> ElAmmal@aol.com wrote
"As a professional trainer and Dressage judge ... Having worked with many endurance horses to retrain and rehabilitate sore bodies, I feel that many riders don't do enough to develop the horse's basic understanding of the aids; to get on and go down the trail having missed that step is to condition faulty athletic development. When the rider is faced with that, aswitch to heavier, more severe equipment is a short term answer but in the end does enormous damage to the body and mind.
Every horse should be trained with a snaffle bit which fits into the corners"
ABSOLUTELY
The point is that a majority of Dressage riders are far from "lite" riding.
Yes an endurance horse must be athletic No the model isn't Olympic Dressage.
Look better at old "French School" (Louis XIV, 17th century) or Nuno Oliveira for the
"no legs, no hands" and Western for confidence between horse and rider.
Pierre.