January 25th, Dressage Lesson

This is mainly for me, but for dressage riders working at the same level with a semi-green horse, I thought this could be helpful. Here are my notes:

First, work on shoulders-in and haunches-in on a circle at a walk in both directions. On a circle, it’s okay to allow a little haunches-out to “aid” the shoulder-in. But, you still have to be careful not to over-bend, and make sure to focus on half-halting with the outside rein, giving with the inside rein, and keeping the cadence up, making sure to keep pushing his inside leg up.

Next, it’s good to work on 3-loop serpentines at a posting trot. Though relatively basic, you may not realize how much you have to focus on straightening up in the middle of each loop, and preparing for the new bend with an active (new) outside leg. Then change direction across the diagonal and repeat the exercise.

After that, take a little walk break, then pick up a posting trot down center line, sometimes going down the line and sometimes leg-yielding over. You have to be especially conscious of straightening him on the center line before initiating a yield, and then, again, before asking for each step sideways, always releasing after every step to make it active, not passive.

Take another walk break, then sitting trot to shoulder-in on the long side on both reins, shoulder-fore on both reins, and back to shoulder-in, asking for the canter from the should-in at the corner (at the canter, I had to work hard to get him to bend to the right and not bulge his shoulder to the right. I had to keep him active with an asking and releasing outside leg). Remember to stay tall, half-halt from the shoulder, not the elbow, and give and release with your upper thigh (the canter work is always hardest for me. It is a real chore to get him to soften the jaw, bend to the right, not over-bend to the leg, and move up from behind).

Remember: at the canter, ask and give big!

Smokey always loves to cool off by walking around outside. The snow was so bright in contrast to his coat, it almost made his eyes look blue!