DressageArena.org

Welcome to the world of dressage! You will find it rewarding, interesting and tough! But in my opinion, it’s the best discipline there is:)

1. I wear a helmet most of the time. The only time I wouldn’t is if it’s a very hot day. I get dizzy when my helmets on in hot weather! But that’s just me. Wear a helmet. There’s is video on youtube of a dressage rider doing a test- her horse leapt sideways and she ended up breaking her back and getting concussion. Just because it’s controlled flat work doesn’t meant hat the risk disappears!

2. I wear long pants- tights or jodhpurs. Never jeans- not enough stretch!

3. In the lower levels- the tests aren’t to hard to memorize. They are pretty simple and very symmetrical. If you do a circle of trot on one rein- you’ve got to do it on the other rein as well. The hardest part for me to memorize is WHEN to make the transition. Some tests are pretty vague. eg. " canter transition on the right rein between M and C…."

4. My boy is a 16.2hh Warmblood X Lipizzaner gelding. Before I got him- he had been trained to medium level (I don’t know what level that is where you live…) Something went wrong in his training, though- and I had to start from the beginning. He is now at Novice level (again.. not sure what that means to your system), but he is capable of higher levels.

5. Ever day I’ll practice transitions. Make the horse sharper, more focused, balanced and listening. Transitions will become your best friend.
I also do a lot of lateral work- shoulder in, leg yielding, travers, and the beginnings of half pass. I am also working on flying changes right now. Lots of change of lead on a serpentine figure.
At the end of each session- we practice a test. Usually I’ll just grab a random test off the internet and do some work on it. It’s not a good idea to practice the same test over and over- your horse will learn it too, and can pick up some bad habits! (eg. I used to practice Prelim 1A test… every time we came to a particular part of the arena, he would make a downward transition (because that’s what we had to do in the test). I have to work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen during a show test!

Since dressage is such a precise art- you need to make sure you have the right trainer for you and your horse. If this new dressage trainer isn’t a good fit- try out others. I’ve had all sorts of trainers- and I’ve only really ever liked one. Find a trainer that you agree with..

Also- do your research! Do lots of reading on dressage. The more you understand it, the easier it will be for you to make the transition!

Good luck:)

I don’t ride dressage much anymore, but when I did…

1. I personally wore a helmet all the time, but most other riders I knew at the barn didn’t. It really isn’t terribly necessary- if you’re a confident rider on a confident horse, falls you take wouldn’t be very serious. Of course, you never know.

2. While schooling, just breeches and either paddock boots or dress boots. A lot of dressage riders like wearing spurs, but that depends more on the horse. There is different show attire- you’ll have to buy a new coat, white breeches, and dress boots.

3. I was really only doing the training level tests, which I picked up pretty quickly. Once you’ve been talked through them a few times, it isn’t too hard to remember what to do.

4. I rode a welsh pony (gelding). Hunter horses generally come in very different breeds than dressage horses- in dressage you’re looking at more graceful, fluid horses. They tend to be a bit stockier than hunter horses, too. Here’s a list of the most popular breeds: http://www.theequinest.com/olympic-dressage-horse-breeds/

5. Tests, of course. Everything about the way you ride in dressage is different than in hunters. You’re going to have to break all of your old habits. Your ankles and back will be a lot happier, trust me.

I’m so happy you are intersested in Dressage! Here are my answers….

1. Of course!! We ALWAYS wear helmets while riding ( or at least we should) safety is important no matter the dicipline. Some of the Olympic riders wear hats, but for shows only, and rules are being passed to state that all riders must wear a helmet.
2. Breeches, tall boots, a shirt that matches…..this is for training. Of course it depends on the situation. For shows, depending on your level you wear either tan or white pants (white is for 1st level and above) A black (sometimes Navy for Intro and Training levels) jacket. Tall boots, a show shirt often white, and a stock tie and pin.
3. It depends on your memory, how much you practice and your level.
4. I own a Dutch Warmblood mare, she is 16.1 hands high, gray, and trained at the moment up to 3rd-4th level.
5. We practice a lot of lateral work (leg-yield, shoulder in, haunches in) Also collected trot and canter. It helps to mix up the routine however. Also practicing tests in your ride times helps to perfect them and make you more confidant when showing.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Nearly every dressage rider I know, including me, love puzzles of some sort, whether jigsaw, suduko, crossword, mystery novels….It’s just how we think. We like the details of ideas.

Yes, I wear my helmet every ride, every time. As an Occupational Therapist, I see traumatic brain injuries that could have been prevented and weren’t. It’s easy.

