Rachael Liddle Dressage

02/06/2026

No fair weather riding here 🌧️⛈️🌧️

Where is the summer weather though please? 😅

31/05/2026

How often do you check in with your position?

It’s so easy over time for our balance to shift, and it’s so useful to check in and see how your position is.

First thing to check is often your seat.

- Are you sitting evenly on your seat bones or is one heavier than the other?
- Are your seat bones pointing down, or are they forwards or backwards?
- Are you sitting in the middle or are you sitting to one side of the saddle?

One way to check is by making it “more wrong” first. So maybe tip your seat bones all the way forward and all the way back first and then find the middle, and then see if that’s different to usual.

When did you last check your position?

Pictured is the lovely Sophie and Josie, checking in with their alignment mid session.

16/05/2026

When you first start learning something, you’re in a state of blissful ignorance. You don’t know what you don’t know, so everything feels achievable.

Then you learn enough to realise just how much there is still to learn. Suddenly, you do know what you don’t know, and that stage can feel overwhelming! It’s where a lot of people give up. They tell themselves, “I’ll never learn all of that, so why bother?”

But if you keep going, something really cool happens.
You reach a point where you can do those things, maybe not perfectly, only if you concentrate. But with time, those things become second nature.
Then, just when you think you’ve mastered it… you realise you’ve only scratched the surface.

You’ve mastered the small piece you could originally see, only to discover there’s an entirely new world beyond it.

Riding is exactly like this.

At first, we learn to walk, trot, and canter. We learn our ‘up-downs’, how to hold the reins (thumbs on top), and how to steer. And when we achieve that, we think we’ve learned how to ride.

Then we discover lateral work, jumping, rider biomechanics, feel, timing… and the cycle begins all over again.

I think it’s important to realise that no matter how long you spend around horses, you never stop going through this cycle. That’s one of the beautiful things about riding, there is always more depth, more understanding, and more to learn about what truly makes a good rider.

When’s the last time you got a glimpse of the things you haven’t learned yet?

05/05/2026

Flatwork Clinic with Rachael Liddle

Come along to a friendly and supportive clinic with dressage coach Rachael Liddle, aimed at helping you and your horse improve your flatwork and confidence.
✨Date: Saturday 6th June 2026
✨Location: Baxter Wood Farm, Durham
✨Cost: £35 per session

What’s on offer:
* Flatwork sessions focused on improving your horse’s and your way of going
* Emphasis on correct rider position and way of going
* Option to work through a dressage test with tips and feedback
* Help with accuracy, ringcraft, and getting those extra marks
* Suitable for all levels – relaxed and welcoming atmosphere
Ideal if you’re preparing for a competition, want to practice a test, or just work on your basics.
To book or find out more, contact me through messenger or comment below.

15/04/2026

Flatwork Clinic with Rachael Liddle

Come along to a friendly and supportive clinic with dressage coach Rachael Liddle, aimed at helping you and your horse improve your flatwork and confidence.
✨Date: Sunday 3rd May 2026
✨Location: Baxter Wood Farm, Durham
✨Cost: £35 per session

What’s on offer:
* Flatwork sessions focused on improving your horse’s and your way of going
* Emphasis on correct rider position and way of going
* Option to work through a dressage test with tips and feedback
* Help with accuracy, ringcraft, and getting those extra marks
* Suitable for all levels – relaxed and welcoming atmosphere
Ideal if you’re preparing for a competition, want to practice a test, or just work on your basics.
To book or find out more, contact me through messenger or comment below.

27/03/2026

Such a sensible approach 🤩

Keep it short and sweet 🐴

When teaching horses something new or trying to help them with something they are anxious about, keeping the sessions short and sweet is one of the most powerful things we can do.

In the past I thought drilling the same things daily until the horse had reached the goal I’d set in my head was the right way to make progress. I would spend “as long as it takes” even if that meant 90 minutes trying to load the horse onto a trailer or an hour teaching the horse to stand still at the mounting block. I thought if I quit before the horse did what I wanted then I was going to ruin them. I was actually hindering progress as I was making it harder for those horses to learn and build confidence.
A horse’s brain can fatigue just as their bodies can and they will get to a point where learning just isn’t happening. Especially when they’re finding that training to be highly stressful.

