Would You Like Private Dressage Coaching From Me?

From my own experience, I know that consistent coaching and being able to have regular follow-up is essential to your progress as a dressage rider and successfully training your horse.

So I’m working on a special project called the Dressage Mentor Platinum Coaching Club where, through the magic of technology, I can actually teach you dressage lessons in “real time” no matter where you live.

You get help moment to moment as you go through your dressage lesson just like I’m standing in your arena with you.

You’ll never have to leave the comfort and security of your own dressage arena or go through the hassle and expense of organizing a clinic for other riders.

This is a very exclusive program, and you’ll need to apply for a spot because I can only accept 6 people.

You don’t need to be a professional to apply. You just need to be serious, hard working, and willing to do your homework in between lessons.

If you want to know more about these private “virtual” dressage lessons , click the link below or paste it into your browser to get more info.

http://www.dressagementor.com/dm/platinum.html

There is NO obligation to do this. You’ll simply be put on the “more info” list. And ONLY those people on the list will get additional details on the Platinum program in the next couple of weeks including how to apply if they choose to do so.

How to Supple Your Dressage Horse’s Shoulders

Do you ever feel like your dressage horse’s shoulders are so stiff and stuck that not only is it hard to turn him, but his hindquarters are disconnected from his front end?

If your horse’s shoulders are stuck, it’s like having a kink in a water hose. The energy can’t flow from behind, over the back, into your hands where it can then be recycled back to the hind legs.

Here are two shoulder suppling exercises for you to try with your stiff horse.

1. Make a 20-meter box with 4 corners in the walk.

•  To give you more control of your dressage horse’s shoulders, do the exercise in counter flexion. (That is, you’ll just barely see his outside eye or nostril.)

•  If you’re going to the left, ask for right counter flexion with your right wrist. Stay in counter flexion during the entire exercise.

•  At the first corner, bring both hands to the left to swivel your horse’s shoulders around the corner.

•  Then, soften the contact without letting the reins get loopy.

•  After the corner, walk straight ahead in counter-flexion.

•  At the next corner, bring both hands to the left again.

•  Do this in all four corners.

•  As your horse’s shoulders become more supple, it’ll get easier to spin his

shoulders around the turn without meeting resistance.

•  You can tell there’s no resistance when the weight in your hands stays the same as you swivel your horse’s shoulders around the corner.

2. Ride down the long side of the ring, and move your dressage horse’s shoulders slightly to the left and right.

•  Walk down the long side of arena.

•  Flex your horse at the poll opposite the direction you’ll be moving his shoulders. For example, when riding to the left, ask for a counter flexion to the right by turning your right wrist. Then, take both hands to left to slide your horse’s shoulders over. Move the shoulders over only 1-2 inches.

•  Now change to a correct flexion by turning your left wrist.

•  Move both arms to the right to pop the shoulders back out to the track.

•  Smoothly and fluidly move the shoulders back and forth as you work your way down the long side.

Click on supple my horse, for more suppling exercises for your dressage horse

What Should I Do When I My Horse Gets Resistant During Training?

You’ve carefully laid out a systematic, progressive training program for your horse. Yet every time you add new work, you run into a certain amount of resistance.

Don’t panic. Understand that when you raise the bar, it’s inevitable that you’re going to encounter resistance. It’s a normal part of horse training. Don’t be afraid of it. Just work through it in baby steps.

Have a checklist in your mind to help you decide if you should back off a little bit, or whether you should push through the resistance. There should be three things on your checklist.

1. Physical issues. You need to know that your horse is not in pain anywhere. Are his hocks are okay? Is his back is okay? Are his teeth okay? Do his saddle and bridle fit him correctly?

2. Check yourself. Make sure you’re giving the aids correctly. You want to be sure that you aren’t giving contradictory signals.

For example, let’s say you’re riding to the right (Your right leg is on the inside). You turn down the quarter in order to leg yield over to the left.

Your right leg is behind the girth asking the horse to move over. However, you have a very bad habit of pushing too hard with your right leg so your upper body leans to the right. Since your horse wants you to stay centered above him, he finds it hard to go sideways to the left because your leg is saying, “go to the left”, but your body weight is saying, “I won’t let you go to the left.”

