Art2ride, actually dressage?

[Sannois]

@Draftmare

I somehow got added to the A2R Facebook page a while back, and was not impressed with what I saw. I even asked around about what I was seeing, and got shot down pretty hard by “true believers.” What I saw was a lot of horses running around on the forehand with their noses on the ground. A 1980s western pleasure rider’s delight! Going on the forehand is not at all healthy for the horse, and can lead to joint issues down the road. I guess I kind of…maybe…understand the idea behind wanting to teach the rider to go off their seat (good), and teaching a horse to stretch across their topline and into the contact (also good), but like many of the trendy NH trainers, I think they have taken it way too far and instead turned it into something harmful to the horse instead of helpful.

The people that are pretty green with horses always seem to latch on to this type. They totally drink the koolaid and think everyone else is the devil incarnate. A barn I was at when I retired my old OTTB had several Parelli followers. I was satan himself and not to be trusted. None of them had ever owned a horse or ridden for more than a year.