DefinitelyDressage.com

Dresseur

Tsavo, I believe that it's genetic, but it can also be taught - particularly if you're not careful when you teach a horse to passage or add passagey steps into the trot. I think Ding was showing that in Flight's latest video, and I know personally of a lovely PRE that was taught early on to take pas...

Dresseur

Dresseur here, signing in from my home for the next week: Austin, TX. Khall, Flight, Chisamba - congratulations! That's amazing news. I'm chomping at the bit to get home and ride. This is like torture for me, punctuated by amazing food.

Dresseur

Got 'em! Will have to take some time to review them.

Dresseur

Mine lifts his entire body and hovers when he gets confused when I want him to bend. If I try to use the inside rein to bend him he just gets higher, or tries to get higher, and if I try to leg him forward he puts more energy into bouncing higher. My fault, because I've rewarded him for it in the p...

Dresseur

Rye, yes, that is super advice! I forgot to mention doing circles during the lateral work. I do a lot of those and it helps.

Dresseur

So, lateral work by nature tends to suck some of the forward out. Also, if you happen to have a horse that likes to hover a bit in the trot, they can't hover and stiffen in the back when bending is introduced, so I find that those horses like to slow more than others. So, before going into any of my...

Dresseur

Demi, in my experience, with enough wear, suede gets really slick. Just something to consider!

Dresseur

Thank you! He's already almost all better, but I'm leaving on Thurs early am, so no point in riding one day and letting him sit. I may as well just continue his vacation.

Dresseur

Great updates everyone, and I love seeing the photos! I'm grumpy because I'm going to be traveling for work and will be away for a week. And of course, the little bugger decided to slam his hip into something in turnout (the shelter???) so was quite sore with a fairly deep laceration for the last fe...

Dresseur

Very nice SF!!! You would never guess her conformation when you see her under saddle. Good job all the way around!

Dresseur

I agree with others that say too slow. Cadence in dressage terms is born out of rhythm,( definition here: Cadence: The marked accentuation of the rhythm and (musical) beat that is a result of a steady and suitable tempo harmonizing with a springy impulsion—USDF Glossary of Dressage Judging Terms) an...

Dresseur

I did a fun thing and had an old friend come out and take some pics of Miro. I haven't seen the others, but this is the first one. One, I love him and he's gorgeous. Two, he'll never be this color again

: Screen Shot 2018-10-04 at 9.19.05 AM.png (141.44 KiB) Viewed 22442 times

Dresseur

Ladies and Gents (are there any gents on here? lol!) Miro did his first flying changes under saddle yesterday. It was a complete non-event. It took him a few passes to figure out what the hell I was asking for, but he wasn't flustered, and the gears were really turning in a good way. I won't be maki...

Dresseur

I agree with Chisamba. It’s all a case by case basis of course, but I personally have had more success sending wigglers more forward into equal contact.

Dresseur

Well, I guess I can add changes to my October goal list. The caveat is that it's going to take the time that it takes, but after my lesson last night, Andrea felt that he was doing exactly what he needed to be doing behind, and he actually switched behind. So, we're looking at scheduling time for me...

Dresseur

I Focusing on using my legs more and not just relying on my back is helping to get and keep horses in front of me . only for the sake of self satisfaction, i would like to point out that every time we have had this discussion, i have said more leg for the transition, and you have insisted Andrea sa...

Dresseur

So, for those of you who "know" me, a lot of my dressage training was about using the seat and the back - which is what Paul taught. So, for me, what that translated to was that if I wasn't doing it from my back, I felt like I was doing something wrong. (Other than where I obviously needed...

Dresseur

Chisamba, I meant no insult! I will admit, I have negative experiences with horses that have been trained using that flexion in the extreme and with people who have used that method exclusively. I will counter flex here and there, but I do have a hard time seeing the value in putting the neck at a 9...

Dresseur

I don't understand the fléchi droit at all. In my book, that is just neck bending. I don't understand what gymnastic benefit there would be from disconnecting the neck from the rest of the body of the horse. They talk about that it tests stretching the outside of the horse - not really, you need the...

Dresseur

I'm about 2 weeks into this canter seat re-tooling effort. The first week and a half, I was on my own, practicing on Miro. We shortened my stirrups a 1/2 hole so that I could feel my stirrup a bit more in an effort to stop the floating lower leg, and I had to keep thinking 1. get him in front of me ...

Dresseur

I use the HP to SI if I am not losing the haunches. The HP to HI is a curative for the horse that wants to leave his haunches in the next county. But IMO both of those are better in terms of fixing issues than the LY... although, maybe I am not seeing or understanding something. I think it's an easi...

Dresseur

The exercise becomes a zig zag. I know a lot of people do this exercise, but personally I don't get it. Usually if the horse is losing bend or falling over, it's because you either need more haunches - which I would refresh with haunches in, or you need to hold the shoulders back - I think it's more...

Dresseur

Soft goals are to take him out 2nd level in November, and then do 2nd level freestyles in spring so that we can spend some non-stressful time in the ring. We’ll work changes this winter. IF he gets them under his belt in a meaningful way, we’ll try for 3rd and the 3rd level freestyles. (I want my br...

Dresseur

Greenhomes - I agree 100% with what Chisamba said, we ride because we love it. If being out in the wide open is you and your horse's happy place, you don't need to justify it to anyone! I'm slogging through more crap I created on Miro, or rather let slide because I didn't recognize it. I think I had...

Dresseur

I wrote a post yesterday while I was on a shoot, but it poofed. I use leg yield on very green horses, but I rarely use leg yield once the horse has a sense of SI and HI. When I do use it, it's a test during warmup to see if the horse is listening to my leg. If I feel as though the horse is not, then...

