Heyo...
So last week I ordered some dressage books from good 'ol Barnes and Noble and they came on Tuesday. And of course, I got right to work on reading them. Today I finished a great book I would recommend to any dressage enthusiast, "Dressage Masters: Techniques and Philosophies of Four Legendary Trainers" by David Collins. He interviewed four classical dressage trainers (Klaus Balkenhol, Ernst Hoyos, Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer, and George Theodorescu) about their philosophies on dressage, young horses, and techniques on training. They all had very interesting perspectives. All of them emphasized on how dressage nowadays has become a business. People in competitive dressage are always in a hurry to get young horses do things they really shouldn't be doing because of their undeveloped strength. Dressage is a life sport. It should take many years to get a horse strong enough to do some of the upper level movements. They all generally agreed that at the end of the first year of training a three year old, a horse should understand half-halts, the three basic gaits, contact with the bit, and be allowed to be relaxed. These trainers consistently look at the training scale throughout their training of Grand Prix horses. Their philosiphies, I noticed, were a cross between modern dressage and natural horsemanship.
Some other interesting points they had were how a rider should never disrupt the movement of a horse. They should never work against the horse, but instead with a horse. A rider should be able to use their aids subtly and never for a long time where s/he ends up carrying the horse on the forehand. A horse should always, no matter the exercise, remain relaxed. Only then are they able to execute a movement correctly. Of course a horse is able to perform movements if they are taught them, but they should never be taught with violence or the outcome will never be satisfactory. A horse learns by repetitiveness and if a rider taught a horse half-pass by whipping them sideways, the horse will never learn to stay relaxed and supple. A horse trained this way loses confidence or eventually ends up with soundness problems. A rider should have understanding of a horse and be able to put themselves in their shoes.
Some other points these classical dressage trainers had to make were about lateral movements. One trainer argued that a rider should never practice leg yield because it puts the horse on the forehand. This point made me observe riders while they did this movement. I noticed that this was true of most horses, but not all.
Another suggestion was about how to train the piaffe without force. This trainer said he took his horses out on trails frequently and he used this opportunity to train his horses, especially when they turned around to go home. As most of us know, a horse usually prances when they know they are close to home on a trail ride. This trainer takes advantage and then trains the horse to piaffe. This way, during the future, the horse will not have learned to piaffe tensely.
This book has sparked quite a bit of thoughts, as you can see. I thought I'd share...
However, I do not understand how a rider would train a lazy horse without using their whip. I would like to know.
I would also like to know how to half-halt better. How to understand the training scale. What collection really is. These are answers that do not need explaining, but I need to experience.
I strive to be a better rider. The best I can be.
That is why I starve for so much knowledge of the sport.
The other book I am excited to read is about long lining, something I don't know much about at all. Hopefully it can become something I use more often as I only use it right now to train a young one to steer without a rider on their back.
Whoo, I'm all blogged out. I think I ought to leave it at that for now.
