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Congratulations to the the next generation of U.S. Dressage Team talent!
Lexington, Ky. – US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athletes who have been selected to participate in the 2024 Robert Dover USEF Horsemastership Clinic Week (RDHCW) presented by Zen Elite Equestrian Center. The clinic will take place January 3-7 at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival in W...
Paradise found at Gold Creek Ranch in Sandpoint, Idaho!
Paradise Found at Gold Creek Ranch! Prime Location in the Heart of Sandpoint, Idaho for this 3-bedroom Home on a 20+ acre Parcel. Panoramic Mountain Views Galore of Sweitzer and Roman Nose Mountains. Wildlife Abounds! Equine Amenities Fenced Sub-Irrigated Pastures, 2 Arenas -230' x 100' and 146' x 6...
10 Things not to be missed at The London International Show!
London International Horse Show, a hallmark of equestrian Christmas entertainment, returns to ExCeL London from 13–18 December with a spectacular, action-packed schedule. The Show, which will welcome over 80,000 visitors, provides enjoyment for all the family, with the top 10 things to look forwar...
My trainer! It’s like being around Carl Hester all the time. This is the most beautiful World Cup round I have ever watched, and I have seen them all for the last 5 years.
I recently shared a post that was published actually in 2018 regarding the cost of competing and the number of memberships involved etc. It is now removed. The level of ignorance and hostility was appalling. So many of the comments made had no basis, no fact, no reason. It is a thought provoking issue and one that needs to be examined and explored. It is often good to get the conversation started but not at the level that was expressed here.
It’s very easy to leave comments with no basis, fact, back up on social media, but what does it accomplish.
There was much food for thought, absolutely, but the way to explore issues is to really get involved. Go to meetings, study all the facts, make an effort to understand from all sides. Name calling, accusations, and attacks accomplish nothing.
Just saying…..
Mexico City’s Colegio de la Vizcainas provided a stunning backdrop for the 2023 edition of the FEI Awards Gala presented by Longines, which honored international and home-grown winners across four categories of equestrian excellence. This year’s winners were decided by combining 50% of the pu...
When two worlds collide. 🤍
So many stunning images from the weekend that we are going through. This moment was captured by Daydream Equine Art.
Check out the video of Jose Daniel Martin Dockx and his 13-year-old PRE stallion Malagueno L###iii from Madrid World Cup Action!
Double-Olympian, Jose Daniel Martin Dockx, delighted his home crowd when steering the 13-year-old PRE stallion Malagueno L###iii to victory in the fourth leg of the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2023/2024 Western European League in Madrid (ESP). Photo - Jose Daniel Martin Dockx (ESP) and Malagueno L###i...
As part of our celebration of riders age 50 and over, we are sharing two under-utilized awards offered for this group of competitors.
Most sports are separated into junior and senior age groups for competition and awards. There is then further division of the senior age group into open/professional and amateur divisions. While this is also the case with dressage, USDF has further broken down the senior category to offer recognition for those over age 50 (Vintage Cup Award) and age 60 (the Master’s Challenge Award). Learn more about them here: https://yourdressage.org/2023/11/27/usdf-recognizes-accomplishments-for-riders-of-all-ages/
Pictured: Dee Loveless (FL) riding Italico MG – Adequan®/USDF Fourth Level Vintage Cup Prof. (2022)
It's time to start thinking about our next dressage show! There are two more weekends of Desert Dressage before the season ends, so mark your calendars for both of them! National entries close on December 6 for Desert Dressage 3.
The final two weekends are:
Desert Dressage 3: December 14-17, 2023
Desert Dressage 4: January 4-7, 2024
Submit entries here:
Desert Dressage 3 National: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/185458
Desert Dressage 3 CDI: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/165156
Desert Dressage 4 National: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/185459
Desert Dressage 4 CDI: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/184018
📸: Terri Miller
Yesterday we wrapped up warm and headed off to the Equestrian Management Agency British Dressage National Convention at Addington Equestrian. It was a good day with lots of insights, great to see so many talented and well trained horses. And a lovely bonus to see the wonderful Valegro.
Here are a some of my initial notes from the day...
Charlotte Dujardin - working with four year olds.
✅️ When training a young horse you are putting in the foundations for the future. ✅️ When looking at a young horse you need to value good confirmation not flashy movement. Buy a good walk and canter, train a trot. Look for natural paces that are in balance. You can then develope the trot. Once you train in suspension to an average trot it will look spectacular.
✅️ Big horses take more time to develope, smaller horses tend to be stronger.
✅️ The key is to find a horse who can easily sit and push. These are the qualities you need to make Grand Prix. If you buy a hind leg that naturally pushes the horse uphill you are half way there, confirmation can make training easier.
✅️ Some horses by nature are good in the contact. It's easier to have a strong horse who you make lighter than one that doesn't go into the bridle to take the rein. Tricky contacts take time to develope.
✅️ In the walk you want to see the head drop and neck swing infront of saddle. Take your hand down and forward in the walk and don't interfere at this age. Make sure not to over collect too early as you could lose the walk rhythm. Hacking improves the walk, do hill work.
