Down to Earth Dressage

03/31/2025

“Look Ma no hands!” Did you ever say that as a kid riding your bike? That freeing feeling when you are balanced enough to not rely on your hands for balance. 🚴‍♀️

I remember my first riding lessons were on a lunge line without my reins, the instructor would guide the horse, so I could focus developing the proper position and balance. Once secure enough, I was given the reins. ⚖️

It’s normal for us to want to use our hands and arms to balance. We use to them reach out and brace ourselves before a fall, and they certainly are useful in that case, but not so helpful if you are using them to balance on a horse…balancing on the reins often leads to pulling or clenching and can be very frustrating and uncomfortable for the horse. 😣

The best riders can give a cue with the reins, release that cue, and stay fluid all while keeping perfect balance. Here I am riding Ivy, reaching up to fix my sunglasses. Notice nothing changes with Ivy or my position even though I let go with my left hand. 😎

03/13/2025

Whatever discipline you ride you’ve probably read a book or two on how best to train or ride your horse. There will be a chapter on how to properly warm-up, then information on how to do different movements and maybe what it takes to score well in competition.

Somewhere along the lines humans created the idea of how horses should go depending upon what they are being used for. In Western reining they want the horses to be able to spin and slide, in saddle seat they want to see a very animated horse with a higher head-set, and in dressage they want to see the hind legs tracking up, and the horse on the bit. You could compare this to different types of workouts for people; there’s boot camp workouts, yoga, weightlifting all with their own set of ideals.

Now, imagine you have a group of people and you are trying to teach them to do a split. Perhaps one person is very flexible and can do the split immediately, one can’t do the split at all because they have an old injury and another is stiff and will need much more time to accomplish just the first steps of the split. The first person was very easy to teach of course because the split was natural for them, but how would you help the other two?

The person with the injury may never accomplish the split, but they could learn modified movements that can help their overall flexibility. The stiff person with time and patience can become more flexible and accomplish the split just like the first person.

As a dressage trainer I’ve read the books, watched videos and had many lessons to learn how things “should be done.” Many times I’ve felt like a failure when I haven’t been able to get a horse to move forward right away, or be soft and perfectly on the bit from the start. Just like teaching the person who can’t do the split from the get go, it can be frustrating when things don’t just happen easily and go “by the book.” 📚

What I’ve learned over the years is every horse is an individual and they all are going to have their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s my job as a trainer to find out how to help them be their best. I had one horse that had to be warmed up in what I’d call a “pony trot” until he felt loose enough to start tracking up. He had arthritis and his body just needed that time to warm up. Then there was a mare with a back issue that absolutely had to be warmed-up and mounted with her head stretched down low (think western pleasure) otherwise she would rear due to her back being pinched! In these cases some people may have thought things looked odd, and like nothing was going to be accomplished, but like that stiff person learning the split...the little baby steps can, and did lead to big accomplishments! 🏆

What I’m realizing more and more is how important it is to be open-minded and really try to feel and listen to the horse. Notice if your horse resists, and how? When do they get tight and when do they relax? And is there anything you can do to help? 🤔

I know I want to listen, teach, be supportive and help make positive changes for a better partnership for all the horses (and humans) I work with. You are the trainer teaching the “split” what kind of trainer do you want to be?

03/11/2025

03/09/2025

“Horses regularly trained with ground work are more relaxed when ridden”

A recent study of dressage horses in Germany that looked at rein length and tension revealed a surprising finding: horses who were regularly trained in ground work/in-hand work had lower heart rates during ridden work than all of the other participating horses. This wasn’t what the researchers were investigating, but it was clear in the results. From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”

So why would it be true that horses who regularly learn via ground work/in-hand work are more relaxed? There are a few possibilities.

1) Horses trained regularly with ground work are more relaxed because their trainers are more relaxed. It’s possible that humans who take the time to teach their horses from the ground are less goal oriented and more concerned with the process. They may be more relaxed in general and foster this same relaxation in their horses. As you are, so is your horse.

2) Horses trained regularly with ground work have trainers who are more educated about a horse’s balance.

Their horses learn to move in correct balance which allows them to be healthy and sound in their bodies and, therefore, more relaxed. Physical balance is emotional balance.

3) Horses trained regularly with ground work understand the trainer’s criteria better. They have mastered the response to an aid before the rider mounts and know the “right answer” already once under saddle. They don’t experience any conflict when the rider asks for a behavior because the neural pathway has already been installed. They are more relaxed about being ridden because it rarely has caused confusion for them.

For us highly visual humans I think that ground work is often a better way to begin exercises because we are much better at seeing our horse doing the right thing than feeling it from the saddle. Often, my feel in the saddle is enhanced by the fact that I have watched my horse perform an exercise over and over in our in-hand work. It feels how it looks. In-hand work is also a good way to teach our horses because our own bodies are often more in balance when we are walking beside our horses. With the ground under our feet we are able to be more relaxed if something goes wrong and less likely to be so busy wrapped up in our own balance that we give our horses conflicting or confusing aids. It’s a good place to figure things out. I am a huge fan of in-hand work.

I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman, Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a c**t in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.

So why were the horses in the study more relaxed? Likely it was a combination of all three factors – a relaxed trainer, better overall balance and clear understanding of criteria.

These are things that matter to your horse, and yes, will allow him to trust you when you ride. Take some time to slow down and work from the ground, learn a bit more about equine balance and teach new things in-hand before asking for them under saddle. You can take your riding to a whole new level and help your horse become more healthy and relaxed in the process.” - by Jen of Spellbound Horses

03/02/2025

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote me a review!!! ❤️😁

Congratulations to the raffle winner Karen who won a lesson!!!! 🎉

02/20/2025

A great tip/visual for getting proper bend!🐴

🐴DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS🐴 To improve your horse’s suppleness and agility on bending lines …

Imagine the curve of your horse’s spine bending similarly to the way a whip flexes (poll to tail). Pay close attention to the turn of the horse’s head (or flexion at the poll) as that helps curve the neck correctly. Moving your horse laterally sideways on circles and in corners makes going straight more fluid and forward.
— Holly Mason

Holly Mason is a dressage instructor and author of It’s Never Too Late, a comprehensive overview of the biomechanics of horse and rider. Having studied with many of the modern masters of dressage, Holly has coalesced the biomechanical concepts of the classical principles into teaching methods
designed for contemporary riders.

🎨 Sandy Rabinowitz

02/18/2025

⭐️ Are you a current or previous client? If so, write a review and be entered to win a FREE lesson with me!! ⭐️

My Facebook business account that I had for many years was hacked…and sadly I lost my whole page and all my reviews! 😞 So, I’m starting all over.

I’ll do the drawing on March 1st! The winner will receive a one hour private lesson (lesson must be located in the Western Slope of Colorado) or a one hour virtual lesson!!! 😀