Dressage for All of Us: How to Help any Horse Become a Happier, More Responsive Riding Partner by Katrin Silva

Product Description

The benefits of dressage are available to you right here, right now. You can tap into them without selling the horse you already own and love or throwing out the tack you already use. At its core, dressage is a way of riding that can make all types of horses more athletic, more beautiful, and ultimately happier. Regular dressage practice keeps horses sound longer and makes them easier to ride. Dressage is not the exclusive domain of horses with long, German-sounding pedigrees. The opposite is true: dressage is good for every horse, no matter which breed, size, age, or background.

Dressage is about much more than getting high scores in the show ring. It is about helping your horse become a more relaxed, focused athlete. If you could have the opportunity to compete on a talented horse, by all means go for it! It’s a challenging journey. I wish you lots of success, but there are many books, videos, clinics, and trainers who will help you get there. This book is for the rest of us – for trail riders, endurance riders, western riders. It’s for riders who may find the word “dressage” and everything around it intimidating. It’s for riders who love the horse they already have and are looking for a way to help that horse become the best version of himself. This book is for riders who don’t necessarily want to stop doing what they’re doing with their horse, but still look for a way to reap the benefits of dressage. If this sounds like you, Dressage for All of Us is for you.

About the Author:
Riding a horse means communicating with a powerful, inherently sensitive being. It’s a two-way conversation, not just a series of imperatives directed at the horse. We all want a calm, balanced, light, straight, responsive, and happy horse. We need to cultivate these qualities in ourselves before we can expect them from our horses. We need to be calm, centered, patient, kind, and consistent. We need to develop a seat that makes us an easier load to carry. We need to use aids that make sense to the horse. We need to keep our expectations reasonable, our requests polite. We need to reward often, and sooner than we think we can.

Riding a horse is a privilege. Any horse we climb on could get rid of our presence on his back anytime he chooses. Yet, most of the time, horses tolerate us. More than that, they allow us to engage with them, to direct them, to guide them. The least we can do in return is to make being ridden as pleasant as we can, physically and mentally. We have an obligation to develop the horse’s body in a way that makes carrying us less of a chore, and to develop his confidence and focus in a way that makes him happy to be with us. This is the definition of dressage.