Dresseur

I have started to think about suppling a little differently. Basically, I want the horse loose and relaxed through the body so that he can answer my requests laterally and longitudinally without stiffening. But, I want the connection that feels like a little bit of positive tension so that the back ...

Dresseur

I'm very lucky in that I found a trainer who became a mentor. She is a stickler for position (and yes, she does short courses as well as video lessons :lol:), and she has experience starting 100s of young horses and retrains, and she teaches so many lessons that there isn't something from her experi...

Dresseur

Tsavo, you are correct that it's not really an issue on a Miro, or another lower level horse. The reason that I'm so hell-bent on fixing this is because in the tempi changes - particularly the 2's and 1's, I don't have room for error in my strike off. Each change is a basically a new strike off, and...

Dresseur

Rye, there is nothing that I hate more than knowing that I'm doing something that A. I know better than to do, and B. that is stupid, but doing it anyway! I need to activate with my leg more to make sure he can listen to a lighter seat aid. Khall, I can sit upright on M, as in the first pic, but I t...

Dresseur

It’s not intermittent, unfortunately. Those were from after she had me do a bunch of changes. And I’m sorry if I was snippy. I do appreciate insights and tips, I read it differently than was intended.

Dresseur

MC, I appreciate the perspective you bring! Yes, this seems like a small worry, for me, it’s something I’ve struggled with for forever and it’s now hindering the upper level work. I assure you, I also have many other more major issues too- sometimes we inexplicably have no breaks or steering- that k...

Dresseur

E3022583-870C-46B4-A492-DF9AEBDA27AC.jpeg 8E808EF0-5269-4CD1-A282-B069BAC019B0.jpeg These are stills of some of my others. I start fine, then let go instead of keeping my hips pressed up. The first I was sitting a little lighter. The second I was sitting a bit deeper, you can see how it squashes hi...

Dresseur

Actually, she does. And her hip is fairly behind her. Again, the issue is how I tip my pelvis, which sets off a chain reaction. I came on this thread to share my story (as asked for in the OP), what I’m doing and how we’re addressing it. Not to give training advice or to get training advice from 2 t...

Dresseur

It’s not contradictory at all, this is what she wants me to do, lead with my hips. My feel of what I’m doing vs what I’m actually doing is off in the canter. Now, the reason she says she wants me to do this on Gala is because M is so green in the transitions, I run the risk of squashing his back dow...

Dresseur

This thread is incredibly timely for me. As of this weekend, we are ripping apart my canter position and seeing what we can improve. So, I have a tendency to sit a touch too forward, which rounds my shoulders - only in the canter. I have a tendency to get my reins too long and my elbow is a bit far ...

Dresseur

I'm excited to follow everyone's goals over the next two months! For those of you with new projects - how exciting! For those of you still recuperating (horses and humans) good luck and hang in there! I'm finally out of work hell, and I celebrated by taking M for 2 days down to Andrea's to check in ...

Dresseur

Tuddy, good luck, I'm excited for you!

Dresseur

That irks me as well MC.

Dresseur

I'm an associate creative director and while I really enjoy what I do, it's hard to be on all the time. Also, I'm the lead creative on several large, national accounts that are gearing up for TV production and are launching new campaigns, and the timelines are all right on top of each other, so I'm ...

Dresseur

Riding horses is never about riding the clock or riding the money we put into them. On the time thing, there's an expression, "quit while you're ahead." There's a reason for that. On the money side of things, just because we, as humans, say that we put x amount of dollars down, doesn't mea...

Dresseur

Work is sucking my soul right now. That is all.

Dresseur

which is why I think that one of the questions owners need to ask themselves is, "what would I want if I was my horse" Many owners would look at a rainy day and think, if I was my horse, I'd want to be inside and dry and warm and comfortable, yet most horses will happily stand with their ...

Dresseur

Yes, rotation of the rider to stay relative to the track and spine of the horse. But not separating the shoulders and hips of the riders. IMG_5264.jpeg I'm saying that I do as in the top scribbles... where the hip and shoulder seen from the above are the same - but they stay perpendicular to the hor...

Dresseur

Imo, I'm not a fan of the chambon. They're better than the de Gogue or Pessoa, but they are still designed to "show a horse the way to the ground" so I don't think that it would be appropriate for Baby Bronto, who needs to stay off his forehand and gain strength in his topline through the ...

Dresseur

They sure can, but imo that's why it's important to set them (height on turrets and length) appropriate to the horse's conformation, level of training etc.

Dresseur

Khall, we're saying the same thing. I'm saying that yes, I rotate my hips - but with my shoulders attached, so hips and shoulders are not separating like a barber pole. But, the spine of the horse is curved, so I'm following the line of the spine - which arcs away from the wall. For a 10 meter circl...

Dresseur

Sorry, I was not following who was disagreeing with what, I need more coffee! So, I agree with you regarding the hips of the horse - you DO want them as straight as you can manage though, so that the horse doesn't escape the loading of the hind quarters. I do not agree that the rider rotates the wai...

Dresseur

The horses hips do not stay 100% square because the inside hind leg has to sweep up and under the center mass of the horse. The inside hind ideally comes all the way into the outside front's print. Otherwise, if the horse is just tracking dead even with the hips, there is no loading of one leg or an...

Dresseur

This is tricky to explain. I DO canter in side reins. In fact, I used it to help with M's under saddle canter. Typically, I do a lot of transitions as opposed to long bouts of cantering. In terms of the neck. So, yes, I want to be able to elongate the neck - but as a result of what's happening behin...

Dresseur

That's devastating Hot4Spots. My heart is going out to you and your boy. Rosie, get well soon and Flight, I hope you figure out the trainer situation. I feel for our members who are struggling right now.

Search found 867 matches