Dressage horse training for Backyard owners

Hello everyone,

I am back in Hawaii for some more AF reserve time and find myself outlining my next book.  Writing is a big way for me to learn and I want to capture my learning process in dressage to this point.  Donzer has been in training with Sarah Martin this spring and I hope to make the jump to FEI this summer.  It is important to me to make sure I have a good accounting of what I’ve been through to this point.  I am sure I can save people a lot of time in their learning process by documenting the nuances of training I learned the hard way.

I have outlined to discuss adult learning, current athletic training, developing self-awareness in mind and body.  I think it is also so important to address the real differences between a training program designed around a barn full of school masters and the backyard model so many of us really learn from spending a lot of time on our own.  I don’t think there are right and wrong ways so much as real differences to account for in the process.

If anyone has a great “aha”  moment or better way to have learned something please share it!

Good riding,

Tara

Teaching the Rider to Feel featuring Sarah Martin

Hello everyone,

Sarah and I are going to Nebraska to hold the second Teaching the Rider to Feel symposium.  We conducted the first seminar in Colorado and it was a huge success.  This  video introduces the symposium and what you will experience at the event.  If you are interested to organize this amazing symposium in your area,  please contact me at TaraNolanHorses@live.com.

 

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Bringing a dressage horse back to work

Hello everyone,

I spent almost 3 weeks in Hawaii and when I got back I excited to ride again.  But, Ava had gotten used to her pasture time and I had to ease back into riding.  Here is the plan I used and it worked out great.

Day 1:  Ground work to reestablish I was the boss and that work was part life.  15 minutes under saddle walking circles and some leg yields on a fairly long rein.

Day2:  30 minutes under saddle.  Walk and trot with some circles and leg yield.

Day 3: Very windy day.  20 minutes walk, trot and canter with some canter-walk-canter transitions.  Ava got very tight and tense so I dismounted and finished off with ground work.

Day 4: Rain day, no riding

Day 5:  Added in baby half-pass at the walk and working trot with a connection over the topline. Ava’s strides were short as she reorganized to find her balance.  Cantered about 5 times around the arena each direction as Ava was anticipating the walk transition.

Day 6:  Help from my ground guy. Worked on Ava’s trot on the 20 meter and then had nice shoulder in, 10 meter circles and halts.

Day 7:  Added in flying change prep exercise of canter, change bend, walk canter other lead.  While the canter improved, Ava did not feel balanced enough to ask for the change today. Instead did some trot lengthenings across the diagonal,  loosened Ava’s back and had some nice coming back to working trot transitions.

Day 8:   Hopefully the flying change balance will arrive!

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Listen to your gut feeling

Hello everyone,

I’m back from 2 weeks in Hawaii and riding Ava for the 3rd time since I’ve been home.  The day is crazy windy but since Ava lives outside she is fairly used to it.  I got on and we started out well.  But, then a big burst of wind picked up from a nearby storm and a pizza box came flying across the arena from nowhere.  We were working on some canter walk canter transitions and Ava was getting a little tight and anticipatory and I felt her body start to tense just a bit more.

My little gut voice mentioned that maybe this was not a good situation.  Then my ego jumped in and said, “What are you chicken?  Ride your horse.”  I decided to get off and put on the rope halter and lead.  As soon as I swapped the bridle for the 14′ lead rope Ava took off around me in a circle in a mad dash.  It took about 2 minutes and then we did some direction changes to bring Ava’s focus back to me.  After about 6 minutes Ava let out a deep sigh, lowered her head and then I was able to put the bridle back on and finish our ride successfully.

I’ll never know if I would have been able to ride through it but I was able to solve the problem with a little ground work.  What is your go-to plan when you lose your horse’s focus and they become unsafe?

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Western Dressage Horse Training: Fine Tuning the Leg Yield

Hello Everyone,

I am learning more about Western Dressage and find that the basics are the same for both classical and western dressage.  You need to develop the communication and control of your horse first before you can really start to do any thing fancy.  As I started my riding career in a western saddle, I can tell you that this technique of  teaching Ava leg yield was something I figured out with my Quarter Horse, Red.  Red was already 13 years old when I got him and his most recent experience had been at a trainer trying to make a cow horse out of him.  Red really does not like cows so he came to me.  I was just beginning to play with dressage at the time and I thought I was on the wrong track for sure because Red was stiff as a board, drug his hind legs along and the first time I asked for a leg yield he just stopped, turned his head to look at me and if he could speak would have said, “Say what?!”

Red is now 24 and is still very supple and bendy but this did not happen spontaneously or overnight.  Ava is an American Warmblood (half Hanoverian/Half Thorobred) and she has also found the lateral work to be very challenging.  I’ve done a lot of this work from the ground (see my previous videos) so Ava could figure out her balanace without me.  Now, in this video, I am upping the ante.  I want her to leg yield, on the bit with the correction flexion in her poll.  It is the correct flexion in her poll that Ava finds very difficult.  As the rider, it is easy to try to “help” your horse figure out the leg yield.  The horse will learn most quickly when you apply your aide and then let your horse struggle and play with their balance. When your horse makes a good try be sure to tell them “good girl!”  You will find your horse will start trying harder and learn new things more quickly because “good girl” is a big clue they’re on the right track.

