Elevation and Dissociation (Dressage, Wonkish Version)

Elevation and dissociation are two related concepts that are not often discussed but are important to our current understanding of dressage. They relate to both the base and the apex of the training pyramid and thus to some of the things that can go awry in between those points.

First, elevation. Elevation refers to the height of the horse’s head. Elevation can be relative or absolute. Relative elevation (which is the good kind) is an increase in uphill balance and occurs when the horse’s head is raised in relation to its croup as a result of increased articulation of the pelvis and the joints of the hind legs. The back will be round and thus the forehand will be elevated along with the head. Absolute elevation occurs when the horse sticks its head up in the air. When this happens it almost always means there is tension and the horse’s back is dropped. Absolute elevation indicates pretty much that none of the goals of the training scale are being met. Note that in either case the poll can be the highest point of the horse. In other words, with the poll the highest point the horse can be perfectly correct or it can be a dressage disaster.

Now, dissociation. Dissociation relates to the rhythm of the canter. Like elevation, dissociation comes in two flavors: positive and negative. In both cases the three-beat character of the canter is lost and the gait becomes a four-beat gait. When the canter rhythm consists of three beats (a “pure” canter) the rhythm, as you know, is (1) outside hind, (2) diagonal pair of inside hind and outside front, (3) inside front. Note that a hind leg initiates the stride. This is why the canter by its nature is more uphill than the trot. 

In the case of negative dissociation (the bad kind), the three beats of a correct canter have deteriorated into four beats: (1) outside hind, (2) outside front, (3) inside hind, (4) inside front. Beat two has been “dissociated” into its front leg followed by its hind leg. Why is this perversion of the canter rhythm bad? For one thing it is lateral. Think about how the walk can go wrong—the regularity of the four beats is lost, and the gait becomes closer to a two beat gait in which the hind leg and the front leg on the same side move together. This is usually an indication of tension, often in response to an incorrect (or at best just unsuccessful) attempt by the rider to collect the walk. It can also indicate something physically wrong. Similarly with the canter, the deterioration to four beats may indicate lameness, weakness, or a lack of tact on the rider’s part. It might be that the outside hind leg is too weak or otherwise compromised to do its job. Or it might mean that the rider is consistently timing half halts incorrectly or is otherwise interfering with the natural motion of the horse. (The rider’s seat can interfere with the horse’s rhythm at any point in the canter, but most often by inadvertently trying to shorten or lengthen the recovery phase—between beat 3 and beat 1 of the subsequent stride—of the canter.) The effect of the dissociation is to displace weight from the hindquarters to the forehand as quickly as possible within the stride. In other words, the canter has completely lost whatever uphill character it had. Any elevation will be absolute elevation. When the work of the hind quarters is transferred to the forehand the shoulders drop, so that the elevation of the head is no longer related to the position of the croup.

In the case of positive dissociation (the good kind), the four beats are (1) outside hind, (2) inside hind, (3) outside front, (4) inside front. This is the rhythm of the gallop and (usually) the canter pirouette. It is a beautiful thing. And why is it good? It is good because it is more uphill, rather than less, than the normal three beat canter. The second hind leg hits the ground before the first front leg—the horse’s weight is entirely on the hindquarters for the first two beats of the gait. This works for the gallop (or extended canter) because it allows the hind legs, the primary engine of propulsion, to push together. And it works for the canter pirouette because it allows the hind legs, the legs that do most of the carrying in the collected gaits, to carry together. Theoretically it is possible for a horse to execute the extended canter in three beats, but this would reduce the degree of uphill balance. Similarly, the canter pirouette can be performed in three beats, but that would require extreme articulation of the joints of the outside hind leg and extraordinary strength in that leg. By enlisting the help of the inside hind leg to support the horse’s weight during the turn phase of the pirouette the horse is reducing the stress on the outside hind leg without sacrificing the uphill balance. Note that at both extremes of the canter—extreme extension and extreme collection—positive dissociation increases relative elevation.

So how do we incorporate these concepts into our daily riding program? Note that two concepts that keep reappearing in the discussion above are strength/weakness and relaxation/tension. Most of dressage training is the development of strength. The movements actually are not difficult to train if the horse has the strength to perform them. But in the process of developing strength we must be careful not to create tension. Tension causes resistance, which develops tightness and stiffness rather than strength.

