I have 14 equines. Mostly i just hack, and mostly alone. I recently purchased a 4yr old mare that is very athletic. I think i’d like to try dressage with her. I will be brand new to the discipline. I live between St. Louis and Kansas City and am willing to trailer either way on a every-other week basis. Something closer i’d do every week i suppose. Does it make sense that i would be gaining enough tutoring just in two or three hours / month to get anywhere?
Second question: I am on-the-spectrum and am very uncomfortable with competition. I will need a trainer who will not push me in that direction. I just want to learn a new skillset with my new mare. Will a good trainer set aside her personal goals/ego to take on a person who only wants to school her own horses? (and not buy anything else - another horse, a saddle, or anyother upsells)
I think as long as you are upfront about your plans, you will be just fine with a good trainer (sorry- not in that area and can’t give you any recs). 2-3 hours/month is totally sufficient as long as you do your “homework” in between lessons.
Yes! Welcome! Talk with any prospective trainer about your goals. Ask if they’d be willing to give you specific homework or recommendations of what to work on between lessons to keep improving. Most will happily oblige!
You’re going to struggle teaching a horse the fundamentals of dressage when you don’t know dressage. Most of us started there. It’s not impossible. Just adds another level of difficulty. Keep that in mind when you start. Don’t give up.
Can you take lessons on a lesson horse for a couple months first? Not only would it give you more opportunity to take more frequent lessons to start, but it would allow you to determine if you mesh with that trainer without all the hassle of hauling a horse in. Might be a good way to “audition” trainers first without fully buying in at the start. You may have to try a couple before u settle on one that fits you.
As far as not showing: i rarely show. I don’t have the finances. I’ve only met one trainer that pushed for it, and that was out of 5 trainers in my life (some who are international level trainers). Majority of them just want to work with students that WANT to learn, and are willing to put the hard work into it. They’ll bend over backwards for students like that.
Occassionally you’ll run into a bad apple. Just chuck them and find a new one.
I’m really excited you want to learn dressage. Once you get past the “WTF did I sign up for” phase it becomes addicting. Especially if you enjoy lifelong learning and solving puzzles.
Best advice - IMHO - is @Core6430 's
Before going to the trouble of hauling in, test driving both the discipline itself & any trainer seems sensible to me.
Once you’re comfortable with Dressage basics, you can try them on your mare at home.
If both of you like what you’re doing, then hauling weekly or 2X month should work.
A good trainer should be able to provide you the tools you need to ride on your own.
Like you, I am not now (& never really was) competitive at Dressage.
H/J was another story, in a former life. :rolleyes:
But I like the training progression & (for me) Zen quality of Dressage.
My trainer of some 10+yrs has always come to my farm. We shoot for 2X a month, but usually end up short of that goal.
I’m happy with the slow, but steady progress she’s helped me achieve with 3 very different horses. None purpose-bred or traditional for Dressage.
Latest is a TWH I was gifted with at 15. Used exclusively for horsecamping & gaited, no trot, owner never cantered him :eek:
Now, 3yrs later, he trots reliably, canter is a work in progress & 2yrs ago he won his Intro A at a local schooling show with an “r” judge.
While you check out dressage as a discipline with a knowledgeable horse, consider giving your youngster another year and then having a trainer start her.
After having several horses and taking regular lessons (often weekly, for a couple of years here and there, daily) I got a baby green horse last summer. Before I got her she did groundwork with a knowledgeable trainer and was hacked lightly by inexperienced riders. Which is why I got her – what a temperament! However, as she came more into balance (warmblood, turning 7) she showed very expressive movement. It seemed like a good idea to have her learn from an expert who knew how to support and guide her, rather than confuse the both of us with my inexact (low level ammie) aids.
We are both progressing much more quickly, and much more happily, with her learning from an expert and then me learning from her, and the expert.
As for showing … IMO the best teachers just want someone dedicated to her horse and the horse’s welfare. Showing should not be an issue.
