Triangle Dressage

28/07/2023

Remember 'the magic banana'!!!

...from Karen Rohlf and Dressage NaturallyDressagenaturally.net

02/06/2023

So well said....

Developing Empathy

Frustrated by your horse? Try this---

Go for a run. Yes, you, human rider. Intersperse your run with sets of push-ups. See how long it takes before you lose athletic buoyancy, before you “just can’t.”

Fatigue in a horse, which is pretty much the same thing that you just felt, creates leaning, tripping, stumbling, slow reactions, poor coordination, lugging on the hand, all sorts of what you may be mistaking for “bad behavior.”

The tired horse will feel just like a “disobedient” horse. And then what will happen to that horse if the rider doesn’t tune into the horse’s fatigue? You know exactly what will happen to the horse. It will get drilled on. Drilled on just when the exact opposite should happen.

Trainers who lack the ability to sense what the horse is going through are among the worst drillers, and they create tense, scared, resistant horses, and they then do something even worse, they blame the horse.

Change your mind set. Think how YOU would feel if you had gotten beyond your limits and then got ground on and punished to fix your bad behavior.

You think I’m kidding? You think this isn’t going to happen today, all across the world where people ride and drive horses? That unfit for the task horses won’t be cranked and pressured? Dream on.

The best thing that you can do if your goal is to become a competent trainer is to constantly be aware of your own frustration meter. And stop before you create damage, physical and emotional injury and distress. Get a little and end on that. If even a little seems elusive, DO NOT GRIND. Go walk, try again tomorrow. Don’t add fear and anxiety to the training process.

I will say this one more time---“Don’t add fear and anxiety to the training process.”

Why am I saying this so often? Because if I had learned this decades sooner, I would have been a far better trainer and horse person---That’s why. Learn, if you are capable of doing so, from the mistakes that others have made. Do not drill your horse.

19/12/2022

This is an ongoing series in which UK-based consultant, Eiddwen Skellon takes us on a journey through some of the key muscles and their functions as they relate to the correct development of our equine partners.

30/11/2021

I have taught this over and over even to people that are 'good' riders.
FAST IS NOT FORWARD!
Our driving aids create impulsion and engagment from the horses hind end, over his back and into our hands. Our kind receiving aids create connection, balance. Use bend to create hind end engagement, flexion and the start of lovely, light lift in the shoulders. It is the MAGIC BANANA! Sit up, sit balanced over your horses' center of gravity with your heels under your hips and a straight line from elbow to bit.
**Equitation is not only beautiful it is functional** Don't compromise your light hands, your position or your balance to try to 'make' your horse do something.
And remember-
***You cannot have bend without flexion.***

30/11/2021

Yes, this is us!

13/11/2021

LEARNING IS NOT LINEAR

Learning is recycled, over and over, in a spiral.

You constantly revisit the things you have already learned.

Each time you revisit something, you see it from a deeper place of awareness, and learn new things.

If you feel like you're going back to the basics, or revisiting things you have learned before, GOOD!

That means you are progressing!

"The basic techniques, or what they call the basics, are more difficult then what comes later. This is the trap of dressage. Correct basics are more difficult then the piaffe or passage." - Conrad Schumacher

I have heard more than one dressage master say "show me you're walk and I can tell you how everything else in the ride will go."

I have joked, a bit seriously, that how you put a halter on is already preparing your flying changes (or any other movement).

Nothing is separate. Everything is connected. They are all little building blocks that add up to other moments.

If you haven't started to experience this spiral yet, you will know it when it happens.

You're ego will take a hit, you will eat humble pie. Frustration and confusion are another sure sign.

These all indicate that you're starting another spiral of growth. What feels like going back is actually moving you forward.

Eventually, you welcome the new spiral of change with excitement, because you know that knowledge and awarness are on the horizon.

You come to truly understand that it's the focus on the basic ingredients that gets you to the next step, not the "thing" itself.

Things that once were challenging, like the piaffe, start to organically produce themselves, like seeds sprouting out of the ground; by-products of BETTER BASICS.

No matter the level of rider or trainer, the spiral of learning is never ending.

Be wary of self proclaimed masters. Anything that is no longer growing in learning is shrinking in knowledge.

We are all spiraling around the same center of basics, just from different vantage points of awareness.

"The path isn't a strait line; it's a spiral. You continually come back to the things you thought you understood and see deeper truths"
- Barry H. Gillespie

13/11/2021

"Learning is not linear it is a spiral." Love this! So very true. The basics are the building block- revisit them often and fine tune! My warm up is alway first checking the basics- fine tune them, fine tune them again, and then again and again. And only then does every other movement above become easy. Take the time to get things right for your horse!

09/09/2021

09/09/2021

06/09/2021

Triangle Dressage has a spot open for a co-op boarder. Geldings only please. Owner on premises will feed in am or pm depending on your availability. Other feed shifts (weekend or weekday am or pm) may be split up and shared. This is a quiet, private barn with a full size dressage arena with lights and mirrors. Quiet, wood fenced, grassy pastures each with a shelter with fans. Lovely barn. Heated/AC tack house with full bath, kitchen and sitting area. Geldings here are seniors. Lessons available by FEI rider/trainer past coach of 20 years of NCSU dressage, equine nutritionist. Rolesville Zebulon, Wake Forest, North Raleigh area.

06/09/2021

16/08/2021

After 20 years coaching the NC State University Dressage team I made the hard decision to say goodbye. It is time to concentrate on other parts of my life. I have enjoyed coaching and getting to know all of you young ladies and several young men and I am so proud to have known you all and to see what you have accomplished in your lives! I hope you continue to stay in touch! I love hearing from each of you❤❤
Best of luck to this years team at their new barn!!
Happy riding to you all!