An Educational Bonanza

Gareth Hughes makes his mark at the 2024 Absorbine/NEDA Symposium. Second of two parts.

By Beth Baumert with photographs by Meg McGuire Photography

Reprinted from the March/April 2025 issue of USDF Connection magazine.

The annual Absorbine/New England Dressage Association (NEDA) Symposium attracts auditors from far and wide, and when they invited British dressage medalist Gareth Hughes to host it in October 2024, many people didn’t know him. But they know him now.

Hughes was a huge hit. He inspired riders and observers alike by clarifying the kind and effective methods that have made him and his trainer, British Olympic gold medalist Carl Hester, so successful.

Hughes’s ABCs: Basics Review

Let’s recap the takeaways Hughes shared during his work with the young and lower-level demonstration horses (“Clinic,” January/February):

The basics are always the same. Hughes teaches each young horse a baby version of his future self. He explained that “I have a picture in my mind of the end result, and from there, it’s like doing a puzzle systematically. The basics are always the same, and rhythm is the basis for everything. Other factors can affect the rhythm, but try to focus on keeping it.”

The act of turning helps to balance the horse. Riding on a straight line is another balance test. Hughes advised alternating frequently between circles and straight lines, noting that “when you can maintain the balance on circles and on straight lines, your horse is ready to do lateral work.”

In introducing movements and in building strength for movements, consider the line required in competition, and teach the horse using an easier version of that line.

As we move up the levels and the horse’s job becomes more difficult, we shouldn’t use more and more aids. Start with 20-meter circles and go to 15- and 12-meter circles before straightening. “The shape of the circle explains to the horse how he should carry himself,” Hughes said. “They learn from the shapes of the figures.”

Teach your horse to follow your inside leg. “Do a circle and then go straight with your inside leg. When horses are soft in the middle, they become the best version of themselves.”

Don’t school a movement unless you’re happy with the gait and the balance. “The movements are easy if you’re in the right trot or canter. Movements are impossible to ride if you’re in the wrong trot or canter. From there, the shapes and lines create the movements easily. When I can’t find the right trot or canter, I stay on a 20-meter circle until I do find it.”

From the working canter, we develop collection with half-halts on circle lines and in movements. “You need to be able to come back a fraction from the working canter and feel your horse’s balance improve. That’s a half-halt. It means ‘Sit up; we’re about to do something.’ Test that you can do that: Come back a fraction and then release by patting your horse on the inside or the outside neck. Half-halt. Release. This is a useful skill for the rest of your life. If you do that about three thousand times, then the test movements are very easy.”

Now that we’ve reviewed these important foundational principles, let’s go on to what Hughes told the symposium audience about the development of the horse through the upper levels of dressage.

Finding and Keeping Balance

According to Hughes, “The difference between a great rider and a very good rider is the ability to keep the horse in balance.” Frequent supple half-halts develop a consistent balanced trot or canter; and from that balanced gait, you can do anything.

It is a common mistake for riders to ask for more impulsion and subsequently lose control of the balance and rhythm. “Be ‘small’ and ‘normal’ until your horse has a good understanding,” said Hughes. “Then ride with more impulsion as much as confidence and understanding allows.”

When you add impulsion, your horse should get “bigger,” not quicker. Speed makes us feel like we’re going forward, but the horse actually tends to get behind the leg when he quickens.

The out-of-balance horse often pulls the rider out of position. You, the rider, need to feel that your leg is connected to your seat, which is connected to your hand (through your very important elbow), which is connected to the horse’s mouth (through the rein, which is an extension of your arm). When you have trouble managing the impulsion, you might lose that connection, and you need to be able to regain it. Don’t adapt your riding to your horse’s problems. If he makes you change your position, walk and regroup. Your position has to influence his way of going, not the other way around.

To one demonstration pair, Hughes said: “It looks like you’re telling him how to trot, but he’s telling you how to canter. Don’t adapt to him. Your position is really important. You need to be able to say, ‘Give me less.’ Half-halt and, if necessary, go to walk, regain your position, and then go back to work.”

The Many Types of Transitions

Transitions are important, but you can ride meaningful transitions only if you can maintain one consistent “base” trot and canter, as Hughes put it. Continuity is key, and it takes thousands of subtle transitions to find and maintain that consistent, balanced base trot or canter that is always the same.

