04/03/2024
This is awesome
Make no mistake. It is hard to learn what is correct and best for your horse when the incorrect examples are rewarded and upheld in mainstream Dressage: when most of the “winning” photos show horses with dropped backs, unengaged hind legs disconnected from the flinging and flashy front legs, clear lack of healthy balance, compressed necks, gaping mouths, blue tongues, and eyes that show stress and even pain.
How does the eager student of Dressage learn how to discern what is correct and what is not?
It may puzzle you when you read in classical dressage literature and even in the tenets of “competitive” Dressage that Dressage training should bring out the best in the horse, it should help the horse, it should make and keep the horse sound and happy into old age, and the horse should never be forced or unhappy. But when you look around to see what is rewarded commonly in the competition ring, this is not what you see.
It may feel very disconcerting when you are told how great these horrendous examples are, and how we should all applaud them.
For anyone who reflects and cares about how the training affects their horse, there is a definite cognitive dissonance that occurs. You can even feel gaslit by those who tell you a piaffe on the forehand is in good balance or that the disconnected, back-dropped passage with frantic, jerking legs is “beautiful”.
So how do you learn to ride correctly “back-to-front” in a world that rewards riding “front-to-back”?
I will give a few guidelines here. This may not be an exhaustive list. Feel free to add your own ideas here. We need to empower riders who CARE about doing the right training with their horses with tools and strategies to be able to do that.
1. Pay attention and tune into your intuition. When your intuition tells you something isn’t quite right, you’re probably on to something, even if you lack the understanding or knowledge to pinpoint exactly what is not right.
2. Beware of Gurus who belittle you and make you feel small and disempowered. Anyone who treats you beneath them because you are not as far along as them is threatened by the possibility that you see through them. They will always confuse you and undermine your ability to assess for yourself in order to keep you in your place. Don’t be scared to leave someone who makes you feel this way. Sometimes you have to close one door to open another one.
3. Exercise critical thinking. Look carefully at all the information, observe everything openly, learn how to analyze information and consider biases that conflict with truth. Always question the premise of every statement or argument until it makes sense to you.
4. Learn about classical theory and methodology as well as biomechanics and holistic systems so you can learn to see the pieces as parts of a whole that operate together.
5. Define your values and be very clear about what you will and will not do to your horse (or let someone else do to your horse).
6. Gather people you trust around you who uphold the same values as you. There’s a saying that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Consider this - do the five riders you surround yourself with the most uphold the same values as you? If not, they may be confusing you. It may be cliché to say “find your tribe” but there is some truth to it. You need to find the people who share your values and dedication to riding correctly and classically.
7. Find mentors and teachers who uphold the same values as you and don’t just pay lip-service to these values but actually train this way and teach this way.
8. Develop your eye and understanding. Get someone who can explain to you what to look for and what you are looking at. Watch videos in slow motion. Break down what you are seeing in fine detail so that you can understand the cause and effect of small actions on the whole system.
9. Learn insatiably. Go down the rabbit holes. Ask the questions that you are intimidated to ask (if the person you are learning from cannot or will not answer it, keep asking others). Your actions actually have a ripple effect on the entire horse community. Focus on making a positive impact by learning and doing the best you can.
10. Don’t give up. You will not be perfect, and you will make mistakes. It is part of the learning process. Unfortunately, no one can start out knowing and doing it all perfectly. Every Master started out knowing nothing. Anyone who is good at something used to be terrible at it. Even when discouraged, take heart. You are not alone. You are not crazy. And the sheer fact that you are trying your hardest to do your best for your horse is good enough for now. Put in the consistency, keep caring about doing it right, practice self-awareness and self-reflection, and your efforts with pay off.
I would love to hear what other tips and suggestions you would want to add to this list to help those who are struggling on this journey, trying to figure it all out.
While I am at it and before I bring this to a close, I just want to remind you that the doors are open for our Contact & Connection course with the next round starting April 5th. We will guide you through this whole process, and the new bonus added this year is a side project where we will be breaking down many videos of many riders in the context of contact and connection. We will explain in fine detail, so you can see it in action, what good contact, connection, and balance look like. We will also show bad examples and explain what is wrong with them, how you can tell, and show you the ramifications on the horse’s balance, biomechanics, and explain how this affects the system (of the horse and training) as a whole. Get all the info and sign up here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/contact-and-connection-course
If you are looking for “your tribe” and mentors you can trust and who support your learning, I hope we will see you in the course.