Thank you for sharing your advice and enthusiasm everybody! I will not be sharing my new horse though, so whatever she learns will have to be under me. Her first year here will be groundwork, groundwork liberty, trail ponying, ground driving and eventually me (i’m small) aboard maybe once / week, briefly. Great idea about riding a school horse though… i’ll start with that. What do i look for in a dressage coach? (or trainer? ( and what do you call them?). How do i know if they are good? Does it go that the gifted/intuitive/inspired riders, the ones that have good show credentials don’t necessarily translate into a person who can teach? Dressage coaches/trainers: Are they …draconian? I grew up with show standardbreds and morgans and have had some fairly disastrous times with those kind of people. When it doesn’t go well with me it usually doesn’t go well with them! I get ‘fussy’.
If you learn communication with the horse. The horses are happy. The horses are in snaffle it is a good start.
The horses should have their ears back listening to you. They should not be flat back. Unless they are trained above elementary, they should be in snaffle bits. The horses in their yards and paddocks should be happy to see you.
The main thing with dressage is you ride back to front. You do not pull a horses head in. That does not mean you ride with loose reins.
Learning contact can take a long time. We are talking months or years. The advice from others on this thread for an expert to teach your horse comes from their years of experience. You do not know what you do not know. It can take months or years for you to learn
Horses learn much faster than riders and can learn in the first few rides. So it is better for the horse to learn from someone who knows what they are doing which will make it easier for you.
You are going to teach a horse that does not speak English to do something that it has no idea what to do and has no want to do it.
A good dressage instructor can not only teach the horse what to do, but instill in them the want for them to do what you want. That is a skill that takes a lifetime to learn.
Stony Hill farm is in Columbia, so probably reasonably close for you. Liz is lovely to work with.
Sharon Rose has an operation in Jefferson City. I haven’t personally ridden with her but she has a good reputation.
Also in Columbia Crystal Kendrick https://www.facebook.com/crystal.kendrick.5
I believe her focus is more on eventing than just dressage, but it’s really all just basic training up to 3rd level. And Crystal is fun to work with. I came up just behind her in Pony Club and she’s got great chops.
I’m not sure terminology matters too much (i.e coach/trainer can be used interchangeably for most of situations). Trainer usually refers to someone who actually rides and trains the horse (gives lessons too). Coach is usually someone who instructs the rider and isn’t physically training the horse by riding it regularly.
Ironically, I like “draconian” and can’t find any. They’re all so nice here. I want them to be more brutal and they’re just the sweetest people (i need drill sargents 😂). If you do find one that doesn’t mesh with you, just move on. Even in my dressage dead zone" state we have several to choose from that can reliably teach lower levels well. They don’t all advertise well though. Have to find them through word of mouth.
It’s insanely difficult to determine whether a trainer is full of b.s. when you first start. Everyone talks a good talk.
A few things you can use to make a decision on which trainer o use are: current and past students, Licenses/Certificates, the tools they use when training a horse, teaching style, references, and past show record.
You want someone who has been able to take at least a couple students to the level you want to achieve. If that’s upper levels, then you want to be able to find students that the trainer trained to upper levels. If you just want basics, then you should be able to see several students that have happy, cooperative horses that respond promptly and willingly to aids.
USDF website lists people who are L Grads (this is the Learner level of judging, and helps them develop their eye as a teacher as to what is correct or not. It helps all students, regardless of whether you plan to show or not, because the theory and concepts are the central focus of the training.
L grad link (filter by state): https://www.usdf.org/about/contact/graduates.asp
Watch them teach a lesson. Do you like how they treat the student, the horse, the staff?
Do they use gadgets on the horse or rider (draw reins, tie downs, too tight nose bands, or anything that makes you cringe in anyway)? Chuck them and move on.
One thing I found helpful is to pay attention to how the trainer responds when a student gets stuck. Do they break it down into smaller parts until horse/rider can achieve it, or do they repetitively drill it? I’ve found the trainers that can’t break it down are the one’s that don’t understand the main concepts of dressage well enough to teach it reliably.
References: find local FB groups and ask for recommendations. Go to clinics and talk to people about who they use. Go to a show and talk to the riders who you want to emulate and ask who they train with. If you don’t want to talk in person, then forums like this one can help.
Show records: we used to have access to show records, but USDF has locked them behind a pay wall. You can search internet for show results by name, but it’s hit or miss. HorseShowOffice.com lists recent shows, but still hit or miss, plus time consuming.
If you can find one that does seat lessons, AND ticks a few other boxes, then you’ve hit the jackpot! Do the seat lessons! It’s incredibly beneficial.
