The pistons and camshafts--Understanding "why" an animal is able to do what we teach it.

We must always remember that true collection is not part of an answer but all of the answer. It is a combination of all of the abilities of the horse put together in one package and nowhere is this as true as when we look at these two terms of relative and absolute elevation. A correct piaffe with a relative elevation of the whole forehand is illustrated above.
If we take a measuring stick and measure our horse, then we have him piaffe correctly, and measure him while he is doing it, will he be of the same height? Apart from it being hard to tell because the horse actually moves some in the piaffe, I would say that he should be higher in front in the piaffe, without comparing it to the hindquarters. A horse of 16 hands will be 16.1 in the piaffe. The forehand will actually be in absolute elevation.

Relative elevation, a lowering of the croup so the withers look higher is a by-product of collection. The weight-bearing hind legs relieve the front legs of some load, and the forehand lifts some. This is so because of how the shoulders attach the front legs of the horse to the body.
The front legs are not attached to the body with any kind of joint. There are, of course, joints between the forearm and the humerus, and between humerus and shoulder blade. Some people think of the humerus and the shoulder blade as parts of the body of the horse, but you will soon begin to think of them differently. The drawing above shows a skeletal view of the horse from the front. The shoulder blades are yellow , the humerus is green and the forearm is blue. The thorax also happens to be blue in this drawing, but I'm sure you can tell them apart. The red parts are the muscles that the thorax rests in, slung between the shoulder blades. This is the only thing that connects the front legs to the chest of the horse. This is reinforced by tendons in some places. The horse has no collar bone.
A flat and contracted piaffe

If the forelegs were relieved of some weight, the chest might not rest so heavily in the sling, and the withers might rise some. It is even so, that if you piaffe a horse of 16 hh correctly, and then measure his height after he has stopped and is again at halt, he will still be higher. This because the muscles of the shoulder sling have been given a slight relief of the load, and regained some tone to hold the chest up.

So, in collection the horse elevates his forehand relative to the lowered quarters as well as absolutely in comparison to its normal height. This because the haunches lower some, and this relieves the forehand, and the forehand will then rise. Both changes take place, but of course the lowered haunches and the bending and loading of the hind legs in all joints is the cause, and the rise of the forehand is the effect.

True collection embodies both relative and absolute collection. Perhaps this is where part of the confusion arises when people try to evaluate or train for collection.

True collection requires everything that the horse has to give us. Both relative and absolute elevation is the final goal of the true equestrian. It is within both that we find the true beauty of every piece of the equestrian art that we work for everyday. There are those who go for absolute elevation without anything else, and have found the false collection that we see so much of.


I first noticed an elevation of the front end in a piaffe, that I had never noted before when I watched Dianne school Fire Magic. It intrigued me, and this is what I have been able to find out about the phenomena of "true collection." Now I look for it in every horse that supposedly does "piaffe."