Alexandra Brooks Dressage

04/17/2026

Yes to ALL of this ❤️❤️❤️

04/12/2026

Love this so much ❤️ Steffen’s commentary is fun too

04/05/2026

Copied from someone else but all incredibly relevant and true ❤️
Remember your coach or instructor is your biggest fan but these points below are things I believe everyone should know:

1. This sport is tough.
There’s no shortcut around the hard parts, every skilled rider has gone through them. Progress comes in waves: you improve, plateau, and then improve again. Your instructor can guide you, but they can’t make it easy, it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy!

2. You won’t always have a great ride.
Every situation has something to teach you, if you’re open to it. The more willing you are to learn, the more each ride will benefit you. If you let it.

3. Being teachable is essential.
Success in riding (and anything, really) depends on the willingness to learn. That often means revisiting the basics over and over. If basics feel boring, try seeing them as opportunities to refine and grow.

4. This sport requires commitment.
Really, read that again. Riding isn’t occasional; it’s consistent effort. Your partner is a big animal that communicates differently than you do. Progress comes from making riding a priority and showing up to practice, through bad weather, early morni by an and late nights.

5. Every ride matters.
Even the easy ones. Even the frustrating ones. Every single ride is a chance to learn. Remember when you were just excited to sit on a horse? Hold onto that feeling. If you focus only on what you’re not doing, you lose the joy, for yourself, your horse, and your instructor.

6. It should still be enjoyable.
Riding is work, and work isn’t always fun but it shouldn’t feel like a constant chore. If you dread lessons or would rather be elsewhere, it might be time for a break. Horses can sense your mindset, and showing up disengaged sets everyone up for a tough ride.

7. Learning happens on the ground, too.
In fact, some of the most important lessons do. Grooming, handling, and understanding horses from the ground are essential skills. Skipping these means missing a huge part of your horse’s trust.

8. Ask questions and communicate.
If you don’t understand why you’re doing something, ask. A good instructor will explain and a good student will listen and apply what they hear.

9. Remember we’re human, too.
Instructors juggle many responsibilities, from managing horses to making important daily decisions. A little patience and respect go a long way. Most importantly too remember we have our own struggles too, life affects everyone.

Riding instructors and coaches dedicate so much of their time, energy, and money to improving their craft and investigating themselves in your progression.

They love what they do but they also know: becoming a good rider is a journey, and it’s not an easy one.

03/31/2026

A reminder for us all…. 12 weeks of work, shifting balance and gaining strength between these two screenshots. Little bits of improvement week to week builds slowly over time! Still lots of things to improve on and build on, but the shape, balance and power improves and starts to become more consistent and manageable ✨
When you’re deep in the midst of what feels like a long sludging suck fest in your training - break throughs might be just around the corner ❤️ keep going!!

03/24/2026

My little shadow wherever I go ❤️❤️

03/08/2026

Stephen from Solo Equine nails it AGAIN ❤️

You know why it takes like 10 years to train a dressage horse to Grand Prix?
Cause it's f*cking hard, that's why.
Today I rode a big, wobbly, 5-year-old who still thinks the world might end if he has to carry himself properly for more than three strides.
He braced the second I asked for anything resembling dressage, poll tight, hollow back, hind legs trailing like they were on vacation.
I half-halted softly. He popped his head.
I tried again, lighter. He shortened but stayed braced.
Forward came back, tension stayed.
Rinse, repeat.
At one point I caught myself thinking the same old lie: "If I just did this better, he'd get it."
Then I remembered: no.
This isn't about me being bad.
This is about the sport being brutal in the best way.
The brace is normal.
It's not failure. It's not evidence you suck. It's proof the horse is alive, feeling, thinking, reacting. It's proof you're asking for something real. Something that goes against a million years of survival wiring.
We spend years (years...) chipping away at that brace. Teaching a flight animal that carrying himself (and me) won't kill him. That softness is safer than tension. That the rider asking for collection isn't a predator on his back.
Our instincts fight it. We want control, security, quick fixes.
The horse wants to run from pressure, brace against uncertainty, protect the parts of them that feel vulnerable.
So we override all of it. We stop gripping when we want to hold. Stop pushing when we want to force. Stop fixing when we want to correct. We stay soft in the face of resistance. Patient in the face of chaos. Curious instead of frustrated.
And slowly (so f*cking slowly) the brace starts to fade.
Today, after twenty minutes of brace-and-release, brace-and-forward, brace-and-breathe, something shifted.
Not dramatic. Not Grand Prix.
Just one moment where it felt right, relaxed a little over his back, softened and let go for two whole strides.
Then the tension came back.
But those two strides?
That's the long game.
Years of meeting brace with softness until the horse starts to believe that carrying himself isn't scary. Until suppleness isn't something we impose, it's something he offers because he trusts what we ask.
If you're riding a young one right now and feeling like you're getting nowhere, hear this:
You're not failing. You're in the middle of the hardest, most beautiful part.
The brace is normal. The wobbles are normal. The frustration is normal.
Keep showing up soft. Keep asking without demanding. Keep releasing when the answer is "not yet."
Until then? Embrace the brace.
The softness you're building doesn't happen in spite of the resistance. It happens because of it.
Every brace met with patience is a brick in the foundation of trust. Every wobble you don't punish is proof that safety exists here. Every moment you choose release over force, you're teaching them that maybe (just maybe) carrying himself won't kill him.
That's not failure. That's dressage.
And in 12 years, when that horse is floating through Grand Prix like it's nothing, no one will remember the wobbles. But you will. You'll remember every braced step that taught him to trust. Every moment you chose softness over force. Every day you showed up when it would've been easier to quit.
That's why it takes 10 years.
Not because the movements are hard.
Because the trust is.

02/23/2026

02/05/2026

Not complaining about the dry and warm weather in February… but it sure feels strange to feel comfortable riding in a sun shirt this early in the year 😬

01/15/2026

We have changes! So proud of this big guy and how he has grown and developed ❤️❤️ Fantastic lessons last weekend with Brooke on my two favorite cheeky boys
Excited for show season 🤩🥳

01/05/2026

Super helpful weekend of lessons with JW. Continuing to work on balance, ride-ability and straightness with this beautiful mare as we continue to develop our relationship. Looking forward to having Jessica back in March!