Re: Dressage as cure all

[Leigh331@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/15/99 3:47:22 AM EST, sbrown@wamedes.com writes:

<< 
 That, to me, is the essence of teaching yourself and your horse the
 elements of classical basic dressage.  The lessons learned will be
 applicable to ANY discipline you may ever want to get involved in with that
 horse.
 
There were two things in my riding life that had the largest impact on my
riding/training skills.  The first was a dressage clinic held close by my
home.  The instructor opened an entire world to me, she taught just the very
basic principles of dressage training- the whys and some of the hows.  I took
this basic information and used it on a green young arab gelding, we both
learned alot about basic training and riding.  The second great teacher for me
was a wild adopted mustang.  His way was the ONLY way, I had to learn my way
around his mindset.  Physical punishment was out of the question at the time,
he would fight back!  I had to learn to work within his mind.  As we
progressed, he ended up the safest and most trustworthy horse I've had contact
with.  The tread here has been to defend/warn about dressage, someone else has
already said this:  Anything can be abused.  If you drill and drill and drill,
your horse will become sour.  All horses need some basic dressage training and
most of us do this without calling it dressage.  Even at the lowest "levels",
it is an enormous help to our horses and to us.
Leigh
  >>