Its a bit of a weird one but it’s the only thing to explain how ‘Miss Princess Penelope’ is acting. We have ruled out pain and boredom and basically everything else you can think of and the only explanation is she just doesn’t like dressage (and by this I mean being asked to go into a dressage arena and do flatwork). She is a chestnut thoroughbred mare with an opinion so…
Has anybody else had any experience with horses that just don’t like it? Any tips?
There are quite a lot of event horses whose least favorite discipline is dressage, mine included. He used to regularly dig in his heels when we went to walk out of the barn towards my dressage arena, and I don’t over-school it. He still does occasionally. It does get better. It’s hard work to use your body correctly and engage and develop different muscles. With my horse, it has gotten, much, much better. But for some time, it was really drudgery. He resisted but I was persistent and I insisted and I learned not to get mad of frustrated; and there were and I am sure will continue to be, days where it just doesn’t seem to gel and we fall back to doing something easy so we can quit on a good note. Just depends on how badly you want it.
I had a gelding like this as well, just hated going into the sand ring to do dressage. We used to school it in the fields instead, and he was much happier to do so. Just like FatCatFarm said, it’s hard work for them and some horses just don’t like it as much.
My mare hates using herself. She’d much rather flop about on her front end, weaseling her way through on sheer talent and faking it. The fitter she gets, the less she complains, but I’m still likely to “hear” about it with a head flip or rushing. “you want a *&%#%&^ leg yield? fine, I do it really, really fast! See! Leg Yeild! I did it, now lets go run somewhere or jump something or anything other that roundy-round!”
Can you make it more of game for her with lots of treats for doing what you want? Maybe wrap the bit that you use for dressage with something really tasty and only use it when you are doing flat work? Dressage is hard work for the horse and boring as well. You could break it up into little bits that you do whenever you are riding anywhere. Only after she’s been taught that it can be rewarding, try a longer stretch.
I used to think some horses didn’t like lower level dressage, and I had one. Every test from BN to T/P had comments like “tense” “tight” “nice horse would show more potential if he wasn’t so tight”… He was such a killer XC and SJ that we just endured the dressage phase to get to jumping.
But now, growing up a little, having many more horses that each taught me how little I actually know, I don’t think for low level dressage that there are horses “that just don’t like it”. They either don’t enjoy it because using themselves correctly is physically uncomfortable or unsustainable, or they don’t like it because perhaps the training is not clear or progressive enough. Asking the horse to use itself correctly is a lot of work and I am sure some horses don’t enjoy it at first – but it should be progressive and they should build muscle and strength to the point where LL dressage is not difficult for them.
Looking back on my first OTTB ever, who was as about loose as a tension rod, I remember how difficult it was for me to put down a good test with him. He never misbehaved or bucked but riding him was like riding a jackhammer. And it was not for lack or want of good training: I had the best training I could hope for as a teen. Knowing now what I know about him it all makes sense: it originated in the back. He had cervical arthritis show up blatantly and with a vengeance when he was in his 20s. I bet it was always there, but since he was never neuro, we never suspected it. We thought he just “didn’t like dressage”.
I think once you get into upper level dressage that requires true use of the back and collection, yes, there are totally horses who do not enjoy the physical demands of it. But LL stuff, like under Prelim’s dressage (or really, under 2nd level) is very basic ring work. I really think it boils down to either physical pain/limitations or frustration because of lack of clarity in training and aids.
LL dressage in my opinion does not ask anywhere near the same amount of physical effort as UL dressage… W/T/C with contact and looseness, suppleness and engagement – not collection – a horse of sound body and clear training should be able to do this readily and easily - and happily. If your LL horse is not enjoying dressage, in my experience it is because of a physical or training issue.
My current project (who is not free of physical ailments) is actually very good at dressage. I have the opposite problem with him; he loves his sandbox time and does not really like jumping or cantering out in the open. The reason is because the jumping and moving over terrain is much harder, he does not have great feet, and does not like hard ground because of it. All physical issues and I have questioned many times whether or not it’s fair to ask him to event… but he could play all day in a nice, cushy sand ring.
What beowolf said!
