Who else rides dressage from this board?

[walkswithsword]

Who else that posts here rides dressage? Care to share a little about your journey? Inquiring minds want to know. ;D

[Kat]

Hmmm, well I grew up as a Hunter princess, but when I was 20 I went to Conn to work at a....Dressage Barn of all places. At first I hated it, but soon learned to love it - though I still really missed jumping. Now I ride my own in a CC saddle, jump, and for teh most part do the hunter stuff, but I also like to incorporate basic Dressage patterns and moves, and I also like anything I ride, not to plow around on their forhand. It ios promising to me, to see the new hunters now a days going around in almost a Dressage frame.

[cassidy]

Yep dressage and eventing for me ... love doing them both on the same horse... great fun

I've been riding for about 2 years now... not long... but I've always found dressage to be thing that I love... even though most eventers groan at the thought of it ;D

[shadowsrider]

I also ride dressage. Not competitively......I really don't do much of anything competitively, lol. My horse is currently at about 2nd level. We work at it off and on, we don't drill it constantly. Same with jumping. He is doing 3 feet. I don't know how far in the dressage we'll go, but as for me, I think my "more than three feet" days are over, lol.

My horse CAN jump higher than three feet. He can clear five feet, as a matter of fact. As evidenced by the time he jumped out of his paddock to chase a horse trailer that had his buddy in it down my driveway and out onto the highway........

[walkswithsword]

Good to hear you all are out there. I loved jumping when I was younger, but I hit this age of responsibility and heightened sense of mortality and suddenly thought that maybe jumping wasn't the best idea for me. ;-)

Sometimes trying to explain dressage to other horse people feels like explaining the difference between religion and relationship. Anybody else feel that way?

[heavenonhorseback]

I only "dabble" in dressage. I wish I had the time to devote more time to learn more. However the basics that I have learned thus far have helped me and Peabody be better partners on the trail.
#527#

[shadowsrider]

heavenonhorseback said:

I only "dabble" in dressage. I wish I had the time to devote more time to learn more. However the basics that I have learned thus far have helped me and Peabody be better partners on the trail.
#527#

Exactly! I've got one of the best trail horses around because of his dressage training. Everytime there is something tricky to do, some yells at me to "bring Shadow up here!" There are three of us that do a benefit ride spring and fall for a local therapuetic riding program and I am always the one that staples the signs up to the trees on the trails and puts the markers in the hard to reach places because my horse will move laterally, move off of my leg and weight shift, stand like a rock when I tell him too........ ;D

I never have busted knees from getting too close to trees, and wow is it ever nice to be able to do a really collected canter when the ground is tricky, or everyone else has to trot really big to keep up.

What's hysterical is that I trail ride in an endurance saddle with a western slant to it and a halter/bridle combo, so people don't EXPECT dressage moves from him

I've had more fun out of our dressage training on the trail than I ever did in a show ring.

[ivanator]

I'm VERY interested in dressage. And I too have discovered that I'm not invincible at an earlier age than most. This past year I took a bad fall from my very tall horse while riding bareback with no bridle (not smart!) and shattered my left humerus bone. Now I have a long titanium rod that extends from my shoulder to my elbow. Since then, I've thought dressage/flat work would be the "safer" choice since although I like to jump, I will NEVER want to experience the pain again that I did this past year. Id like to take my horse to some hunter paces (maybe some fox hunts), but my main focus to is train Ivan, my Pecheron, in dressage.

[shadowsrider]

I was scribing at the Virginia Horse Center last year for a CCI*** Event, and one of the eventers rode a Clydesdale! Both the judge and I just boggled at it when it walked into the ring, lol. But it really did very well.

We looked at each other and said, "I CANNOT imagine that horse galloping on the cross-country course!

[ivanator]

Awesome! I would have loved to witness the Clydesdale!

Drafts can do it all! (I'm just partial to the Percherons. )

[walkswithsword]

THat is really cool. How is the training going? My friend is a trainer and one of her students has a perch/TB cross. They do alright, but there are some draft specific balance issues that they are working on.

[pintopiaffe]

Guilty!

I have been on the long and winding dressage road for more than 20 years now.

My current mount is my first horse I have brought from unbacked up through the levels myself. I've played with the fun stuff, started tons of babies, but this morass of moving up is the most challenging riding of my life. We're working in 2nd, knocking at 3rd's door at times. We need scores at 3rd 3 to finish his stallion approveals for RPSI.

My biggest frustration seems to be not having a real riding ring, or this year, an indoor. We have had almost 10" of rain in 5 weeks, at a time when we average 1.5 to 2.5". It just has nowhere to go. I've ridden four or five times since my last lesson the 2nd week of October. I feel like all the progress we made this year is lost... I know he still 'knows' the stuff, but moving up is about 98% strength, condition, and repetition... the movements are just icing on the cake. <sigh>