It's just as important to do a good free walk with your dressage horse at Training Level as it is to develop your trot and canter work. Many riders lose sight of the fact that they should pay as much attention to the medium walk and free walk as they do to the other two gaits.

First, let me define the free walk. It’s a gait of relaxation. Your dressage horse should lengthen his frame and lower his head and neck so he looks like he’s going to graze. His poll is lower…

I think the main reason riders lean to the outside in half pass is that they use too much outside leg to push their horses sideways. So here are 3 quick tips to help you sit in the direction of movement.



1. Pretend there’s a seam running down the middle of your saddle from pommel to cantle. Then visualize yourself moving your outside seatbone onto that center seam so you don’t get left behind.



2. Think about actually taking a "step down into the inside iron" as…

Remember that dressage simply means "Training". You don’t need to work in a regulation dressage arena to "do" dressage. Every second you’re on your horse, you’re either training or "untraining"! So you’re always doing dressage no matter what kind of horse you have or what style of riding you’re doing.



Think about how you can continue to train your horse yet add some fun and variety to his life.



Carla Varasso writes: My friends and I, who like to hilltop with…

If your dressage horse is struggling in a movement or exercise, ask yourself 4 questions:

1. Is he going too fast or too slowly?
2. Is his neck too high or too low?
3. Is his frame too open or too closed?
4. Am I asking too much?

If you're not sure what the problem is, adjust one of the 4 things above to see if that helps your dressage horse.

A Happy Horse

If you tend to grip with your legs, and lean forward when you canter your dressage horse, here's a simple exercise to help you sit up straight.



Sit in a chair and do the following exercise for muscle memory:



1. Sit up straight with shoulders over hips.



2. Lean back about 4-5 inches



3. Come back up to the vertical.



4. Do this in the rhythm/tempo of the canter.



5. Notice how as your upper body comes back, your hip angle…

Lots of riders seem to be confused by the dressage term "long and low". Some riders even think long and low is different from the stretchy circle in the dressage tests.



Long and low is the SAME as what's being asked for stretchy circles. The stretchy circles were added to the dressage tests to check that the horse's connection was correct and that the rider wasn't fudging things by fiddling with the reins.



To get correct long and low, your horse must be connected…

Rearing, bucking, nappiness as well as needing "a lot of leg" are all symptoms of your horse not going forward. Many people think that forward only means going forward over the ground. That's the physical expression of forward. That is, going forward is a direction in the same way that going sideways is a direction.



But having your horse "think forward" is even more important if you want a horse that's safe and not exhausting to ride. There are 2 aspects to this concept of…

You can help your stiff dressage horse bend better by gently doing the opposite of what he wants to do with his body.



Few horses are ambidextrous—meaning they can bend as easily to the right as to the left. So your goal is to make your dressage horse's soft side more "stiff" and his stiff side more "soft" and bendable.



How Do I Make the Stiff Side "Softer"?

Dressage riders tend to think that the stiff side is the "bad" side because it feels harder for…

Horses shy from tension so there's lots you can do to ride proactively to help them relax. I call one of my favorite exercises "The Valium Exercise" because it's so effective at relaxing a tense horse.



Let's say your horse likes to shy at a particular corner of the ring. Start the Valium exercise well before you get to the corner.



Here are the aids for the "Valium exercise".



THE ACTIVE AIDS



1. The Inside Rein:

• The action of the inside…

Many riders lean to the outside in half pass because they use too much outside leg to push their horses sideways. Use your outside leg mainly to help bend your horse around your inside leg and secondarily to ask him to go sideways.



Keep in mind that the predominant aids in half pass need to be inside leg and outside rein…not outside leg pushing sideways and inside hand pulling the neck around in a fake a bend.



Here are 3 quick tips to help you sit in the direction…

Horseback riding is all about balance for both you and your dressage horse. To ride in good balance, be sure to keep a good plumb line with your shoulders directly over your hips and over your heels.



In this post, I'll give you two quick tips to help you sit up straight and in balance.



1. Many riders lean behind the vertical (especially in trot extensions!) because they think they're driving their dressage horses more forward.



The problem with leaning…

Are you sick and tired of doing all the work while your lazy horse plods along without energy? Remember that a horse can feel a fly on his side, so logically there’s no reason for him to be dull to your legs.



Here are the steps to put the lazy horse in front of your legs:



1. Give a light leg aid

2. No response, half-hearted response, or delayed response

3. Correct him by sending him forward

4. RETEST

5. 100% response (99.9% isn't good…

Lots of you tell me you're confused about the correct length and height of your horse's neck so I thought I'd address that in this article.



Neck too high: The height of the neck is determined by the degree of engagement of the hindquarters. So, the height of the neck changes as you go up through the levels and your horse becomes more collected.



Always keep in mind, however, that if you ride with the neck too high and short and the angle of the throatlatch too…

Since very few horses, are ambidextrous, it's inevitable that the lateral dressage movements like leg yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, and half passes will be easier in one direction than the other.



Your goal for lateral movements in dressage (and everything else you do with your dressage horse!) is to strengthen his weaker hind leg, make his stiff side more "bendable", and his hollow side less "soft".



So, for now, let's just talk about making the weak…

Here's a fun training tip that uses visualization to help you ride your Training Level Dressage horse better. I call it RIDES WITH FRUIT.



I'm sure you remember Kevin Costner's movie, Dances with Wolves. Well, I call this training tip, Rides with Fruit. I thought it was appropriate since it's summer, and many of us start to eat more fruits and vegetables.



So let's use visualization and bring some fruity images to your dressage horse! When you're on a circle, your…

Each year, you eagerly await horse show season so you can ride and compete your dressage horse. But when the time times, the fear gremlins creep in and you end up feeling paralyzed by "stage fright".



In my own personal quest, I've discovered practical techniques that have given me a performance edge at dressage shows. I'll share some of them with you here.



"DRESSING UP" YOUR PRACTICE SESSIONS"



I can't emphasize enough the importance of…

Riders often ask me, "How do I know it's the right time to move my Training Level dressage horse up to First Level?"



In this article, I'll give you a way to come up with a logical plan for introducing new work at Training Level.



First, I just want to make a general comment. All training should be a systematic progression toward a desired end result. So you need to be able to see the big picture.



For example, even at Training Level the quality of your…

If you only use your hands when putting your horse on the bit, you're making one of the biggest mistakes you can make. By focusing on the head and "getting the head down", you'll just be creating an artificial "head-set".



Putting your horse on the bit has nothing to do with "head sets". Physically, it's a round silhouette that occurs when you ride your…

A lot of riders aren't clear on the difference between flexion at the jaw and flexion at the poll, and how to ask for each of these positions.



Keep in mind that a horse can flex three ways–to the left, to the right, and "in".



When a horse flexes to the left or right, he's flexing at the poll. When he does this, you'll just see his inside or outside eye or nostril. I call this position +1 or -1 because you're bringing his head 1 inch to the inside or the outside of…

Many riders don't realize that the reason they have trouble sitting the trot, is because they haven't put their horses on the bit. No matter how good a rider you are, it's nearly impossible to sit on a back that is stiff and hollow.



The key to making both you and your horse more comfortable in sitting trot is to connect him so his back is round. You do that with what I call "the "connecting aids".



Before you try to give connecting aids, check that your horse…