This communication between you and your horse must be developed regardless of the saddle you ride in.  Once you can influence all of your horses’s body parts in a balanced way, then you can progress to more advanced movements.

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Dressage horse training: Thoughts for teaching Adults to ride

Hello Everyone,
I have started giving lessons and my student asked, “Am I giving the aid for leg yield correctly?” This made me think about a big difference in the way Americans learn to ride versus some of the other countries I’ve taken lessons in. When I was in England, for example, I went for a riding lesson and was given a retired Grand Prix jumper to take a beginning dressage lesson on. Here in America, I have my own horse and am hard pressed to find an available schoolmaster to take a lesson on. In England, they recommended you not buy a horse because your learning curve will grow more quickly than you can develop a horse. So, we have the common situation in America of people learning with their horses.

I had to ask my student, “I don’t know, what have you taught your horse to do?” It is so important to realize that as a teacher, you are teaching both the horse and the rider and don’t always have the luxury of just teaching your student to ride an educated horse. This requires the teacher to provide instruction that gives a student feel in addition to just a button or aid.

“I recommend getting on a schoolmaster or educated horse every chance you get because on feel is worth a thousand explanations”–Tara Nolan

Good Riding,
Tara
Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Dressage Horse Training: What kind of teacher do you want learning from?

Dressage Horse Training: What do you feel?

Hello everyone,

I was working on shoulder in yesterday and my ground guy told me that I was not turning my outside shoulder enough.  Since my ground guy is my husband, I initially started to argue with him.  As Kris started to walk away (his rule is if I argue then he won’t help), I had Kris come back and devised a new plan.

I had him hold Ava and stand in front of us.

I then turned my shoulders in each direction to the position Kris said was correct.

Then I took a few minutes to feel.  As I turned my shoulders, we figured it was better to focus on moving my outside shoulder to create the angle instead of just pushing my inside shoulder back.  When I turned I could feel my outside seatbone lift up and had to focus on keeping my sits bones in the saddle, thus separating my top and bottom.  To keep my sits bones I felt my inside calf connect with Ava’s ribs and felt this link from inside calf (leg) to my outside sits bone (rein). I moved back and forth feeling this connection in both directions to create a muscle memory.

I’ll let you know how our next shoulder in goes.

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Dressage Horse Training: Learning Focused Format for Teaching the Rider to Feel

Hello Everyone,

On St. Patties Day we conducted the first Teaching the Rider to Feel symposium in Colorado and it was a great success.  Taking the traditional riding clinic and reformatting it using academic teaching principles created a high value learning experience.  While I was introducing Sarah, I emphasized that the audience were attendees and students encouraged to participate and ask questions and not to think of themselves as auditors to simply watch. Beginning the clinic by handing out notebooks and encouraging students to take notes was step one.  Step two, Sarah Martin, began the lecture with a written outline so all the attendees could follow the process.  To illustrate the connection between the horse and rider, the corresponding quadrants of the horse and rider were highlighted.  The timing of the aids was demonstrated on a western dressage pair highlighting that good riding is good riding and basics are basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combining Sarah Martin’s dressage knowledge with Tara Nolan’s knowledge of academic lesson planning and course building is creating a great format for adults to learn dressage.  My passion is teaching whether it is training a horse, explaining a biological concept, teaching a student to fly an airplane or…I love the ah ha moment when the students grasp the concept.  Taking advantage of the different learning styles people have and designing the instruction to align with several different methods is a fantastic way to help create ah ha moments.

I also recommend you check out UnbridledRider.com and play with it’s FREE journaling application.  You can create a personal on-line login and keep track of your lessons and questions and even coordinate training with your riding instructor.

Here’s to more future awesome ah ha moments with our horses.

Good Riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding

Dressage Horse Training: What is position and why does it matter?

Hello Everyone,

Donzer is in training with Sarah Martin in California and I got to have a lesson on him.  I got an instant feel of what position is and hwo it should feel.  Position is having your horse slightly shoulderfor and haunches fore all the time. The missing piece for me was the rib cage.  The rib cage also needs to be slightly to the outside to give a place for your inside leg.  Janet Foy used to tell me move the dining car over.  The breakdown for me was that I did not make this a constant part of my ride.  I would be reminded to find this position and then once I was focused on haunches in or half-pass or what ever the topic of the day was, I would let position drop out of my cross-check.

Now that I got to feel how Donzer is maintaining position for the entire ride, through all the work, I am holding Ava to this standard, too.  I am keeping our rides more simple so I can keep bringing position into my crosscheck.  Once this feel has become automatic, I won’t have to dedicate so many braincells to this task.  But, position is the key to having a good shoulder in, 10 meter circles and even straight lines.

I encourage you to think about what task you are letting drop out of your cross-check when your brain is full.  Find a way to prioritize the task and develop your muscle memory.

Good riding,

Tara

Author, Out of the Saddle: 9 Steps to Improve Your Horseback Riding