Third Level Friesian Gelding...

This guy was a complete sweetheart. He's trained to I1, his owner is riding at Third Level. Her big complaint was "Friesian neck", or how he likes to carry his head really upright, as Friesians are prone to do.

"A straight arm has no give" -Micheal Poulin

Push your hands DOWN as you rise in the trot; put your hands on the wither to maintain it as you get the feel for it (nearly every rider had problems with stiff elbows at the trot and canter)

When suppleing (7,1,7,1,7,1); keep the hand doing the suppling close to the neck, so that it is an indirect rein, pulling it far away from the neck is a wide opening hand; remember to close your inside leg and visualize a "falling down neck"

Tighten your tummy muscles as if doing a sit up; it slows the horse because it stills your hips, slowing the forward motion

You can do the suppleing on a quarter line leg yield

At the halt, maintain steady rein pressure, close calves, let horse pull the reins through your fingers as it reaches forward and down.

In the beginning Jane stood next to him and helped to encourage him to stretch down. In a very short time he was reaching his head down and out with just a squeeze of the legs and steady rein pressure.

Then, Jane had the rider try it at the walk, the response wasn't as immediate, or as noticeable, so she had the rider stop the horse while maintaining the pressure, let the reins slide as he reached, and asked him to walk forward again as he was reaching down.

"The transition can't be any better than the stride before the transition."