DefinitelyDressage.com

I have been trying for three days to watch the live and archived videos, and while I can get sound on the ads, it says "unmute" on the screen, and no matter what I do, I can't get any sound.

Nevermind. I switched from Safari to Chrome and I can hear. I don't know how to delete this post.

On the topic of the clinic, I've watched 2 sessions and have to say the horses are beautifully trained and the young riders (I think one was just 14!) are also lovely riders.
But both behind the vertical and this was never addressed. I know this is a controversial topic and most believe that it doesn't matter. If you read FEI rules it talks about a horse coming to the vertical in piaffe, but the rest of the paces slightly in front. I know BTV and riding LDR came about for better submission, and for sure it is much easier to hold a horse round, or teach it to look down and round and then drive them forward. The horse is much more submissive. But the young riders are being taught this is ok?
Thoughts?

I will put my flame suit on, but I've audited a Robert Dover clinic and found it to be one of the worst clinics I've audited. Very little useful advice was given to the riders and horses. Blatant problems were ignored and the clinic mostly consisted of riders just going around doing their normal ride and Dover telling them they were doing great.

I did notice a lot of that Blob, and maybe he is trying to be encouraging. But it's all just hold the mouth and push. The first one I watched did passage and piaffe but was telling her that piaffe is basically just passage on the spot. It's quite biomechanically different, so I was disappointed.

It's a very strange phenomena these clinics where riders are just told they're doing great and nothing more. Maybe I am crazy but if I"m shelling out $$$$ for a clinic, i want to leave with improvement, not just a pat on the back and vague musings about dressage.

I've heard that about his clinics too...

Flight wrote:On the topic of the clinic, I've watched 2 sessions and have to say the horses are beautifully trained and the young riders (I think one was just 14!) are also lovely riders.
But both behind the vertical and this was never addressed. I know this is a controversial topic and most believe that it doesn't matter. If you read FEI rules it talks about a horse coming to the vertical in piaffe, but the rest of the paces slightly in front. I know BTV and riding LDR came about for better submission, and for sure it is much easier to hold a horse round, or teach it to look down and round and then drive them forward. The horse is much more submissive. But the young riders are being taught this is ok?
Thoughts?

yes, he absolutely addressed this on day 3. watch the black horse. I was so happy to see that and the horse did much better by the end.

He called it a SEVERE fault and was very insistent the horse never go BTV. I watched a lot of day 1&2 as well but it was on day three the lesson was focused on it. I can't tell if the horse was in day 1& 2 so I don't know if the horse was already seen by RD. they don't publish the names and it seems that the riders are not appearing on all three days. Anyways, I was so thrilled with this and the horse looked super at the end.

Ryeissa, good to hear that.

yeah, it was fantastic that he really drilled down on that...... He really demanded the rider get the horse more through and never let the horse get BTV.

Robert likes to hear himself talk, but I really liked the clinic. It was a lot of similar ideas that a clinician told me a few times, but it brought me some new ideas. I was told to move my horse to higher levels and this helps me clarify that I need/expect high quality and commit to being a very proactive and positive rider.

Ryeissa, that's always encouraging to see in a clinic. I went to a Jeremy Steinberg and Allison Brock symposium and that was a constant them they really focused on. No BTV. Towards the end there was a Grand Prix horse that was really BTV and deep at times. They actually had a pretty nasty trip and the horse nearly did a somersault. It was pretty scary and I remember Allison and Jeremy were both like "Get your horse up in the poll and that wouldn't happen!"

I don't have a USEF membership so unfortunately I can't watch the session unless I sign up, darn.

You can join as a USEFfan for free using the promocode. I thought about it but they want more information than I am happy to give. I don’t want to be inundated with email and mailings from USEF.

Demi, yeah I think I started to do that years ago but thought the same thing. So much information to just watch some videos for me lol.

I don't recall having to give them much for just a fan subscription, but it's been awhile.

Ok I'll keep watching, thanks Ryeissa!

I did a free fan membership with the promocode. It did want your address etc. I think I occasionally get an email, but the free stuff you can watch is good.

Some good ideas in watching this. Unfortunately I OD'd on the visualization stuff. I kept flashing to "The Music Man"

Lol. Robert does like to hear himself talk.

MsM wrote:Some good ideas in watching this. Unfortunately I OD'd on the visualization stuff. I kept flashing to "The Music Man"

Ok, now i guess I’m gonna have to break down and get a fan membership

Well apparently I had signed up at one point but I forgot my password. So now I'm locked out of the account. Dang it lol

blob wrote:I will put my flame suit on, but I've audited a Robert Dover clinic and found it to be one of the worst clinics I've audited. Very little useful advice was given to the riders and horses. Blatant problems were ignored and the clinic mostly consisted of riders just going around doing their normal ride and Dover telling them they were doing great.

I have a similar experience from 10+ years ago. He's very good at staying in the forefront of the US dressage scene, which means he's aware of the political ramifications of actually criticizing potential donors, sponsors, or future stars in a public forum. That's not a very useful clinician for the everyman.

Ponichiwa wrote:

blob wrote:I will put my flame suit on, but I've audited a Robert Dover clinic and found it to be one of the worst clinics I've audited. Very little useful advice was given to the riders and horses. Blatant problems were ignored and the clinic mostly consisted of riders just going around doing their normal ride and Dover telling them they were doing great.

I have a similar experience from 10+ years ago. He's very good at staying in the forefront of the US dressage scene, which means he's aware of the political ramifications of actually criticizing potential donors, sponsors, or future stars in a public forum. That's not a very useful clinician for the everyman.

yeah, He kept saying the same things. I think it would be great to get someone else and there are many better choices.

Since It was free and I could have it on when I was working at home I listened in. It is always fun to see nice horses and warm weather.

Since I had a clinician say similar things to me about increasing quality in my work it was helpful, but it was definitely lacking in the content. I would never pay for this and it got quite repetitive. This year he seemed a bit out of touch and likes to hear himself talk.

When he said the corrections to the riders it was almost too quick. I am very used to high level quick reactions in my lessons and it's not a new concept but it seemed random. Would be curious if others felt that as well. Left leg, right leg now this and that and that..... I can hang with the best of them but I was lacking context for why he said those things so it's not clear his big picture. Usually my lessons have a theme of "you are using X because horse did Y".

I did like this:

https://www.usef.org/media/press-releas ... IrCE3uAbxA