Seven Hacks For Picking A Great Dressage Foal - Hack #3: Evaluate The Gaits With The Right Focus
- Steve Wolgemuth
- Jul 18, 2024
- 2 min read
Looking at foals can be like looking into a room through a keyhole. You can’t see the whole picture, only parts of it. While there is no certainty in selecting foals, here are some things I get excited about when I watch a foal move:
I like to see the foal's body shift uphill as a result of the hind legs’ impulsion. I know I put more emphasis on this than some other horse people and I attribute it to my background as a grand prix rider, trainer, and clinician. I never liked horses that don’t raise their withers as a natural reaction to the rider's leg. Saying it in a positive way, I love the feeling of a horse that feels like the shoulders come up as a result of the rider’s driving aids. Some horses have big leg movement, but don’t shift to an uphill posture. It’s just not for me.
I like to see a good articulation of the hind joints and a free shoulder, even in the foal’s normal trot. Nothing’s worse than riding a horse with a clumsy hind leg, no matter how much impulsion and presence it shows you. I know this is a bit of my personal preference coming through, but I feel in today’s competitive environment, nothing is more disappointing than a piaffe and passage with no bend at the knee. Twenty years ago, that was ok if the horse had good impulsion and metronome type rhythm. Today, judges and audiences want to be wow’d. While it can be tricky business to see these qualities in foals, they are characteristics in a foal’s technique that I focus on.
I like to see a foal with presence. You often hear breeders of international dressage superstars say, “we knew he was special, even as a foal.” This is hard to describe, but great foals seem to know they are great, and they exude a presence that normal foals don’t have. It is easy to be fooled, especially by foals who are “late bloomers.” I rarely disqualify a foal if it doesn’t have a presence every day, but I do get excited when I find a foal that has that rare and inspiring presence that gives it something extra.
This post is the opinion of Steven Wolgemuth at the time of publication. If you have ideas you'd like to contribute to this article, a question, or even a disagreement, please share them with Steve. Together we make one another better.
This post is copyright by the author 2024. No reproduction of any part is permitted without expressed permission.
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