Dressage for Trail Horses (and Riders)

Today I gave my competitive trail riding ladies, Nancy and Rhonda, their first dressage lesson.   Before I go into details about the lesson, let me give you a little background on the horses and riders.  Nancy started riding when she was 40 and has had very little formal training.  She rode Riley, the 4 yr. old Arab gelding that she’s had since May.  Riley’s green as grass – he’s been under saddle regularly for 3 months.  His issues are mostly due to his greenness, though he would quite happily be the boss if Nancy would allow it, and that does create some issues of its own.

Rhonda has ridden all her life, but also has had little formal training.  She rode Levi, her 17 yr. old Morgan gelding.  Levi is a seasoned and very successful competitive trail horse who pulls like a freight train and “barrels down the trail”.  He also has severe underdevelopment in the longissimus muscle, which is probably due in large part to his “barreling” habit!  When it comes to dressage, he’s almost as green as Riley, though the simple fact that he’s had more years under saddle will make some things easier for him to get.

My aim in the first lesson was to get both horses to relax, to start giving to the leg and hand for the first baby steps toward real bend – laying the foundation of “calm, forward and straight”.  I also wanted to keep it interesting for the women, knowing that they’d far rather be trotting down the trail than riding in circles in the indoor arena.  I had asked them to forget all preconceived notions they might have about dressage, and remember that it simply means “training”.

One of the first things I did was to ask the women to make their horses stop without pulling back on the reins.  Both horses are more than happy to lean on their riders’ hands if given the chance, and I wanted to start changing that habit.  I also wanted to give Nancy and Rhonda the idea that they accomplish things without using their hands as the primary aid.  After a couple of good halts, I asked them to just sit on their horses – no legs, no hands, it’s ok if they come off the rail or try to stop – and feel the motion.  I asked them to notice that that their legs were swinging alternately against their horses’ sides, and had them chant ‘left, right, left, right” as each leg swung in against the horse.  This exercise gives the rider an idea of how to time the aid – to exaggerate the inward swing of the leg and let it bounce off the horse’s side.

From there, we moved on to asking the horses to give to the hand and offer the beginnings of bend.  I had Nancy and Rhonda turn one palm up and move their hand slightly to the side (no pulling back allowed!) to ask the horse to give to the hand.  As soon as the horse gave, they rewarded the horse and let them go “straight” again.  We started at the halt, and then did the exercise at the walk.  Rhonda and Levi had an easier time with this, since Rhonda could use her leg if Levi started drifting off the rail.  It was harder for Riley, and sometimes he thought Nancy’s leg aid meant “go faster”; when he started to accelerate, I asked Nancy to hold her position and ride him in a circle until he returned to a nice active walk.  It didn’t take him long to figure out what Nancy was asking him to do – he’s a pretty smart little guy.  We did the beginnings of both bend and counter-bend, and both women were pleased with how nice it felt when their horses started to engage the hind end and come off their hands.  Rhonda was getting the beginnings of leg yield along the wall with Levi, and he was relaxed, chewing the bit and asking to stretch.

Next, I asked both women to position their horses with their heads slightly to one side, and hold that position during the walk to trot transition.  Again, Rhonda and Levi had an easier time of it (I do think Levi knows more about dressage than he’ll admit), and Nancy had the harder work with Riley … but Nancy got one transition that was just epic:  Riley had actually developed true bend, and he took a big step up with his inside hind and flowed into about 5 strides of the loveliest trot I’ve seen in a very long time.

We ended the lesson with serpentine work between jump blocks down the center line of the arena.  It was tough work for both women to keep their horses actively forward and changing bend smoothly without falling in or being lazy, but they kept at it and both had some very nice moments.

(For those of you who get the USDF Connection, be sure to read Amber Heintzberger’s “What Endurance Competitors Can Teach Dressage Riders” in the Sept. 2010 issue.  Great input from Steve and Dinah Rojek regarding the impact correct dressage training can have on the endurance / competitive trail horse and rider.)

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