Re: Running Martingales

[Dbeverly4@aol.com]

Hi Frank!  I have to put my foot (probably in my mouth) in here.  Everybody is
lauding dressage like it is the new answer to everybody's woes.  I think there
are a lot of good principles here (all the flexibility, yielding, etc).
However, how many happy, sane, dressage horses have you seen?  Especially over
the long haul.  I have a friend who is  into dressage in the 'big time'
(Olympic level) and her opinion is that a really great dressage horse has to
be "on the edge" (my take--of a mental breakdown!). Her horses (one an Olympic
bronze medalist) exhibit behaviors that I would find totally horriffic -- they
are not happy campers.  I realise that on Ridecamp we're all talking about a
different level of dressage, but we should be careful when we cite dressage as
a cure-all for anything.  My current endurance horse WAS a dressage horse (2nd
level in his first life) and HATED it.  He loves trail and will do all kinds
of fun flexxy, obstacle kinds of manuvers on the trail, but forget it in the
ring -- he is totally sour!  Anyway, I worry about everybody thinking that
'dressage' is some kind of cure-all for the trail horse.  Dressage too can be
abused.

Sylvia & Harca (Happy not to be in the arena)