LA GUÉRINIÈRE’S “SQUARE”

The horse in the rassembler showed the degree of balance achieved in his training by working on a square of small dimensions, passaging on the sides, and piaffing in the corners. The terre à terre (a verycollected canter in two beats and often on two tracks, used to prepare the airs) is transformed into quarter pirouettes or into quarter reverse pirouettes in the corners. They worked on the square this way to confirm the horse to the aids, to determine the bend to give the horse in the voltes (always on two tracks in the old terminology), and to refine the dressage of an already advanced horse. On one square they exercised in ordinary voltes, on another square the reverse voltes. On the first, the horse moved with the hindquarters on the sides of the squares so that the forehand moved on parallel tracks outside of the square. In the corners, the hind legs moved in place so that the shoulders described a quarter of a circle. This is what the French called embracing the volte. They practiced the contrary on the reverse voltes, that is to say that the forehand moves on the sides of the square, the hindquarters travelling on an outside track parallel to the sides of the square and in the corners, the forelegs move in place while the croup describes a quarter of a circle on the outside. -Excerpt from Dom Diogo de Brangance's Dressage in the French Tradition. Available for September 2011 shipping HERE

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