Taken collectively, the medium and extended gaits represent a fifth of all the movements on the Third Level test, where extended walk, trot and canter are first introduced. Their importance doesn’t diminish through the levels above that; the Grand Prix Special test contains four extended trots (three within the first ten movements), compared with most other movements, which appear only once or twice.

While some horses have more natural ability than others, Cindy Ishoy believes it is training, rather than talent, that matters most in developing the extended gaits. ‘The most important thing to be said in regard to the extended gaits is that dressage is systematic, gymnastic training,’ she says. ‘There is no magic formula to improving either the collected or extended gaits other than that.’ Transitions play a central role in the development of the horse’s gaits, and the exercises that Cindy uses – whether she is schooling the extended walk, trot or canter – all incorporate frequent transitions. Extended gaits, like all exercises in dressage from shoulderin to pirouettes, also serve a greater purpose within the six steps of the training scale (rhythm, suppleness, contact, impulsion, straightness and collection). ‘The goal is to make the horse stronger and able to carry more weight on his hind end,’ says Cindy. ‘All the gymnastic work you do leading up to wonderful extended gaits works together to produce the maximum controlled impulsion which is expressed in an extended trot or extended canter.’

Beware of Imitations

“My mentor, Willi Schultheiss, taught me that you should be able to take a photograph of a horse in extended trot and line up a pencil or ruler with the angle of the cannon of the hind leg that is in the air. You should then be able to slide the pencil forward to the opposite front cannon and see that the angle is equal, or very close to equal. Some horses show great expression in the front legs without truly being connected from behind, and while that is not true extension, they often receive accolades. When the horse shows the same activity in the hind and front legs, it illustrates that he is truly carrying himself on his hindquarters, with the energy flowing from back to front without surging onto the shoulders and bit. There are, of course, varying degrees of extension, just as there are varying degrees of collection. A grand prix horse should be able to go from piaffe to extended trot and back to piaffe seamlessly, or from a highly collected canter to extended canter, and back to the highly collected canter that precedes a canter pirouette. The ability to go from extreme collection to extreme extension and back to collection with no apparent effort is the ultimate expression of balance in the horse’s training and gymnastic development.

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