I wear full seat breeches, or sticky bum breeches, paddock boots, and a t shirt/ sweatshirt. Nothing fancy. I’m not much of a fashion plate; I care more about comfort. When I was just starting, I wore kneepatch breeches. I didn’t wear full seats until I was working on first level.

I don’t find the lower level tests hard to memorize; they only change every 4 years. Plus, it’s ok to have a reader, so if you can’t remember exactly, you get a ‘cheat’!!!

I have had many horses over the years, some more talented than the others, but all with something to teach me. A dressage horse is made, not born, so any breed, sex, or previous training doesn’t really matter. They must be sound, have 3 good gaits, and be willing to let their rider mold them. It’s more about the mind.

When I first started dressage, it was all about circles. I hated it, but I had an instructor who let us watch her ride, and shared her video library generously, so I could see what I was aiming at. Dressage is about the details. It is never perfect, and a horse is never ‘finished,’ there is always something else to learn.

I like to ride with music. The changing rhythms, beats, crescendos can all be reflected in my riding. I see it as fingerpainting…weird I know, but that’s how I see it.

I just started taking dressage lessons so you may not want to rely on my answers as much as some others. ><

1. Do you wear a helmet when you ride (practicing)? Yes, and everyone else who takes lessons from my dressage instructor does too.

2. What do you wear while riding? The first time I took a dressage lesson I wore my breeches and hunt boots and a whole pile of sweatshirts because it was cold. After that I just wore jeans and paddock boots with whatever shirts were comfortable for the weather because I realized that my instructor didn’t care if I looked like I was ready to show. It’s just practice after all!

3. Are dressage tests hard to memorize? They’re not any more difficult than jump courses or trail patterns… at least not to me. Though I still forget which letters are where in the arena sometimes. lol

4. Describe the dressage horse you own/ride/lease (ex: height, gender, training, breed). I just use Ursula. She’s a 17.1 hand, shire cross mare with very little training, but that’s okay because dressage exercises are great training exercises for the horses no matter what discipline you do. The lateral work and the extension and collection work is doing wonders for her outside of our dressage lessons. I don’t actually plan to compete dressage, just take lessons, so I’m cool with the fact that my horse and I are both learning.

5. What kinds of things do you practice regularly? All different things. Lately we’ve been doing half passes at the walk and trot, regulating and controlling the trot, and 20 meter circles. We’ve been practicing counting strides in the circles. We’ve also been working on getting smooth canter take-offs, balancing with the outside rein and turning without using the inside rein.

Hello. (:

1. I ALWAYS wear a helmet when I ride; in my area it is kind of considered low class not to. And besides, I’ve heard so many horror stories of riders without helmets that I would never take the risk of not wearing one.

2. For schooling, I usually wear tall boots and spurs with tan full seat breeches and a tucked in polo. And I never go without a belt. (Or my helmet) (:

3. For my first few years of competing in dressage, when I was younger, the tests were hard for me to memorize and I had to have a caller. But if you study your test for just 5 minutes every day you should be able to memorize it just fine. (:

4. I own a 16.2 Oldenburg mare. She’s still very green but is learning quite quickly.

5. I try to pick a certain movement or problem to practice on everyday and I also try to make sure I practice my least favorite things to do. One of the things I think are the most important to practice are transitions. They are really great for getting your horse more balanced overall and helping to drive them from behind.

Hope this helps! (:

It does sound like you might enjoy dressage more than h/j. Riding is supposed to be enjoyable, and if you are freaking out before every jump that doesn’t sound like much fun to me. I mostly ride dressage, but I do a little jumping and some trail riding too. Spending some time on dressage will help make your horse more balanced, supple, and obedient which may improve your confidence to the point where you might want to take up jumping again at some point down the road.

1) Many professional dressage riders do not wear helmets, thought that is starting to change since a famous dressage rider was injured when riding without a helmet a couple years ago. Helmets are starting to be seen more commonly in the dressage world. It is of course up to you, but if I were you I would wear a helmet. Though dressage is safer than jumping, horses are always unpredictable.

2) For more "formal" schooling outfits it’s pretty much the same as hunters. Tall boots, breeches, a nice polo shirt, helmet, and gloves. I often ride in jeans and half chaps but I’m not a formal type of person. Plus breeches make me look fat. Unlike hunters, you will rarely if ever see dressage riders in full chaps. We do like to wear full seat breeches but it’s not a must. I rarely wear them. In tall boots, dress boots are proper, not field boots. Though you can wear any type of boot for schooling. For showing, wear dress boots, white breeches, a white show shirt, a black dressage coat, a belt, gloves (black or white), and a stock tie in place of the hunter-type collar.

