In 1957 I saw Col. Podhajsky lead the riders in a Sunday performance at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. I was only a child, and didn’t appreciate everything I saw then, but the images of those motionless men on those wonderful horses became a motivator for me to always try to be better. Through years of hunter, western, polo, driving, et cetera, that moment in time was always nearby. I got tired of gimmicks and wanted to be a real rider. About the time I acquired my first side-saddle, I got my first good look at dressage. I decided to combine them, and found I love the difficulty, the challenge, the discipline, the ever-present room for improvement. Knowing there is always room for improvement keeps my on my toes. I like the fact that the correctness of my work will keep my horse sound, happy and sane for many years to come. It also seems that because of the dressage work, my horse and I are closer than I was with horses in other disciplines. Instead of making the horse submit, he comes to agree to work for me, and it’s a much better alliance. So yes, I tried all the other things, but dressage is it for me!
I had ridden western pleasure horses for years. I was really tired of trotting “so slow” . Needed a new challenge . Then I saw a canter zig-zag with wonderful changes and I was hooked . It was just too cool !!! It took a few years to accomplish that goal . It has been loads of fun and I’ve learned so much along the way . The best part is that there is still tons of stuff to learn . And lots of horses to help me learn to apply it .
Oh, it’s Friday, I’m tired and sick of working, so I though I’d as a kind of “getting to know you” question. I have a feeling that many people don’t start out in dressage, but gravitate to it from other disciplines. I was wondering if my observations were correct.
To start out, I’m an exception (I think). I didn’t start riding until I was in my mid-thirties, and was drawn to dressage immediately. Why? No great or noble reason, truth was I was fearful and liked the idea that dressage works towards making a horse more calm, supple and OBEDIENT!!! Once into the sport, however, I found that I was intrigued by the precision and the degree of concentration necessary to improve. I also liked the working relationship that you more or less have to develop with your horse, the way you can almost get into each other’s minds.
Now that my guys are retired, and I’m grounded once again, I find that the lessons that I have learned in doing dressage have carried on into the rest of my life. That, is one thing that I absolutely did not anticipate, and one of the greatest benefits I have gained from the sport.
A saying I once read,( I forget where) Dressage is the dicipline were a rider hopes to learn to respect the bit!!!
I lucked into dressage. I grew up in eastern Oregon, with no real riding lessons, just riding Western when there was a need or opportunity.
When I was in my late 30s my then-7-yr-old son asked for riding lessons and the closest barn was a truly terrible Morgan place (and there are really good Morgan places, this place was just bad). It took us a while to figure out how bad it was, and by that point I had started riding, too, hunt seat.
Some friends riding at an event barn invited me to come for some schoolhorse lessons and then I found the most wonderful 4th level schoolmaster for sale for a pittance on condition he not be jumped. He had been an Intermediate 3 day horse who had some arthritis and I had six wonderful years of learning on him.
I loved the feeling of almost meditating on the horse when things go right and the way the horse seems to read your mind. It’s how I get rid of stress.
Now that I’m starting a new horse, though, who can jump, I’m thinking about eventing. It lets you do the dressage and gallop cross country–what more could a 50-ish mother want?
Boogey on dudes
