Well, they are both wrong. The qualities of movement and balance of a collected horse have long been appreciated by top Western trainers. They have taken the value of collection and added something to it - "self carriage." Frankly, you won't win at the top levels of reining, pleasure or most arena events without the benefits that collection offers your performance.

What is collection? It might be best to discuss what it "ain't" first. It has nothing to do with where the head is. It has nothing to do with breaking at the poll. It has nothing to do with the tightness or looseness of your rein.

Collection is a horse, whose muscles are relaxed, going forward, with impulsion, in a manner that allows him to drive with his hocks, elevate his shoulders, round his back from the tip of his tail to the base of his ears while remaining soft through his poll and jaw, and can carry that roundness and relaxation and impulsion through changes in speed and body position through a variety of tasks.

Relaxation of the muscles is a vital ingredient of collection. We are asking the muscles to stretch throughout the top line, and lift on the bottom line. These muscles cannot stretch if there is tension in them. Most muscle tension comes from fear, or the feeling that the horse must protect himself. It can come from anticipation of unpleasant things from the bit, spur, leg or outside influences. Regular visitors to this site have heard me harp on building trust in all your cues. This is the reason.

When these muscles are relaxed, the neck, jaw, poll and back remain soft and pliable without tension. When that is the case, the horse can be driven forward (impulsion) into a relaxed face. This engages his hocks and makes them work harder - transferring the center of balance towards the back end. The natural result of this action is a back that lifts up through the shoulders and rounds down through the neck and throughout the poll and jaw.

When this occurs, you can receive the impulsion that is coming through your horse's body into your hands. If your horse has remained relaxed, you will feel a light pressure on the bit as if your horse is, perhaps, balancing there. If this pressure becomes more than a light "feel", your horse has stiffened up and begun to lean on your hands. If it is too light, your horse has stiffened his jaw and is "hiding" behind the bit. If I were to translate that pressure into ounces, you might feel 4 or 5 ounces of pressure. If that pressure feels like 3 or 4 pounds, you are not getting relaxation. Your horse is leaning on you. If you feel no pressure at all, your horse is "hiding behind the bit."

When this occurs, you will have to continue to drive your horse forward. If you lose the impulsion, your horse will "stall out" because there is no tension in his body to keep him going forward. His forward energy will just die. At first, you will have to drive all the time. He will be working much harder to go the same pace. As your horse becomes accustomed to this, however, he will begin to carry himself with more impulsion of his own and less driving on your part.

As I said, the face will remain soft, if your horse is truly collecting. As you are driving him forward and receiving the energy into his face and through the reins, he will break or bend at the poll presenting you with a head position that is more or less vertical. If the head position is too far behind vertical, your horse is hiding from the bit. If it is too far in front of vertical, your horse is not truly collecting and using his back. He is probably stiff somewhere, and you can feel that in your hands.

Your horse's neck and head will probably drop below the line of the withers as your horse seeks to round to the fullest extent. That will depend, somewhat, on his conformation. You will also feel your horse come DOWN to seek the balance that the bit offers if you have him on a loose rein, and are not presenting the bit to him.

On all horses, English and Western, this is the position I want to teach my horse to collect. If you must raise your horse's head to go English, teach your horse to collect this way first. Then, begin to work on head position once you have a solid foundation on your horse at whatever position you want.

To teach my horse self-carriage in a collected manner, I will first be certain that my horse is comfortable going in a collected frame at all gaits. This may take some time on an older horse, but if you are starting a colt, this will just fit in with his training as part of the things that he does. I have started him in a way that he doesn't fear the cues, but he DOES respect them. My first attempt at collection will probably come on his first ride. I will introduce the rein cue to turn to the left (for example). I will combine the rein cue with a leg cue that will drive the horse forward into the rein, asking him to give to the left, but also, down through the poll. This teaches him to give to the rein in the direction I ask, but also through his body. He will naturally have to raise his back and relax the muscles through his neck to accomplish this. So, he has begun the kindergarten stage of a very sophisticated horse on his first ride by learning to position his body correctly and to accept the driving leg to help him achieve that position. This colt never has to unlearn these things when you teach them right in the first place.

The first time I ask my colt to back, I will push him forward into the bit. He doesn't know that the bit is bad ... so he has no reason to try to avoid it. I will wait for him to show relaxation through his poll and jaw and provide relief from the pressure. If I have taught him that the driving leg says to go somewhere, he will probably give me a step backwards by dropping his nose and neck and lifting his back to let the energy go through, away from the blocking action of the bit. I have the beginning of collection.

I got sidetracked there. Teaching your horse "self carriage". When your horse is able to go forward in all gaits (including speeding up and slowing down at all gaits and, perhaps two tracking or half passing), you can begin to teach your horse that he can carry himself without the benefit of your hands. This is a simple process, but it does take some time, and it requires that your horse be traveling straight and in balance.

