Heather Johnson Dressage

11/26/2024

♥️

11/21/2024

I like the way this is stated. So true!

A discussion topic---

The dressage training scale is not something fixed in stone, but rather is a guideline to think about when training a horse. Some riders will have a slightly different version of this, and many have never even heard of it.

In “real life” we see many riders sort of skip or hurry through the first couple of steps, and create contact with fixed hands, create impulsion, and then try to force the horse into some version of collection. Sometimes, actually quite often, using strong bits, various bitting rigs or leverage devices like draw reins to get the horse to submit to the pressure.

The horse then gets nervous, scared, resistant, so the rider applies more force, and the whole thing “goes to hell in a hand basket.”

The point of having rhythm and suppleness as foundational first building blocks is to prevent the kinds of force that create tension and anxiety in the horse, but many riders haven’t been exposed to the quality of education necessary to understand this.

I think that if you took 100 random riders and asked them to state the training scale and to then explain what the building blocks mean in any sort of detail, chances are that only a tiny percentage would have a clue. Education is the missing ingredient, and is that because it isn’t available, or because riders don’t want it enough to seek it out, or if neither of those reasons, what else?

11/20/2024

Often steps in the right direction happen in small amounts. 🤏🏼 They begin as a 5 minute ✨“click”✨that happens at the end of a ride. Then they transition into feelings you have before a walk break 🤩 and then you lose it only to regain it 5 minutes before the end of your ride. 🙌 That’s great!!!! That IS WINNING!! Sometimes this happens because your horse isn’t strong enough to maintain the improvement and needs more time to build strength 🏋🏻‍♂️ and adjust. Remember to always celebrate these steps in the right direction. 🎉 Soon you’ll feel them more frequently offering these changes and then your horse will be telling you they’ve got it. 💁🏼‍♀️ Make a big deal about those small improvements, they lead to bigger ones. Clear communication that you are excited about their efforts goes a very long way. Consistency in your riding and good training seals the deal. After all, they let you sit on them 😵 and ask them to do things that are completely unnatural for them in the wild. 😵😵 How generous is that? (Very) Additionally, learning is NOT linear. 📏 It can be a bit of a roller coaster. 😵‍💫 Let the challenging days go and move forward to the next day. Use your trainer brain. 🤓 That’s half the fun! (Picture of me & my graduate degree for proof that the above statement is true. 😁)

11/17/2024

Basics…aaaaaalllll day looooong. 😊

"Advanced training is just the basics done really well." - Ken Ramirez
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"Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too little of themselves." - Bob Bailey
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"Please just do your homework." - Fred

11/17/2024

It takes time to gain experience. 🎈

This advice will NOT be popular with those who want it RIGHT NOW, but nevertheless, here goes---

If the goal is to become two things, a good rider and a good horseman/horsewoman, be willing to think in decades rather than in years.

That first decade, from whatever age you began, will take you only so far, and may even take you to the Olympics, but riding skill alone won’t give you all you need to know and be able to do. The next couple of decades will let three components, your physical skills, your control over your emotions and your knowledge, all intertwined to complement one another.

That’s why many of the best riders and trainers are in their 40s, 50s and in some cases in their 60s, even 70s. They didn’t get those tens of thousands of hours overnight.

There are ever so many riders and trainers who gave up too soon. They just needed to have hung in there another ten years, maybe twenty. Which sounds insane, but actually isn’t.

11/16/2024

Fun opportunity!

11/16/2024

Mistakes qualify as good information. Learn from them and move forward. 💪