“The fastest way to get where you’re going is to take your time.” No idea
Paraphrasing Dr. Klimke: “Some riders have good enough hands to use draw reins; I, myself, do not.”
Dressage is the art of teaching the horse to carry you. Riding is the art of learning to be a good load to carry.
Richard Weiss
Life is a journey. Dressage is beating your head against a brick wall because it feels SO good when you finally stop.
Related to wearing helmets:
If you think your hair is more important than your brain, it probably is.
[QUOTE=selah;5662028]
I don’t know if she got this from someone else, but it was given to me by my trainer, Hannah Johnson, many years ago:
“A loud rider makes a deaf horse.”[/QUOTE]
good quote, very true
Pertaining to training a horse:
Make the right thing easy; make the wrong thing hard
Ray Hunt
I wish I was smart enough to credit this as my own - sadly I do not know its true origin.
“Light off the leg, soft in the hand, ride the horse and not the plan.”
I’ve found it very helpful to recite this to students when they get stuck in “Why me” or “Why TODAY” mentality. It also helps to enforce that it is okay when things are not going as planned - we can adapt and change our approach/plan for the day. In short - we’ll work with what we have with that horse, that day, that moment.
Robert Dover on what makes a GREAT rider…
“A good rider rides from transition to transition, a great rider rides from half-halt to half-halt !” ~Robert Dover …
I have this posted in my tack up area…so I can read it every day.
I try to think of this with every step…now admittedly, a LOT of things get in the way but I"M TRYING Robert, I’m trying. 
Oh…and Dr. Klimke, “forget the ^$#@%$% inside rein!!!” That is SO hard for me sometimes…
“Keep the horse between your legs!”
The unspoken is, put your legs where you want you and your horse to be, and learn to keep him there. Not in, or between your hands.
“Ride your horse” Not your fears, or “what ifs”. What if he spooks at the flower pot, dog, motorcycle. Put your legs on, sit down and ride!!!
There arent many dressage quotes, but here is a great one:
“Dressage is the art of putting one crooked body on top of another crooked body and making them both straight.” ~Richard Weis
From a great, old horseman I once knew:
“Ride him like he’s going to do everything right”.
and another favorite, not sure who first said it:
“Show me your horse and I’ll tell you who you are”.:yes:
I dont remember who said it but I teach it:
"Dressage is going bent on staight lines and straight on curved lines. "
“Ya, Doesn’t matter, FORWARD, FORWARD! Now, that is good.” Isabell Werth from a clinic
“Horseback riding: the art of keeping a horse between you and the ground.”
“Every ride that ends in a voluntary dismount is a good ride.”
On a more serious note (and I may have read this here), “An open hand can only take; a closed hand can take and give.”
Life is too short to ride an ugly horse.
Sometimes you have to forgo what’s popular in order to do it right.
Anything forced or misunderstood can never be beautiful. Xenophon
Keep your horse between your legs and between your reins.
Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.
You don’t ride the color.
(Client wants to buy the oh so purdy (at best mediocre) crazy buckskin over the well-trained and nicely behaved sorrel…:mad:)
From my trainer teaching another student how to ride with finesse:
“Almost just think it.”
“It’s better to have fingerprints on the saddle horn, than dirt on your pants.”
Oh, wait - wrong discipline? Still good advice! :winkgrin:
“That horse is a Ferrari and you’re riding him like a garbage truck.”
-Hilda Gurney (yup, to me :cool:)“The sun is in my eyes.”
my trainer to another rider
“As soon as you feel that you can give the rein, give the rein. If you don’t feel that you can give the rein, give it anyway, then fix whatever happened.”
