Denise O'Reilly & The Dressage Secret

30/10/2025

Beautifully presented for our Saturday training session!
Love these gorgeous soft colours.
Their work today was definitely up to scratch too!


❤️

30/10/2025

This gorgeous pair are now absolutely smashing it at Elementary.
Making plans now to develop the Medium work and start those flying changes!
Danni Nicholson-Round is available for style advice and wardrobe matching too! 😆

29/10/2025

Oh, they know when they have been good!
Lovely Timone looking very pleased with himself after smashing his leg yields today whilst staying nice and forwards.
Big deal for his Mum, Wendy Press who has worked very hard on this!

26/10/2025

A few years ago, we rescued a very timid 4 year old 14hh pony, hoping that we could give him a good life and a loving home.
We named him Jimmy.
He was VERY afraid of any human contact, and our progress together was the slowest we had ever made - in fact, it was hard to really know if we had made any progress at all.
As the weeks turned into months, I began to feel that this pony was never going to see us as 'his people'.
And I decided to find him a new home to see if he would chose to be with someone else.
There were several viewings - bear in mind, we couldn't lead him, touch him, or even look at him too long before he would freak out - lots of kind, good -hearted people, who felt sorry for him, and pledged to love him always.
I said no to them all.
Because he didn't chose ANY of them.
Then along came a lady called Laura Nelmes, and her daughter, looking for a project they could produce for themselves - hopes were that he would eventually make a good pony club all- rounder.
Well, Laura walked into the stable, and as usual, Jimmy frozen.
And then something magical happened.
He turned to sniff her, and then let her touch him...
Laura was calm, experienced, and absolutely perfect.
20 minutes later Jimmy followed her calmly onto the trailer.
We couldn't believe it!
Jimmy had found, and chosen his people.
I felt that our failure (yes, we all have them,) was going to be someone else's success.
Here is Jimmy with his young rider four and a half years later, living his best life.
Thank you Laura and your family.
What an incredible job you have done.

18/09/2025

31/08/2025

Such great fun working with these two! Rebekah is so disciplined as she fits training several horses a day into her hectic horsey life.

28/08/2025

I'm getting to ride CJ quite a bit at the moment, whilst his real Mum is off for a week.
Stef Eardley wanted us to work on something that would help her too, especially with his engagement and balance.
So today we use an exercise that we have nicknamed 'crab - walking' (so much more fun than the fancy names!) to begin the idea of some Special Little Steps.
I was letting him out in front too much, but still, I loved the feeling when we got it!
Good boy CJ, he was very proud of himself. ❤️

13/08/2025

This...is riding. Absorb every word. It will transform not just your journey, but your destination

The Art of Producing the High-Level Horse

In today’s world, where goals are king, results are worshipped, and egos often take the reins, we’ve lost touch with something essential: the art of the journey. The quiet, thoughtful process of developing a horse, not just for performance, but for partnership.

Too often, the pursuit of high-level training becomes a checklist of movements, an external badge of status. Grand Prix as the pinnacle. Piaffe, passage, pirouette all proof of success. But we rarely stop to ask: Success by whose measure? And at what cost?

Because if a horse’s well-being were truly at the centre of our goals and not just a footnote in our mission statements our training would look radically different. It would move slower. It would feel softer. It would sound quieter. And it would be far more beautiful.

Producing a high-level horse is not about simply teaching them the movements required on a score sheet. It’s about cultivating a horse who is sound in body, stable in mind, and joyful in spirit. It’s about shaping one who offers those movements willingly, expressively, even playfully. Not as a result of pressure, punishment, or the clever placement of aids that corner them into compliance but from a place of physical readiness and emotional trust.

And this……….this is where the art comes in!

Imagine dressage as a painting. Each training session is a brushstroke, delicate, deliberate, layered. The impatient artist might throw out the canvas at the first mistake. But the true artist? They work with the paint, blend it, adjust it, stay curious. They know that beauty often lives in the imperfection, in the subtle corrections, in the layers of time and care.

The same is to be said in riding: the art lies not in domination, but in dialogue. Every stride, every transition, every still moment is part of an evolving composition. The rider’s aids are not commands but questions; the horse’s responses are not obedience but answers. Together, you create something greater than the sum of its parts.

The highest levels of dressage are not the goal. They are the byproduct of a thousand conversations, a thousand small moments where the rider listens, adjusts, supports, and receives. When done well, Grand Prix is not a performance. It is the horse’s voice, amplified through movement.

To produce a horse to that level is to understand that their body is not a tool, but a home. Their mind, not a machine, but a mirror. Their spirit, not a resource, but a companion.

This is not just training a horse
It is stewardship.
It is art
And it begins not with ambition,
but with reverence.

03/08/2025

Did you know that 'bending the horse around your inside leg' is only physically possible for the horse if their front legs / shoulders have stepped out onto the circle / bend line first.
The feeling the rider gets then is that a groove 'appears' by the girth, that your inside leg can 'squish' into, creating a softening and 'rolling through' (to the outside) of the horse's ribcage, giving the feeling of a uniform bend.
In today's lesson with Pru and Baby, one of our lovely TDS horses, they learned this together.
The 2 stills are the start of the lesson and the end.

01/08/2025

Nurturing young talent has to be one of the most rewarding things in my career.
I have been coaching Gracie Stanbrook for about a year now - and boy, is she talented!
At just 14 years old, she rides with such empathy and feel, and she works so hard for her success.
Super proud of this pair!

27/07/2025

I still can't jump off, because my arm can't fully stretch up after the shoulder surgery...so my gorgeous Coco helps me out by reversing into the ramp space. The 'shhh' sound means 'step back' and this means less reliance (soon to be no reliance) on the rein.
He has learned that his shoulder needs to be close to the ramp so I can get off.
And he loves the 'good boy' that goes with it!