Goldfinch Dressage

09/18/2026

The horse does not know it is being watched, and this is what I envy in him. He moves and the moving is the whole of him. There is no second horse standing behind the first one, checking whether the movement was correct. I, on the other hand, am always two people riding: the one who rides, and the one who watches himself ride and finds himself insufficient. Perhaps this is why the judges give higher marks to my horse than to me. He has achieved what I still reach for: to be entirely inside the thing happening, instead of one step outside it, narrating.

They call it "throughness", this word that means the aid travels from the leg to the mouth without stopping to ask permission anywhere along the way. I think what they are really describing is a body that has stopped doubting itself in the middle of the sentence. I have never once finished a sentence, in life or otherwise, without doubting it somewhere in the middle. The horse does not have this problem. The horse is not interested in whether the trot means something. The trot simply is, the way the sea is, the way my own hand at the end of my arm is, before I ask it to prove anything.

They will give the test a number afterward. 68%. As if a percentage could hold what happened between us, which was not measurable, which was closer to what happens when two silences recognize each other. I have always distrusted numbers that follow an experience the way a photograph follows a moment, keeping its shape, and losing everything that made it alive.

And still I will look at the number. I will look at it the way one looks at a mirror that has been asked the wrong question. It will tell me where my horse was crooked, where the bend was late, where the transition arrived a half-second before I was ready for it to arrive. It will be correct, and its correctness will mean almost nothing, because it was never in the room for the part that mattered. The part with no shape, the part I cannot show anyone, the part that happened only once and only between the two of us and will not happen in exactly that way again.

The scoresheet only tells you how correct you were. It doesn't tell you how great the ride was.

09/16/2026

It’s not about the mouth.

09/14/2026

The half-halt is one of the most talked-about—and most misunderstood—tools in dressage.

Learn more about it at the link in our comments.

09/09/2026

A good half-halt doesn’t shorten the neck.🤔

It shortens the horse behind the saddle.

A half-halt is not about making the horse’s neck shorter or creating a specific frame.

It’s about helping the horse rebalance, engage the hindquarters and carry more weight behind.

When the horse becomes shorter and more connected behind the saddle, the correct connection to the hand can follow naturally.

It’s not about making the front shorter.

It’s about getting the hindquarters more underneath the horse.

Do you feel like you’re sometimes making your horse shorter in the neck instead of shorter behind? 👇

09/08/2026

✨ Motivational Monday ✨

Over her 25 years as a Grand Prix trainer, Chrissa Hoffmann says many of her clients are attracted to horses with big gaits and cadenced trots, especially when they're searching for prospects abroad.

But she cautions that it's easy to get tricked by big, flashy gaits. In a recent Dressage Today article, Hoffmann explains why dressage riders should stop chasing extravagant gaits and instead look at young horses who can be made flashy through training.

Click on the link in the Comments below to learn why big trots aren't all they're cracked up to be!

09/07/2026

I mean it’s simple really 🤷🏼‍♀️

❤️ Dressage ❤️
The sport where ……
A halt must be direct transition but it can’t be abrupt. It should look like a bird landing on a branch, but cannot be so soft it’s progressive. It must be on the hind leg and has to be square and immobile, but not too short or too long. If the entry is too collected it doesn’t have enough quality, if the stride is longer the horse is too long and makes the halt neigh on impossible to execute like a bird. If the horse lifts it foot too quickly … it will be deemed not immobile and you’ll get a 4.
The trot must be expressive and powerful but must be relaxed. It must be short and compressed in the body with true collection and on the hind leg but it must also swing and be loose. There must be relaxation and rythm but also contained energy springing off the ground.
Collection is important but so is quality, expression, frame and ground cover.
The canter must jump off the ground and above all, be uphill…. But it cannot be too long in stride or frame because it must show collection at all times. Be careful to not allow the stride to become too collected and get small though.
You must have flexion and bend but you have to be straight at all times. You must use a lot of exercises to create bend and flexion to achieve the suppleness, collection and balance required but remember to always ride your horse straight.
The Germans always like to say the horse should sweep the cobwebs out of the corners with their tails when they turn a corner (meaning the horse should turn without bringing the quarters in) but you also have to create bend in the corners.

You might get told for years to extend the trot from marker to marker, then you’ll go to Europe and be told to quietly build the extended trot as you go.
You must have enough bend in the half pass but if you have too much you’ll lose the shoulder. Don’t forget to be upright.

If you’re in one country you have to start your half pass turning into the diagonal line first then catching the quarters, if you’re in another country you’ll spend hours being told this is not correct and you have to leave from shoulder in. Both are correct depending on where you are.

You can ride a Volte inside leg to outside hand and turn your body or you can create the bend and use your outside aids. Both are acceptable.

If you’re in Holland you ride with two legs and two hands with the horse in between. Hand to stop, leg to go. In Germany you ride from the leg into the contact, inside leg to outside hand, and use your seat more. Both are correct.

In piaffe you want the horse to sit, but not too much! You want active hind legs but not so much they balance on the front legs and not moving faster or more active than the front legs. You want them thinking forward but not actually moving too forward but if they think even an inch backwards you forget all of that and ride them forwards.

The passage must be elevated and rhythmical, not too quick but it has to active. Active but relaxed, but big.

Pirouettes must be collected and balanced, between 6-8 strides, but not too quick and not too laboured. They must be uphill but not climbing. Not too high in frame but not too low either. Not too big and not too small.

Finally … If a horse wants to be high you must ride him down and if he wants to be down you must ride him high.

See it’s simple really. 🤷‍♀️😆

JK

09/04/2026

More wise words!

09/01/2026

Just checking in…..