Riding Terms Defined
What does that mean exactly?
Dressage: A French term meaning ‘training.’ In the discipline of dressage, the English horse-and-rider pair execute gymnastic movements that highlight the horse’s balance, suppleness, cadence, and obedience. Dressage principles, which trace to the earliest days of riding, are used in virtually every form of riding. How hard is it? Think of the movie “Inception.” No matter what you know, there’s always another level.
Hack: (to hack) i.e. to go for a ride. Also a type rather than a breed, hacks are elegant riding horses, popular in the show ring in England. Also a person who doesn’t know what he’s doing as in, “That doctor is a hack!” So technically, you could say, ”A hack can’t hack a hack.”
Collection: Where the rider, by means of carefully balanced driving and restraining aids, causes the horses frame to become compacted and the horse light and supple in the hand. The baseline is shortened, the croup is lowered, the shoulder is raised and the head is held on the vertical. (Wish my horse would read this.)
Flexion: When the horse yields the lower jaw to the bit, with the neck bent at the poll. The term also describes the full bending of the hock joints. Vets perform flexion tests when diagnosing lameness.
Behind the Bit: An evasion where the horse holds his head behind the vertical, thereby, decreasing the rider’s control.
Turnout: (i) The practice of turning horses loose in a field or pasture for all or part of the day. (ii) The standard of dress and appearance of horse and rider, or horse and carriage.
Irons: The metal pieces attached to the saddle by means of leather straps (leathers), in which the rider places his feet.
