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Why dressage is like sailing

My brother hates horses and everyone knows it. He prefers sailing. I hate the ocean and everyone knows it. I am definitely afraid of sailing, as a result.

We had an equal love for our own sport and equal dislike of our sibling's. For better or worse, our childhood was spent between horse shows and sailing trips - where one of us was miserable and the other completely in their element... then we traded. In an attempt to save myself from drowning, I picked up some skills at sea.

For example, the boat is driven by wind energy. In order to harness that energy, you can either have a sail that catches the wind slightly from the left and pushes the boat right and forward OR you can have wind from the right, that pushes the boat left and forward OR you can have wind from behind that pushes the boat forward. When you have wind from the side, the boat goes forward, but it also tips over slightly.

What I find fascinating about this is how the boat tips one way and you feel the energy shift to one side of the boat, while it maintains a forward energy forward as well.

So why is sailing like dressage?

Because when you get on a horse that is unbalanced, you can imagine how they are like that boat with the wind/energy coming from one side or another - not straight from behind to the front. You feel that they lean into one rein/leg, like that tilting boat. They continue forward, but they aren't upright like the boat with the energy coming from behind.

When we ride a horse that is tilting, we have uneven energy. In dressage, you want a horse with the "wind" coming straight from behind. If you feel that you have 20 pounds of energy in your right rein and only 2 pounds in your left rein, you are probably going around like that tilted boat.

Now imagine that your leg aid on the heavy/tilting side is a wave that is coming from the other direction of the boat, helping to put you more upright again. What happens when you leg yield your horse from that heavy/tilting right side into a catching, left side? You should feel like you have straightened your boat out again and the wind is coming from behind.

Your horse will most likely have a side that they prefer to tilt to. If it is the right side, try riding a 25-meter circle on the right lead to encourage your horse to stay upright and ride a 18-meter circle on the left lead to prevent him from falling out on his tilting side.

Before you know it, you should have a more balanced horse.

Now, if only I could convince my brother that dressage will help his sailing...

Stability versus mobility

In the A Session of the Program, Sandy Howard told us that a stable object is less mobile - think a sumo wrestler on hands/knees - and a less stable object is more mobile - think of a gymnastic on the balance beam.

NERD WARNING: You are about to be exposed to another one of my dressage nerd rants!

So, due to the snow storms, I have been driving my long bed/crew cab truck around. The monster has gotten me through some pretty bad conditions and the 4wd is essential with the roads looking the way they do.

Cut to Saturday night when my boyfriend took me out for an early Valentine's dinner and offered to drive :) As we arrived at the parking lot in his Toyota Corolla, I sort of braced myself for the tight turns around the lot. My brain had adjusted itself to the truck's handling and I was briefly surprised at how easily his Toyota made the turns.

So there, in the parking lot... with my non-horsey boyfriend... on our Valentine's day date, I blurted out: "Less stability means more mobility! Your car is like a good upper level horse!"

I think he just ignored my comments when he realized that I was talking about horses again. Perhaps he thought I was complimenting his car in some way. At this point, however, I am now fascinated with the "collection" of the smaller cars versus my truck. Their tires are closer together, like the legs of a more collected horse. While my truck takes a whole acre to turn, my Mini Cooper can zip around turns in an instant.

Though I understood it before (more stability means less mobility in dressage), this analogy seems to explain several things quite well:

As you go into the upper levels, any horse with power can possibly get through the straight lines of the test - extensions, center lines, etc. However, only a truly collected horse can get through the lateral portions of the test correctly.

Some horses are built more like my Mini Cooper and others like my truck. That is not to say that you can't rebuild the truck/horse with less mobility by bringing the wheels/legs closer together. It just takes more time and work.

My newest sponsor ;)

I just bought a new truck and am in the process of picking up the new trailer. Not to mention that I just bought several new bits a.k.a. Dressage's version of "exotic silver accessories"... so contributions to my 401k are not at their all-time highest right now.

