Why did you choose dressage?

[Emma_G_NZ]

Just a general question! As a 14 year old I often get asked why I only want to do dressage, why I dont jump, why did I get a dressage saddle, isnt it boring for the horse? how do you give variety to the poor thing? Some people just dont get it, especially when they think that jumping is the only thing that matters :mad:
Anyway, The reason I chose dressage was because I love the closeness between horse and rider, and the bond that there has to be to get a horse to perform so lightly and kindly. I love to have almost complete control, and I love the overall picture created when doing a good test. I dont like hooning, and I dont like jumping (Is it a crime not to like jumping?!).:( I have always felt a bit apprehensive when it came to jumping, even before an accident I had (which was prior to the jump anyway, so it wasnt actually jumping, unbeknown to me the pony I owned at the time had arthritis and was in pain).

So I thought I'd ask some likeminded people..

Why did YOU choose dressage?

[IrisSilverMoon]

Cause i'm good at it...;)

hehe...actually awhile ago i wanted to do three day eventing, that way i could jump ANFD do dressage...but i then realised i would never be able to fearlessly ride a four star course...

I'm pretty good at jumping, but five feet scares me too! LOL, i can't really see myself doing it...

Now Dressage...i feel like i can do anything! it's so great, i have all this knowledge of stuff that i can already do, and stuff that i can continue to learn, i love having a horse light in my hands with it's nose tucked up pretty and it's back lifted. It feels soooooooo much better from my jumping group where i ride a really strong horse through a course and it's all i can do to keep him slow(i stil have fun though!)

If ever i come up with the fundage i plan to ride my way to the olympics!!!! :D

I would encourage you to try jumping though, just think of it, as dressage over fences...;) that's how my riding instructor likes to explain it, hehe.

[Lgd]

I love the harmony needed between the horse and rider that is needed to create good dressage. I have done a bit of everything, although I don't jump a great deal now as it triggers off an old back injury, also I don't possess anything but dressage saddles now.

I also really love the dressage to music - real 'Dancing with Horses'.

I ended up riding at higher levels because my horse turned out to be rather good at dressage and we have gone much further than I would ever have anticipated. I get real satisfaction out of knowing that I've done all the training and hard work to get there as well.

My horse finds showjumping boring - she will jump something a couple of times and then amuses herself looking for ways to destroy the fence or stop. The same horse will happily school on the flat for 45 - 60 minutes and remains relaxed and co-operative. very much horses for courses (or disciplines should we say).

[Tina J]

To me dressage is the basis for everything else. To jump well you have to be able to place your horse accurately, and shorten and lengthen strides, and have him rounded with his hocks underneath him. If you can do that well, then you can ride a novice/elementary dressage test. To be safe hacking you need to have control, and it helps to be able to leg yield, turn on the forehand, demi-pirouette (gates, tight turns etc). Elementary level again. And cross country you have to be able to go from long galloping strides to bouncing, shortening and lengthening. Can't do that without the groundwork first. Even in the show ring, you will go further, and show your horse off to its best advantage if you have done some basic dressage to get it moving at its best. Doing dressage as a basis for other things, I just got hooked. Wonderful to feel the improvement and harmony and to see the muscles building up in a way that improves the overall look and carriage of the horse. And the occasional competition gives you something to work towards and improve on for next time. Doesn't matter whether you win or not, you still have something to aim for by comparing comments on your dressage sheets, and seeing if what you felt is reflected in the judges comments. I might get slated for this, but when I see show jumpers locally, they don't seem to improve in their riding from one year to the next. But those who compete in dressage are continually looking to improve their riding and understanding of the horse. That's at a local level, which, lets face it, is the majority of riders. Though it could be that the local kids who show jump just aren't getting the right feedback from the local pony club instructors. I'm happy to jump - still do if someone wants me to jump their horse. But the big thrill for me is getting the harmony and willingness from a horse that should be what dressage is all about.

