Growing up in a family of pro dressage riders and instructors, I’m not sure I had much choice but to follow in their footsteps, though at that young age I would never have known it.
The early years were spent tearing around bareback in the pasture or indoor arena or in my itty bitty western saddle- lessons were on the lunge line with no reins or stirrups- doing air plane, hands on your head, and managing transitions without grabbing the pommel etc… by the time I was 6 I was in a tiny all purpose saddle back on the lunge line, or part of a group lesson where the focus was steering, navigating simple patterns and popping a few little fences.
But I was a kid growing up with other barn kids and their ponies on the family boarding and training facility, so outside of the once or twice weekly lessons, much of the time was spent learning to handle my pony independently, tack and untack (if I wanted tack that day,) playing mounted games with the other kids, or racing around tackless in the pasture until one of us bounced off our ponies, scrambled back on and did it all over again. I remember on a few occasions when we were a little older, after each of our individual dressage lessons were over, dumping the tack and hopping on our ponies to gallop bareback through the huge pasture and pond.
This all lead to the natural progression of developing balance, feel and connection, and after a few open and schooling shows early on I was in the ring competing training level at 9.
My lessons at that stage were always geared toward learning the aids for the new moves in the next test I’d be competing in, polishing, and moving on to the next test after successfully competing. I remember the sheer joy of my first horse and I learning lead changes together over a ground pole around 10 or 11, but many evenings were spent just riding with my family in the arena or solo after school, schooling just for fun over fences, or riding to horsey neighbor’s farms and jumping or schooling there.
The focus wasn’t always on dressage (for me at least) because I have a vivid memory of my mom/instructor/coach yelling at me while jumping a course at a neighbor’s house to “get that horse on the bit or if it rains he’ll drown!” and thinking, “yeah but I’m not doing dressage right now!”
But the desire to be like my family, compete, and earn my bronze medal drove me to focus predominantly on the dressage fundamentals and around 12 or so I was able to grasp things like half halts, decent transitions, collection/ extension and compete successfully through 1st and in my early teens 2nd level…but there were still many days I jumped courses, trail rode bareback with family and friends and went to fun shows.
My son who’s now 8 is following much the same track, though his passion seems to be more for jumping and having his lessons in a bareback pad lately. To even get him in the arena vs the pint sized cross country course in our woods, there has to be at least two cross rails set up. He says he wants to do dressage and asks when he’ll be good enough to do a canter pirouette , but he’s turning out to be more of an adrenaline junkie for the time being, and I’m happy to nurture that. He’s developing an independent seat and balance as well as how to influence his pony to get through small courses and obstacles. So while the basics to be a successful dressage rider are emerging, he’s learning to use them outside the arena and over fences as well, and having fun…and if he desires, will be better equipped to use these skills in the dressage ring in the future.
So to reiterate above posters, I agree that it’s probably best for most kids to have a broader approach to their dressage education by incorporating other disciplines and fun activities with other young riders as well, and to let their enthusiasm for dressage and competition dictate the pace at which they refine their skills and focus more on the intricacies of the discipline.
