Chad Basile Dressage

12/20/2024

12/16/2024

Again toes out leg clamping a huge problem. Here a great description of how you should achieve that.

08/10/2024

"Your Best Self," an excerpt from Paul Belasik's latest book, Dressage for No Country:
What if dressage was instead about reaching a place where you are near the “best idea” of yourself? You might not be famous, but your horse likes and respects you, people like and respect you. You work hard, but you’re not nervous about the outcome. How you feel about your work won’t change much because of some judge’s opinion. You are less concerned with how you measure up to an external yardstick because you are seriously engaged in how you meet standards established by your own tests. When you are riding, training, or teaching, you are so focused, you are often unaware of time. Even when a session is difficult, you feel right with your horse. The stiffness in your back seems to have disappeared. If you get frustrated, you can quickly recover your attention. Your emotions can’t seem to get a foothold; the anxieties in your life seem suspended for a while. What you do together with your horse seems like cooperation; a mutually beneficial dance, and not like a continuing argument.
Have you ever seen pictures of people swimming in the ocean, their hands clasped around the dorsal fin of a dolphin as the dolphin carries them along? They feel excitement, fear, joy— their faces say it all. They can’t put into words the rapture they are relishing, a suspension of any editorializing or sarcasm. It is a powerful jolt of pure experience, in that moment of communion with nature itself. Even though the positive effect of that connection can’t be entirely explained, most people acknowledge it is important. We ride horses. Do we find ourselves forgetting how ridiculously amazing that is?

07/03/2024

Christoph Hess on the direction dressage should be heading:
“For me, it is wrong when the rider is coming with his upper body behind the vertical. For me, the advice to every rider, is rising trot and light seat in canter, do it like this, and when you do this, then as a rider you get another feeling. Looking from the biomechanics point of view, you get more the feeling to be with the horse.” Ingrid Klimke and Damon Hill demonstrate appropriately in the CHIO Aachen warm up arena:
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2022/08/is-dressage-heading-in-the-right-direction/

04/04/2024

"Effective aids are not exhausting to the rider and not souring to the horse." –Charles De Kunffy

Let’s take this apart.

“𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗵𝗮𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿”
👉 This means that your aids should not be excessive. Are you kicking and kicking and your horse isn’t listening? Are you pulling on the reins so hard your shoulders ache? These are signs that your aids are not being executed correctly.

If you feel like you’re hitting a wall or your horse isn’t listening… stop. Regroup. Take a step back and assess the situation from the outside, without any emotion or bias. Think about WHY your horse isn’t responding the way you want them to. Always remember: more is not always more. Break apart your roadblock piece by piece, back track, and try to pinpoint where your horse got stuck in the first place.

If you’re at this level of frustration, your horse probably didn’t understand a concept previously. Meet them where they are at and help them understand with patience, kindness, and correctness.

“𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲”
👉 Your horse should be both willing and able to perform the skills you ask of him. Read that again - he needs to be WILLING and ABLE. If your horse is showing signs of discomfort such as ear pinning or kicking out, ask yourself: is my horse willing right now? Is he able to physically and mentally do what I am asking of him?

A sour horse can be the result of many different scenarios. Our horse’s comfort should be our #1 priority, so make sure you address any sourness that arises in order to prevent serious mental or physical damage. Call your vet, seek out a saddle fitter, increase your horse’s turnout time… Whatever it is, make sure you get to the bottom of it.

If your aids are calm, precise, and direct but your horse is still not responding correctly, pause. Take a step back and assess the horse from head to hoof. If a horse is showing signs of discomfort he is trying to tell you something. Listen.

𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒚!
🩵 𝑱𝑱 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒆

🐴: Denali
📸: Richard Malmgren

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01/24/2024