DRESSAGE by Kate Hamilton

A very good book which covers all aspects of a horse's education and how to approach the competition.

"Your horse must work throughout his entire body, rather like a well-oiled machine with every part contributing. The will to go forward must be in his head, but the power emanates from active hind quarters, the hocks especially. His whole back must swing freely, carrying your weight by coming up underneath you. The impulsion created behind must travel through the horse to a positive, yet elastic contact in your hand."

"The main exercises which contribute to early collected work involve some lateral work - however simple - to begin to accustom each hind leg to stepping under the body and weight carrying. Leg yielding is the simplest form of 'stepping under' exercise."

Re pole work: "Your sets of pole exercises can be fanned around the circumference of a half circle across the school to make him bend, in addition to the stretching. If you link several changes of direction over sets of poles with bending and stretching in all directions, the work will greatly benefit his back by making it swing."