The piaffe calls for balance, harmony and lightness. Some horses find it easy while others find it complicated. The same can be said of riders, but in the end it is a wonderful exercise to master.

The FEI dressage rule definition of the piaffe is: “Piaffe is a highly collected, cadenced, elevated diagonal movement, giving the impression of remaining in place. The horse’s back is supple and elastic. The hindquarters are lowered; the haunches with active hocks are well engaged, giving great freedom, lightness and mobility to the shoulders and forehand.”

The piaffe is basically trot on the spot. It is one of the movements introduced at Medium tour where it is allowed to move forward; and then in Grand Prix it is “in place” (on the spot), which takes a huge degree of finesse, energy and balance. It carries a lot of marks at the Grand Prix level, and it is also a combination movement with passage where the transitions in and out of it are marked separately.

In the Grand Prix Special, it is also done from the walk to piaffe, and so it is that the piaffe is of the utmost importance to train well as it has a huge bearing on the marks at this level. Not only for the marks, but for building balance and strength, and it is said to help with activity and the canter. If trained incorrectly it can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the walk.

It is also a movement that many riders find difficult and, through too much pressure, create huge tension and resistances in a movement that is simply an excited horse trotting on the spot. It is really a very active and energetic jog and most horses don’t find that hard and the excitable ones find it easy. It is just a matter of channelling the horse’s energy into understanding the aids and the concept.

There is no real time frame about when to start training the piaffe. It is an exercise that some horses find easy as anything and others find it very complicated. A horse that has a tendency to want to jog instead of walk is obviously an easy candidate for the piaffe. There is no definite time or age when to start the piaffe, and really, the training for the piaffe starts with every transition from trot to walk and walk to trot, as it’s about being on the bit, through and over the back and learning to come back with active shortened steps. So, when you think of it like this and say as you collect the trot more and more, “I am not going to let you walk yet”. Just stay active and with super short steps, then ride forward again or keep short steps and melt into collected walk.

A lot of experienced trainers start the piaffe in hand and it is easy if you are experienced and you have a good feel for work in hand. If it is foreign to you and you need to start in hand, it’s best to take your horse to a professional trainer to start this work as it is not easy to undo bad habits – it’s always best to start the best way with a really experienced trainer.

I will never forget Christopher Bartel’s response when asked by a fairly novice dressage rider who was probably not at a level to tackle piaffe. He explained to her, “If you go out on a ride with your friends, and after some way from home all turn around, the one learning the piaffe needs to walk and the others all trot off down the road. You will soon find your horse has a piaffe!” This was said in joke manner, but it does give the concept of piaffe. The horse really needs to be a little excited and want to really get going but you are not allowing him to run back to the others, and so the forward desire, the energy and the not allowing to move too forward, all combine to what piaffe is about!

You can introduce piaffe – or ‘half steps’ as they are called in the beginning – from trot or walk. Out of walk you must be sure to be well warmed up and have very sharp responses from collected walk to trot and back. You must then be able to slow the speed across the ground of the walk to one hoofprint in front of the other so it’s a teeny-tiny walk and the horse must always be in front of you. The ultimate energy and activity within that very shortened walk will go to piaffe, BUT it isn’t like walk to a forward trot as in a walk-to-trot transition; you must keep collecting the walk and have a feeling the horse gets excited and wants to jog and you keep the half halts collecting and energising until the piaffe steps happen.

It’s important here not to get excited and feel a few steps and go crazy praising and stopping, as they learn to do a step or two and keep stopping. It is always the decision of the rider to stop the piaffe by either a forward transition to trot or a very, very collected transition to the shortest walking steps again – never to halt when first thinking of the half steps.

If you are going to introduce the half steps from the trot, then it’s important to make sure that your horse is super aware of your leg to create energy and not to become flat-footed. Again, keep the horse round as you collect the steps and the frame should not get longer over the topline, but become more compressed. As soon as he leans and wants to get long, you need to address this. Self-carriage and light to the bridle is important – but not becoming so light that there is no connection.

Keep the leg still and light and keep half-halts to compress the steps and feel that the horse comes under your seat more with the hind leg, and mentally say to him, “I dare you to walk”. If he does, then give a little sharp reminder with the leg not to quit and again go back to half steps. A few at a time, a reward and a forward trot again. It is not about a lot of steps; it is about the realisation of engagement, balance and staying in the two-beat rhythm.

It is helpful to have a cluck that you use as a cue for the short steps, and this cluck needs to be a different sounding cluck to what you use when training the passage. Voice cues are always helpful and you must keep the horse sensitive to the cluck and never let him not react to it. The cluck should jolt a reaction as a touch with the spur or tap with the whip would.

If you are getting someone to help you on the ground, the aid from the ground with the long whip should be tactful and only EVER used when the rider’s aid was not effective; otherwise, when the person on the ground retreats, the horse doesn’t piaffe. It’s the rider who initiates the reactions followed by the reminder from the trainer.

A good piaffe will see the hind feet come to about the height of the opposite hind fetlock and the front hoof to the mid cannon bone. People often reward a piaffe that has active hindlegs, but you have to make sure that the haunches are lowering and the forehead is raised. Active hindlegs with low forehand and front hooves is not engaged and is not a good piaffe. Similarly, not leaving the ground with the hind feet and exaggerated forelimbs is also not a well executed piaffe.

Piaffe is a great exercise and is really not a complicated movement to train. Persistence and using the same aids all the time is key. Get help with experienced eyes on the ground and wait for the horse to produce it. It’s never done by force. A really dull horse will need plenty of exercises to keep him interested and almost hot before doing half steps.

Enjoy the journey! EQ

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