Luckily, I got an email from Mrs.Tami Drumm. I am the beneficiary to the totalsum of £15,600,000.00GBP. Which is great, because with the current exchange rate that works out to be $24.4 million. Now that I am rolling in money, I don't have to sell my extra saddle to the man on craigslist.org who only has a check for 3x as much and asks that I send $1,000 back through wire transfer before his associate picks the saddle up. I can also buy that 2009 Featherlite trailer with living quarters that I saw "on sale" for only $7,000 due to divorce - she also wants me to wire transfer the money and will hand-deliver the trailer to my residence.

Honestly, with this amount of money I could buy Totilas!

Dear Mrs.Tami Drumm,
Enclosed you will find my social security number, date of birth, full name, address, phone number, mother's maiden name, all of my credit cards, the title to all of my vehicles, an IOU on my first born child and my cell phone.

I am excited to see that you and your "family" have taken an interest in the equestrian sports and wish you the best of luck as your business grows.

Warmest wishes,

Hilary Moore

P.S. I appreciate your contacting me via email, since I seem to have accidentally passed over your previous 150 attempts to contact me and, honestly, £15.6 million doesn't warrant a phone or snail mail contact.

A lot of prevention and a little bit of luck...

Today was one of those days. The type of day that makes you superstitious because so much goes wrong.

Thanks to the frozen ground, I managed to fall on the driveway with my hands full of brand new sunglasses, my cell phone, keys and a ceramic bowl. Needless to say, but my arms and knees saved everything I was carrying and my head from getting cracked into too many pieces (which, in my opinion, is anything more than 1).

Luckily, I know my horse is safely inside (I lost a horse to a bad fall in a snowy pasture and now keep all my horses in/hand walking at the slightest sign of bad pasture footing).As I head down to the barn, however, I realize that my @%*~#! of a horse has managed to let himself out his back door, so that he could remove the upper portion of his stablemate's back door - 100+ pounds of STEEL and GLASS - and land it on the ground, and then somehow open the side gate so he could walk around the generator and patio behind the tack room. Did I mention that I am calling my horse names because he somehow managed to escape all of this without damaging himself or his buddy?!?! If I could tell you how he did even one of these things, it would be a miracle. To explain how he opened two gates and lifted a door off its hinges, without breaking anything, is totally beyond me.

A lungeing session later and I think I have worked some of the Houdini out of the little guy. He is now on lock-down, with the upper part of his Dutch door now closed. That is what you get when you can't stay in your room!

After this whole mess, I headed home... and fell out of my truck on the ice. This time, I hit my leg on the truck door and it hurt like... (insert whatever you think I just called my horse). At this point, I am thinking: Maybe I am making up for all the injuries my horse managed to avoid. Then I found the following email upon arriving home:

(My friend) has her two horses at a private farm and let them out for a short time yesterday evening. When they were coming in, one of them slipped and slashed his leg on some ice and cut 2 arteries. The vet was able to come out in about an hours time, and she couldn't stitch the arteries so they had to bring the horse to (the animal hospital). It took them over 3 hours to get the trailer dug out and driveways cleared enough to pull out. At that time there were about 20 people involved in the operation, between digging out, stabilizing the horse who was starting to go down from all the blood loss, and calling around and finding a truck that could haul safely over the ice. The horse made it to (the hospital) and is doing well this morning, but very scary situation in all of this.

My point? A horse can just as easily get himself into trouble in or out of the barn, so you might as well just give up. Seriously though, anyone in the horse world knows that accidents happen - especially freak accidents - and only prevention and luck can keep your horse safe & sound.

Since luck is impossible to control, we MUST focus on injury/disaster prevention. During these winter storms, this includes:

1. Keep your horses in when the weather is not safe to turnout.


2. Appreciate the increased energy levels of a stall-bound horse and/or a horse that has been out of work because you cannot get to the barn in the snow - turnout, riding and lungeing become riskier as a result.


