Inspiration
Classical Dressage Training Basics
“As a conclusion of these general observations about the course of dressage training I want to add the serious admonition; not to hurry any of the exercises and to let them all follow one another in such a way that…
Keeping the Horse Happy
“Do not demand at the end of the lesson what the horse cannot do easily and happily yet! Always finish the lesson with something the horse is able to do easily and that he will thus perform happily, so that…
Dressage – Your Relationship with Your Horse
“Dressage is more than just learning how to ride. Dressage is a way of life. As you learn more about horses … and the beauty of creating something in a horse … you find that this process becomes how you…
Learning New Things
“Whenever a horse has learned a new movement or a new aid in its basic form, the rider should give him a break and deliberately ride something else for a few days or weeks. When he returns to the movement,…
What is Riding?
“Riding:The dialogue between two bodies and two souls aimed at establishing perfect harmony between them.” – W.Seunig
Rider Characteristics
“If the art were not so difficult we would have plenty of good riders and excellently ridden horses, but as it is the art requires, in addition to everything else, character traits that are not combined in everyone: inexhaustible patience,…
Schooling the Young Horse
“Young horses should never return to their stall tired, since they lose their motivation to work and the tendons and joints suffer too much that way. After having asked for a more difficult, more demanding exercise, necessitating somewhat stronger aids…
Patience is a Virtue
“I have time” should be the guiding word especially of dressage riders during the entire course of training and remind him of the fact that the goal of the classical art of riding is to be attained only by the…
Understanding Progress
“As always, everything is connected, every single exercise or movement influences all the others, which is the reason why we can improve certain movements by not riding them at all, but by practicing exercises that improve the necessary ingredients of…
Why do we ride?
“We ride horses for the pleasure of `creating beauty’ as the Master Ecuyer (La Guérinière) said. We ride for the pleasure of feeling ourselves transported into different attitudes, drowned into the fluidity of a supple and tranquil back, rocked by…
Food for Thought
“A clumsy rider will hardly be embarrassed on a trained horse. The most skilled rider, on the other hand, can get into the most embarrassing situations on an untrained horse. For that reason: Always focus on the horses, not on…