[TheMoose]

Yes, it is a sad fact that the majority of young riders these days cannot, and refuse to realise the importance of flatwork. It seems as though in this country we do not educate the riders enough at a young age and so they grow up fairly reckless.
I,myself did not choose dressage I chose showjumping. I would like to consider myself as a young educated rider. My horses must go correctly and I understand the importance of flatwork as it is the goundwork of jumping. Someone once asked why I have such nice horses. The answer, I don't. My horse could be any old horse (cobx tb) but I chose to educate him correctly and it has given him prescence and helped him no end with his supplness whilst jumping.
I totally agree with you there Tina about some showjumpers, some are not willing to change so just leave them to thier own devices!
Some pony clubs have the same old instructors all the time. Untill recently mine was one of them. A group of us who compete regularly asked for instructors from away, and thats what we got. Top class people, blunt they may be but I felt I had acheived something after every lesson.

[¶¤Lil Cowgirl¤¶]

Hello!

I think it is TOTALLY unfair how people judge all young people as people who want to do showjumping... And im not going to lie but i was sorta one of those people... untill i met Emma ;)

But all the young people i ahve talked to like showjumping because of the adrenaline rush.... i think thats why most people jump... And for about 2 weeks i was liek that. I could jump all day long... if my horse was a machine lol. Lol but as we all know horses arent machines... i would still love to do showjumping and i still want to try crosscountry also. I do love the thrill of jumping and im not going to lie...

But i do liek dressage ( i have just done basic) and i love the oneness with the horse.... and just everything about it... like to beable to watch dressage on tv i am in complete awe watching it...

And i think i liked hunters because they have to have the grace to flow around the corse and it isnt about the time its just about being gracefull and flowing around the corse.... lol i totally repeated all those words but thats ok lol.

I just think its awful when people misjudge people abotu what discipline they do... i know quite a few kids/teens/younger people that love dressage and have no intentions in jumping what so ever. ;)

[Aly]

Believe it or not, I do dressage for the adrenalin rush. Not many of you would believe it, but whenever I coordinate my aids, and have the horse in self carriage, and we launch off into an unbelievable passage, piaffe, airs above ground etc. I do get a huge hit of adrenalin. I used to event and got a real buzz from cross country, but when I discovered high school dressage I was converted.

I love the thrill of training the horse too. That is one huge buzz.

[Emma_G_NZ]

Thanks guys for answering..
Im not really sure why dressage is often associated with "old grandmas with creaking bones" .. the younger generation truly does need to learn the importance of dressage, as these are the people who are going to be the next riding generation!
I think that there needs to be more young rider dressage groups around. I know that there is one in Auckland, not down here though- obviously not enough demand!!
Sometimes I feel mean to my pony not being interested in jumping, so for his sake, I will try and take him over jumps every so often as he loves jumping and outings.
And Aly- I can believe you get the adrenalin rush from dressage, especially when you finally get something- and so does the horse!

[floppy]

i choose dressage at first because i had no choice. But once i got into it i really enjoyed. I would rather ride a horse in a slow collected canter being able to extend and bring back how i want ina controlled manner than bombing it aorudn a jumping course ith an over excited horse!

sure i love jumping, but then falling off as i got older became more painful :p. I woudl jump everything. But then my best jumping horse that i was allowed to ride was put to sleep because of an accident in the field and it was never the same.
then i moved and it was a dressage yard so i thought i might aswell learn to ride properly :D

[unclemoke]

:D I like dressage......BECAUSE.... its beautiful, its athletic, and mostly because its art. I am a beginner and just getting my horse to start using his hind legs. I have seen a few good dressage riders at our local shows,and I think tests at Medium look like Poetry. Thats what I want to do with my horse. thats why I like dressage.

But it is alot of work. I plan on taking a few years to educate my horse before we try to compete. Maybe we won't compete.

-Susan-

[mikka]

TheMoose, you make an excellent point. It took ages for me to wean my daughter away from what was essentially untrained and rugged jumping, and to look toward dressage as a way of learning real horse-harmony and elegance.

Last week she confided that she'd like to pursue her dressage lessons rather than return to jumping....just yet. It was a coup!

To me dressage is learning how to hear the percussion in music.
Without it, one has no rhythm.

