One of the main paradoxes of dressage is that the sport, from an intellectual standpoint, is very easy to understand, but, in application, it's a much more difficult task to accomplish. This paradox is more apparent in dressage than with any other sport I’ve become fluent in over the years.
The overall main tenet of dressage is “ride your horse straight and make him go forward.” Intellectually, it’s an easy concept to grasp; the horse stays straight between the legs and hands, and maintains this relative straightness when on a circle. The forwardness keeps the horse straight, and the straightness helps keep the horse forward, which enhances the horse’s natural gaits.
From there, it’s easy to see how the rest of the fabric of the sport builds up and weaves together, how from riding straight comes the travers, comes the half pass, how from the 10m canter circle comes the 6m canter circle, comes the canter pirouette. There is no magic, no epic secrets, no biblical lore to it. Dressage really is nothing more than riding your horse forward and straight, and half halting when necessary.
Understanding this sheds some light on why I get so frustrated sometimes. Dressage isn’t a hard concept to grasp, but what is hard is accomplishing it when my skills are less than stellar and roadblocks appear in the form of tension in both myself and the horse. Finding exercises to eliminate those roadblocks, and ensuring they are exercises that the mare understands, is something that can only be done through trial and error.
Another roadblock is strength, or rather, that thereof. The smaller the circle and the more weight Nicole has to take onto her hind legs, the more difficult it is for her to maintain her rhythm and relaxation. I give the horse enough credit to know she understands the concepts as they are presented to her (she understood the concept of shoulder-in the first week I had her), but from her end, accomplishing them is difficult because she simply isn’t strong enough yet.
Nicole and I have something we like to call "The Puta Test," which is basically our litmus test to determine whether Nicole has improved. The test consists of this:
1. Get the video camera ready.
2. Wait for the mare to act crazy.
3. Ride normally, though the craziness.
If the mare looks more improved than the last time she acted crazy, then we've made strides in her training.
For example, a month or so ago, the mare wouldn't respond at all to half halts when she was tense. Now, I get some measure of response. By the same token, she would hollow her back and tense her neck, jut out her underneck muscle in the canter, and it would be all over. Now, she maintains some semblance of being on the bit even when she reaches the zenith of her discontent.
The overall main tenet of dressage is “ride your horse straight and make him go forward.” Intellectually, it’s an easy concept to grasp; the horse stays straight between the legs and hands, and maintains this relative straightness when on a circle. The forwardness keeps the horse straight, and the straightness helps keep the horse forward, which enhances the horse’s natural gaits.
From there, it’s easy to see how the rest of the fabric of the sport builds up and weaves together, how from riding straight comes the travers, comes the half pass, how from the 10m canter circle comes the 6m canter circle, comes the canter pirouette. There is no magic, no epic secrets, no biblical lore to it. Dressage really is nothing more than riding your horse forward and straight, and half halting when necessary.
Understanding this sheds some light on why I get so frustrated sometimes. Dressage isn’t a hard concept to grasp, but what is hard is accomplishing it when my skills are less than stellar and roadblocks appear in the form of tension in both myself and the horse. Finding exercises to eliminate those roadblocks, and ensuring they are exercises that the mare understands, is something that can only be done through trial and error.
Another roadblock is strength, or rather, that thereof. The smaller the circle and the more weight Nicole has to take onto her hind legs, the more difficult it is for her to maintain her rhythm and relaxation. I give the horse enough credit to know she understands the concepts as they are presented to her (she understood the concept of shoulder-in the first week I had her), but from her end, accomplishing them is difficult because she simply isn’t strong enough yet.
Nicole and I have something we like to call "The Puta Test," which is basically our litmus test to determine whether Nicole has improved. The test consists of this:
1. Get the video camera ready.
2. Wait for the mare to act crazy.
3. Ride normally, though the craziness.
If the mare looks more improved than the last time she acted crazy, then we've made strides in her training.
For example, a month or so ago, the mare wouldn't respond at all to half halts when she was tense. Now, I get some measure of response. By the same token, she would hollow her back and tense her neck, jut out her underneck muscle in the canter, and it would be all over. Now, she maintains some semblance of being on the bit even when she reaches the zenith of her discontent.
Lately she keeps falling through the outside shoulder in the canter. I'm trying different exercises such as spiraling in and out of a circle and riding a square instead of a 20m canter circle. Hopefully these exercises will help. With Nicole, riding in a square really seems to help; I try to apply that feeling on a straight line, albeit mostly unsuccessfully. Leg yields at the trot help too; it's easy to correct the outside shoulder in this exercise, which translates into better connection with the outside rein at the canter.