As Hughes explained, it can sometimes be helpful to lower the horse’s neck prior to a transition, to help the energy come “through” the back. Flexion lowers the neck. Ask for flexion with the inside rein and leg until you see the horse’s inner ear lower; then ask for the transition.

Work on basic transitions every day. Here’s what Hughes said they can do for you:

• Transitions between adjacent gaits (trot-canter-trot and walktrot-walk) develop the connection and eventually become your half-halts. As soon as the weight in the rein goes from “guiding” to “holding,” you need to half-halt— or, if that doesn’t work, to ride a downward transition to tell your horse, “Come back to me.” Making that transition is preferable to riding around trying to fix the problem, which is often the rider’s inclination.
• Transitions that skip a gait (trot-halt-trot and walk-canter-walk) develop collection. They are a lot harder and require those halfhalts to effectively engage the hindquarters.
• Transitions within a gait help to produce suppleness. It’s easy to make big transitions, but it’s much more challenging to make very small transitions. Of one horse-and-rider pair, Hughes said: “This combination lacks the ability to ride gears. Let’s put the gears in.” On a 20-meter circle, they rode “half gears”— subtle transitions forward and back—within the trot and within the canter. “It’s all about subtle changes,” he said. “Those transitions develop more engagement, and then the shoulders come up.”

Advanced dressage horses have numerous “gears.” In an upper-level horse we can see four or five different canters: the ones that are required in the tests, but also the pirouette canter and degrees of collected canter. According to Hughes, the advanced horse also needs three types of passage: a forward passage (for the transition to collected trot), a true passage, and a very collected passage (with less height) to get into the piaffe and facilitate the shift in the croup that has to happen for a true “sitting” piaffe rather than a piaffe that’s actually a passage on the spot.

The more quickly and smoothly you can go from one “gear” to another, Hughes said, determines your ability to prepare for each movement. Ridability into, out of, and between movements is very important. In the end, you must decide which trot or canter you need for optimal execution of each movement. Your ability to make these transitions within the gaits is what develops your horse’s ridability.

Starting Lateral Movements

Before you attempt any lateral movement, Hughes advised, check these prerequisites:

• The movements will be easy if you’re in the right trot or canter. They’re impossible in the wrong trot or canter. Don’t ride what you don’t want. If you don’t like what you have, walk and find your consistent, balanced base trot or canter before you begin.
• Your horse is ready for lateral movements when he can maintain that balanced trot and canter from a circle to a straight line and back to a circle line.
• From there, the accuracy of the shapes and lines creates the movements. The size and accuracy of the circles and the precision of the lines will determine your success.

In introducing movements and in building strength for the movements, make those circles a manageable size, and make the lines shallow and easy, Hughes said. How do you decide what lines? Consider the figure and the line required in competition, and teach the horse using an easier version. For example, an easier version of shoulder-in would have less angle and bend than required in the tests. An easier version of leg-yield or half-pass would have a shallower angle. If the test specifies riding to an R-S-V-P letter, go to the corner letter instead. That encourages the horse to be more correct and to stay in front of the inside leg. Get on the same, correct page with your horse before increasing the difficulty.

Hughes prepares a horse for halfpass by riding an accurate 20-meter circle in travers (haunches-in). Then he introduces the easy version of half-pass—a long, shallow line that teaches the importance of the rider’s inside leg. The main thing, he stressed, is to maintain the quality. If the horse struggles a bit, go to an even easier or shorter line, or take a walk break.

A common problem in riding half-pass, Hughes said, is to overuse the outside leg instead of controlling the horse’s shoulders by pointing them on the line where you want to go. Flex your horse on the line of travel and keep his shoulders on that line. Increase the angle only when your aids can maintain the shape of the half-pass.

Starting Flying Changes

You can start to train flying changes when you can ride a consistent collected canter. Hughes emphasized that randomly trying changes isn’t truly training them. He shared his own go-to exercise for introducing flying changes (it also works well for improving the changes). You’ll be riding a teardrop-shaped figure eight (see illustration below).

Slowly, over time, your horse will make fewer and fewer mistakes and will find confidence in this exercise, Hughes said.

