TK Dressage Unlimited

A really productive warm up day, lots of arenas to explore, plenty of new environments to experience and Odi got to work in the GP arena, where he will soon strut his stuff. All hanfled it in stride, no drama or big eyes. Such a super trio of geldings. We also snuck in a short trip to Placerville, where we ate at a farm to table cafe in an 1800s building,
Yes we did share the sampler plate of homemade desserts….fabulous!!
TK Dressage Unlimited
Tkdressage.com
Tiffany Kell Brinton

Dressage Simplified
Transitions:
Transitions are exercises with infinite possibilities that come in variety of options. Horses are always going to offer a challenge to the work, transitions are easy and direct forms of communication to show your horse the difference between right and wrong, each step of the way.
Transitions can mean a change in gate, between walk, trot and canter, transitions can be a change of gate or rhythm within a gate, ie., slower or bigger, and a transition can be a shift from straight to lateral and back again within a stride or after many strides. Sometimes a transition can be an immediate step sideways or forwards to quickly rebalance a horse.
The importance is feel. When the horse begins to lean or dive then immediate, methodic transitions show the horse how you would like them to carry themselves when aids are applied.
Example: Fixing the horse that dives to the inside into a canter from the trot. Transition work: Ask the horse to leg yield a step of two to the outside of the circle while working on the circle, when the horse begins to soften on the inside rein, really gives from the shoulder forward downward and steps over and under from the inside leg, then ask for the canter from the trot.
Conversely, while cantering, gently ask the horse to leg yield away from the canter circle yielding from the rider’s inside leg and not dive while breaking down to the trot.
Consistency is the key. It may take several transitions up and down, to supple your horse so that he/she no longer dives forward or downward into and out of canter trot transitions.
A willingness to always revert to transitions to supple and strengthen regular work will ensure a quicker path to success.
Feel and timing are key, both of which take an eye on the ground to help develop…..never stop learning.

The act of learning dressage, or teaching a horse dressage, is no more than learning to ride through basic horsemanship on up and teaching your horse the basic fundamentals.
By definition the word dressage is ”the basic training of the horse” and the rider, I always add.
The basic training of any horse begins with good manners and basic ground work.
The basic training of the horse consists of teaching a horse to appropriately reacting to the rider’s aids, from a simple forward reaction to a intimate half halt.
The basic training of the horse means to creatively use gymnastic and suppling exercises to develop a horse who can travel and react to the rider’s aids from back to front. What you do with the front end, (the head and neck), will be determined by what equestrian sport you choose, from western to show jumping. But if the back end is developed appropriately….the head and neck will gracefully and lightly be carried in a manner that the breed and conformation of the horse dictates.

Developing The Dream

The dreams of every rider, amateur, junior or professional are always lofty, we are a passionate group, all equestrians. But the road for any of us, whether it be the olympics or the first time in the saddle, is extremely complicated. The road map has an infinite number of possibilities. Every horse and rider are different everyday. One can write colorful, elegant explanations of how a horse should travel and use himself, or drone on about what the perfect equitation of each rider should look like.
But unfortunately there is also a reality. Each horse has strengths and weakness and deals with challenges differently. Each rider has a myriad of limitations and too compensates in a host of different ways. Add the two together and we have a puzzle involving horse and rider, that has to be taken apart, on a daily basis and slowly put back together.
So where do we start. Hopefully with a horse that is not perfect, but exceptionally willing and kind, because in the pursuit of dreams, if all riders were honest, the miles of honing their actual riding skills should be endless.
Second, there is no true success in developing an intimate partnership without a humble rider.
The rider needs to learn to know exactly what they expect of their horse every step of the way. Then when something doesn’t feel right from a simple walk halt transitions to pirouettes, it’s the rider’s responsibility to asses his/her communication. More often than not the rider has inadvertently given too many aids at once, confusing aids, or not asked for a succinct enough reaction to a light aid. The successful dance between horse and rider is an exact, fluid conversation, one step at a time.