Your Results:
Your Results:
Is your horse a Happy Athlete?
You have a lot of great stuff going on… Well done! Now all I can think is: Wow, imagine if the quality of your communication was even better! It’s going to be especially important to refine your communication if you want to advance up the levels of whatever sport or type of riding you do. Make sure you aren’t just cruising on your horse’s good looks and natural abilities.
Insight:
Doing more advanced work requires that the basic communications become highly refined and light. Otherwise things get not only more physically demanding, but more confusing and we don’t want that.
I’ve seen this happen so many times in the dressage world. A talented rider gets a naturally talented young horse and they easily win everything at the lower levels. They float around the arena and look amazing even when the rider doesn’t totally feel in control. Then at some point, usually around Fourth Level, the tests become more complicated and require more sophisticated and precise communication and the horse has a melt-down because he can’t understand what is being asked.
That is the danger of not taking care of the quality of the communication.
Good News: It’s possible, and it’s what Dressage Naturally specializes in!
My Best Advice:
Things can only get better when you improve the quality of the conversations you have with your horse. Challenge yourself to see just how light your aids can be. Test if they really understand by taking your extra aids off and see if your horse understands your intention and body language alone. What happens if you don’t ‘help’ him too much?
Recommendation:
The BEST Dressage Naturally resource for you is the Video Classroom.
The Classroom has a wide range of videos that will help you improve the communication you have with your horse. Most importantly, every technique will honor and strengthen the happy, harmonious partnership you already have. A happy horse who is free from confusion will move with more harmony, freedom, and lightness!
