She starts with blank arena diagrams and uses them for a number of things such as:

1. Memorizing regulation dressage tests.
2. Learning the exact geometry of the dressage arena.
3. Learning the specific tangent points for movements such as circles and serpentines.
4. Drawing dressage tests from beginning to end.
5. Drawing each dressage movement according to where the judges are judging. (This way you know exactly when the judge begins judging a new movement).
6. Showing a student where a dressage movement begins and ends.
7. Mapping out individual dressage movements when creating choreography for a freestyle.
8. Looking at the pattern of a new freestyle from beginning to end to see if you’ve used the dressage arena wisely.
9. Checking to see if all the required movements for a competitive dressage freestyle have been included.
10. Mapping out each dressage movement of a new freestyle so you have something very visual to study.
11. Checking to see if the dressage freestyle pattern is unique and inventive.
12. Checking to see if the dressage movements are equally used from the left and the right.

To help you take advantage of all these benefits, Ruth is giving you diagrams for your use. Feel free to print them off and use them any time you want.

Click here to get the blank dressage arena diagrams and while you’re on Ruth’s site, be sure to sign up for her free dressage newsletter. When you sign up, you’ll automatically get the link for the diagrams in the welcome letter of my newsletter, so you don’t have to go looking for it!

http://www.ruthhoganpoulsen.com/downloads.html

One of Olympian Robert Dover’s favorite sayings is, “Amateurs ride from movement to movement. Professionals ride from half halt to half halt.”

So when you think about your ride, don’t focus on the individual dressage movements such as, “I do a 10 meter circle here, and then I do a leg-yield there. After that, I do a lengthening across the diagonal.” Instead, think, “Do a half halt to prepare for the turn from the centerline to the circle. Give another half halt to balance my horse before I start the leg yield. Give another half halt to coil the spring of the hind legs so my horse can “boing” into the lengthening.”

So, think of the half halt as the doorway through which you do every change of gait, movement, or bend. Without half halts, your ride will just look like chopped up individual dressage movements.

Click here for more info on dressage half halts.