Leading Edge Dressage

01/22/2025

Wow!

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Bitless dressage allowed and nosebands and double bridles optional in new Danish rules

Read more via link below

01/21/2025

https://dressagetoday.com/events-archive/usdf-2025-trainers-conference-kicks-off/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1EqP5McV-1gKFj9KSKsse89PtNpsP3p00aTeOmuSVrIi8qNaaVxggow8M_aem_nVWMcR9dcqBCs8UWmg16qw

Christine Traurig and Monica Theodorescu help dressage trainers explore new teaching methods and training tips at the 2025 USDF Trainers' Conference.

01/21/2025

Day two has been wonderful so far. It’s wonderful to see the improvements with each horse/rider combination. Both instructors are talented instructors, I love how they are so positive and encouraging.

01/21/2025

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On a trip to the Netherlands this September for the Longines FEI/WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships in Ermelo, where I was grooming for my friend Alice Tarjan, I noticed some interesting horse-and-rider pairs—or rather, pairs that would be uncommon to see in the United States. European Ol...

01/20/2025

Up next… some interesting conversations

01/20/2025

Trying not to feel guilty for leaving hubby behind to oversee the farm during the snowstorm. Day one of FEI symposium was wonderful! As always, great information to bring home with me. I am so thankful the USDF does this. Pulling the education forward for USA!

01/14/2025

01/14/2025

I had the same experience. Last spring I was sidelined and spent the rest of the season at a slower pace. It changed my relationship with my mare. For that I am so grateful. Sometimes it’s hard not to be pressing on towards goals. But often I find the goals become closer when I take a step back.

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“I attribute most of the change in our relationship to the step back in our training, and discovering all the work that could be done in the walk, where there is minimal wear and tear on my horse. It gave us time to start really listening to each other. So, while the injury stopped our competition for a year, I consider it a blessing to recognize the value of taking a breath and slowing down. And, most of all, the value of appreciating and strengthening the bond I have with my wonderful mare.”

When an injury sidelined her horse, Judi D. shares how the rehab time helped shape them into more effective partners. Read their story: https://yourdressage.org/2024/11/29/believe-in-the-process/

01/12/2025

Frisky ponies today!

01/11/2025

Tiffany Townsend and I were discussing this a few days ago. I struggle sometimes to explain things, because the conversation between horse and rider is not a static thing. Constantly changing energy negates a step by step process sometimes.

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There is a reason, I think, that horsemanship is so hard to teach, and that is because it's truly an art and not a science.

You can go to school for art. You can learn from masters of a particular art form. You can study the chemical composition of your medium and learn about how those mediums behave in different circumstances. You can learn about the history of your art, how it originated and how it's evolved. You can study trends and dabble in different methodologies.

But no matter what, in order to become an artist, you have to experience it. You have obsess over it. You have to go to bed thinking about it and get up thinking about it. You have to become a little bit consumed by it. It drives your passion and your curiosity. You have to dedicate a part of your soul to its inception, creation and development. In some ways, you have to get to the point where you cannot separate yourself from it, as it has become a part of you and you of it.

I have received requests in the past asking me to write more about specific techniques, "how-to's", if you will. I will admit I struggle with this because it feels to me kind of like someone asking me how to have a conversation. I can give you a very general framework, but a conversation is intimate and personal. To write one for someone else would seem to me to be a request to boil down everything that is beautiful and awe-inspiring about horsemanship into base mechanical elements: important, but ultimately in my experience not AS important as the energy, flow and feeling of what is happening between the horse and the human.

Yes, you need a basic skillset to be an artist. You need to know how to hold the brush. You need to know how to choose a canvas. You need to know a thing or two about how your medium behaves and how to bring out the best in it.

But what ultimately creates art is the person behind the tools and the feeling within them. And since no teacher can create this for you, we simply have to try and set up scenarios and allow space and spark inspiration for people to go seek it within themselves.

01/11/2025

Client request for Jedi knight training class last evening. 😁

Heck yeah!!!

IYKYK

01/06/2025

Gypsy noses are the cutest snow catchers 😁

01/06/2025

Don't let fear get in the way of your dreams.

01/06/2025

I have the most amazing husband. Making sure I can get to work safely.

01/05/2025

Actually got a few horses worked today. The calm before the storm. Thankfully the wind gave us a break today. Snow storm prep done, ponies munching hay in the barn. Tomorrow will be fun😁. Stay safe everyone

01/02/2025

Yes!!!

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Ass in saddle time is key.

The more you ride, the better you become.

Even on the days the conditions are not ideal, you can walk your horse.

You can work on softness and feel.

You can concentrate on body control for yourself and your horse.

Stop making excuses.

Go to work.

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