It is such a useful skill to recognise when a horse is fatiguing mentally or when they’re becoming too stressed so you can then give them appropriate breaks. I never want a “breakdown to breakthrough”, if we’re seeing a breakdown we have gone too far.
Horses need REM sleep to consolidate learning. When I am teaching horses something new I like to leave that particular activity alone for the day as soon as I see them mentally fatiguing and then leave at least a day in between the sessions. Giving them this extra time ensures they’ve had plenty of REM sleep, I’ve found they always improve faster than if I try to train the same thing daily.

Assuming all other factors such as the horse’s needs being met, their bodies being comfortable enough and the ask being appropriate have been considered, I generally approach training in short sessions of between 5/20 minutes depending what we’re doing, with breaks to perhaps graze or have hay in between.

The other great thing about training in this way is how much easier it is for people to be consistent with their training. Training for 10 minutes a few times a week is much less intimidating than having to set aside an hour every day.

I know this looks so different to conventional training sessions, but when we make training easy (or even fun), push horse’s comfort zones gently and appropriately and let them have those breaks training becomes a lot less stressful. In doing this we start to give the horse positive associations with training rather than the negative ones so many horses have and we start to build a confident, resilient horse who is great at learning.

We’re never going to help an anxious horse feel better by drilling them, the best we’re going to get is compliance.

Anyone can train a horse, we just need to learn to read them and make appropriate choices. Training should not feel like a battle, it should feel like gentle, no-drama progression. 🐴

26/03/2026

✨Feeling the joy ✨

With horses it’s so easy to lose sight of why we do it!

We’re coming out of winter (even if no one has told the weather yet!) and it’s a good time of year to check in with yourself and remind yourself that this is actually fun 😅

It doesn’t have to be the big things, we’re allowed to celebrate anything that makes us happy, so lately for me I’ve found joy in;

- Leia LOVING ponying along on hacks (even if Jenga isn’t amused!)
- Jenga finding a softer frame in his flatwork
- Lark being a feral old pensioner horse 😈😂

So what’s brought you some joy recently? 💛

17/03/2026

Flatwork Clinic with Rachael Liddle

Come along to a friendly and supportive clinic with dressage coach Rachael Liddle, aimed at helping you and your horse improve your flatwork and confidence.
✨Date: Sunday 3rd May 2026
✨Location: Baxter Wood Farm, Durham
✨Cost: £35 per session

What’s on offer:
* Flatwork sessions focused on improving your horse’s and your way of going
* Emphasis on correct rider position and way of going
* Option to work through a dressage test with tips and feedback
* Help with accuracy, ringcraft, and getting those extra marks
* Suitable for all levels – relaxed and welcoming atmosphere
Ideal if you’re preparing for a competition, want to practice a test, or just work on your basics.
To book or find out more, contact me through messenger.

03/08/2025

Filled❗️

🌟 ONE space available with Rachael Liddle Dressage TOMORROW @ 4.45pm 🌟

Message for info 🐎

23/07/2025

✨ Regional Championships & Area Festivals are in full swing – so here are a few top tips to help you have a brilliant day in the white boards! ✨
Whether it's your first time or you're a seasoned pro, a quick reminder never hurts... 🤩

⭐ Know the rules!�Double-check your tack – is your bit BD legal? Are your spurs the right way up? And don’t forget to drop your whip before heading into the competition arena. Stewards will be checking, so stay one step ahead!

⭐ Accuracy matters.�With three judges watching from different angles, accuracy is key. Circles must be true and the correct size, centre lines should be straight, and transitions should happen at the marker – not before or after.

⭐ Don’t forget to breathe.�Championships often come with more atmosphere (and more nerves). Tension can creep in without you realising. Take a moment to breathe – it’ll help you ride more clearly and confidently.

⭐ Know your test.�Most championship-level tests don’t allow callers (except My Quest), so make sure you’re confident with every movement. The better you know it, the more you can focus on the quality of your riding.

⭐ Most importantly – enjoy it!�You’ve already achieved something great just by qualifying. Be proud of yourself, have fun, and take the experience as a win – whether it brings a rosette or a valuable lesson.

👇 Got a favourite competition tip? Drop it in the comments!