Dressage for fun

08/16/2025

Hahaha

08/09/2025

Beautifully put.

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.

08/05/2025

In dressage, people often focus on sitting, looking pretty and following the horse’s movement.

Although on a different subject to me following means being behind the movement as i really like to try and synchronise my movement with the horse to basically have a more harmonious ride and ultimately get out of their way with some influence and guidance where needed.

I find getting up out of the saddle can actually benefit both horse and rider. Using a light seat, or “half seat,” during schooling can help improve your horse’s way of going and add variety to their training.

1. Relieves Pressure and Builds Trust

Even in dressage, a lot is asked of the horse’s back. Riding in a light seat occasionally reduces pressure and gives the horse a chance to move more freely. This can be especially helpful for sensitive or young horses who are still developing strength and confidence under the rider.

2. Encourages Swing and Forward Energy

Coming slightly off the back allows the horse to lift through the topline, swing more through the back, and take bigger, more relaxed strides. It can be a great way to encourage honest forward movement without tension.

3. Useful for Warm-Ups and Canter Work

Using a light seat in the warm-up helps loosen your horse’s back before you ask for collected or sitting work. It’s also very effective in canter work—allowing better rhythm, balance, and energy without restriction.

4. Improves Rider Balance

For the rider, a light seat develops independent balance and leg control—key elements of an effective dressage seat. It teaches you to support yourself without relying on the reins or the saddle.

My Final Thought

You don’t need to sit every stride to be doing correct dressage work. Adding moments of light seat into your schooling—especially during warm-up, stretching phases, or forward canter work—can improve relaxation, swing, and connection. Sometimes, less seat is more.

The hand usually forward, light and in contact depending on what your asking..

📸 Ellen Kirwan

06/26/2025

Do you have freestyles on the brain? Then you won't want to miss this! Registration is now open for the upcoming USDF Virtual Education Series Session, “From the Trenches: A Freestyle Primer.” This session will be held Wednesday, July 16th at 8:00pm EST, and will feature renowned musical freestyle designer Terry Ciotti-Gallo as the presenter. Join us as we will discuss how to choose the right music for your horse, choreograph your freestyle, and incorporate the degree of difficulty to be rewarded by the judge in the show ring.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2917500910861/WN_dP-EJF1UTYqcx3c-WVjgBw

Want to learn more about the Virtual Education Series, including this session? Visit our website: https://www.usdf.org/education/university/virtual-education-series.asp

06/25/2025

There’s this old, tired idea that riding is about control. That dressage is about making the horse submit. Taming the wild. Forcing precision.

But here’s the truth:

You don’t ride to break the horse. You ride so 𝑦𝑜𝑢 don’t break.

Because the horse isn’t the chaos. You are.

Your fear. Your tension. Your ego. Your overthinking.
Every crooked thought runs straight down the reins.
And the horse? He doesn’t care about your excuses. He shows you exactly who you are.

So you learn to breathe. To feel. To listen more than you speak.
You learn to hold your position in the storm.
You learn to ride into the fire, not to dominate it, but to survive it.

Dressage doesn’t make you perfect.
Done right, it makes you unbreakable.

Not because you control everything. But because you learn to hold your seat when everything falls apart.

It’s not about who you are when the ride begins, it’s who you are when you dismount.

03/13/2025

03/12/2025

In dressage, as in life, mistakes are part of the journey. Training is not about perfection—it’s about progress. Every rider, no matter how skilled, has made errors along the way. What sets great horse riders apart is their willingness to learn from those mistakes and adjust.

Social media can make it seem like everyone else is achieving flawless rides, but remember: what you see online is often just the highlights, not the full story. Don’t let the pressure of appearing perfect keep you from admitting when something didn’t go right. True growth comes from acknowledging what went wrong, understanding why, and making the necessary changes.

Your horse doesn’t care about social media. They care about clarity, fairness, and consistency. So be honest with yourself, give yourself grace, and focus on what truly matters—building a harmonious partnership with your horse.

02/18/2025

Yes! This. Totally agree!

Monica Theodorescu, Germany’s dressage coach tells us:

“There are a lot of riders who sit well on a horse, and you think they are quite educated riders, but a lot of them don’t know what they are doing on a horse: what aids they are giving, they are not so conscious of what they are doing or what they want to do. They are not sure what they aim for on that day. We should say, today I want to work on this, and achieve this, more suppleness on the left or the right. They just ride along and do some exercises without really having in mind – ok, diagonal and straightness: get the bending, get the outside rein, where is my inside leg?”

———

Just because a “trainer” has their medals, doesn’t mean they trained the horse to get there. A rider and a trainer are two very different things…it never ceases to amaze me how many “trainers” don’t actually know how to train - on the ground or in the saddle.

I was so lucky that my childhood trainer was fantastic at starting and training horses and she let me be a part of starting many horses. As I’ve gotten older, I finessed and added so much to the ground work that she taught me - from body movement training to dressage in hand to liberty play. And all of that translates under saddle so that we have a willing, joyful equine partner.

I wish that just anyone couldn’t hang a sign on the fence and be a horse trainer. It does a real disservice to so many horses. 😔

🌻 Cara

02/09/2025

Lets get together at 6 pm. On February 12,19 and 26 . It is a group class. 6-8 people

01/30/2025

Love it!

“I’m not a dressage rider” is a typical sentence that is heard throughout the disciplines. The word “dressage” can strike fear into the hearts of many riders. Typically because it’s seen as a rigid form of rules, that only if you “look” a certain way, with rhinestones on your browband and your Kastel sun shirt and riding with short reins and a noseband — do you fit into the crowd. *Kastel shirts are AMAZING btw 😘*

But “dressage” is so much different than it’s stand alone as a discipline.

It’s a set of theory’s that quiet and soften the muscles and the mind.

It’s a connection that forms communication to influence footfalls to create a sequence of engaged muscle pairs.

It’s strengthening and prolonging a career of soundness.

It’s increasing flexibility and strength of muscles and ligaments and tendons.

It’s applicable to any partnership, any horse, any discipline.

It’s Medicine.
It’s Movement.
It’s Balance.
It’s Therapy.

It’s applicable to you and your horse wherever your discipline choices lie. Regardless of your saddle, bridle, whether you ride in jeans or jodhpurs, whether you have a pasture, or an arena.

Dressage isn’t “picky” on who it helps. It’s inclusive to anyone willing to pursue it.