Dressage Anyone?
By Mocha Mom on Feb 9, 2008 in Dressage, Uncategorized
I have friends who do dressage very successfully with their Morgans. I would love to know more about it than I do. I think a lot of it can be applied not only in the dressage arena, but also in the show ring. Can anyone out there tell me how to start?
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Hi. I would advise you to look for a good dressage trainer in your area. A dressage trainer should come with credentials: Google the potential trainer and check their show scores; note at what level they achieved those scores. Find out what medals they’ve achieved from the USDF: bronze? silver? gold? Go on the USDF (United States Dressage Federation) site (usdf.org), navigate the site to become familiar with the dressage world and what’s going on. DO take your time selecting a trainer; in Europe there are stringent rules for declaring yourself a trainer; the US is a lot more lax about using the term. Go slow. Bad training is a waste of your horse’s time and yours! I’d also subscribe to “Dressage Today” magazine, it provides very helpful training articles if you cannot find a trainer close enough to your barn. Let me know how you do in your search!
Marthe Reynolds | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
Very good advice. I think this would be applicable in any division. There are so many self proclaimed “trainers” out there that is always a good idea to do a little background check on them. It is so easy to get in a bad situation when you are new to something(it happened to me when i first got back into horses). Thanks for the info (good to see you Marthe!)
Black Eye Beth | Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
try looking on the www.morgandressage.org website- there are a few articles by noted trainers & a link to the yahoo group of same name.
KarenL | Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
These have been all good comments. I would add that the trainer you choose should be familiar with Morgans as they are different from warmbloods. They are more like the Baroque breeds and their training mehtods are different while achiving the same result. You should choose a trianer that works for you and can ride your horse to demonstrate what they are doing or trying to do. You will see right off if your horse is happy with them or not. Also video some of your lessons so you can watch you and your horses progress.
Bill Broe
Bill Broe | Feb 14, 2008 | Reply
I think this is really good advice. Like in other disciplines, not every trainer and style of training will work for every horse. Also I don’t know much about Dressage. What breeds are Baroque breeds and how do they differ from the warmbloods? Is it basic conformation issues (head set, tail set, “way of going”)?
Black Eye Beth | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
I was also wondering what a “Baroque” breed is and why they need to be trained differently. I know I ask a lot of what might seem like dumb questions, but I really am curious and would like to know. The answers may not change anything in anyone’s life, but then again…..
BTW (By The Way) I am going to subscribe to Dressage Today and check out www.morgandressage.org as soon as I finish our taxes and make my reservation for the Light Hands Symposium.
Mocha Mom | Feb 16, 2008 | Reply
The Barogue breeds are the Andalusian, Lusitano and I believe the Friesian is in there also. They differ confirmation wise and require different focus in training. One example is Warmbloods are not born collected they have to learn to collect. They have a long stride with suspension and it is not as easy from them to have a collected stride. The Baroque and I am going to include the Morgan also as its confirmation is much like the Andulusian and Lusitano are born collected and they have to learn how to stretch and lengthen. That is the major difference between the two in my view. There fore your approach to training differs but with the same end result in mind.
Bill Broe | Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
Dressage means teaching. The Baroque Breeds live a long time and take a long time to mature. To obtain a high level of anything in good horsemanship takes time. You cannot train a horse by the clock. Morgans fit into a general conformation of the Baroque horse….the horse that does high school dressage is a gymnist….not a basket ball player. Short stocky people GENERALLY make a good gymnist. The long legged warm bloods make the angle of extention look huge do to the reach of the hoof….a pony can have the same “angle ” of extension…but due to the optics of the short leg…the extension does not look as dramatic. The little Lipizzaners are ridden by small men who are in perfect propotion to the horse they ride…there is no blue ribbon at the end of a performace of the Spainish Riding School as the men and horses are doing ballet.
Just a thought…Morgans are long lived so their minds and body build can tollerate the time it takes to teach Classical Dressage….and they can dance for their entire lifetime. Carole p.s. Wish we had spell check.
Carole | Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
Your comment has was well thought out and said. I agree. The road to the end is long and it can’t be rushed.
Bill Broe | Feb 20, 2008 | Reply
Thank you to Bill and Carole for the description of the Baroque Breeds. I love the analogy to gymnasts and basketball players. It make a lot of sense to me.
FYI, there are two ways to get the advantage of a spell check for your posts. One way is to compose your post in a word-processing program such as MS Word that has a spell check function. Once you have used the spell check, copy and paste your post into a Quick Post on this site. The other way is to click on “Write Post” under your screen name on the right hand side of this screen after you login. That will take you to a form for composing your post that has a spell check option in addition to options such as bold type, italics, underline, and strikethrough. This is also the way to insert a hyperlink, pictures, and lots of other neat effects. Using this form you can also check more than one category for your post, unlike the Quick Post which only allows you to select one.
Mocha Mom | Feb 20, 2008 | Reply
Hi
You might like to access http://tinyurl.com/2ubm95. It’s a weekly training blog for one of the top dressage trainers and check out his links to their farm too.
Iberian and Morgan horses can be quite similar altho’ most Iberian horse conformation enables collection to be easier. One point I’d make is that handling the hotter breeds like these mentioned takes a bit more finesse than some of the cooler minded breeds. Morgans can resent and get angry about bullying, yet need clear definitive instruction from their rider or trainer.
Julie Williams | Apr 7, 2008 | Reply