✅️ Four year olds should work no longer than 20 minutes at the most.
✅️ Trot walk trot transitions.. train a small trot then go down to the walk. This values good balance and urges horses to step forwards to walk. Use half transitions within the pace, almost to the walk then ride forward again in the trot.
✅️ Do rising trot on young horses, don't sit on them too soon, not strong enough.
✅️ Don't go too deep into corners with young horse, they will lose balance.
✅️ Within leg yield you should only have a small flexion, not a bend. Leg yield increases inside leg to outside rein connection.
Ride leg yield on a diagonal line, this exercise encourages horse to stay upright and balanced rather than falling over outside shoulder. Make sure you look up on the turn.
✅️ Young horses have their whole life to collect, its a working trot, allow it forwards.
✅️ Use your voice with Young horses.
Laura Tomlinson- working with five year olds.
☑️ Don't do flying changes till simple change is good.
☑️ Don't do half pass till shoulder in both ways is good and the horse has equal suppleness.
☑️ Make a habit of riding the basics every single time you ride. It gives a better feeling later on if horses have been taught to be supple over the back.
☑️ Transitions are there to focus a young horse and put their body in the right place.
Open hand as you come down to trot.
☑️ If the hand stays on too long in the downward transition it has a negative impact on hingleg.
☑️ Slow the rising if the trot gets too speedy.
☑️ When going from stretch to picking up the reins the trot rhythm needs to stay the same.
☑️ Pat on the side that there is something scary.
☑️ The more obvious we ask a question of our horse, the easier it is for them to give us the right answer.
☑️ With young horses never push them above their limits. Adapt the plan to how they are feeling rather than doing 'X' amount every day. This will develope confidence in their ability.
☑️ Create expression through athleticism, not pressure.
Maria Colliander- Judge
✔️ She was working with a horse didn't have so much steam for canter work, so she started with the canter work.
✔️ Judges are looking for precision. Your judging position in the arena will affect the view of the movement and therefore the comment/mark.
✔️ Show your horse off on the short sides.
Gareth Hughes Dressage - advanced
✅️ Atmosphere can create nerves and tension within the horses, this is not something we can practise at home...if there is a particular trigger (i.e a spooky end of the arena) start working the horse away from where they are spooking. Start by getting them focused on you then the relaxation should come.
✅️ When warming up it is our chance to see how the horse is feeling that day. This will dictate what our session is made up of. Might just be working on balance /shaping the horse/suppleness /getting horse on the aids through exercises.
✅️ Some horses find their canter through transitions, some find it through shapes.
Easy ways to get horses through their middle is spiralling circle in and out.
The shape will collect them and then you must ride forward within the shape. The shape makes the horse fall in and out, which then makes the rider shape the horses body with the inside leg and they start to pick up round their middle.
✅️ Simple changes, be proactive but be patient. Wait in the walk. He would rather see a few jog steps down to walk but the walk then becomes fluent and forwards than a horse doing an upbrupt downwards transition and a very tense walk.
✅️ In collected canter think front legs slower, hind legs quicker.
✅️ You need to be able to see and feel test lines. Practise lines, break it up into pieces to practise.
✅️ Steepness of a half pass line is dictated by the ease of canter on the line.
We need to care about how and where we start, not where we finish when teaching the half pass. In between the lines always playing with on and back transitions as the quality of canter is the foundation of the movement. Once the training line is easy then focus on the destination and ride marker to marker.
✅️ Consistent canter = consistent line = consistent bend.
✅️ Training lines improves quality of the movement. Can't ride test lines everyday, it doesn't build confidence as it's very hard. You must build the confidence in the horses ability and adjustability within the lines to then achieve good test lines.
✅️ A good walk can often feel like free marks! We usually ride our best walk at the end of a test!! Mainly because we have relaxed...
✅️ in advanced work the extended walk is the biggest and most forward walk. It's an impression of a contact, don't over hold the contact. Ears need to be the height of the wither. Thinking of pushing the shoulders away from you creates ground cover in the walk.
✅️ Medium walk, you want the same walk with a shorter contact and hands forward. Still ride shoulders and hands away from you. Medium walk should feel like you need to shorten your reins to trot.
✅️ Collected walk, shorter rein. This is where you want to start to thinking about riding hind leg forward. If you do this in medium and extended walk it rushes the walk. If collected walk gets tense, create slight shoulder in on curve.
✅️ Ride lateral work to improve horses acceptance of the leg.
✅️ Mistakes are part of learning, its about having a system and going back to it.
✅️ There is a fine line between guiding and holding with the contact. When doing shoulder in and the horse stops following the line, do a 10m circle. The circle puts the horse back on the line and following the aids. The inside leg is a controlling aid. The 10m circle reminds horse how to react to the inside leg. As the horse relaxes into the movement it looks more quality and supple and the athleticism increases.
✅️ When you feel as a rider you are doing too much walk. You shouldn't be doing it for them. Re group and then go again.
✅️ Riding with a whip, it is an aid to ask the horse to try harder in what they are doing. Don't rely on it to make the horse go, its a listen aid.