Then you end up thinking, “Oh, my horse can’t go sideways. He’s not ready. He´s resisting.” But the reality is that you’re giving conflicting signals.

3. The third thing that I do if my horse is really showing me, or telling me with his body language that he can’t do something is that I find a way to take the difficulty out of the exercise. That is, I do the “essence” of the exercise, but I make it more simple.

Here are some ideas so you can be your own problem solver and figure out how to take the difficulty out of exercises but still get your point across. If you take this approach, the resistance becomes manageable or even nonexistent. Then little by little, you can increase the demands again.

For example, let’s say you start to leg yield from the quarter line over to the long side, The first few steps are fine, but then your horse starts resisting. Maybe he slows down or tosses his head. Take the difficulty out of the leg yield by starting only 1-meter off the rail instead of from the quarter line.

Or let’s say you’re struggling when you start your advanced lateral work such as shoulder-in, haunches-in, and half pass.

There are several things you can do. You can reduce the angle. Rather than asking for shoulder-in, do shoulder-fore (half the angle of a shoulder in). Or rather than asking for a 3-track haunches-in, ask for half that angle. With your half pass, rather than going from the corner letter to X, reduce the angle by going from the K or F all the way up to G.

Regarding shoulder-in and haunches-in, do fewer steps. That is, do three or four quality steps, and then straighten your horse. Let him take a breath. Then do three or four steps again. Or do the movements at a slower gait such as the walk.

Just be very clever on taking the difficulty out of the exercise. Introduce new training work in baby steps so that your horse always thinks he’s a champion no matter what you’re asking him to do.

Click here for more help with systematic horse training.

Counter Canter at First Level Dressage

Check out this horse doing one of the dressage movements required in First Level Tests–a balanced and straight counter canter. You can see the straightness because his shoulders lie softly between the two reins (not leaning to the left), and his shoulders are directly in front of his rider’s hips.

Online Dressage Training at Dressage Mentor

Does Your Dressage Horse Alternate Between Coming Above the Bit and Dropping Behind the Bit?

Some dressage horses are very quick to alternate between coming above the bit and dropping behind the bit. If that sounds like your horse, you need to be quick to switch your aids as follows:

When your horse comes above the bit, use your “connecting aids”.

1. Close both legs to send him forward toward a lengthening.

2. When you feel the “surge” of power coming from behind, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that power back to the hind legs.

3. If your horse starts to bend his neck to the outside, vibrate the inside rein to keep his neck straight.

As soon as he ducks behind the bit, send him “forward through his body”.

Here’s what I mean by that. Go on a circle in rising trot, close both legs and ask for a trot lengthening for 6 or 7 strides. Do this several times until it becomes a knee jerk reaction for him to go “forward over the ground” when you close your calves.

Then close your legs as if you’re going to lengthen, but don’t let him lengthen. This time you want your horse to go “ through his body” rather than “forward over the ground”. As you feel him go forward though his body and start to take a contact with your hand rather than curling behind the bit, praise him.

You might have to alternate a trot lengthening with asking him to take a contact with your hand several times. But once he understands, you’ll have a tool to use when he curls behind the bit.

If he’s curled behind the bit really badly (not just going with the poll too low), in addition to sending him forward through his body, you might have to raise your hands to place the bit out in front of him so he can step toward it.

The feeling is like putting a sheet on your bed. You lift the sheet up, and then let if softly drift onto the bed.

You can also think of it like doing “the wave” at a football game.

If you do have to raise your hands because your horse has dropped behind the bit, keep the following things in mind:

1. Always use your legs BEFORE you raise your hands.

2. Raise both hands evenly.

3. To the degree that you raise your hands, ALSO put them forward toward his mouth without losing contact. That is, if you lift your hands 2 inches, they must go forward 2 inches. If you lift them 4 inches, they must go forward 4 inches.

How To Make Your Lazy Horse More Energetic

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 enough!)

6. Praise

Let me explain those steps in a little more detail.

1. Give one feather light squeeze with both calves. A horse can feel a fly on his side so it’s logical that he can feel a light aid.

