Dominique Tardin- Equestrian Athlete

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🏡 Landskroon Equestrian Centre 🥕 5 time SA Dressage champion 2023, 1 time SA reserve champ 2023 EM to FEI Small Tour🍎 2 time SA FEI small tour reseve champion 2025 & 2 time bronze in the SA FEI Inter 1 2025 🦄 Saddle fitter ❤️ Rider of shiny horses ❤️

Let me talk about suppleness — because it's one of those words we use constantly in dressage without always being precis...
22/09/2026

Let me talk about suppleness — because it's one of those words we use constantly in dressage without always being precise about what we mean. 📖

Suppleness has two dimensions. There is lateral suppleness — the horse's ability to bend and flex through their body from nose to tail, equally on both reins. And there is longitudinal suppleness — the throughness of the back, the ability of energy to travel from the hindquarters forward without being blocked anywhere along the topline.
You need both. And they're connected. A horse that is tight through one side will compensate through their back. A horse with a locked back will struggle to find genuine lateral bend. Work on one and you inevitably affect the other.

In spring, when horses are fresh and tight, I give a great deal of time to lateral suppleness before I ask for anything else. Serpentines, circles, changes of bend — asking the horse to soften through their ribcage and accept the contact equally on both sides. 🐴

Only when I feel that softness through the body do I start building the work on top of it. Suppleness is not the warm-up. It's the foundation.

I want to talk about young horses, because I don't think we're honest enough about what bringing one along actually invo...
19/09/2026

I want to talk about young horses, because I don't think we're honest enough about what bringing one along actually involves. 🐴

It is not a straight line. Anyone who tells you otherwise either hasn't done enough of it or has a very selective memory.

There are weeks where a young horse surprises you completely — where something clicks and you feel the potential underneath you so clearly it takes your breath away. And then there are weeks where you wonder whether you've imagined the whole thing, because none of it is there today and you can't find it no matter how carefully you ride.

Both of those weeks are normal. Both of them are part of the process.

What I've learnt with young horses is that my job is not to train them quickly. It is to build their confidence and their body at a rate that they can absorb — and that rate is almost always slower than I want it to be. The ones I've rushed have told me about it later. The ones I've taken time with have given me everything. 🌱
A young horse is not a project with a deadline. It's a relationship with a timeline that belongs to the horse.

September arrives and something shifts. 🌸The air is different. The horses feel it before I do — a little more energy in ...
17/09/2026

September arrives and something shifts. 🌸

The air is different. The horses feel it before I do — a little more energy in the field in the mornings, a little more life under the saddle. Spring does something to them, and honestly, it does something to me too.
But this is also the time of year where I have to be disciplined about not chasing that energy. A fresh horse in spring is not an invitation to push harder or move faster through the work. It's an invitation to channel.

This month I'm being very deliberate about my warm-ups. Longer. Quieter. More focused on getting the horse genuinely through and in front of the leg before I ask for anything — because a horse that is fizzy and forward-thinking will give me the most extraordinary work if I earn the connection first, and a complete mess if I don't. 🐴
The work doesn't change in spring. The patience required to do it well does.

Rhythm. It's the first of the scales of training, and I think it's misunderstood more often than any other. 🎵Rhythm is n...
31/08/2026

Rhythm. It's the first of the scales of training, and I think it's misunderstood more often than any other. 🎵

Rhythm is not tempo. Tempo is speed — how many beats per minute. Rhythm is the regularity of those beats. A horse can have a fast tempo and terrible rhythm, or a slow, ground-covering trot with perfect, unshakeable rhythm.
What I'm listening for is this: does each footfall land with the same weight and timing as the last? Is there a mechanical predictability to it — not in a dull way, but in the way that great music has pulse? 🐎

When the rhythm is lost — when a horse begins to hurry, or shuffle, or lose the clarity of the pace — everything else becomes more difficult. Bend, suppleness, contact, collection — all of it is built on the foundation of a true, consistent rhythm.

I come back to it constantly. In every session, on every horse. If something isn't working, the first question I ask is: have we kept the rhythm? More often than not, that's where the answer is.

August always brings a particular kind of pressure with it. 😮‍💨 The season is in full swing, the competition diary is fu...
21/08/2026

August always brings a particular kind of pressure with it. 😮‍💨 The season is in full swing, the competition diary is full, and somewhere between the early mornings and the late nights I have to remind myself why I started doing this.

