11/19/2024
„So my friend rides really well, she can ride much better than I can. But sometimes I think it's all a bit too harsh, and the horses always have to go so precisely, no mistakes are allowed, and they must immediately have their heads down. I’m not sure if that's right for me.” “What do you mean exactly?” “Well, dressage riding. I think it's too hard for me. I want to ride softly and be in harmony with my horse.”
Yes, it has come to this; it's truly tragic. Many riders who call themselves leisure riders do not associate soft riding with dressage riding. Where does this come from? Poor training, bad role models, no clear structure. “Riding was better in the old days, look at the old masters,” then they hold up a picture that is already quite faded, and the piaffe, passage, whatever, is praised. However, the piaffe and passage, as school movements of the highest collection, are not the main problem of the basic riding work – which should relate to more than just posting trot. Good and bad riding probably existed as much in the past as today. However, with the incredibly many training options like seminars, lectures, courses of all kinds, and webinars on various topics, it is always surprising that the essence of riding is given so little attention in reality.
In national specialist magazines, technically good articles are accompanied by bad photos. Incorrect images are planted in riders’ heads. Why? Nowadays, six to eight out of ten riders no longer know what it looks like when a horse goes on the bit within an L-dressage framework. Of course, we all know that the poll should be the highest point, but when you look into the riding halls, this statement completely loses its meaning. Okay, there are still riders who, due to certain deficits in aiding, cannot put their horses on the aids at all. Not that anyone gets the idea that these are the saviors of the riding culture. No, the goal of riding training is to keep a horse healthy for the long term, meaning over many years. Inflammation of the nuchal ligament and blockages in the sacroiliac joint are just as unhelpful as problems with the suspensory ligament, flexor tendons, or knees.
And what kind of statement is that? “My friend rides really well […] a bit too harsh […] no mistakes, […] head is always immediately down.”
Presumably, this friend rides quite poorly. Because she does not recognize the essence of riding. The essence that should be the same in all riding styles: working with the horse. Working for the horse. Advocating for its health. Ensuring its complete coolness, suppleness, thoroughness, its mental and physical balance. A rider without empathy is a poor rider. Maybe they won’t remain bad forever. They have the opportunity to develop empathy and can certainly improve over time. Because tuning requires a certain empathy. And if bosses in offices were more empathetic, many things would often be easier, it wouldn't always be about the result, the “profit,” the “numbers,” then many of us would feel better at work and wouldn’t feel bad so often and maybe wouldn’t be so often... sick.
A technically proficient rider can externally “correctly” put a horse on the aids, but that does not make him a good rider. Only his empathy, his self-control, his loving attention to his horse, which he treats with respect and care, all this – in addition to the correct riding influence – makes him a good rider. A good rider should be taken as a role model, definitely. An exclusively technically proficient rider can safely be denied this “title.”
Not a day goes by without someone saying they want to learn “soft riding.” Hardly anyone says they absolutely need to improve their left travers. Sure, you could say these people are beginners and leisure riders. That may sometimes be the case. However, it doesn’t make it better when riding beginners say they don’t want to learn “dressage riding,” but “soft riding.” “Soft riding” is not a separate training. A good riding instructor always teaches soft riding because he always educates his students to listen to and feel the horse. Riding is communication. We humans are the only ones who largely use language; animals interact differently with each other. It is non-verbal communication that allows us a profound “conversation” with the horse.
The left canter may be exciting for a riding beginner as a whole, but this is only the external appearance, perceived as a gait and direction. A very good rider feels the internal structure of the horse during this time of cantering, for example, he senses tensions, resolves them, mobilizes the horse, loosens it. We riders call this loosening. Only a good rider can loosen a horse. Someone who does not feel into a horse cannot perform this work. He can only convey an external impression. This external impression seems beautiful to some of us because the technically proficient rider can prompt his horse to make expressive movements, to others the external impression seems beautiful because they get the impression that horse and rider are in harmonious communication.
This second impression must be pursued as a training path in riding, this path must be taken by good trainers and horse people, highly rated by judges. In this way, riders and horses must be trained. This requires discipline, self-control, the ability to accept criticism, and empathy, all things that children, teenagers, and adults develop gradually in the course of their riding training. For this development to truly take place, proper values are needed. Proper priorities and clear rules.
Because imagine if all our good riders rode really well, just maybe a bit too harshly, with a bit too much rein action and a bit too little tolerance towards the horse.
Wouldn’t that be terrible?
In this sense,
Have fun with your horse!
