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World Equestrian Games
2002

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CHIO Aachen 2002

CHIO Aachen 2003

High School Gaits
by John D'Addamio

A future article will describe what you might see at a Spanish Riding School performance in Vienna. As background for that article, this article will describe the High School gaits. The next article in the series will describe airs above the ground which may be unfamiliar.

First, I will talk about piaffe. You may be thinking, "What's he talking about? I have seen piaffe in competitions!" I would contend that you have probably not seen it!

A classical piaffe requires the horse step further forward with the hind legs and to deeply bend their haunches and the joints of their hind legs. This shifts their weight more onto the hindquarters. In competition, it is rare to see this. Most competition riders consciously decide not to train classical piaffe in an attempt to make piaffe-passage transition somewhat easier. Instead, they keep the hindquarters level or even higher than the withers.

Even a relatively new observer can watch many competition horses doing a Grand Prix or Grand Prix Special test and see this. In those tests, the horse approaches "I" in passage and makes a transition to piaffe. Usually, the passage is reasonably collected and, therefore, the weight is shifted toward the hindquarters and the forehand is somewhat lightened. When they make the transition to piaffe, you will often see that the weight actually shifts onto the forehand rather than off it!

What most competition horses show as piaffe does not even meet the FEI definition which reads "The piaffe is a highly collected, cadenced, elevated diagonal movement giving the impression of being in place. The horse's back is supple and elastic. The quarters are slightly lowered, the haunches with active hocks are well engaged giving great freedom, lightness and mobility to the shoulders and forehand. Each diagonal pair of feet is raised and returned to the ground alternately, with an even cadence." [The emphasis is mine.] I have never understood why judges give good marks for piaffe to horses that are level or on the forehand.

One notable exception among internationally known competition horses was the fine Spanish horse, Invasor. He did a classical piaffe in competition. He also did a good passage (which frequently got the highest score in the whole event) and very good piaffe-passage transition. I think he has been retired from competition but you can still see him on Dressage un Ltd videos at World Equestrian Games, 2002, Jerez; CHIO Aachen 2001, 2002, 2003. At Aachen (2001), Invasor was the high scorer on both piaffe (8.4) and passage (8.2) in the Grand Prix. In the Special, Invasor again was high scorer piaffe 9.0, passage 8.2. In the 2002 freestyle, Invasor earned 3 9s and 2 8s for piaffe, an average of 8.6.

At the School, piaffe is used not only as a gait in its own right but also as preparation for passage and the airs above the ground so the weight absolutely must be off the forehand! Otherwise, the horse cannot lift his forehand into the airs or make piaffe-passage transitions. Furthermore, piaffe at the School is often done on the spot which again is rarely seen in competition. Remember that the competition rules only require the "impression of being in place."

The traditional description of piaffe as done at the School would be something like this: "A cadenced trot on the spot with the shortest moment of suspension; the forearms [the upper forelegs from the elbows to the knees] are nearly horizontal and the toe of the hind hoof that is off the ground comes to or slightly above the coronet band of the other hind hoof." (This description is based on text and photos in Podhajsky's "Complete Training of Horse and Rider") Some of you may know that recent research with slow motion cameras has shown that piaffe has a slightly different rhythm than the trot. But, to the human eye they look the same. So, for all practical purposes, the traditional description is adequate.

To establish piaffe on the spot, piaffe is practiced between the pillars at the School. The pillars are posts set in the ground a little less than 1.5 meters apart. They have four rings at various heights up to 1.75 meters (a little less than 5' 9") to attach pillar reins (similar to cross ties). For this exercise, the stallion wears a cavesson and side reins as he does for in hand work. According to Podhajsky, the horse is prepared for this work by walking between the pillars, standing between the pillars, and then asking for piaffe with his shoulders between the pillars while two assistants hold the horse by lead reins attached to the side rings of the cavesson. When the stallion is comfortable with this procedure, he is attached to the two pillars rather than two humans and asked for piaffe. This work is sometimes also done with a rider in the saddle.

What about the passage? The classical and competition definitions are closer than for piaffe but there are still some apparent differences. The classical passage has been described as a cadenced trot with a longer period of suspension and the airborne legs higher than in the trot "floating above the ground" as if "borne on invisible wings"; a "collected trot in slow motion." [Quotations are from Podhajsky's "Complete Training of Horse and Rider"]. The FEI rules define passage as follows: "a measured, very collected, very elevated and very cadenced trot. It is characterized by a pronounced engagement of the quarters, a more accentuated flexion of the knees and hocks and the graceful elasticity of the movement. Each diagonal pair of feet is raised and returned to the ground alternately with cadence and has a prolongued [sic] phase of support compared to the phase of suspension."

But, I think that the contradiction is merely apparent rather than real. It comes from the way the word "suspension" is used in the two definitions. When Podhajsky uses the word "suspension" to describe the passage, he refers to a slight hesitation when the airborne legs are at the highest point of their motion. The FEI definition is using "suspension" to mean the phase of a trot (or canter) when all four feet are off the ground. If you interpret the two definitions the way I do, they both describe what you can see in a passage; a slow motion collected trot with more knee and hock action and a lot more cadence. Of course, if there is a slight hesitation when one pair of diagonal legs are at their highest point, the other pair legs that support the horse will be on the ground slightly longer than the horse is "floating above the ground." What you see as passage in competition horses is much closer to what you see at the School than a competition piaffe is to a classical piaffe.

Next: Airs Above the Ground

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