modern riding.
It’s a trigger phrase for uneducated horsepeople, whose opinions I have zero interest in.
But it's an essential piece of technical throughness, and it must be done correctly.
I’ll cover this thoroughly in Class 107 (and I started it in 106, in the Leading Rein section—hint, hint).
Developing a Sound, Athletic Horse: The Foundation for True Throughness
To develop a sound, athletic horse, we must begin with a body that's free of impingements.
From the first steps, we aim to access both forces of the hindquarters—the carrying power and the propulsive force—bound by elasticity, so that their effects can be used at will and in precise ratios.
A true rider is always ensuring that the horse’s body is never jammed, never bound by resistance, and that his spine remains loose, unimpinged, and actively participating in the line of travel.
In this final stretch of the warmup (that's literal and figurative;) we can assess the condition of the horse’s spine. Each vertebra should be loose and functioning within the motion of the whole, and the horse should “find” his back—not through force, but through forward activated mechanics in his own nervous system …”the organ of sensation and animation”.
The Major describes the moment by saying, “He seems to like to eat sand.”
This is what the correct stretch looks like at this stage and it isn’t decoration, or for the judge—it’s diagnostic.
The Moment of Release:
How to Verify Biomechanical Sound Contact & Stretch in Your Horse
To verify this, we perform a simple but revealing test: a figure-eight stretch with the horse’s face following the bit forward in front of him and toward the ground.
This serves two critical functions:
It confirms that the horse’s topline is lengthening—his spine is free and becoming flexible, not impinged.
It confirms that he follows the bit with confidence—a test of both his mental state and his physical readiness.
Most importantly, this stretch feels good to the horse.
A well-ridden warmup awakens the horse’s body, and this final test should reveal a horse that enjoys the sensation of moving correctly.
But.
The Fatal Mistake of Over-Looseness:
Why Sound Throughness Isn’t Just Length
This stretch lasts for less than 60 seconds. It is not a riding method—it is a test.
Too many riders take this single moment of release and turn it into a way of going.
They ride their horses strung out both ends, mistaking length for throughness. They let momentum collapse forward, pushing the weight downhill. The withers sink, the croup floats up weightless, and the hind legs trail – because they can only push when that end bears no weight.
At best, this is mechanically useless. At worst, it is permanently destructive.
"Ruin" is the word the masters use.
A horse stretched too long, too often, without sufficient carrying in the hindquarters, can develop a severe and irreparable condition known as ober-Losgelassenheit—a grotesque over-loosening of the soft tissues.
When the natural resiliency of the ligaments and tendons is overstretched, they lose their ability to return to their original resting shape.
The result?
A horse that can never truly carry itself, because its fundamental biomechanics -- the 'bands' that operate his joints -- have been ruined. Uneducated horse people will fawn over a horse’s ‘slow-motion suspension’, but often this is a sign that he cannot quickly enough resume engagement because of being stretched too much and for too long. :(
This is not fixable.
And this is why correct training is not a game.
Elasticizing vs. Going Slack: How to Ride a Sound, Athletic Stretch
A true athletic stretch is not a collapse—it is a deliberate reach.
The horse makes himself longer; he is not dropped there.
This moment serves three essential purposes:
It confirms the spine is becoming flexible. The withers remain higher than the croup, proving the hindquarters are still engaged (i.e. flexed by weight-bearing).
It verifies thrust and carriage. The hindquarters stay quick and active, never trailing behind.
The topline lengthens forward, back to front only. The spine extends torward the front with resilience—never strung out at both ends.
Done correctly, this is a self-check, a diagnostic, and a preparation for real work.
But only an educated rider can feel the difference between a true release and merely dropping him and letting the horse collapse onto its forehand like a runaway wheelbarrow.
This is why we train with an expert supervising us: to ‘make’ keen feel. This is why the two golden rules—riding forward and making straight—keep us honest.
And this is why, in correct training, the horse does not just go limp like a hammock strung at both ends at the conclusion of the warmup.
He instead:
FINDS HIS BACK.
What happens Next? Preparing for the Canter Phase of the Warmup
“Now that we have furthered our horse with patience and consideration to the point that:
He is able to carry himself on straight and curved lines on its own and
He does this without requiring any aids beyond the rider’s soft, flexible seat and
We can easily feel the inner hindquarter stepping under us during every stride…
...the time has come to further perfect the pace and prepare the horse for practical use with collected exercises.” (Steinbrecht p. 227 GYMNASIUM)
The Oval Exercise: The Crucial Start of Classical Forward-Riding (With Video & Challenge!)
You just read EXACTLY what this warmup is. It looks simple. It is not.
Here’s your challenge:
While watching this warmup, pick ONE THING from the list below or the article and ask yourself: Could I actually ride this?
Does the horse’s tempo change even slightly?
Do his footfalls waver or drift off the quarter line?
Does his attention ever drift ?
Does he ever lose his balance, his line, or his contact?
Does the rider miss a chance for spontaneous reward ?
If you think this is easy—get on your horse and try it.
Then report back.
Here's Zanny's video:
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FINAL CHALLENGE: Did You Actually Read This Whole Thing?
If you made it to the end, I want to hear from you.
Drop a comment below with this phrase:
👉 "Spine over line."
That tells me you actually read this post and paid attention.
Most won’t make it here. Did you?
© Jane Frizzell | RideVerbatim LLC, All Rights Reserved
See you next time for the canter phase of the modern classical warmup. 😊
www.basicmilitaryriding.com #ClassicalDressage #RidingExercises #TrotWarmup #HorseTraining #MajorLindgren #DressageBasics #ForwardAndStraight
I did read it in it’s entirety. Spine on the line!