Recent Articles

Riding is like a marriage between the horse and rider. Don’t let the familiarity trick you into doing the same things over and over.

Stay quiet with your aids and let the exercise teach the horse.

Every time you begin a Dressage test at a show, make sure you think about making a good first impression with a forward, confident center line, and a smile for the judge! 

Some people misunderstand the term "on the forehand," which refers to the shoulders being down and the hind legs out behind the horse, regardless of where his head and neck are positioned. A low head and neck does not mean a horse is on the forehand, any more than a high head carriage means collection.

Lots of little changes of frame in your Dressage warmup… a little stretching, a little up, and repeat… can help your horse to come more through his body.

Let your plan be... to change and adapt your plan as much as necessary on course. Ultimately, you ride the horse, and not the plan.

Long slow distance work is an important part of the conditioning program for every horse. But it is especially important for older and young horses. Older horses need to keep limber, and young horses need to build a base level of tendon, ligament, and bone strength.

The rider's leg is for adding energy, and their seat governs the length of the horse's stride.

Riders often tend to forget their outside leg in the equation of the bending aids. If you want to achieve true bend in the horse's ribcage, your outside leg must keep the hindquarters on the track.

All horses are naturally crooked to at least some degree. Good, correct Dressage training should eventually fix this however.

"The better the rider’s balance in the saddle, the better the communication. There are two things the rider must be – balanced, and supple. The less good the rider’s seat, then the more often the rider is in the saddlery shop buying new saddles, new stirrups. The rider has to find his balance in the saddle, not being held in position by a saddle in which you cannot move." ~ Christoph Hess

Transitions act as a test of your connection, and your horse's balance. If the quality of your connection is lacking as you begin a transition, it will be particularly evident as you execute it.

"I think it is most useful if you ask yourself if you could release one or two reins at any time during your ride. If you can, then you are on your way to self-carriage." ~ Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel

"You can influence a horse, but you're never *really* in control.” ~ Chris Bartle

Push yourself away from your hands, instead of bringing your hands back to you. 

"Make him proudly independent of you so that he understands his job so well you merely walk the course and then show him the way. Tell your horse what you want him to do, and then allow him to do it." ~ Jimmy Wofford

"Don’t get drunk on speed." ~ Jimmy Wofford

"Let the neck fall down, don’t pull it down, create a situation in which the horse wants to let go his body and relax his neck." ~ Johan Hamminga

The horse's jaw unlocks when their back muscles relax and begin to swing with the movement.

"Not all of us are lucky enough in our lifetime to have great horses. When you do get one, it's just the best feeling in the world." ~ Carl Hester

If you follow your horse's mouth with a truly consistently elastic feel, they will learn to trust your hand so fully, that they will lose the desire to escape it.

Keep your leg aids light. Too much leg becomes something similar to white noise. It is unfair to expect your horse to hear your aid above the noise.

"We must be careful when making the horse straight not to bend it in front of the withers. We must not loosen the muscles in front of the withers for we need to build them up on either side of the neck so it is steady in front of the withers." ~ Reiner Klimke

A horse will respond best to an aid when the rider has the ability to give it smoothly and within the rhythm of the horse's stride.

It is quite common for riders to accidentally teach their horses undesirable behavior by releasing the pressure of an aid at the wrong time. Be mindful of only reinforcing behavior that you actually want.

“When you don't have a confident position, it’s saying to people you don’t believe in yourself. So sit up, shoulders back, chin high, and ride your best test.” ~ Robert Dover

"I like to think about making my body longer in the front to make me sit up instead of thinking ‘shoulders back,’ which can make you stiff." ~ Mary King

"Get comfortable with centerlines. We ride centerlines all the time in dressage, so make them your friend. Remember, nothing changes on centerline." ~ Steffen Peters

"Imagine hanging a wet towel over your horse's back. The pressure of your leg aids needs to be similar to the pressure of the towel on the sides of your horse. Your horse should go on his own with this passive leg aid, and if he does not, you need to give him a firmer reminding aid." ~ Steffen Peters

When a horse has true impulsion, they become easy to steer and keep straight. And being able to perform perfect geometrical figures (the ability to be straight on curved lines) proves your ability to maintain a consistent level of impulsion.

Square turns aid in building improved balance and collection, whether dressage or jumping.

"Flexibility and self-carriage are the source of the horse's agility. Good turns, which develop its agility, are obtained only by making the horse flexible, putting it into balance, and thus giving it self-carriage. This involves not merely the lateral flexion of the entire spinal column but more so the flexibility of the hind legs. Only the latter enables the horse to perform quick and reliable turns under the rider, since the forehand is able to turn and change direction easily without danger for the health of its limbs only from the always secure support of the hindquarters." ~ Gustav Steinbrecht

There is no substitute for eyes on the ground when you are trying to improve your riding - whether that is in the form of an instructor on the ground, videos, or virtual coaching. Things often look very different than they feel.

The more you can leave your horse alone through gymnastic work, the more he will actually learn from it.

"You have to always ride up to an oxer-vertical combination." ~ McLain Ward

"I’m a big fan of ground lines. I think it teaches the horse to have better technique in front. Everything that we do is connected — the way we start on the cross rail to this, it all connects. We're building through our training." ~ McLain Ward

Tension meeting tension = double the tension. If your horse becomes tense, you must be able to stay relaxed, or you will make it worse.

Always be aware of the amount of tension you carry when riding, and whether you are breathing softly and evenly or holding your breath. Talking or humming quietly is a good way to ensure you keep breathing.

Riding shoulder in steps immediately before the half pass brings the inside hind leg deeper underneath the horse's body, to be a more solid balance point, which allows for a bigger lift and reach across with the legs on the outside of the horse's body. 

If you don't ride and train in such a way that your horse learns to listen to your seat, you will usually find that you have to use a lot more hand to get things done.

"Tempo enables dressage to become dancing. Rhythm is the regularity of the pace. Tempo is the speed of the pace." ~ Hilda Gurney

"First, [the rider] has to be ambitious. Mentally, he has to be well balanced and consistent. He has to be tougher on himself than on the horse. If he gets after the horse too much, he will not get far. One must really be able to push oneself harder than one ever pushes a horse. Then, success will follow." ~ Ernst Hoyos

If you don't give your horse something to do, he might give YOU something to do. Always have a plan for each ride, and keep your horse's mind engaged with YOUR plan.

True bending from nose to tail requires that the horse understands all three of these things: how to move away from lateral leg pressure, how to move into the connecting outside rein, and the aids for inside flexion.

Everyone feels like they have the one horse that is so different and unusual that conventional and classical methods will not work for them. But the truth is, the basic principles will work on 99% of horses. Yes, every horse should be treated as an individual. But classical principles still apply, and will still work... given enough time. 

If you and your horse have been having the same problem for a while, chances are the two of you have developed a set of reactions that serve to trigger each other's behavior. You will need to figure out what those are to get past it.

"When the rein back is started on demand and carried out without haste, it is a magnificent exercise which should be repeated frequently." ~  Nuno Oliveira

When the horse is at a level where they are ready for it, mixing up a few strides of shoulder in, a few of half pass, a few more of shoulder in, to a few steps of renvers is a great way to keep your horse sharp to your aids. It is also a great test of the horse's lateral balance.

When doing a turn on the haunches or a pirouette, the rider must keep their weight centered over the horse, with an engaged inside seat bone.

I see far too many riders (at all levels) letting their weight fall to the outside, which is a hindrance to their horse in those movements. Every step or two within the movement, think of sitting over and engaging your inside seat bone.