From Forward-Down to Lifted-Up: Why True Elevation Emerges — It Is Never Taken

There is a moment in training when the horse begins to feel taller from the inside, not because you asked for lift, but because the body finds throughness and connection.The back starts to breathe.The ribcage organizes.The movement flows more freely through the whole body.

This is not yet elevation.It is the first sign that the body is capable of offering more lift and carrying power later — a quiet readiness that precedes true upward balance.

In our October PIB Theory Snacks Lecture, we explored how these early reorganizations evolve into real elevation over time:not by shaping posture, but by shaping balance, flow, and the conversation between the frames.

🌱 Connection and Throughness: Where the Journey Begins

Before anything can rise, the body needs freedom to organize itself under the rider.

• The back needs to swing and respond

• The rhythm needs to breathe

• The topline needs room to lengthen

• The ribcage needs to move with elasticity

• The breath needs to stay open

A braced horse — mentally or physically — cannot reorganize upward.

That is why the early work is simple and profoundly important:

lengthen → soften → follow → allow

Not to make the horse long, but to give the system the space to work as a coordinated whole.

When relaxation meets clarity and balance, the horse begins to carry movement, not escape it — and the body prepares for the next step.

🔄 From Forward-Down to Forward-Forward: The Reorganization That Prepares Lift

Forward-down is not a frame.It is a conversation that creates the first meaningful wave of energy through the body.

Its purpose is not to go low, but to create:

• more elasticity

• more rhythm

• more freedom through the back

• more honesty in the connection

From this place, something subtle starts to change:

• the ribcage steadies and organizes

• the hind legs grab forward more evenly

• the thoracic sling begins to participate

• the topline sends energy forward-and-inward, not only outward

• the balance becomes more horizontal and available

This phase — forward-forward — is neither down nor up.It is the zone where the horse becomes ready for shaping, ready for strength, ready for lift.

This is the precondition for elevation, not elevation itself.

🌀 When Energy Begins to Rise Through the Body

As the balance improves, the same forward energy transforms:

• hind legs push into the ground with better timing

• the abdominal wall engages to support and channel force

• the thoracic sling starts to lift the chest

• the withers feel like they carry forward rather than fall

• the neck telescopes with freedom

• the whole body begins to feel light through the middle, not light in the bridle

The energy reorganizes through the body.

This creates the first upward tendency —a buoyancy, a gentle clarity, a stability that feels like the movement wants to climb from within.

But we still wouldn’t call this elevation.

It is the body preparing itself to offer lift organically.

🎼 True Elevation: When Structure and Freedom Meet

Elevation appears only when:

• the hind legs push into the ground with power and stability

• the core catches and redirects that power

• the ribcage organizes without bracing

• the thoracic sling lifts with ease

• the rhythm stays elastic

• the connection breathes

• the horse can offer more lift without tension or effort

Elevation is not a posture.

It is the horse lifting from the inside out, offering more lift and carrying power through a supple, breathing body.

This is where collection grows — quietly, confidently, without force.

🔁 Touch & Out Again: The Art That Protects Elasticity

True lift cannot be held.If we stay too long:

• elasticity fades

• the hind legs lose their “grab”

• the wave through the back breaks

• the movement becomes effort rather than power

That is why elevation grows through a dance:

touch → out again → touch → out again

Short alternations between:

• forward-forward (organizing)

• forward-up (lift)

• forward-down as a brief release (not collapsing)

This keeps the entire body:

• connected

• breathing

• balanced

• supple

• mentally willing

Strength and collection develop through conversations, not through positions.

🎨 Lateral Work: Expanding the Alphabet of Balance

For many horses, lateral work plays an essential role in preparing the body for lift.

Lateral work:

• frees the ribs

• clarifies the shoulders

• refines balance

• improves coordination

• helps the hind legs carry and swing

• gives you more “letters” to shape posture and organize movement

Sometimes lateral work opens doors long before forward-up can.

There is no single path — each horse reveals what its body needs.

🌬 The Feel of a Body Ready for Elevation

Before lift appears, you already feel its signature:

• breath becomes fuller

• rhythm becomes quieter and more powerful

• the body stays connected in both directions

• the contact vibrates with life

• the horse begins to shape the movement from within

• the topline feels open in both length and lift

This readiness is the clearest sign of progress.

❤️ Elevation Is the Horse’s Answer — Not Our Question

True elevation is offered, not achieved.

It is the horse saying:

“I feel strong. “I feel organized. “I can carry us both. “I trust this dialogue.”

When this moment arrives, training becomes art —movement becomes communication, not technique.