My AndalusianxTB gelding LOL! He’s lazy, and if you make him work, he gets spooky. He’s got Dynaformer for a grandsire so it’s not like he doesn’t have enough blood to move. He just wasn’t being a happy pony, so one day I said screw it and rode him like he was a straight up western pleasure horse. Good as gold and happy as a clam. He actually CAN jog, but there’s no way his canter will get WP, so we’ll play with it and go show schooling shows walk/jog WP at some point. He’s happy, he’ll hack out now and go in the ring with no drama, it’s all good.
ETA, he’s completely sound and a fairly decent mover, he just doesn’t want to, and he’s pretty opinionated about things for a gelding.
if you’re bored or your horse is bored doing flat work, you’re doing it wrong! I recommend dressage for the not so perfect horse and 101 dressage exercises if you’re looking to expand you’re repertoire. And do NOT forget ground poles there are a zillion youtube videos of good ones to use.
well my horse is a dressage queen at home, but as soon as we get into the warm up at shows…it all goes out the window. She has shown a lot, in front of huge crowds and is fine jumping, but something about the dressage ring stresses her. So I do think in her case, she might actually hate dressage lol
My coach suggested trying blinders, for a horse who is hard on the flat, because they can’t focus on anything but what’s ahead of them. Mares especially might be easier to be distracted. You start out with full racing ones, then go down to half blinkers, then none eventually. Might be worth a try.
My observation is that horses don’t like doing what they cannot easily do. Most horses have little problem with Training Level WTC, they usually manage even First Level, but progressing them to 2nd and 3rd requires a degree of engagement they are physically or conformationally not comfortable with.
Some as they progress, strengthen and stretch to the point where is it easy, others never can or will make it.
I had one. She would trail ride for hours - usually whining when we turned toward home. She liked natural horsemanship-type activities. She thought XC when the jumps were about 2’6" was awesome. She was miserable in the ring. Anxious, balky, explosive. Would leave the ring (frontwards or backwards) on a regular basis… Yet some days we could do a half-decent dressage test.
I tried restarting her from scratch three times. When she got to the point where she would like down in the ring, then get up, prick her ears and trot off down the road I said OK, no more trying to make you do what you hate and found her a home with a western rider who wanted a sweet horse to trail ride and teach tricks to.
I don’t think it’s that a horse doesn’t like dressage (and OP - I’m not picking on you at all. I’m talking about in general). I think it usually boils down to the horse doesn’t like and or physically can’t do what is being asked/is expected due to the way s/he is being ridden. And/or doesn’t understand the aid - what is being asked. Listen to your horse. Take your time. If it means riding without touching his mouth and on the buckle for the entire session or for six months, then that’s what it means. I see a major cookie-cutter approach to teaching riders how to ride - across all disciplines. The horses are asked to conform to the riders’ way - very little “meeting in the middle.” With some horses, that works. With others, yeah no. And then they are labeled as “hating dressage.” Which would be nice if it were that simple, but it’s just not. It took me a LONG time to figure that out with a horse who, when I bought him, came with the description “tough on the flat.” He’s not at all tough on the flat. But he hates and does not respond to being stuffed in a frame. Once I got away from competing and that pressure came off, and I also stopped going to weekly lessons where he was stuffed in a frame - I started experimenting with long and low and loose for every ride.
Now, looking back, I feel so bad for all those sessions/lessons where the instructor was telling me to use my hands so much. When your arms hurt in a flat lesson - something is wrong! And these were very well-respected trainers. And I knew nothing and had no confidence. I did what I was told because they were the experts, not me (as it should be). That’s always an unfortunate scenario.
After throwing the reins and focus on “getting him round” away and committing to the training scale, everything changed. Rhythm rhythm rhythm. Relaxation. Lots of lateral work. No concern on whether it looked pretty. Get the hind in moving forward and laterally. Then ask for some very light connection. Eventually that horse’s back started to swing and OMG it was the biggest epiphany I have ever had in riding. I LOVE flatting him now. It is a total joy. But I don’t sit on this back and push him forward in a German seat. It’ just doesn’t work with him. I meet him in the middle with a forward, light seat and just about no contact and we just stick to the training scale. Then contact makes it’s way in and he accepts it easily and the rest comes. Impulsion, lightness, elasticity. It’s amazing and wonderful. He hated the way I rode him for years. That was the problem.
While there are certainly horses who hate ring work, I tend to agree with @beowulf that at the lower levels, hating dressage is more commonly a physical problem or a rider/training problem.
