"Hello, could you please explain to me the method to get a horse to elevate the trot?"

H&C blogger and dressage rider Alice Oppenheimer replies: “Teaching a horse to elevate the trot is not too difficult to do. If a horse has a good canter and a good walk then you are able to produce the trot to make it more expressive than the horse’s natural gait, a prime example of this would be Totilas! The elevation in a horse’s trot will naturally improve as the way of going becomes more advanced and the horse becomes stronger but there are exercises to help this development. One exercise is putting in a lot of transitions within the trot itself, so moving the trot from a working trot to a few medium strides and then back again and gradually the horse will start to put more elevation into the exercise. Another way to help is by having a schooling whip and using it to tap the horse on top on its hindquarters which helps the horse to quicken and elevate the hind leg which will bring elevation into the trot.”