By Manolo Mendez

Professor of Classical Dressage Copyright © 2004 Manolo Mendez and Australian Equine Arts

With a horse working at a high level we may need more contact, but this is because a horse at a high level has developed the ability and the stamina to hold himself in a collected outline with his poll flexed. It is still a light contact: he does not need to be held there. Shorter contact should always be by-product of physical development, not the means by which physical development is achieved. If it is the means, then it will be the wrong physical development. Even so, we should not work even a highly trained horse in a collected frame for more than a few minutes at a time. Most of his work should be done on a gentle, fine contact which encourages him to stretch down and out with his neck and head, to seek our hands through the reins. This is called “long and low”.				“Long and low” or “deep and round”? Long and low is not the same thing at all as the “deep and round” principle, which relies on bringing the horse behind the vertical with a lowered head and a shortened neck. Working a horse deep and round is often achieved with side reins and running reins, and is thought to lift the horse’s back and stretch the spine by enabling the hind legs to come through properly. In fact, when a horse is worked too deep in the neck, his back must arch down. This will indeed cause him to work his back legs harder to compensate, but there is too much movement in the stifle and the hock, and not enough in the body. The hind end is not working in harmony with the front end because the bridge between them - the back - is not moving. With the legs working so hard, they hit the ground harder. This can cause concussion of the spine and hip. Deep and round restricts the respiratory system and blood supply, and the horse can’t see where he is going. The horse ends up weak in the spine. You cannot always see the damage immediately; it happens over time. In the beginning was the long neck … Dressage is an art form and, like any art form, it needs time and the right conditions in which to grow and flourish. The rider and his horse must work together, in harmony, to develop balance, rhythm, co-ordination and skill. We do not teach the horse passage or piaffe or tempi changes: these things he was born to do. But to do them with the same grace and beauty under saddle means we must work within his natural limitations, building his strength and willingness. If we don’t, we end up with a pale copy of the real thing. Allowing him to work with his neck long and low is where it all truly begins.

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By Manolo Mendez