2. Your horse must react instantly and eagerly. If he doesn’t, DON’T adjust your aid by repeating it or making it stronger. If you do, you’re letting your horse train you!

3. Instead, correct him by chasing him forward. Before you actually correct your horse for a dull or non-existent reaction to your leg, consider his temperament. The easy-going, lazy horse might need a few taps with the whip or a few bumps from your legs to send him forward.

But the sensitive soul might only need a brush with the whip to get the same reaction. The point is to get a clearly forward, “hot-off-the-leg” answer– not to terrorize him.

Also, if your horse is the type that bucks when you use the whip, it’s better to bump him with your legs instead. First of all, you don’t want to get bucked off!

In addition, if he’s bucking, he’s obviously not going forward, so he’s missed the whole point of why you corrected him.

So, close both of your legs very lightly on his sides to ask for his version of a lengthening. If your lazy horse doesn’t respond (and he probably won’t if you’re used to giving him strong leg aids), send him forward for eight or ten strides by tapping with the whip or giving him a couple of bumps with your legs.

Keep in mind that at this point, all you’re looking for is some type of forward reaction. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “pretty” answer. It’s fine if he puts his head up in the air and rushes off. None of those reactions matter in the beginning.

Your only goal when you start this process is to get some kind of enthusiastic answer that shows your horse is paying attention to you.

While you’re sending him forward, maintain a light contact with his mouth, but don’t give any rein aids. There’s no point in using the reins to put him on the bit if he’s not “thinking” forward.

4. Once you’ve chased him forward, go back to a normal working trot. Ask for the lengthening again by RETESTING with a light leg aid.

Retesting by closing both calves lightly is the most important step in the entire process. If you don’t retest, your horse only becomes duller. That’s because you’ve only taught him to go forward when he feels the whip or kicking. You haven’t taught him anything about reacting to a light leg aid unless you retest.

5. Accept nothing less than a 100% response. If his reaction to your legs is “better” or “pretty good” but not wholeheartedly forward, repeat the whole process from the beginning until he makes a 100% effort.

6. When you RETEST, if your lazy horse responds by immediately going forward energetically, praise generously. At this point it’s still okay if he breaks into the canter when you do the retest–later on, through repetition and reward, you can explain to him that you just want a lengthening in the trot. But for the moment, ANY forward reaction deserves to be rewarded.

Click here for more on making a lazy horse more energetic.

How To Teach Your Dressage Horse to Do Free Walk at Training Level

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 than his withers. He should open the angle at his throatlatch so his nose points a bit forward, and he looks like he’s stretching toward the bit. Also, his strides become longer so his hind feet step more inches beyond the tracks made by his front feet.

PREPARATION is the key to getting a good free walk at Training Level. You should prepare for the transition at the beginning of the free walk the same way you prepare for the “stretchy” circle in the trot

To do this, use “connecting aids” for 3-4 seconds on the short side while you’re still in medium walk. To give “connecting aids”, create energy by closing both calves as if you’re asking for a lengthening. But don’t let your horse lengthen. Instead, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that energy back to the
hind legs. Keep your legs and outside hand closed for 3-4 seconds. While closing your legs and outside hand, vibrate or squeeze and release on your inside rein so your horse doesn’t bend his neck to the outside.

Then, as you turn onto the diagonal, relax your legs, and open your fingers so your horse can chew the reins out of your hands.

Your next challenge will be to do the transition back to the medium walk. Use the same “connecting aids” you used to prepare for the free walk. While the reins are still long, press lightly with your calves. As you shorten the reins, keep your new outside hand closed in a fist and squeeze and release with your new inside hand.

Horses should march in both the medium walk and the free walk. If your horse gets lazy, “breathe” your legs during the free walk. To “breathe” your legs:
* Take your legs off of his sides.
* Move them an inch or two back, and place them on lightly again.
“Breathing” your legs does two things. If you’ve been gripping, your horse is probably numb to your legs. Taking your legs off allows you to put them on again lightly so he feels them. Also, moving your legs back puts them closer to your horse’s “engine” and reminds him to use his hind legs actively.

