What is Impulsion?
Impulsion is the transmission of controlled, propulsive energy generated from the hindquarters into the athletic movement of the horse. That is the FEI definition used here for the general equestrian meaning of the term.
In the horse, that means energy generated by the hindquarters is transmitted through the body into the movement. When any part of that chain is missing, the horse may still be going somewhere, but it is not showing impulsion.
I · Impulsion Is Not Speed¶
A horse can travel fast with very little impulsion. It runs, flat and long, pushing itself along on the forehand. A horse can also show a great deal of impulsion at a slow tempo, gathering and springing with the energy contained rather than spent.
Speed tells you how much ground is being covered. Impulsion tells you how much energy is being generated behind and how much of it reaches the movement.
You can see the difference from the ground. Watch a horse in trot and ignore how fast it is going. Look for whether the hind foot pushes off with real energy, whether the back swings rather than stiffens, and whether the horse springs clear of the ground between the diagonal pairs. A horse with impulsion has a moment of suspension you can see. A horse hurrying along may barely leave the ground at all.
II · Where Impulsion Lives in the Paces¶
Impulsion belongs to the trot and the canter.
The walk has no moment of suspension. All four feet come to the ground separately and at least two are down at any moment, so the springing quality impulsion describes has nowhere to appear. Judges assess the walk on its regularity, its freedom and the ground it covers, not on impulsion.
Read next The paces
III · How Impulsion Is Judged¶
In Working Equitation, impulsion is one of the five collective marks awarded at the end of the Working Dressage test. The five are Paces, Impulsion, Submission, Rider and Artistic.
The collective mark lets the judge assess impulsion across the test as a whole. The judge scores each movement of the test as it happens, then steps back and marks the qualities that run underneath all of them. Impulsion is one of those. A test can be accurate throughout and still lose marks here, because accuracy and energy are different things.
In the obstacle trials it is not marked under its own name, but the same quality decides a good deal. A horse without energy behind cannot gather for a tight turn around a barrel, cannot leave the gate promptly once the latch is closed, and cannot open its stride again on departure without rushing.
IV · Impulsion in the Classical Training Scale¶
The classical training scale used across dressage names six elements in order: rhythm, suppleness, contact, impulsion, straightness, collection. Impulsion sits fourth, after suppleness and contact and before straightness and collection.
V · Where Impulsion Sits in the Alvará Scale¶
Alvará develops the horse through the Structural Training Scale, which organises this part of development differently.
Impulsion is not one of the six stages of the Structural Training Scale. The six are Forward Tendency, Symmetrical Alignment, Four-Point Balance, Hindquarter Engagement, Forehand Elevation and Collection.
The two frameworks describe the horse from different angles. The classical scale includes impulsion as one of its elements. The Alvará scale instead begins with Forward Tendency and then follows the horse's structural organisation through five further stages.
The Alvará Scale begins with Forward Tendency, which describes something different.
Forward Tendency is the horse's willing intention to travel through the stride and toward the rider's request. It is energy offered and sustained by the horse, rather than energy repeatedly extracted by the rider. A horse has it when it answers a light forward aid without delay and continues until another aid changes the instruction. Impulsion describes the energy in the movement, and can be seen and marked. Forward Tendency describes where that energy is coming from and whether the horse is offering it. A horse may show energetic movement while still requiring the rider to recreate that energy repeatedly. Forward Tendency asks whether the horse continues to offer the forward intention after the aid has been given.
Read next The Structural Training Scale
VI · Moving and Carrying¶
A horse can feel full of energy behind. The hind legs can move quickly, the horse can feel eager to go, and the forehand can still become heavier with every stride.
That gives College Members another distinction to learn.
Movement and carrying describe different things. A hind leg can be active without yet carrying enough weight to make the forehand lighter.
That changes what the rider looks for. More activity behind becomes useful when the horse can organise that activity through the body and use the hindquarters to carry.
The distinction also gives impulsion more context. The visible energy is one part of the picture. What the horse is able to do with that energy tells the rider more about the work developing underneath it.
For Members, Branch Two follows that question into the horse's body: where carrying begins, what changes as it develops and how the movement in front starts to reflect it.