✅️ Add half pass within a good trot, don't half pass hoping to keep a good trot.
✅️ Rein back is not natural. Difficult to teach some horses. Easiest way to start a rein back is to flex one way and ask horse to step back/slighly sideways. Horses rein back straight when comfortable to go back Allow the horse to learn about going back, then ask it to be straight.
✅️ When you feel tension it's easy to start panicking. You must trust the training system. Just waiting for them to calm down is using tiredness for focus. Giving them a job gives by doing an exercise gives them confidence in you. Create a habit of using movements for focus the horse and this will translate into test riding.
Knowledge gives you confidence.
✅️ Exercise- 20 m circle with 10m circle every time you cross the centre line. Then add travers to 10m circle (huge pirouette). Throughout this exercise looking for the confidence in the canter. If the canter is good reduce the circle to 8m, then with travers on the circle. This helps create a quality canter, bend round inside leg and adjustability. It gives the horse confidence in the movement and they learn to see the line in and out of the pirouette. The shape gives guidance on how to hold the canter and shape around your inside leg which will then create consistency in the pirouettes.
The horse must not turn small just because you go travers!
✅️ Tempi changes, wait for the good canter, you might ride 4 strides inbetween or 400 strides! If canter good can push through the tempis.
P.s thank for the 📸 and a great day Charlotte Fogel Judy Fw
Sadly both Dr Reiner Klimke and Susan Hayes Woods are no longer with us, but this edited interview from 1995 is a pignant reminder that modern dressage started to go wrong over 20 years ago...
SUSAN’S INTERVIEW WITH DR. REINER KLIMKE AT THE AACHEN CHIO JULY 1995
Susan: I was watching you as you schooled Biotop in the indoor arena this morning, and it was wonderful. I noticed you were working him in a fat snaffle, and I wondered if you could talk about the importance of working in the snaffle for upper level horses.
Klimke: I ride at home only once a week on the double bridle.
Susan: Do you mean for most of your Grand Prix horses, or for this one especially?
Klimke: All. I want to have them very light in my hand. It is easier when they are really “through”, and they take the bit and take your hands. Then they are not afraid to come out to the double bridle.
Susan: Biotop seems to be very “out” to the bridle–there is not a lot of overflexing.
Klimke: And when he goes in extensions, the neck and frame extend too. And yet there are horses who make their extensions with overflexed necks and they score just as well…
Susan: Can you explain that?
Klimke: Well, when I tell you this, I don’t want to sound jealous, but I live for classical riding. Classical riding means that the horse must go: that is, the energy must come through and the horse reaches forward. But the judges don’t always mark accordingly. I don’t mind; I know what is right. I have been in this sport for nearly 40 years.
Susan: I also saw today that you were doing a lot of work on the basic paces, and simple transitions.
Klimke: Yes. The horse must go forward and he must be happy. If the horse is happy and he trusts you, then you can teach him. If you punish him, that is wrong.
Susan: They never forget. Is there any place for punishment in riding?
Klimke: I hate to punish a horse. It must not be. It can happen to anybody. Sometimes you lose your patience, you try to make the horse a slave. But it is not right. Sometimes you see riders blowing up, even here, with top riders. I say to myself, “Poor horse, I wouldn’t like to be in your stable.”
Susan: Why does it happen? A lot of these riders will teach and talk about riding classically, and mean to do it, but then it is different here. Is it the pressure?
Klimke: I think everybody wants to win. Perhaps they think if they make a horse tired it will be submissive. Sometimes it may work, but if you really look you can see what is wrong. Some judges don’t have a really good eye, and they judge by punishing mistakes, like too many or too few strides in a pirouette, for example.
Susan: Too much counting and not enough…
Klimke: Yes. The principle is: how is the walk, how is the trot, how is the canter, how is the acceptance of the bridle, how does the back work–all of these things. And in addition, the figures. But they deduct too much if a figure is not 100% okay. You see? If you make a pirouette and the horse really uses his hindquarters, and maybe the pirouette is a little big, you should not be given a 5.
Susan: That’s a little extreme.
Klimke: Yes. It can be at least a 6, can also be a 7, when the horse really canters classically. Even if the circle was too large, remember that you must deduct from 10. The judge must be able to see the main achievement of a horse and rider, in a movement.
Susan: This brings up another question, and that is–there are some amazing equine athletes here, and some of them get a lot of points because of that. Where are the places in the Grand Prix test where the talent can’t cover up the problems with the training?
Klimke: I look only at the way that the horse moves, in all three gaits. He must come from behind, with a swinging back. The head and neck must seek the bit. I hate it if the horse comes behind the vertical and stays there. When the horse is really “through”, you must be able to open and close the frame, and keep him reaching into the bit. And right now, in the judging, in my opinion, this doesn’t count for enough. But sooner or later, good riding will be rewarded. You must not lose your patience, you see. And don’t give up.
https://woodsdressage.com/ for the full interview and about Susan Hayes Woods
Concordia Equestrians.
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The day before the Schindhof CDI 4*. I love my job!
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