How I discovered "Throughness"

"Throughness" is something that is discussed in various Dressage articles, alongside the German training scale.  I'd heard the word many times, but never truly grasped it's meaning.

The other day I went to a clinic.  We were trotting along, just warming up our horses.  The coach looked at my lower leg and said "Your lower leg is moving, you're not balanced."  The coach pointed to another rider in the class "Look at her lower leg, it's not moving because she is balanced."  I looked at the other rider and sure enough, her lower leg was sitting as still as a wooden board in a door.

Then I looked down at my inside leg - yes it was moving.  Not a lot, but it was moving a bit.  Damn.  Then I looked at my outside leg - it was moving, but only a little bit.  "Winner, I thought, when we change rein the coach will see that I'm balanced".  But then we changed rein, and once again, my inside leg is moving, and my outside one is pretty much still.  Damn.  The coach never gets to see the outside leg.

I didn't argue with the coach at the time, but my intuition was screaming at me that after 30+ years of riding how can I possibly not be balanced in the trot.  I'm not the most talented rider, but I'm not the least talented either.

Over the next few rides I payed close attention to the movements of my lower leg.  One time, I was riding Dingo, and we were galloping up a track in the state forest.  I looked at my lower leg - dead still.  Still in the gallop, I inspected my lower leg more closely - definitely dead still.

The pony was powering along like a little red steam train, but eventually he slowed down to a trot.  A powerful trot.  A ground covering trot.  A trot with forward and purpose.  I looked at my leg - it was still.  I was jubilant.  I *knew* that I was balanced!!!

I rode on.

In that case, if I am balanced in the trot, then why was my leg moving while trotting Echo in the clinic.  I looked up and ahead of me and felt Dingo's trot.  I held my hands just above the wither, thumbs on top.  And I rode that trot, rising to every second beat.  I barely had to make an effort.  Dingo felt like a powerful engine, that was about to go "through" me, but he never actually did.  That "through" feeling was there with every stride.  And then the penny dropped ... that is why it's called "throughness".  Wow!

Did Echo feel like that in the clinic?  No.  Echo had felt like a flat tyre in the clinic.  Echo felt like I had to give him a little nudge every stride just to keep him going.  There was none of the energy, none of the forwardness, none of the engine.  No so called "throughness".