3. Recognize that there is a lot of snow on the roof - make sure that it can handle the weight load. Don't forget the lovely crashing sounds it makes when it melts off.


4. Falling on ice really sucks. Slipping with your horse on ice is 10x worse - watch your step, trust me!


5. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR TRUCK/TRAILER ARE ACCESSIBLE TO YOUR HORSE(S) AND EMERGENCY VET CLINIC.

For additional information on preparing you/your horse(s) for all situations, please visit the following link:

AAEP Emergency and Disaster Preparedness

Thank the "Idiot of the day" for such a helpful blog:

Winter 2010

You asked for pictures, so I took pictures! Below is a photo journal from my day today. After digging the truck/cars out, posting my blog and having breakfast, I headed out to work with students.

First stop: The gas station. I don't know how it happened, especially since the guard posts are still standing, but the gas pump was knocked over! Luckily, they had another pump still standing - though they were out of everything but the 87.

Stop Two: Jill's barn to help her with her horses and visit my guy. We ended up shoveling a path from the hay barn to the feed room, so we could bring a new load of hay over to the barn. After that, the horses were worked and we took some photos on the way up to her house.

We ended the visit with some exercises/stretching and an impromptu YouTube viewing of Steffen Peters rides. Her dogs were very involved with both the video watching and floor exercises. I think they have a bit of cabin fever as well, though the horses don't even seem to notice that they are stuck inside.

Next stop: The Surrey. Unfortunately, they were closed and I will have to continue to wait for a new set of reins and a pair of lined gloves I have had my eye on to try. On a side note, SSG has made a new glove that is similar to the Roeckl Chesters that I just bought and love. They are cheaper and have a bit of stretchy material right at the knuckle, otherwise fit just like their Roeckl twins that they have been selling for a while. Wish they made them in winter weight. Although, I have found that wearing a 1/2 size up with thin fleece gloves underneath is a nice alternative to winter gloves.

Next stop: Merry Go Round Farm. The trailers are snowed in, so it looks like the Morven Schooling Show might be a no-go next weekend. However, everything went great - despite the snow sliding from the roof every so often. Love the new footing there, by the way. Also love the gorgeous sunset off the snow I saw today - what a lovely way to end a productive, though shorter, day.

..Looking forward to the long weekend to make up for it. Twenty students and counting between now and Sunday PM. Monday they are calling for more snow, so we have to get in the training when we can!

Snow days

When I was a kid, "snow days" meant school cancellations, sleeping in and watching TV all day.

Cut to "Snowpocalypse 2010" in Maryland and blizzard warnings take on a whole new meaning. I received an email from my fellow "L" Judgelette, Kristen, titled "Can you get to the computer through the snow?!". The answer is: Only when the power isn't out and I forced to stay inside! Here is a photo of the snow against the sliding glass door - up to the door handle.

Unless you live under a rock, you know that the Washington, D.C. area has gotten a lot of snow - the most in 126 years. 63.5" and counting, to be exact. If you live in the D.C. area you definitely know how bad it is.

For your enjoyment, here are some of the most memorable moments to date:

-After feeling overly guilty about trading in my eco-friendly Toyota Prius for a ford F-350, I heard about the Toyota recalls on the radio while cutting through horrible ice/snow in my 4wd truck. Saving the earth is important, but so is getting home alive. I still feel guilty, just not all the time.

-Cancelling, rescheduling, rescheduling again and then actually getting to lessons during this storm takes as much time as teaching a full day! So does going to the barn to see my own horse, on the really bad days.

