German dressage team member, Ingrid Klimke, talks about one of the fundamental truths of dressage… with the assistance of her current Grand Prix star, the Hanoverian stallion, and successful Grand Prix competitor, Franziskus FRH…

“The hindlegs must be energetic under the centre of gravity, that means the hindquarters get much more muscle, the back gets so much stronger, and the horse really shows himself. The horse has to have energy from behind, the motor is the hindlegs.”

At the time of this photo session, Franziskus was only five years old…

“I don’t want to see a spectacular trot, just active hind legs and the movement going over the back to the rider’s hand. I like to use the snaffle at home and save the double bridle for the show, but we also have to get the horses used to the double, so we can warm-up in a double at home sometimes.”

“It is so important that you do a proper warmup and make sure everything is loose and supple, then give a walk break – and then you can start sitting, and say okay, you have stretched down as far as you can, and need. Then I can be very strict and say, okay the poll is the highest point, the nose must be in front of the vertical because what I want is the hind leg engaged underneath.”

“If the horse is too far down, then where will the hind legs be? We must always think that the hindlegs are sitting, so the horse can be in balance and in its natural self-carriage – natural self-carriage means the more advanced he is, the more schooled he is, the more he can sit on his hocks, the shorter he will look.”

“Later in the piaffe we will see him higher in the front and lower behind, but for a five-year-old, this is his natural look. He is quite short naturally, he is quite a compact horse and with him you must be sure when you sit on him, that he has freedom in the front to present. If the front is tight, and he is short behind the saddle, then the horse would be totally tight, and the back one day would be blocked because he would be holding himself hollow.”