Thoughts on Collection

In the old Californio method the horse should be gathered up or collected before any change,turn, stop,etc.  Many today seem to have collection confused with headset,here are some of my thoughts about the difference.

Collection is simply a shortening or gathering of the entire horse,where the horse comes up and in to the rider with roundness of the top line not down and away with their nose tucked. Evan's horse in the picture has a degree of collection ...

as it's not strung out,to ask a green horse for more collection then it's body can handle is not a very good idea for more then very short periods of time until they develop the strength necessary to maintain it. Different breeds also develop different kinds of collection,we always see people bringing up pictures of Spanish bred horses as an Ideal for collection when most of those horses are built with that type high neck and roundness from the start. Where many of our Q.H. types are not and it takes much more time and care to develop. Another thing you see is horses that are framed up pretty nice but the collection they have dose not go all the way to the ground or feet when a rider gathers a horse up the action of the feet should slow and the energy in the legs should become more up and in then out and away.IMO there is no reason to gather a horse up unless the change go's all the way to the ground. In this style I feel it's important not to try and hold the horse in collection,rather keep showing them the value of it to them, until they start to look for it and look for the balance in our hackamores and spade bit that will reward them for finding it.