Getting Dressage lessons

[KT]

Hello everbody! I am from SE MN and have been riding huntseat for about 2 1/2 years, and western on and off before that since I was about 8 yrs. old. I am interested in taking up dressage. Anyone have any advice/suggestions, or know of any good stables that teach dressage in my area please e mail/reply! Thanx much. :)

[Mar]

Have you tried the USDF (United States Dressage Federation) site? Web address is www.usdf.org (http://www.usdf.org) They have several different discussion forums, one for locating instructors, stables, horses, etc.

Good luck!

[cynthia]

hey, kt.

not sure if you've thought of this yet, but in my experience, a really excellent way of locating pretty much anything horse-related in your area, whether it be instruction, boarding stables, used tack or even horses for sale, is to ask around at your local tack shop. the proprietors of these places are usually the types that just "know everybody", and many will even have put together books of local stables, their phone numbers, instructors' names, etc.

while visiting one of the local tack shops in my area (i had actually never even been to this particular place in the past), i started a conversation with two really cool women. one of them was a local dressage instructor, and she introduced me to the shop's owner, who provided me with a list of local stables and recommended several places where i could take dressage lessons (stables that teach dressage on their own schoolhorses are few and far between, i gather). anyway, i exchanged business cards with everyone, and also ended up buying a pair of really great boots... all in all, a very fortuitous visit!

seriously, though... i highly recommend it. i looked around on the web for ages, but never found anything as valuable as my conversations with local horse people! :)

good luck!

-cyn