I asked my daughter this (I've taken dressage for a yearplus too) She said lots of dressage teachers shes seen do alot of this "forcing' the horse in a frame by sawing on their mouths and pushing with their seats, and using a lot of pressure. But the proper way is more of you take up contact and use your leg to get the horse to go up into the bit. It is their way of: "shortcuts' or because they don't have the time to teach the horse properly. I know when I was riding, the instructor put all the horses in germain Martingales or had elastic reins tied to the saddle.I was on one hand trying to teach my horses to be light on the bit(ie. John lyons) and she wanted me to use 35 lbs of pressure on her school horse> (I know what the pull is on a 35 lb. bow is and it was equal)I am very strong for an old lady(47)and it was not a fun way to ride. I only took my horse once. he was light and I didn't want her to "ruin" my work. I worked for her too, and saw a lot of things done with gadgets because she didn't have time to "train ' the horses and a gadget was faster.Always switching bits, etc. I've watched other trainers and go to shows and watch and seen lots of people training that I think hate horses, they are just stuck in the business. And I've seen some big name trainers, (John Lyons , Richard Shrake and others and seen what you can do if you take some time and understand where the horse is coming from. ) I would question anyone who thinks horses are just stupid or crazy, maybe they haven't observed them much . I found some good hints in "Crosstrain your horse,"By Jane Savoie. It explains how with pictures and diagrams how to do many of the exercises.I found it helpful. I have taught my horse to lunge in sidereins and he did learn to round better, that plus our "rollercoaster hills". Also (Try "Chronicle of the Horse" website my daughter said for this type of question ;they may be able to help too) Laurie and Rascal ----- Original Message ----- From: Val Nicoson Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 7:05 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Dressage (little long) Dressage riders/trainers--need some feedback from you
on a number of issues. Please do
not flame
me…we're trying to learn but also want something
that will work for the both of us.
There are a number of dressage instructors in our area
but it appears not one of them can
agree with the
other as to which is "best"…they each seem to have
their own agenda on way things get done
(I board at a
barn with a dressage instructor).
Initially took some dressage lessons for my 6 yo Arab
mare whom I've had for 2 years now.
We took
lessons to help develop and strengthen her as she had
not been worked much in her past.
After a few
lessons 1x a week (all I could afford) for a period of
a month or so my mare started turning her
back on me
in the stall. We still did a few more lessons before
we quit altogether. Since then she's been
just fine.
This instructor believes in riding in a "frame" and
most students wear gloves because of pulling
on the reins.
Initially she gave me instruction on a school gelding
and then my mare. Yes, she had me
pulling the same
as all the other students. She often had me sit very
crooked to force(?) a bend in my mare or
whatever you
dressage instructors have us do for this reason.
We had done some lateral shoulder in work along the
arena wall during our lessons. She
would go well
laterally working left to right…but would not
working right to left.
We did quit taking dressage lessons and meanwhile and
since we had been doing our LSD
work with a
friend the entire time along roads and trails and
hills and such. In mid-May we did our first CTR
doing 20.5
miles on Saturday and another 17 miles on Sunday
morning and the mare did just fine…we
were thrilled
and she was very happy (she likes trails).
During the CTR she would start jigging whenever we
were within 2 miles of camp or when other
horses
passed us too much. She was controllable. Well
figure if she's going to jig she might as well
work…so we
did shoulder ins along the trail…first on her good
side and then decided she ought to do some
on her bad
side…sure enough she did it!!!
Since then she sprained her collateral ligament in her
stifle region and we've been back under
saddle now
for 4 weeks doing walk work to build her back up. The
other day we did shoulder ins along the
wall doing
both directions and cheerfully mentioned this to the
dressage instructor.
She said that my mare must have been cheating and of
course I wouldn't know (agreed). Said
to get her on
the lunge line with side reins. Teach her to go
straight before worrying about lateral work, etc.
etc. Well my
mare's vet told us to stay OFF the lunge line as it
was too much strain for her stifle.
Meanwhile here is my philosophy--all our trail work
has strengthened my mare and thus she is
now able to
perform some lateral exercises. Before all the trail
work she was not "fit" enough to perform
these
exercises and that's why she reacted negatively to the
lessons.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly
appreciated. I know she needs to learn to collect
and use her
rear end better but I don't believe the lunge line is
the answer necessarily. I am also not a
dressage rider
per se…but can manage to pull off some easier
exercises…whether or not they are done
"correctly" may be
another matter but at least the try is there.
Another note--this dressage instructor has been
working with horses for 30+ years but I feel
she is not a
true horsey person. She has never ridden outside of
an arena environment feeling that it is just
too
"dangerous" amongst other things (including feeling
that horses are "dumb" and she is not
afraid to teach
that philosophy to her students too). Of course I'm
one of those that tell her otherwise but am
sure to tell
her that's *my* opinion.
Thanks in Advance,
Val + Sania
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