Credit Thomas Ritter. Lusitano/Arabian mare ridden by Shana Ritter. BY DR. THOMAS RITTER Throughout the entire history of horsemanship, from its earliest beginnings until today, all relevant authors recognized and emphasized the importance of the correct seat in their writings. It cannot be denied that the rider’s posture has a tremendous influence on the horse – for better or for worse. In the past, students, therefore, spent countless hours on the longe line to acquire a supple, independent seat that allowed them to influence their horse with ease in all gaits. Nowadays, longe lessons have ..read more

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Photo provided by Joan Williams. Photo of Louise Gaeke, Richard Newton, Helen Scanlon, Sandra Oliveira, Joan Williams, Barbi Breen Gurley, Jenny Silber Butah, Sherrie Near, Jennifer McCormick, Diane Nell   By JOAN WILLIAMS So you want to start a quadrille team but don’t know how to begin. Here are some ideas to help get it off the ground. Talk to riders at your barn and see if there is an interest. Ideally you will have 5 or 6 members that can ride together, as having an extra member or two is helpful in case someone is out sick. The first step is to make printouts of the USDF quad ..read more

  By PEGGY CUMMINGS What prevents dressage riders from going beyond Training or First Level?  Why are so many backyard riders not able to get their horse off the forehand?  Why is it that so many performance horses have poor walks and why are there so many cases of bridle lameness? All of these limitations have something in common that was lost early on in the training process. The traditional ‘training scale’ is focused on the horse’s performance: relaxation, rhythm, contact, impulsion, and collection.  From my perspective, there are three missing components in the scale ..read more

Credit Barrie Rolfe   BY JENNY ROLFE Have you ever taken timeless moments to look over the gate of the field watching your horse when he is relaxing and grazing in the field? Then maybe he sees something in the distance, which stimulates his interest. Suddenly he is alert, and moving, full of vitality and pride across the field. You admire his beauty and energy, as the saying goes, “the outside of the horse is very good for the inside of ‘man.” During our training, we are trying to emulate this pride within the horse to produce the gaits required for dressage. If we are aware of the tru ..read more

    BY ARLENE RIGDON In training the horse along the principles of dressage, there is one quality that, though it is elusive and often subtle, is fundamental to everything. This quality is balance – if it is correct, everything is possible; if not, systematically the gaits of the horse are destroyed. In my experience, few trainers really address themselves, in depth, to the concept of balance. I have formulated a philosophy over the years with ideas from some significant teachers in my background, but mostly from the horses I have trained. I share it with you now. The horse’s method ..read more

Ida Anderson Norris riding dressage test. Photo Credit: Boose Photography   BY IDA ANDERSON NORRIS One of my students (who is an instructor that attended the Florida Dressage Experience Program School), recently attended a dressage symposium with a notable Olympian who was the guest instructor. She observed the increasingly frustrated instructor direct a first level demonstration rider, on an attractive old style Quarter Horse, to “make your horse rounder to the bridle” for the third time. Progress was not being made and atmospheric tension was increasing. Her raised hand and intelligen ..read more

BY DR. NANCY NICHOLSON Introduction and Background A top line outline is one of the first things we notice about our horses. They literally carry themselves with its ligaments and other connective tissues. Directly under the saddle are located major muscles that move all four legs and even control bending. Special connective deep fascia tissues link top line bones of spine and ribs, those thin sheaths of fibrous tissue that enclose muscle and other organs. Adding up the Top Line System of our horses gives us a sum of biological materials that have built-in elastic properties. These proper ..read more

BY JEC ARISTOTLE BALLOU Horses must become athletes first, and only then become dressage specialists. Many horses end up stuck in a training rut because they lack basic physical conditioning, which predisposes them to compromised muscle patterns, soreness, and burnout. Rather than become more efficient and powerful, they become stiffer and shorter in their movement. Riders are often tempted to combat these ruts with further skill refinement or dressage schooling, erroneously assuming they can fine tune their way to progress. But more often than not, horses need more conditioning instead ..read more

Credit Bob Atkins. Allowing Hands   BY JENNY ROLFE Contact is the way a rider converses with a horse; a good contact, therefore, is when the rider is having a conversation with the horse during which neither becomes dominant. A horse has to be willing to take up an elastic contact with his rider’s hands without forging ahead and pulling. When a rider rebalances himself and takes a deeper inward breath, the horse should steady his gait to absorb the altered balance of the rider and thus lighten the contact. The rider then uses the lightened contact to allow the horse to work in self-carr ..read more