Right Start Dressage LLC

03/17/2025

"The key to progress lies within us."

Many riders believe success hinges on external factors—like buying an expensive warmblood from Europe or working with a top trainer. However, research reveals a different truth: the key to progress lies within us.

In a recent Dressage Progress Survey, adult amateur Sally O’Dwyer asked dressage riders to answer questions about their path to progress and roadblocks they experience.

Some striking statistics emerged from approximately 100 respondents. Check out what’s frustrating other riders, the power of goal-setting and mindset, and some great techniques to improve your successes in and out of the ring here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/24/and-the-survey-says/

You can stay connected with other Adult Amateurs by joining Dressage Amateurs Rise, an online community started by Sally for support, encouragement, tips, and education for dressage riders.

03/07/2025

Should be informative.

Registration is now open for this FREE education session! 🔔

Upcoming USDF Virtual Education Series Session: “Circles, Circles, Circles, Why Always Circles?” It will be presented by Gwen Ka’awaloa and Sarah Geikie on March 19 at 8:00pm EST. The session will discuss the process of following the Pyramid of Training as you develop your skills and decide whether it is time for you to ride in a dressage test. The presenters will dive into the importance of correct geometry in classical training, and how the training is the most important part of competing in dressage.

You can register at: https://www.usdf.org/education/university/virtual-education-series.asp

Education credit is automatically applied to USDF members who attend the virtual sessions!

Illustration by JL Werner

03/02/2025

Great opportunity

Calling all 14-18 year old students who are interested in a career in veterinary medicine- this is an incredible opportunity for you to get HANDS ON in a working Vet Clinic!

BVEH Salado (April 17th) and Navasota (April 22nd) are 2 of the 5 locations hosting this equine veterinary science camp!

Cost is $125 per day and includes snacks, lunch and a scrub top... plus at least 5 learning stations within the hospital to get hands on with horses and real cases...look at xrays, see surgeries, help with bandaging and rehabilitation, learn about critical care cases and basic horse care.

01/25/2025

By Ariel Univer As a trainer, I keep very few secrets from my clients. Where some may be more tight lipped or filtered, by nature I’m more of an open book. This is true for myself professionally and personally. It has served me well at times… and at other times caused me some issues. For […]

01/24/2025

I may have shared this before, but it is a good one.

This concept is third hand, in the sense that Jeffie Smith Wesson told it to me as something explained to her by Mr. H L M Van Schaik (photo)

So I may get Van Schaik’s message slightly garbled in translation, but the essence is that when someone goes to a riding teacher to get a lesson, almost invariably the teacher teaches the student where she is right now in her riding, rather than teaching her what she needs to be taught.

His point was that ideally and in theory the explanation of riding should begin at the beginning, and progress a-b-c-d-e-f-g and so on, but if a riding teacher actually took her students back to square one and filled in the holes in their basics, most students wouldn’t come back for many lessons. Too boring. Too basic. Too demeaning. Too lots of reasons.

And I do get that. I was thinking of a clinic, for example. Some clinician has been imported to teach riders she’s never seen, and into the ring comes a rider with an entire array of incorrect basics, wrong tack, wrong posture, wrong use of hands, wrong ideas, wrong attitude. And, yes, this DOES happen in real life.

So, does the clinician treat this rider like a total beginner and have her do nothing but walk while she attempts to explain where to begin? Nope. The rider would be angry because “she didn’t get her money’s worth” from the clinic.

So teachers like clinicians and those who have the once or twice a month haul in students are likely to mend and patch rather than to break down and start at the beginning and rebuild.

But the REGULAR instructor has a better chance of going step by step, if the student will allow it.

But that word “allow” is key, and reminds me of something said by Jack Le Goff, who, like Van Schaik, had been trained in the European military tradition. Jack said, “Americans don’t want you to teach them how to ride. They want you to teach them how to compete.’

01/15/2025

Zoom opportunities to learn.

D4K UP unmounted educational presentations via Zoom kick off again starting January 27th! 🐴✨

Our first session will feature Dr. Vanessa Yang of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine - Tufts University with her presentation "Seeing is Believing: Insights into the Equine Eye." 👀

💡 Want to learn more about how your horse sees the world? This is your chance to gain expert insights into the equine eye and how vision impacts performance, safety, and care.

Register today at https://dressage4kids.org/programs/d4k-unmounted-programs/d4k-up-virtual-educational-series-2025.html

12/09/2024

Wonderful diagram

12/08/2024

Read This!

Do you try too hard as a rider?

Common issue in lateral work is "over-aiding" which surprisingly often leads to the horse not doing what the rider is asking for.

The rider tenses up because they are about to do something their perceive as difficult, so their seat immediately stops moving as fluently. The horse stutters.

The rider asks for the lateral step with a big, heavy, lumpy leg aid because, well you know, this is going to be difficult. But their hand has turned to a block of wood because they don't want to speed up. The horse feels convicted in the aids and blocked, so he stutters.

The rider tries to drive the aid home by pushing into it harder. Their weight slips to the outside as the muscles they are pushing with contract. The horse steps under their weight even though its the wrong direction according to the leg aids because their priority is keeping the pair of you upright. The horse "ignores" the rider's aid.

