Feel the whole Horse: When I observe people and horses, it often seems to me that when the horse is trying to avoid something, or maybe is not doing what the rider asks of him, it is because the horse’s sense of self preservation is immediately taking effect. This may seem as though the horse does not want to cooperate. But the rider needs to recognize the whole horse; the horse has basic need for self preservation.
Tom Dorrance
The horse will become supple when it is cadenced, stiff when it rushes.
Nuno Oliveira
The secret in riding is to do few things right. The more one does, the less one succeeds. The less one does, the more one succeeds.
Nuno Oliveira
One has to have an immobile hand with mobile fingers.
Nuno Oliveira
The hands have to be like concrete when the horse resists and like butter when he yields.
Nuno Oliveira
The goal is not to raise the neck, it is to lower the hips.
Albert Decarpentry
You’re not working on the horse, you’re working on yourself.
Ray Hunt
The horse knows where the person is all the time. Now we are trying to help the person know where the horse is all the time. The horse knows where the person is; the person needs to learn to catch up with the horse on that.
Tom Dorrance
Only the rider who is free from any contraction will have a horse equally free from contraction. A team such as this is the ideal.
Nuno Oliveira
The goal of all dressage riding should be to bring the horse and rider together in harmony…a oneness of balance, purpose, and athletic expression.
Walter Zettl
