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  Discussion on The Piaffe movement
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 1, 2001 - 4:44 pm:

Can anyone give me more details on the Piaffe movement? (Trotting on the spot)

Posted on Thursday, Aug 2, 2001 - 2:32 pm:

What kind of details?

Posted on Thursday, Aug 2, 2001 - 11:45 pm:

Hello, Anthony,

Are you familiar with Dominique Barbier from California? He is a French Classical Dressage trainer who gives clinics around the country and has a few videos and a book that explain the basics of teaching piaffe and sideways movement.

He starts teaching piaffe from the ground, using a dressage whip to tap the legs of the horse and get the movement of the legs, while asking with the bit for the horse to stay still. The videos are wonderful. Mine are out on loan right now or I would send you Dominique's address so you could write to him. I also loaned out my book and cannot remember who has it. I can tell you that the videos are available by mail order from "Back in the Saddle," 570 Turner Drive, Suite D, Durango, CO 81301. Their phone # at BITS is 800-865-2478. Their web site is www.backinthesaddle.com

I wish I could give you better information, but hope this will give you another option.
Holly

Posted on Friday, Aug 3, 2001 - 1:56 pm:

The AHSA web site has their own rules and the FEI rules on line. You can read the definition of piaffe by the AHSA and FEI.

Get to the FEI rules from here and search on piaffe once you read them in:

https://www.horsesport.org/fei/reference/reference_03/ref_03_02.html

As far as doing it, the horse had to be properly prepared which takes a great deal of time, tact and skill.

Once the horse is ready to be taught piaffe, it can be done on the ground or under saddle. But it takes someone who knows what to do directing the teaching. Some people think passage should be taught before piaffe and others think the opposite. Some people start in hand and may test a younger horse before waiting until they are entirely ready, so as to determine if there is natural talent for piaffe.

Trying to learn how to teach piaffe and teaching it to the horse at the same time is not a good idea at all. Even people that know piaffe, work with a second person to start a horse in piaffe.

The Spanish Riding School horses have piaffe and passage in their repetoire if you can't find the tapes mentioned by Holly.

I would bet "The Miracle of the White Stallions" - a Walt Disney classic, has a bit of piaffe as well as other advanced dressage movements in it.

"My Horses, My Teachers" is a very interesting read about learning to understand and train horses - not how to book, but an approach and real experiances. It is by Alois Podhajsky, Director of the Spanish Riding School for a long period of time.

There is so much to cover re piaffe - preparation of horse, what makes a good piaffe, teaching a horse piaffe, learning to ride piaffe, etc. That is why I had asked you to be a little more specific.

Cheers.
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