Want To Become A Better Dressage Rider? - View our FREE Resources!
Youtube Facebook Instagram Podcast
Academy Login
Login

Dressage Tips

Suggestions:
Tips Training Roundness
A side-by-side comparison of two riders on horses; left shows a horse with its head raised, right shows a horse rounder, with its neck arched and head down. Arrows highlight the rounder frame. Text reads Get your horse ROUNDER!.

Get your horse rounder!

Many riders struggle with ROUNDNESS and getting the horse supple in the neck and correctly using their back and top line.  In today’s video, we are offering suggestions to Jennifer. She writes “As you can…
Read More
A person riding a chestnut horse at a canter in an outdoor arena, both in riding gear. The text reads The Canter Seat!!!, highlighting the difference between a tight seat and a loose seat. Trees and greenery fill the background.

The Canter Seat!!! Too loose, too tight, or just right.

The 2 most common mistakes that riders make when trying to figure out how to sit the canter is that they are either way too loose and floppy or too tense. Too loose – in…
Read More
A person wearing a helmet rides a brown horse in an outdoor arena. An arrow points to the rider’s lower back with “Confidence Button!” and a green dot, highlighting the spot for self-esteem. Trees and a blue sky are in the background.

Sit Back: Find Your Confidence Button!

How to stay relaxed in the saddle! We all have some fear when we are riding as horses are big and powerful animals and none of us want to get hurt. Fear is an…
Read More
Two images of dressage riders on dark horses highlight the right hind legs with red circles, illustrating the concept “The Leg-Yield – Get to the Right Hind.” Both riders are riding in arenas.

The Leg-Yield – Get to the Right Hind!

Most horses have a weaker right hind leg – they avoid taking weight on the right hind by keeping the right hind leg to the right.  This makes the leg-yield off of the right…
Read More
Two side-by-side images show a rider on a dark horse in an outdoor arena. The left displays the full pair; the right zooms in on the arched neck, illustrating what it means for a horse to be On The Bit. Text above reads, On the Bit?!.

On The Bit?!

How to Teach/Reintroduce the Contact: 1. Start from the ground! Whenever I have a horse that really does not understand the contact, working from the ground is the best place to start. Teach the horse to…
Read More
A person riding a dark horse in an outdoor arena demonstrates Downward Transitions, with the words "Downward Transitions" in white text and a red arrow pointing to the rider.

Downward Transitions

I’m pretty sure we’re ALL guilty of bad downward transitions!  When you want to reward your horse, or when you get tired and need to take a break, it’s so easy to just collapse…
Read More
A diagram illustrating dressage geometry, including labeled points and a 20m circle, is shown beside a photo of a horse and rider performing dressage near a white fence. Perfect for learning to ride accurate patterns.

Dressage Geometry – Ride an Accurate 20m Circle

Here’s a funny story about geometry- when I first moved to California, the barn where I was training had a large jump arena and no Dressage court.  At that time, I had all young,…
Read More
A dressage rider on a brown horse demonstrates precise leg aids, with colored shapes highlighting the rider’s thigh, knee, calf, and lower leg areas. The words “Leg Aids” are written on the image.

Get Your Leg on – How to Use Your Leg Effectively in Dressage

The leg is arguably one of THE MOST important aids that we use to communicate with our horse. The leg is primarily a driving aid – it is what gets the horse to move…
Read More
A person wearing a helmet and riding gear is performing a counter canter on a chestnut horse in an outdoor arena. The words “Counter Canter!!” appear across the top of the image in white, playful letters.

Counter Canter

Counter canter is a great exercise to improve your horse’s canter as it is a test of balance, suppleness, straightness, and collection. The counter canter is introduced at  first level and ALL of the…
Read More
Join the community

Get weekly training to your Inbox

Enter your name and email below and you’ll be added to my list to get weekly training videos each week. You’ll also be the first to hear about all my news, courses and offers! You can unsubscribe at any time!

PS-Good things are coming. Please be patient with this form, it sometimes takes a moment to submit your details!