Just throw some slack in the reins. At first, your horse will tend to get "strung out" and fall forward onto his forehand. When this happens, pick him up, drive him into the bit (always with a receiving hand) and repeat the process when he feels as if he is moving right. After you have repeated this process a few times, he will begin to carry his collection for a few steps, and that should begin to increase. It won't be long before he figures out that it is easier to stay collected than it is to get strung out and then have to collect again. He will gain some confidence that if he becomes "strung out" that you will correct him. His self-carriage should begin to last longer and longer. If you are working with a colt, this comes much quicker as you can teach him self-carriage in little bits and pieces throughout the process. It just happens as a natural part of the process rather than being taught as a 'THING" he has to do. It is just in there.

It can help to get this body position in the back up. I teach my colts to back squares and circles while maintaining a rounded back and soft neck and poll. I may back them five or six steps, then ask them to step their shoulders to the left while maintaining a rounded back, neck and poll and continuing backwards. It doesn't take them to long to like this feeling of balance because it allows them to move their shoulders around freely while the weight is transferred to the hind quarters. I will also ask them to back circles by leaving their shoulder up and moving the hip around in a circle. As this becomes a finished product, I will back circles by keeping the body on an arc (while rounded in a collected position) of the circle and moving the shoulders AND hips to maintain the arc of the circle.

Doing the back-up drills will help keep the shoulders and hips lateral (moving to one side or the other). This will be a major advantage to you when you begin to teach your horse such things as sliding stops, lead changes, spins and roll backs.

As your horse gets collected and is moving in a "self-carriage" mode, you will find that he will want to drop his head more and more. He will be trying to reach down to the bit to "lean on your hand" for balance in order to make his job easier. You can do what you want with this. If your are riding English, you might want to accept this action and begin to bring your horse's head up more.

The way I handle this depends on the horse. Some horses go better while balancing on the bit so, I will accept them there and let them stay on the bit. This is usually a horse whose training has instilled absolutely no fear of the bit. I know that if I move my hands, this horse will not tense up against the bit, but will go WITH THE PRESSURE rather than reacting against it. There is a fine line between your horse being on the bit, and leaning on you. If the horse is leaning on you, you must bump him off in a way that he can understand the difference between leaning on you and feeling for you. When this happens, your horse may get his head too low - down around his pasterns. You can adjust your rein to put the head where you want it.

Often, I will receive a horse to train who naturally tenses at the action of the rein on the bit (this is usually the result of a bad introduction to the bit in the first place). I will want to keep this horse in complete self-carriage on a loose rein. That way, he knows that the movement of the rein (if we are starting a turnaround for example) is not going to result in something that he has to fear. I avoid his negative reaction (that has been put in there, and can never be completely erased) by teaching him to move off the pressure of the rein rather than the pressure of the bit. His job is to move before the bit makes contact. I will have to be extremely cautious in my action of the reins in order to allow him to have the time to respond to the request I am about to make. If I haven't been able to get a horse through this problem, he is probably going to be a marginal performer at best. Soooo, I actually want my horse to be coming down on the bit on his own.

Now, what started off as self-carriage actually reverts back to my horse being on the bit, but he is placing himself on the bit. I can put him into a self-carriage mode (for a Western Pleasure class, for example) by bumping him back off the bit and insisting that he carry himself.

But, for reiners, I actually prefer that they come to the bit on their own. Through a reining pattern, they will tend to come on to the bit and then go off it a little - back and forth. This is the natural ebb and flow of their balance as they go through the pattern. For example: in a large fast circle, I will throw the reins to them a little more and ask them to stretch out and run, and they will usually raise up above the bit a little as they flatten out and motor around. But, as I sit down to go into a slow circle, I will shorten the reins, and give them a place to help them get on the bit and balance to collect for the change of speed.

In a spin, they will usually be standing there in the middle, staying a little bit above the bit. But, as I begin to move my reins, they should reach down and try to pick up what that rein movement is trying to tell them. As they begin the spin, they will probably stay there for a couple of strides, but then go off on their own as they are putting tremendous effort into the spin. All I want to do is to have them there so I can tell them where to get started. If I try to have them on the bit throughout the spin, my timing will be bad enough that I will get in their way. They are free to come and go as they please. They might actually come to the bit a time or two somewhere in the process of the spin to help them balance.

Boy, this sure gets convoluted and complicated doesn't it? Here, I started out talking about collection and wound up talking about other stuff. But, that is how inter-related everything is. You can't just work on one part. It all fits into a puzzle, and every single part of the puzzle is dependent on the other parts being right.

This collection thing is vital if you are going to make finished horses. For some of you, you might think it doesn't fit. That is OK. But, if I were running barrels, I would want my horse to be able to flatten out and run a hole in the wind, then come to my hands and collect and get in balance so he can balance on his hocks to go around the barrel. If I were roping the head end in team roping, I would want my horse to chase that cow, then round his back and roll on his hocks to turn that cow off to give my heeler the best shot. If I were a heeler, I would want my horse to round up and fold in half when I got my dally. This is where collection fits in.

If I were riding a Dressage horse, I would want my horse on the bit on his own. If you have to pull until your shoulders ache, your horse is either laying on your hands and letting you carry him, or he is so stiff that he is giving you the opposite of collection. Here is how you can find out. Just ride along in what you think is collection, then throw the reins away. The horse that is leaning on you will almost fall down. The one who is stiffening up into you will bolt away. The horse that is "in balance" won't change.