When the teardrop exercise is easy, you can start to think about tempi (sequence) changes. The primary prerequisite is that you be able to stay straight on your desired line. You’re not allowed to ask for a change (or, in fact, do any movement) unless you can stay straight on your line of travel. While prioritizing the line, canter straight on the quarter lines with no changes, riding the corners in balance. If you can’t canter the corners deliberately, do them in walk. Use the line to help you. Riding straight is very difficult, but without attention to the line, it’s impossible. The rule is simple: You’re not allowed to ask for a change until your horse can stay straight. If he changes on his own, don’t stop; just keep riding straight. It’s an endless effort to ride straight. When you finally have control of that, ask for a change and then regain the straightness and the consistent collected canter as soon as possible. When you can retain the base canter easily after a change, then you can think about asking for another change. When your horse understands, he will know that when you leave your leg on, another change is coming. When your leg relaxes, that means the series changes are over.

Starting Pirouettes

Every movement, explained Hughes, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the case of a pirouette, you have to go straight in order to get into and out of the movement. But as he put it, some people can ride the question but not ride to the question. Again, remember the importance of the balance and ridability between the movements.

Every movement also has components. The components of a canter pirouette are the canter and the turn, Hughes said. If you break the movement down to its components, you will realize what you need to work on in order to improve.

Try Hughes’s introductory pirouette exercise:

Start in collected canter left on a 20-meter circle. With your inside (left) hand a bit high, ask for flexion left onto the line of travel. Ask your horse to stay round with your outside right rein, and push him slightly to the outside with your inside (left) leg. On this precise 20-meter circle, keep pressing with your inside leg. In order to bend left, the horse needs something to bend around. For the pirouette he will need to collect and then turn around the inside leg, so he has to know to follow it and stay in front of it. Then you can collect him in that shape. Stay on the precise 20-meter circle line and ride travers.

Next, staying in travers, reduce the circle diameter to 12 meters, paying attention to keeping your horse’s shoulders on the circle line. Then do it in pirouette canter, but without turning. Don’t make the exercise about pirouette; focus only on the pirouette canter. Take frequent walk breaks. Repeat the exercise on the opposite rein.

According to Hughes, the only thing that makes the horse stronger for pirouettes is pirouette exercises that use those specific muscles. Do the easy exercises and then slowly increase the difficulty as your horse’s f itness allows. Here are two more of his pirouette exercises to try. Important: Ride only half-turns to start so you don’t overface your horse.

Exercise: Travers half-circle variation.

• In collected canter right, turn onto the quarter line after C and ride straight on that quarter line.
• When you reach the P-L-V line, ride one and a half 10-meter circles; then ride straight forward on the next quarter line (headed back toward C).
• When you get to the S-I-R line, ride one and a half 10-meter circles, this time in travers.
• Repeat on the opposite rein.

When your horse is confident in this pattern, ride the exercise with a half 10-meter circle between P and V and a half working pirouette between S and R. Keep track of the line. Be aware of where you are in the arena. Through your horse’s positioning, he learns what he is supposed to do and gains confidence.

Exercise: Incorporating halfpass into a travers pattern.

• In collected canter, ride half-pass left from H to X; then go straight on the center line.
• At L, ride a five-meter circle—approaching a working pirouette— left in travers.
• Find the center line and go straight again.
• Repeat on the opposite rein.

The beauty of these exercises is that they aren’t too difficult, but they give you all the technique required to do a pirouette in competition.

Tools and a Road Map

“Trust the system,” Hughes advised, “and use the exercises to build understanding, strength, and confidence. Are the exercises the same for every horse? Yes, but they can be adapted to each horse’s strengths and weaknesses.”

In the end, the symposium riders and auditors all left not only with tools, but also with a road map for progress. Everyone we talked to is hoping to see Hughes again.

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Meet the Clinician

British international dressage rider and trainer Gareth Hughes medaled at both the 2014 and 2022 World Equestrian Games as well as the 2013, 2019, 2021, and 2023 European Championships. He was the reserve member of Team Great Britain at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. He has served as the New Zealand eventing team’s dressage coach, and he was Carl Hester’s ground person at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

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Meet the Expert

Beth Baumert is a USDF-certified instructor/ trainer through Fourth Level, a USDF L program graduate with distinction, and the author of When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics and How Two Minds Meet: The Mental Dynamics of Dressage. She is the current president of The Dressage Foundation. For many years she owned and operated Cloverlea Dressage in Columbia, Connecticut, and served as the technical editor of Dressage Today magazine. She divides her time between Connecticut and Florida.

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