(“There’s the whole notion of what dressage magazines are pushing.”)

A student with good intentions but limited experience said to me one morning, “I’ve been reading . . .” I always applaud the desire to enlarge one’s knowledge base, but the way she said it, I knew trouble was looming. In a recent issue of DT or PH—it doesn’t matter where—she had encountered an article titled (roughly) “How to Warm Up Your Horse.” From it, she’d gleaned that she should bring her horse to the arena and start with periods of shoulder-in and haunches-in in the walk “to make him really supple”.

“Um,” I began cautiously, “I have a couple of problems with that approach. First, you don’t know how to make shoulder-in or haunches-in. Second, yours is the sort of horse that already wants to be short and backed-off. For him relaxation comes from flowing forward to a passive contact and building some push from behind before you begin to shape him very much.”

She was crestfallen.

I went on to explain:

I knew a woman years ago back in Rhode Island who tried to mine each visiting clinician for a “Training Pattern” which she should follow every day to school her horse—a memorized list of three something-or-others to the right followed by three of them to the left, then three this-or-thats to the right and to the left; then a set of . . . well, you get the idea. Of course, such a program does not exist! It should go without saying that not only is each horse an individual with its own strengths and weaknesses, habits, concerns, and predilections it brings to the arena, but that same horse will be different day to day. The only commonality among (most, but not) all warm ups is that they should begin with some free walk on a long rein. After that, perhaps it is gathered suppling work in the walk, perhaps free and forward trot, perhaps long and low, maybe round and deep. Sometimes the canter even precedes the trot. If someone is telling you “one shoe fits all”, don’t buy a bridge from them either!

Then there’s the whole notion of what dressage magazines are pushing. Three word answer—sales of magazines. This, of itself, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it leads to certain types of content. Pick up a handful of any niche publications off the newsstand. For instance, grab Practical Quilting and Quilting Today, Practical iPads and iPads Today, and for good measure Practical Ultimate Frisbee Golf and Ultimate Frisbee Golf Today, and you will be struck by some common threads. You won’t find a single article that says “We don’t have the answer!” You’ll find plenty of “How to . . .” stories on any minute subtopic you (actually they) can imagine; psychologizing articles on the Right Brain approach to solving whatever; overcoming fear of (choose one from column A and one from column B); the Zen of ___________; personalities in _________; and a goodly dose of Ask the Experts. Count on lots of glossy color, sidebars, and not too many words per page.

And when you get to the actual articles, each one has to have a “hook”. So no wonder my poor student was drawn in by a simple solution to warming up her horse—despite the fact that it was neither simple nor appropriate. But it sure did sound good!

It wouldn’t sell magazines, but to answer the “How to Warm up Your Horse” question, I refer back to the words of our beloved former President, horseman, and dressage philosopher, Ronald Reagan. After he retired, an interviewer asked Mr. Reagan now that he no longer had to put on a business suit each day, what did he like to wear. His answer—and mine to the Warm up question—“Depends!”