It wasn't for the scores. It was for moments — the ones that happen between the movements, when a horse exhales and softens and you feel the whole conversation shift. 🐎
I've been riding long enough to know that the pursuit of perfection is a trap. What I'm actually chasing is partnership. And partnership requires patience that competition schedules don't always allow for.
So this month, I'm making a conscious choice to slow down — not in my ambition, but in my daily practice. To ride fewer things better. To sit in the discomfort of not rushing.
Some of the best training I've ever done has come from deciding that today, this is enough. ✨

Something I genuinely believe: the stable is where the training happens.What I mean by that is this — the quality of my ...
17/08/2026

Something I genuinely believe: the stable is where the training happens.
What I mean by that is this — the quality of my horses' daily care directly shapes what I get in the arena. The two are not separate. They never have been.

In a South African winter I'm particularly mindful of feet. 🐴 Hard, cold ground is unforgiving, and the combination of dry conditions and reduced movement in the field can affect hoof quality more than people realise. I've seen horses develop bruising and sensitivity that had nothing to do with their training and everything to do with ground conditions that weren't being managed carefully enough.

What I do throughout winter: I check feet daily — not just a glance, but a proper look at condition, sole depth, and any early signs of bruising. I keep my farrier informed about ground conditions and workload. I use a good quality hoof supplement year-round, but I'm especially consistent with it through the colder months when growth slows and quality can drop. 🌿
It sounds simple because it is simple. But simple things done consistently are what keep horses sound through a long season.

Feet first. Everything else follows.

Glenn Zimmerman

I'll be honest — I love competing. I genuinely do. 🏆I know that's not the fashionable thing to say. We're all supposed t...
15/08/2026

I'll be honest — I love competing. I genuinely do. 🏆

I know that's not the fashionable thing to say. We're all supposed to talk about the nerves, the pressure, the lorry park chaos. And yes, all of that is real. But underneath it there's something that lights me up the moment I enter that arena, and I've stopped apologising for it.
Competition is where the work becomes visible. It's where you find out what's truly confirmed and what only works in the comfort of home. That feedback, even when it stings, is some of the most valuable information I have as a trainer.
And there's nothing quite like riding a test that comes together — when the horse is with you, the movements flow, and for a few minutes everything you've worked for is right there under your hands. 🐎
I want more of those moments. So I prepare well, I compete as often as makes sense for each horse, and I treat every test — good or disappointing — as part of the process.

Competition isn't the enemy of good training. For me, it's one of the reasons I train as hard as I do. ✨

Today is Women's Day, and I want to say something that I mean genuinely — not as a caption, but as someone who has built...
09/08/2026

Today is Women's Day, and I want to say something that I mean genuinely — not as a caption, but as someone who has built her life around this work. 🤍

The equestrian world has always been a place where women lead. We breed, train, compete, care for, and advocate for horses at every level of this sport. We do it through pregnancy, through loss, through injury, through seasons when the money was tight and the support was thin and we showed up anyway because the horses needed us to.

I think about the women who taught me — who were uncompromising, brilliant, and entirely uninterested in being anything other than exactly what they were. They didn't ask for permission to be good at this. They just were. 💜
To every woman reading this who is doing the work — who gets up before dawn, who makes the hard calls, who has cried in a stable and then gone back the next day — I see you.

This sport is better because you're in it. 🐴

I've been thinking a lot about contact lately. 🤍Not the mechanics of it — the feel of it. Because there is a difference,...
05/08/2026

I've been thinking a lot about contact lately. 🤍

Not the mechanics of it — the feel of it. Because there is a difference, and I think it's the difference that separates a rider from a horseperson.
Contact isn't something you take. It's something your horse gives you, when they trust that your hand is a safe place to reach into. The moment I start holding, gripping, or fixing — I've lost it. What I have left is just tension dressed up as connection.
This month I've been going back to basics with one of my horses. Longer rein. Slower work. Waiting. It goes against every instinct when you have a competition on the horizon, but the horse doesn't lie. If the contact isn't genuine, nothing built on top of it will be either. 🐴
Ride the horse in front of you. Not the test. Not the deadline. The horse.

🔄 Transitions are the single most valuable training tool I use — every day, with every horse.I know that might sound bas...
30/06/2026

🔄 Transitions are the single most valuable training tool I use — every day, with every horse.

I know that might sound basic. But the more I train, the more I believe it.

You don't need complicated movements to build a stronger, more responsive horse. What you need is quality transitions, ridden with intention, over and over again.

Walk to trot — is it prompt? Balanced? Did the hindleg step under?
Trot to walk — did we keep the rhythm, or fall on the forehand?
Medium to collected — did I ask or demand? Did my horse offer or brace?

These are the questions I ask myself constantly.

A horse that transitions beautifully is a horse that is listening, balanced, and engaged. And that horse can do anything. ✨

This week, try riding 10 really intentional transitions per session. Not more — just better. Tell me what you notice.

Tracy Robertson Photography

Address

Landskroon Farm
Paarl
7646

Opening Hours

Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 09:00 - 17:00

Telephone

+27628581649

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