Wonderful explanation Derek, of what dressage truly is. Being a member of yours and Jo's Schooling Made Simple, l have been blown away with the affect and effect of your schooling techniques that l use to train my young horse and rehabilitate the horses given to me by their owners at wits end. The magik that comes from the training, based on French Classical Dressage is astonishing, the horses are strong, flexible, light, well mannered, they run over to see me and get a wee bit down when we don't do any SMS on that day, on the days we do they feel great, at peace, in love with life, share their love and feel as if life is the best place to be. I love your videos, love to Jo too Derek. Keep them coming, this magik is so better shared ❤❤❤
Nobody can argue with what you said, the only problem is you didn’t really say anything other than that there is a secret answer to “proper” dressage training which presumably if money is exchanged you’ll let people know. But, of course, if we still get low marks in a test it’s the judges fault because they clearly lack courage and integrity to reward “good dressage”.
Very good explaination, dressage is fun, it's wonderful to ride a really good dressage horse. The basis of all good riding. My 23 year old pony is sometimes a bit stiff at first, but can still execute all movements and really enjoys it. After s good dressage session he's nice and relaxed. He lives out with his 30 year old pony companion.
Great explanation of what dressage should be. Sadly, money and politics have ruined it at the highest level. FEI looks the other way. We need a new governing body concerned with true and correct dressage that holds horse welfare at the forefront. At the end of the day, they need to scrap the current system and start over.
Hmmm the hoary old chestnut of horses being able to do all the things they're asked to do in a dressage tests naturally in a field. No way, Josey. I've never a seen a horse doing repetitive passage until it injures itself, I've never seen a horse doing piaffe pirouette, I've never seen a horse doing more than one turn in a pirouette at a time, I've never seen a horse piaffing that number of steps etc etc etc......Thing is horses can do some of these things for very brief moments, they are also accompanied by inner emotions and reactions to situations that are entirely natural. They don't do these things without that motivation, ever. Never ever. It's not the same expression of inner emotion in a dressage ring, but rather a repetitive drilling on command which is completely divorced from why the horse would ever do it in a field (the wild) which is only ever in response to other horses around them and or the fight or flight response. They have meaning to a horse, for us we strip the meaning away entirely. Put it this way I would rather see one step of perfect joyeous piaffe than any number that you will ever see in a dressage ring. A wonderfully well schooled happy horse is a joy to ride and be with, forget dressage it's a traversty and something horses can well do without. Degree of difficulty, zero. Why do we need more? Ever more, the end result can only be tragedy.
Yes competition dressage has deviated over the last 40-50 years to the state it’s in now, which has no benefit for horses whatsoever. It’s about the human desire to be better than others humans at getting horses to do dressage tests. In this video Derek’s talking about the original purpose of dressage, which was extremely beneficial for riding horses. That’s what we teach. It’s a huge amount of fun for us humans and for our horses.
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Wonderful explanation Derek, of what dressage truly is. Being a member of yours and Jo's Schooling Made Simple, l have been blown away with the affect and effect of your schooling techniques that l use to train my young horse and rehabilitate the horses given to me by their owners at wits end.
The magik that comes from the training, based on French Classical Dressage is astonishing, the horses are strong, flexible, light, well mannered, they run over to see me and get a wee bit down when we don't do any SMS on that day, on the days we do they feel great, at peace, in love with life, share their love and feel as if life is the best place to be.
I love your videos, love to Jo too Derek. Keep them coming, this magik is so better shared ❤❤❤
More than ever this discussion is not only oportune and needed, I believe is the only way to our relationship with horses be keeped.
Great explanation!
Perfect explanation!
100% agree. Well said. Love the gladiolus too 😁
well said.
Nobody can argue with what you said, the only problem is you didn’t really say anything other than that there is a secret answer to “proper” dressage training which presumably if money is exchanged you’ll let people know. But, of course, if we still get low marks in a test it’s the judges fault because they clearly lack courage and integrity to reward “good dressage”.
Thank you, Derek. Money, power, and prestige have corrupted dressage to the detriment of the horse.
Very good explaination, dressage is fun, it's wonderful to ride a really good dressage horse. The basis of all good riding. My 23 year old pony is sometimes a bit stiff at first, but can still execute all movements and really enjoys it. After s good dressage session he's nice and relaxed. He lives out with his 30 year old pony companion.
@nicolaosterburg5609 that’s wonderful - if only that was true for all horses and ponies!
Perfect explanation
Liz Holmes
Great explanation of what dressage should be. Sadly, money and politics have ruined it at the highest level. FEI looks the other way. We need a new governing body concerned with true and correct dressage that holds horse welfare at the forefront. At the end of the day, they need to scrap the current system and start over.
Hmmm the hoary old chestnut of horses being able to do all the things they're asked to do in a dressage tests naturally in a field. No way, Josey. I've never a seen a horse doing repetitive passage until it injures itself, I've never seen a horse doing piaffe pirouette, I've never seen a horse doing more than one turn in a pirouette at a time, I've never seen a horse piaffing that number of steps etc etc etc......Thing is horses can do some of these things for very brief moments, they are also accompanied by inner emotions and reactions to situations that are entirely natural. They don't do these things without that motivation, ever. Never ever. It's not the same expression of inner emotion in a dressage ring, but rather a repetitive drilling on command which is completely divorced from why the horse would ever do it in a field (the wild) which is only ever in response to other horses around them and or the fight or flight response. They have meaning to a horse, for us we strip the meaning away entirely.
Put it this way I would rather see one step of perfect joyeous piaffe than any number that you will ever see in a dressage ring. A wonderfully well schooled happy horse is a joy to ride and be with, forget dressage it's a traversty and something horses can well do without. Degree of difficulty, zero. Why do we need more? Ever more, the end result can only be tragedy.
Dressage as it is today should not be allowed- let alone shown. I refuse to watch any dressage competition.
Yes competition dressage has deviated over the last 40-50 years to the state it’s in now, which has no benefit for horses whatsoever. It’s about the human desire to be better than others humans at getting horses to do dressage tests.
In this video Derek’s talking about the original purpose of dressage, which was extremely beneficial for riding horses.
That’s what we teach.
It’s a huge amount of fun for us humans and for our horses.