In the young horse we develop strength by developing forward thrust. As the horse develops strength we gradually ask for greater articulation of the hind legs and the development of more carrying power in the hind legs. How do we accomplish this process? We must use half halts judiciously as the horse progresses up the training scale. Remember that the training scale starts with Rhythm. Rhythm is the most basic quality of each gait. As soon as the rhythm of the gait becomes indistinct we know there’s a problem. (Dissociation, as discussed above, is a rhythm problem.) That problem has to be fixed before the ride can progress. Then there is Relaxation. Without relaxation the horse cannot respond promptly and appropriately to the rider’s aids. (Negative dissociation and absolute elevation are relaxation failures.) Next is Connection. Note that until we get to connection, no interaction between horse and rider is required. The rhythm of the gaits should be clear in a horse moving around at liberty, and a grazing horse can be relaxed.

Connection is “greater acceptance of the bit through greater acceptance of the driving aids.” First the horse allows the rider to do more with the driving aids than just say go. Not only does the leg say go, it can also say go faster, or even take a bigger step, or even take a bigger or faster step with this hind leg. Once the horse understands these commands it can start to understand that they can all be carried out without challenging the barrier that the bit provides. By riding the horse from back to front, from the hind legs to the bit, the rider creates a connection between the hind legs and the bit. This connection depends upon the initiation by the horse of contact with the bit in response to the driving aids. It requires that the rider never take beyond the point of contact. Any time the hand overwhelms the leg the connection is broken.

What do elevation and dissociation have to do with connection? Both are controlled by the relationship of the leg to the hand. Relative elevation, the development of uphill balance, occurs when the half halts go through from back (driving aids/hind legs) to front (restraining aids/bit). For the half halt to go through the driving aids must work in conjunction with the horse’s rhythm and the rein contact must be elastic. If the rider holds the half halt too long with the rein, it disrupts the rhythm and the connection, which will probably result in tension, with the horse dropping its back and hollowing the frame—absolute elevation. So as you ride your horse forward to the contact and ride half halts to improve your horse’s uphill balance, pay attention to what happens. When the poll comes up in front of you does the horse’s neck fill up in front of the withers and the back become softer and easier to sit on? If so, you know your half halts have gone through and you have achieved a greater degree of relative elevation. If, on the other hand, the neck does not fill up in front of the withers or the back becomes harder to sit on, you know the half halts have not gone through and any lifting of the head has not been accompanied by increased articulation of the pelvis and hind joints and therefore is the dreaded absolute elevation. What to do then? You must ride the horse forward to the contact again. Relax your shoulders and your hips to that you can sit and maintain elastic contact. Then check to make sure that the horse is responsive to your leg both as a forward driving aid and as a sideways and bending aid. And as you try again to improve uphill balance remember that the hand cannot raise the forehand. The hand can control the height of the horse’s head, and thus can create absolute elevation (or shortening of the neck, or curling of the neck), but the shoulders will come up only to the extent that the hand works in conjunction with the leg in recycling the energy that the horse offers in response to the leg.

Similarly with negative dissociation, the disruption of the rhythm resulting from a half halt held too long or applied at the wrong point in the stride can result in the separation of the second beat of the canter into two beats. This can also happen as the result of laziness or weakness on the horse’s part. In that case the problem can be corrected simply by riding the horse forward. If that doesn’t work, the problem again is most likely the coordination of the rider’s aids. As when trying to correct elevation problems, first the rider must sit quietly and relaxed, and then make sure that the horse responds appropriately to the leg. To avoid disrupting the horse’s rhythm with the rein it can be helpful to rest your hands on the front of the saddle to keep them perfectly still. Then as the horse becomes rounder in response to the driving aids the rhythm should improve. Note that negative dissociation may be accompanied by either absolute elevation with the horse’s head up in the air, clearly inverted, nose stuck out excessively in front of the vertical, or by shortening or curling of the neck. In the former case the horse has refused to accept the contact by becoming rigid; most likely the rider felt the horse become tense when it made contact and mistakenly gave, allowing the horse to expand its tension into a longer frame. This horse needs to be ridden forward to the contact, and the rider needs to accept the contact the horse offers. In the latter case the horse has rejected the contact by staying behind it, most likely because the rider abused the contact by taking past the point of contact. For this horse the rider must give and drive the horse forward out to the contact.

So although the terms elevation and dissociation sound abstract, they refer to very real issues that we all encounter to some extent in every ride. No horse walks out of its stall ready to go down the centerline, so it is our job as riders, as we ride through the stages of each horse’s warmup, to be aware of the ways in which that process can go right or wrong at any point, and to make sure we have a plan for guiding the horse in the right direction and making appropriate corrections when the plan fails to achieve the desired result.

© 2020 Shan Lawton