On the other hand, some horses get nervous in the free walk and want to jig. If your horse wants to jig, do several
transitions to the halt, and praise him after each halt. Soon he’ll learn to anticipate stopping or slowing down.

Then when you’re doing a Training level dressage test, you can use just a little bit of your “stopping aids” several times to remind him to stay in a four-beat, flat-footed walk as you make your way across the diagonal.

If he wants to jig when you pick up the reins at the end of the diagonal, do some homework between shows. Practice your free walk at home and BEFORE you pick up the reins at the end of the diagonal, halt. Then, pick up the reins in the halt. Doing so will train him to stay slow when you do the transition for real at a dressage show.

Click here for more info on training level dressage horse.

How You Can Tell If Your Dressage Horse Bends in the Lateral Movement Shoulder-in?

I just posted a new video on my Youtube channel,  which explains how you can tell if your dressage horse is bending in the lateral movement shoulder-in. It’s at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmTqSBM8k0

So many people draw their inside leg back in this movement, and the shoulder-in becomes a leg yield. Keep your inside leg on the girth in a bending position and your outside leg a couple of inches back where it would be if you were on a 10-meter circle. Then lead the shoulders to the inside by bringing both of your hands in.

Then, have someone check that you have bend by looking to see if the hindquarters stay parallel to the wall. They should stay in exactly the same position that they’re in when you are just going straight down the track. if they’re at an angle to the rail, you’re just doing a leg yield.

In order for your dressage horse to reap all the benefits of the lateral movement, shoulder-in, he must bend. When done correctly, shoulder-in straightens him, strengthens his inside hind, and collects him.

Click here for more info on lateral dressage movements like shoulder-in.

What Do the Dressage Terms Behind the Bit and Behind the Vertical Mean?

A lot of riders are confused by the dressage terms behind the bit and behind the vertical.

When a horse is behind the bit, he’s not connected. That’s never acceptable. It means he’s dropped the contact with your hands, and there are loops in the reins.

Your horse can be behind the vertical and still be connected. However, he will be on the forehand. I’ll go into that a little bit more next.

Sometimes, riding a horse behind the vertical can be useful in schooling to give a horse the idea of staying connected during a dressage movement he’s having trouble with such as a canter depart or leg yields.

For a short period of time, you’d ride him connected but “deep” to give him the idea of using his body as a unit during those movements rather than disconnecting and coming hollow.

But riding your dressage horse behind the vertical isn’t acceptable for competition. In competition, you always want your horse on the bit with his poll the highest point and the nose about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Think of the horse’s body as a parallelogram. If the nose is behind the vertical and you draw a parallel line with the hind legs, you’d see the hind legs trailing out behind the body. That’s what I mean when I say that the horse can be connected when he’s behind the vertical, but his balance will be on the forehand.

As you bring the hind legs more under, the parallelogram shifts. The hind legs come under, the head comes up, and the nose comes more forward. Eventually the poll will be the highest point and the nose will be where you want it to be in it’s finished product—about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Behind the bit, however, is an entirely different story than behind the vertical. If your horse’s neck is round but he doesn’t touch the reins, he’s behind the bit. He’s not connected.

Connection means that you’ve connected your horse’s back end to his front end. Think of your horse’s back like a suspension bridge.

Draw reins or other gadgets won’t help your horse understand how to come on the bit.

When a horse has been ridden in gadgets like draw reins, he’ll often adopt this “behind the bit” position of a round neck with loops in the reins.

Some horses even look like they have what’s called a “broken neck”. This expression refers to the fact that the highest point of the neck is near the third vertebrae rather than at the poll.

Gadgets create a false frame so there’s no real connection. The horse sees the reins as a restriction. Rather than going through them, he sucks back away from them or breaks at the third vertebrae.

You want your horse to come from behind, over his back, through his neck, and into your hand. So, if you just focus on making the neck round by using gadgets, you’ll never really have a horse that is honestly on the bit.

Also, fiddling with the bit and/or seesawing on your horse’s mouth gives you the same false head set that you get with gadgets. Your horse will just arch his neck and bring his face on or behind the vertical. There’s no true connection from back to front.

Click here for more info on riding your horse on the bit.

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