The rider turns their heel and grips the spur into their horse's side. The horse tenses, wringing his tail but stoically does nothing because the aids aren't making any sense. He feels the rider's frustration but what can he do? He has to keep himself under their weight.

The rider tells the coach their horse is stupid/ stubborn/ lazy (delete as appropriate) The coach says you're asking too strongly and you need to sit towards the movement not against it, ie weight aids 101. The rider is sceptical because their (limited) experience and lack of body awareness doesn't match what the coach is saying.

The coach shrugs.
The horse shrugs.
The rider knows they are right.
The rider goes on FB to find another coach, one that's not so stupid.
A year later the rider realises there is more to this than they first thought.

PS. Quick 2 ways to know where the weight is, from the floor:

The higher shoulder of the rider is the side with the weight if the heel is down.
The "pretty leg" has the tighter hip so the weight is pulled that way.

Beautiful photo by Jon Stroud of Fairuza and me in the warm up at Paris 2024. You can see how light my aids are as my lower legs are barely brushing the hair. The movement is led by my seat.

11/22/2024

Excellent analogy.

DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS: To help you stay stable in the saddle while still allowing for your horse’s movement …

When you sit on your horse, imagine that you are the center tower of a suspension bridge. You have cables that stretch both forward and backward to various points on your horse’s topline that allow for movement between you and the cables. This helps to create balance, self-carriage and collection in your horse while you remain stable in the saddle.
~ Stephany Fish Crossman

Crossman is a USDF bronze and silver medalist as well as one of only nine accredited coaches for Mary Wanless’ Ride With Your Mind Biomechanics System in the U.S. Currently is based in Okeechobee, Florida, Crossman also cohosts our Dressage Today Podcast.

🎨 Sandy Rabinowitz

11/18/2024

I consciously think about this.

11/01/2024

Love Ingrid.

German Olympian Ingrid Klimke shares her “freely forward” mentality for better hind-end engagement. Plus, learn how to recognize the early signs of sacroiliac joint issues to keep your horse performing his best.

10/22/2024

Excellent explanation.

Please look at the circle on the lower right. Inside it is an eight sided series of straight lines, an octagon. Most riders who believe they are riding a circle are actually riding a polygon like this series of straight lines in the circle. This is because they do not bend their horses. They either don't know how or they lack the core and leg strength to do it correctly, or both.

Bending your horse and holding a bend happens when a rider applies physical strength at the center where the red arrow in the top image is pointing. Additionally, the rider holds their horse between the forehand with the inside hand and rein, and the hind with the outside leg slightly behind the girth.

The point of the red arrow acts like the point on a compass drawing the circle. The inside leg is the compass point at the red arrow defining the center of the arc of the bend. The right hand in the top picture is like the inside rein, and the rider's left leg acts like the pictured left hand. The rider in the picture holds their horse between the right rein and left leg and the "point of the compass" determines the center of the bend.

The process of riding an entire 20 meter circle in a bend might start as an octagon with many straight lines connected by quick turns. At the beginning an accomplished rider might hold a bend in their horse for the length of two of the straight lines, then three, then four and so on.

When the horse holds the bend longer, it requires more strength and stamina from both the horse and rider. Because of the strength required riders must be patient with the muscle development of their horse. To hold a bend throughout a complete circle is much more difficult than most riders believe.

10/19/2024

Nicolai and I were one of the first pairs to ride in a snaffle in Region 9 when the USEF made it legal to ride in a snaffle at National Competitions.

The FEI dressage committee will 'encourage' organisers to run special classes up to CDI3* for athletes who wish to use a snaffle instead of a double bridle.

10/16/2024

Take this in.

I've posted this quote previously from Manuel Jorge de Oliveira. I think it is a great indicator to w**d out the 'false prophets' on social media. When you read something on social media that strikes you and draws you to a trainers work, scroll through their timeline and look at the photos. We all like pictures and they truly do speak a thousand words. It's a habit I've gotten into whenever the trolls strike. It's amazing what a person or business's timeline tells you about their knowledge or lack thereof, and whether I need to take their comment seriously.

If you want to ride well, take clinics and advice from people who's riding you admire and who can explain things in a way that isn't so ethereal in nature that you're left wondering what the heck they mean. As someone who loves to write, it's easy to throw words around that don't result in any meaningful change in a horse or rider.

Relationship is the basis of all work with our horses. Relationship can be developed within the work. I see many riders get stuck between the ethereal and reality and then they are hesitant to actually ride their horses.

I can tell you with certainty that if the work is good, not perfect, but your expectations and aids are clear, sound horses do not resent being worked. Case in point, I rode my big mare Gracie twice yesterday. Morning and afternoon. I don't think I've ever seen her so doe-eyed and content with herself after that second ride, even though she clearly was not impressed to be tacked up a second time.

We live in a world that leans towards babying our horses in such an apologetic fashion for all the 'harms' we may cause. Work is good for all living beings. Our horses feel us. If you feel sorry for them for making them work, they feel that. Feel the joy in their movement, let them move and express themselves. Get 'seat' lessons to learn how to control your body during potential extravagant movement. "Show me your horses". It tells me what your words and actions fail to convey.❤️