Finding it difficult to fully get into Dressage the 'proper' way, any advice?

[atr]

I think many of us amateurs start out the same way you are. I know I did. But at some point there comes the need/opportunity to purchase the “next horse.”

Thats when some of us buy our precious dressage schoolmaster. Then we spend the next number of years gratefully babying them and holding them together with chewing gum and string, while we learn so much from them. And then, maybe we are ready to move on to training one up ourselves, if we haven’t at that point aged out of the concept of throwing a leg over a youngster!

I’ve shared my quirky but highly educated guy with our brilliant working student, heavily supervised by our trainer. I let him show him a couple of times last year to get medal scores. But I’m entirely selfish about not letting anyone else on him. Those educated legs have only got so many miles left in them.

[Salty]

I got to have lessons on a PSG horse. I saw her for sale ad, she was ridiculously cheap but still out of my budget, so I called the owner and said, “I can’t afford your horse, but why is she so cheap?” The owner said, “Because I don’t really want to sell her. I can refuse a small amount of money, but not a large amount of money!”. I thought, you’re crazy and I like you!

I asked her if I could come see the horse even though I couldn’t afford her, and the owner said yes. I rode her, and she said, “I like the way you ride her. If you have a weekly lesson from me, you can ride her whenever you want!”

I got this amazing opportunity by using the mantra, “No for an answer I’ve already got.” The horse was an hour away, and in another country, but it was worth it.

You can do this! Be creative and bold and you never know what could happen.