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Dressage-Arena

Glossary of Dressage Terms J to Q

While reading through the Dressage-Arena ( your practical guide to riding) you might encounter unfamiliar words. These words are part of the technical jargon or language used by instructors, trainers and riders when discussing riding and training.

The United State Dressage Federation has compiled a long list of these words and phrases in order to “improve understanding of, and standardize the usage of, terminology...."
I have included terms that would be useful to the rider who is at the introductory to 1st level of riding. The other terms will be added in subsequent pages and associated to specific Dressage-Arena applications. I have also added some other terms that are not considered in the USDF Glossary, but that are commonly used in books and the daily language of riders.

Remember Horse-Training Tip # 4
Learn through observation, gain experience through practice and most of all.....increase your ability to LISTEN to the horse with all your senses.
You are actually not ready to learn and understand a training or riding concept until you have actually experienced it albeit in a non cognitive way.
Don't worry....come back to it. :)

Dressage-Arena Glossary

J-N

LATERAL
1. To the side, as in flexion, bend, suppleness, or direction of movement. 2. Impurity in walk (ambling or pacing) or canter; rarely trot.
LONG AND LOW
Carriage in which the horse lowers and stretches out its head and neck, reaching forward and downward into contact on a longer rein.
LONGITUDINAL
In the lengthwise dimension (as opposed to lateral), from front-to-back or back-to-front.
LOOSENESS
Freedom from, or release from, negative physical and mental tension. Relaxation.
MARCHING
Purposefulness in the steps of the walk.
MOVEMENT 1.
The manner in which the horse moves over the ground.
2. Test Movement: a section of a dressage test to be evaluated with one score on a score sheet
3. Dressage Movement: a exercise, as opposed to a figure, movements are: leg-yield, reinback, shoulder-in, travers, renvers, turn on haunches, half pass (trot or canter), flying change(s), pirouette (walk or canter), piaffe, and passage.

Dressage-Arena Glossary

O - Q
OBEDIENCE
Willingness to perform the movement, transition, or figure asked by the rider. May demonstrate resistance or evasion, yet still be “obedient” (e.g., the horse may perform a series of flying changes without mistakes and in the right place but is behind the bit, tilted in the head with mouth open and tail swishing, reluctant to cover enough ground, etc.; thus he obediently performs the task, but not necessarily submissively, supplely, etc.).
ON THE AIDS
Well-connected, on the bit, and calmly and immediately responsive and obedient.
ON THE BIT
Acceptance of contact (without resistance or evasion) with a stretched topline and with lateral and longitudinal flexion as required. The horse’s face line is at or slightly in front of the vertical.
ON THE FOREHAND
Poor longitudinal balance, in which the forelegs push the horse forward rather than pushing the forehand upward and body weight backward. Not necessarily an issue of neck carriage/height.
OUT BEHIND
The hind legs are placed, or act, behind the horse’s body.
OUTLINE The profile or silhouette of the horse, showing the horse’s carriage or posture.
OUTSIDE, OUTER, OUTWARDS
1. The direction away from which the horse should be positioned or bent.
2. The side that is away from the center of the arena. The former takes precedence if the two are not the same (as in counter-canter or renvers).
OVERBENT/OVERBENDING
Excessive lateral displacement of the neck relative to the horse’s body, occurring in the neck itself or at the base of the neck, causing lack of apparent uniformity of the lateral curve of the “bent” horse.
OVERFLEXED
Behind the vertical, due to excessive longitudinal flexion in the poll and/or upper joints of the neck.
OVERSTEP, OVERSTRIDE, OVERTRACK
The placement of the hind foot in front of the print of the forefoot.

Dressage-Arena Glossary A to C

Dressage-Arena Glossary D to I

Dressage-Arena Glossary R to Z

Quote for a Patient Day

".....so that patience is one means of dressing a horse. It is true, that patience without knowledge will never do, and knowledge will seldom do without patience...." ~ William Cavendish- Duke of Newcastle