While the lower levels aren’t “challenging” in what they are asking of the horse, it IS hard for all but the most impeccably bred/conformed horses to use themselves correctly for dressage. Even more so if the horse is experiencing physical pain.
And since the questions in the tests themselves aren’t all that difficult, we can unwittingly force horses through the motions with incorrect riding/training, making the experience no more pleasant for the horse or rider.
In the jumping phases, the horse regains a lot more freedom to go as they please, especially at the lower levels.
Which is why diagnosing physical issues can be so annoying… inherently, it doesn’t seem like a sore horse should be more comfortable jumping 3ft fences than trotting a 20m circle correctly. But they often are.
I agree that it is more often the rider does not like/understand/competently school dressage moreso than the horse!
I had a horse that didn’t like it. I’m a dressage person with a lot of experience bringing horses to FEI, so I don’t think that was it. He could do it. He just didn’t like it. I rarely spend a lot of time working in the ring, they live in pasture, and do lost of trails. He learned and I got him to about 2nd/3rd level work. He just did not like it. If jumps were in the ring, he would veer towards them and try to jump them. He just loved jumping and was never going to be a happy dressage horse. He ended up going to someone who loved what he did.
Every other horse I’ve ridden likes the dressage and seem to relish the control of themselves and the ability. He just never did.
My (1 day) eventer hated dressage – at some point during every test he would kick the rail of that little white fence. And he disliked stadium jumping too. There was something about a ‘ring’ that irked him. But cross country? Different horse! Bold jumper, ears up – couldn’t wait to negotiate the next fence. He had it all figured out, and often I’d just grab some mane and let him do his thing. We always had clean rounds well under time. I really just went to the events for the cross country part – so much fun!
I myself wasn’t very fond of dressage when I started eventing, so no wonder my horses didn’t like it! But then I found a dressage coach who deeply believed that dressage is actually physical therapy for horses, under saddle. Identifying a horse’s physical weaknesses and issues and then developing a program to address them interested me MUCH more than the perfectly pretty 20 meter circle so I began to enjoy it.
Much of my education came while riding an extremely tense, prone to panic attack OTTB mare. Short description of what worked: we found a school figure that she enjoyed and was able to relax in. For her it was a three loop serpentine 20 meters wide. When something triggered tension, we’d go back to this, her happy place. Thus I am now known as the Queen of Serpentines. The other part of the solution was that when she did something right, or showed any progress in the right direction, instead of pushing on to confirm it, I would pat her and walk her on a loose rein for a minute. Then pick up the reins and start work again. The length of time doing the "good "work gradually increased, but there was always a pat and long rein break. As she got better, the long rein break could be a trot stretchy circle and once she could stay relaxed for a full 10 or 20 minutes, we started competing. But our warmup always included lots of “happy place” work.
I have no idea if this would even help with your horse. I just know it has now worked with several of mine (and I’m still the Queen of Serpentines!)
I’ve certainly had horses who didn’t think it was fun, but, most of the time, they have some reason to think so. My former horse was a real PITA in dressage once we hit prelim, but, hind sight being 20/20, he had some physical issues that made the job tough, and I also think I burned him as a youngster (which is why I will now shout from the roof tops “RIDE THE HORSE YOU HAVE. SCORES BE DAMNED” when riding a youngster. I pushed him too soon at training level, because dressage judges wanted to see more “self carriage” and see his poll higher. I pushed him for it and he wasn’t physically or mentally ready, and was fried by prelim. I can say that now, but, unfortunately, I had to learn that the hard way. He may NEVER have liked it, but I think I could have made his life easier.
Some horses do have different work ethics, though, and find it painfully boring. Some are workers and just like to do a job. My horse now loves to work and loves a challenge, so, as long as you as for things fairly and don’t push him way beyond what he is physically capable of, he will do his darndest for you. But I’ve ridden plenty who just grudgingly went through the test, but completely changed their demeanor once they started jumping. Then there are the little divas who LOVE the limelight of the dressage ring and get BETTER when they go down the center line.
It’s always good to rule out physical stuff. Tack fits, feet feel good, limbs are good, back is good. Riders should self evaluate themselves, too. Often times riders make their horses uncomfortable because they are too stiff and rigged in a dressage saddle (or get tense and nervous in the ring), and their horse can’t deal.
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