What does you horse need to know before you can start to teach them dressage movements.?

Question

What does you horse need to know before you can start to teach them dressage movements.?

Answer 1

It depends what kind of dressage movements your talking about but generally if you want to be training your horse in dressage you would want to teach your horse to be responsive and really listening to you from the beginning (that's not necessarily ever single minute your riding obviously). My horse moves beautifully but I could never compete at the point shes at now because she doesn't listen attentively. The first thing you will need to teach is basic gaits and transitions. Also be very consistent in trying to push your horse into his/her hind quarters because that is a very important basic that many people don't consider seriously. It is a very important part in marking and will be the basis of most parts of dressage (coming onto the bit, extension, collection etc.) and basically people who go into dressage competitions after taking shortcuts and not taking the time to work well in the hind quarters will never ever do well in dressage. That's definitely a solid basis to start with and these are things you can do out bush riding and when ever. There's no reason why you would absolutely have to use an arena to teach this stuff so having your horse in a relaxed environment while learning will be a big help. I ride my horse out in the bush all the time and teach her this basic stuff and I think she would go crazy if I worked her in a arena all the time she gets frustrated any how being asked to learn new things.

Answer 2

Basic flat work, including, walk, trot, canter and responsive to leg aids.

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