[Monty]

I love dressage for all the wonderful reasons already given PLUS....and it is a HUGE PLUS......don't you think it shows how wonderful horses can be, in that they will not only come up with the goods so to speak, if treated and trained kindly and sympathetically...but it's not only that, is it?? They will try to understand the garbled and often confusing aids of a disabled rider, and STILL perform. But the kindness has to remain the same, disabled or not. Harmony is still possible.....even enhanced. I nearly cried in my lesson yesterday. Rebel is now trotting and cantering totally off my voice, so it means I can now stop this silly foot waggling that spoils the picture so much, and which so many dressage judges have commented upon (even at RDA level). But what really got me, was when Rachel trotted accross the long diagonal, as she went, she said...'and....EX-tend...' and he did!! Lengthened strides...on cue. Now THAT's why I chose dressage.....GULP!!

[tasha]

I really got into dressge when I started having weekly lessons. We had no jumps so it was just flatwork.

I was at the stage the when I could get Dips into a contact for about 2 strides. After that winter I entered a few shows and achieved 63% and 3rd place in a Prelim test. But I still wanted to jump..jumping was my 'thing'.

Then I got Kally and started working on her flatwork (which was, and sometimes still is a bit naff). Jumping was still my thing (fuelled by doing a 4ft6 XC jump at camp on her!!). I was then asked if I wanted to try out for the PC Area Dressage team on Dips.

I went to the try out rally, and WOW! Dips went her best ever-into self carriage, flowing, and really trotting out. I had this massive grin on my face, I must have looked so dumb. But I wasnt picked for the team. They said I was not good enough, but the person they asked to go didnt do as well as I did. Huh. She declined, and they ended up sending 2 individuals (they could have asked me and got a team. But I think Dips isn't expensive enough!!)

After that I decided that Dressage is my thing. I love it. I still love to jump, and get incredible rushes from SJ, which I see as a dressage test with jumps in the way, but that moment of self-carriage for me was it. I'm desperate to get that from Kally!

(BTW I was asked to enter the Novice Championship dressage team on Dips, where I bettered my PB with 67%, but was not placed individually. The team came 7th. Unfortuantely Dips is now semi-retired as a light hack due to athritis, so if I want self carriage I gotta work my butt off to one day get it from Kal!)

[Princess]

Although I've always enjoyed flatwork, I only really got into dressage and actually wanted to be good at it (It's just a pity I'm not! lol) after a bad accident out hacking and I broke my wrist, my collar bone and quite badly damaged my left ankle.

When I first started riding again I was too scared to come out of trot! My instructor realised this and began to teach how to extend, collect striders and lateral movements. it took me months to become confidence enough to canter but during that time I realised the importance (and how hard it is) to get a horse "going nicely" and ever since I've been hooked on dressage. Although I am back jumping now, both how showjumping and xc I still love dressage just as much.

I would love one day to compete (higher than just PC level) and just experience "a perfect ride" - although the chances of this happening are somewhat slim. Still I can always dream....

[Emma_G_NZ]

Thanks guys for replying, it certainly has been interesting to read this :)

[* Groomette *]

Why did I choose dressage..good question!

At the beginning of my riding career my heart was set on jumping. I'd never done it..but loved it (to this date I've only done it once *L*). Then I was put with an instructor who understood I wanted to jump, but through some indirect brainwashing I grew to love dressage. Hehe. So I rode with this gal for about two years, and even met the lady who trained her dressage and the horses she used to ride. In the end, problems at the barn forced her to leave, and I guess I kind of followed.

I still wanted to stick with dressage and I got lucky. I now ride a Prix St George gelding with an instructor whos been riding dressage for 15 years. Didn't even know the barn existed :p, luck on my part!

So yeah, thats how my dressage started. I would really still like to do a little bit more jumping, but the last time I did it I was complaining about sturrips being too short, hehe my bad. I don't think a rider is complete without at least doing a little bit of everything, even if they are focusing on just one main thing :). Great topic, loved the answers!

-Groomie

[Waikato Valuta]

I love jumpping always have but since my old horse was leased out and my young horse is well young I cant. I love dressage I love the feling of self carrage and I get quite good work out of the horse i ride. But i realy want to jump and do dressage. I always work on ground work fist and when my horse can gather up leg yield move his back and front end and extend and collect his canter then i start jumpping slow. But i have not jumped in 2years.

I have just got my old horse back so will start again soon but the people where i keep my horse are showies and are motified that i woudl want to jump my horse. I like to show do dressage showwing in hand jumpping western :eek: .

I know you guys understand but they realy cant see why i dont just do dressage or showing like them.

Dont get me wrong i love dressage and showing but i also love jumping!!