The Art Of Dressage
Perfecting your seat is the true art of dressage.
Understanding your aids,
Developing a 2 way conversation and
Conditioning your horse to be an athlete
All of these play a vital role in dressage - but when we think about dressage as a dance of the horse and rider, it really all comes down to your seat.
In the beginning of our riding careers, our aids are big, loud and obvious so that they are clear to our horse that that is what they should be responding to and how. Resistance from our horse is their way of teaching us where there are gaps in their training or conditioning and they also are big and loud in the beginning or if we haven’t been listening.
Slowly over time, we refine these aids to be so subtle that others can’t see them. The body of the rider and the body of the horse unite in one fluid, dynamic movement.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t move. If you think about 2 dancers dancing together and one was just standing still it would be pretty silly. It means that the horse is cued in and understands the lightest touch of the leg or squeeze of the rein but also, and more importantly, the action and the movement of the seat.
The seat describes:
direction,
angle,
shape,
how long or short to make the stride,
how quick or slow,
what pace they should be in,
how much lift,
how much ground coverage,
to rebalance,
to get ready for something different or
to execute a change in movement.
To achieve this subtly in our training, our foundations have to be so solid.
The horse has to know how to learn, how to tune into a cue but to really get this quality, our horse needs to enjoy moving and enjoy its job. If we take our time with our development, training and connection in the beginning they can easily move forward in the training scale and execute the more difficult exercises with grace and ease when they are enjoying the dance.