THE HORSE MAGAZINE

To illustrate how inter-connected the Training Scale really is, the late Dr Reiner Klimke in his book, Basic Training of the Young Horse, has this principle as his first, then followed by rhythm, while the Official Handbook published by the German FN, starts, as we did, with rhythm. Obviously the two are so inter-twined, that really you cannot imagine establishing rhythm without some of the elements of Losgelassenheit, and straight away we run into an additional complication for those of us who speak English – some of the terms used in the training scale do not translate exactly from German to English.

Nowhere is the confusion greater than in this principle - Losgelassenheit. The tendency has been to translate this as ‘relaxation’ and some instructors would have horse and rider jogging around the arena on a floppy loose rein until both were so ‘relaxed’ they were in danger of falling asleep. This was not what the Germans had in mind for their second principle. This principle has also been translated as ‘submission’ but this too, doesn’t exactly catch what we are after.
Losgelassenheit is nicely defined by Reiner Klimke in his classic, Basic Training of the Young Horse:
“It means a horse freely gives all its muscles to use its whole body without any resistance; the horse is supple and unconstrained.”
But again, the late Dr Klimke has a warning: “After achieving ‘losgelassenheit’ then the real work starts. Many riders spend too long with their horses long and low trying to make them perfectly ‘losgelassenheit’. They have the wrong idea of ‘losgelassenheit’ for the horse ends up going on its forehand and loses the natural brilliance of its gaits. Thus there is a danger in concentrating too much on losgelassenheit.”
As Jo Hinnemann points out in his excellent book, The Simplicity of Dressage, this principle has a mental as well as a physical dimension: “Losgelassenheit, which is physical as well as psychological is the key to success in riding horses. When schooling any difficult exercise, it always must be
possible to immediately relax the horse again, at any time, both physically and psychologically.”
Once again, Jo stresses the interdependence of the first two principles:
“Confirming a pure rhythm and striving for relaxation or losgelassenheit characterize the primary training goals of the habituation and familiarization phase – the first year and a half of schooling. When you begin working on a pure rhythm, you enable your horse to move in balance under the rider. Then the horse can ‘swing’, a prerequisite for losgelassenheit. Rhythm and losgelassenheit are mutually influential. A horse can only move in a pure rhythm if his back swings and his neck and back muscles contract and relax without force. A relaxed horse bends and extends his joints equally and he appears content.”
In our working session, Judy is asking Frontier not only to maintain the steady beat, but to accept her aids, moving freely through transitions, changes of direction and flexion.

“As we can see this horse is still a bit fresh, a bit holding himself, he is not yet loose enough,” comments Clemens. “That comes in time. You can see when it comes in the rhythm, in the swinging over the back, in the relaxation. If you are a calm rider and you can sit properly so you are not interfering with the horse, your hand is still so you do not hit him in the mouth, your leg is still so you are not accidentally jabbing him with the spur, and the horses enjoy their work, they will relax. By keeping them in the steady beat, we help create the relaxation. From the beginning we are working to get the hind leg under, so the horse goes forward in the bridle but from behind. Just get the feeling that he wants to stretch.”
“Now we see him giving in, loosening, the softness, he is swinging through the back. His tension and holding is going, every step is through and soft.”
“Looseness is when there is no tension – every muscle is relaxed but the horse still moves with power. It is not loose and floppy. The horse must still be on the aids, the rider controls every stride, but the horse is loose and letting the aids through, not tense. The rider’s rein aids have to flow through the body to achieve ‘Losgelassenheit’, you feel it because your ability to sit improves. It is like sitting in your TV lounge chair, you feel the relaxation and the swinging through the back, and the precision of the beat. Loose but firm, and the horse is seeking the contact, not just with the rein but he is happy to accept the seat and the leg aids as well.”
“Loose but controlled, and definitely not asleep, totally alert, active, and willing. If he is not willing he cannot be Losgelassenheit – the horse must take you there by himself, with very minimal aids.”
Next issue we deal with the puzzling concept of contact as we continue our examination of the German Principles