3) Yes they can be hard to memorize, but no harder than memorizing your jumping course. You can have somebody read the test to you during the show if you are the forgetful type.

4) The vast majority of serious dressage riders ride Warmbloods. I have a Morgan/QH cross who I rescued for $500. We’ve only been to 1 show so far and we won, but it was a little schooling show at Intro level. I don’t think we’ll beat the big WBs at the recognized shows. Then again, there are people who take Arabs, Morgans, QHs, ponies, and other non-WB breeds all the way to Grand Prix. My horse is having trouble with a sore back which I need to find an answer for if we are to continue in dressage. Keeping my fingers crossed…

5) Your practice really won’t be that much different than your flatwork practice when you were riding hunters, at least in the early stages. Dressage is a lot more precise and detail oriented. You’ll work a lot on transitions, suppling exercises, bending and circling, getting your horse truly straight, encouraging him to engage his hindquarters and carry himself in the most athletic manner, etc. Everything is really geared towards getting your horse to engage his hindquarters and lighten his forehand. In my practice I usually start out walking on a loose rein to get my horse really swinging over his back and warmed up. Gradually I shorten my reins and work on getting him to give in his poll and jaw so that he comes onto the bit, using my legs to maintain the forward impulsion and half-halts to keep him from rushing. Then I ride circles of various sizes, asking my horse to bend around my inside leg and accept my outside rein contact. Usually then I do some walk suppling exercises like shoulder-in and leg yield. Then pick up trot and ride some walk-trot transitions, also working circles and lateral suppling exercises. Then a bit of canter, back to trot work, and then cool out by doing a "stretchy trot" on a long rein.

1. Yes of course! Always!

2. Breeches, jacket or t-shirt or tank top, always depending on weather, helmet, half chaps and paddock boots or my mountain horse field boots.

3. Initially, yes, but once you ride it out a few times it becomes instinct to make the turns and stuff. Also, you can have a caller if you’re struggling with memorizing.

4. 17hh Hanoverian Gelding, very crappily trained, we are re training him. However he has beautiful movement and is generally very willing to work.

5. Serpentines, circles (20, 15, 10 meter), transitions (walk-trot, walk-halt, trot-halt, canter-trot, etc), straight lines, rarely completely on the rail, lateral work, cavaletties to get them stepping up, changes of direction, etc.

1. always
2. sticky bum jodhpurs, appropriate jumper/other (while practicing)
(unless i wish to practice in my full outfit)
3. No, not at all. I love memorizing them. Never forgotten one yet.
4. 16h, gelding, 8yrs,thoroughbred, fully educated(by me).
5. everything!

1. always
2. anything comfortable
3. not really, lower levels are quite repetitive
4. chestnut gelding thoroughbred x i think pri st george trained but 26 years old.
5. what ever needs work, flying change, half pass, leg yield, travier, etc..

Everyone in our area is wearing a helmet while schooling dressage now because of the new helmet rules at shows (helmets are required at all USEF events). While riding, I wear my tall boots and a pair of schooling breeches, neither my trainer nor I use full seat breeches. If I’m schooling on my own I wear a t-shirt and hoody if it’s cold out, otherwise if I’m not on my own or giving lessons I typically wear a polo shirt. The tests in and of themselves are fairly straight forward, and if you are familiar with the location of the letters, pretty easy to memorize. The horse’s I am riding dressage right now are a 13.3h curly mare that I am starting and isn’t even novice ready yet, a 14.3h arab, 15.3h appendix type quarterhorse, and 15.2h curly (geldings) that are both training level, beginning first level and a little bit of second level work.

My mom also rides the arab and absolutely loves him because she feels like she has a telepathic link with him. You just sit on him, and think what you would like him to do and he responds to the slightest aid. He is very fun to work with, and has one of the best work ethics ever! The quarter horse, however, has the worst work ethic and you have to work really hard to get him to do a half good job, but he is getting better.

I started out in the same place as you, as a hunter/ jumper girl, before moving into combined training. It’s hard because I have to work on my seat a lot, but my trainer has been great, and now I have a lot more flexibility in my lower body so that my seat is better, and I’m always working on that connection with my horses. We always practice the basics- lines, corners, and circles, spiral ins, serpentines. That’s what sets you apart from everyone else. When you can do a perfect circle, or ride a perfectly straight center line at a trot and halt square, then you can do anything. A lot of people skip the basics for the fancier lead changes, half passes, etc. but can’t ride a straight line, and so their horse isn’t really connected to them. I want to have the perfect ride and perfect horse, and my horse’s musculature and conformation is improving because of that, and my skills are becoming such that when I do work on those things, it is very easy because both my horse and I have a very solid knowledge of the aids and connection from front to back.