(“How often do I see a rider respond with strength!”)

It has been said that I have a tremendous grasp of the obvious. In my own defense, I would simply point out that that’s better than having no grasp at all.

As you can guess, I see many riders over the course of a season or even a month. They present all varieties of experience, personality, and skill.

“Helpless” riders are not the worst thing in the world. We were all helpless once, and many of us have, over time, worked our way well beyond that category. It probably goes without saying that intemperate, brain-dead riders are a blight on our sport no matter how great their physical skills are. I hold them in high disregard.
All this is prelude to what I watched today. Admittedly, the rider in question was my student, so I do not qualify as an impartial observer. But the way this person worked through a training problem with tact and empathy while still neatly getting the job done I found more pleasing and satisfying than I can describe.

The horse is talented. He is “Second Level with some holes in him”–remnants of his earlier life under a previous rider. In the past there had been Band-Aid solutions which got him through tests despite basic misunderstandings. One goal has been to make him more supple, more softly connected, and more through. In the process flamboyance has been put on the back burner to be re-inserted when he can handle the energy. Rhythm, balance, cadence, and self-carriage are high priorities. Power and expression will come along in good time.

The specific riding which caught my attention is the shoulder-in to renvers exercise in Second Level Test Three. The horse stiffened at the requested change of bend. How often do I see a rider respond with strength! More of everything–more leg, more spur, the whip applied sharply, and usually along with more of the “new” inside rein to force the head positioning.

Instead, I saw a thoughtful rebalancing, a slowing and a slight freeing of the neck and the aids applied in increments, not to punish, but to explain to the horse what he misunderstood. The action was low stress. The outcome was confidence-building. This is how dressage training is supposed to work. No matter whether my input deserved some credit for this or if I was just a fortunate observer, it just plain made me happy to see it.

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