-My SAINT of a barn owner has been hand walking the horses when the snow stops me from getting out there. She deserves more than a huge hug... any ideas for what that should be are welcome. Did I mention that while this is happening, she is also running an amazing crabcake business that I might have to buy out of inventory to thank her :)

-The snow has put me under house arrest on a handful of days and the sedentary lifestyle sprinkled in with some major snow shovelling, has caused my back and hip flexors to feel a little tight. Thank you OnDemand, your free fitness videos have saved me more than once. I also learned a few new "dynamic motion" exercises that strengthen and loosen all the right riding muscles. Movements that involve 3-d mobility of your legs, while balancing yourself with your own stability, will help loosen/strengthen your core and hip flexors very well. MOVE OF THE DAY: Standing on one leg (slightly bent), slowly reach down and touch the ground with alternating hands. Make sure to bend from your hips and bring your raised foot back and up as you bend. Switch legs and repeat.

-Snow days = getting your taxes done a lot sooner than you ever thought possible :)

-I have been able to start planning things with my video editor and have already put up some clips on my website: http://www.mooredressage.com/videos.html

-My restless Chihuahua wanted to go outside. I took him out and he sat in the snow, refusing to move until I picked him up and carried him inside. They clearly do not have snow wherever my dog's ancestors lived, but I think this shows brilliant adaptation skills. Smart little brat.

Guest Blogger: Fellow "L" Participant, Stacy Williams

The Utah Dressage Society’s USDF “L” Program class of 2010 has now put two sessions in the books. Session A was taught by Sandy Howard, Session B by Janet Brown Foy.

Session A, hosted by The Promontory in Park City, UT, focused much of the information on the rules, conduct as a judge, judging methodology, and biomechanics.

Session B, hosted by Sage Creek Equestrian in Charleston, UT, focused on judging criteria for gaits and paces, movements and figures, and discussed in detail the criteria of Training through Second level.

Both sessions included the opportunity to view demonstration rides, and to practice honing not only our eyes (which frankly should be fairly honed at this stage in our learning), but also honing our ability to process visual input into a relevant comment and score for what we see, in a very short amount of time. The amount of territory these two sessions has covered is expansive. The scope of this program is impressive-I can't recommend it enough, to anyone-any aspiring trainer, judge, or amateur. The information is theoretical and practical, instantly useful. You will leave each session with enough knowledge to process for years. You do not have to be a candidate! Just audit, believe me, it is WORTH IT!

The instructor judges who take on this task and agree to be a part of the education process of our judges are to be commended. This is a grueling job for them, so one can only assume they are doing this not for the money but for the betterment of the sport in our country. Our program for training judges is recognized worldwide for its thorough preparation of dressage judges.

There is no way I could do justice to the amount of information covered in this program in a single, or even daily, blog post. So, I won't attempt it. What I will do is attempt to stress to the riders I work with what the judges really want to see.

Help yourself as a rider, help your horse, and make the judges happy, by actually reading the directives for the level at which you choose to ride. Read the definitions of the movements and the paces, it's all available for free to members on the USEF website! Know the directives for the movements, understand what the essence of each movement is, and understand the essence of the level at which you seek to ride. Know the Training Pyramid. Understand how it applies to your scores. Read your test sheet, and know the directives for the level, and its implications. Know where the movements begin and end. Prepare your horse for every transition and movement. Know where your horse's hind legs are. Know what your horse and you need to do, biomechanically speaking, to meet the criteria of the movements. Be honest with yourself if your horse's gaits are not clear. It really does matter!

Dressage is not about the movements-it's the quality-of the gaits, the connection, the riding, the execution of the criteria. Know what those numbers mean...10-Excellent; 9-very good; 8-good; 7-fairly good; 6-satisfactory; 5-marginal; 4-insufficient; 3-fairly bad; 2-bad; 1-very bad; 0-not performed. Next time you are happy with a 60%, enjoy that happiness for a moment, but when you go home, sit down and study that score sheet and really try to understand what the judge wants you to know. In the end, are you REALLY happy with just Satisfactory??? Maybe. We are all coming to this with a different set of tools and a different load to bear. Maybe just getting to the ring is a victory for you, and that is the beauty of our sport-you are never forced to move up until YOU decide. But it is still an Olympic sport in the end. Regardless of your station in life and as a dressage rider, consider this: Would it not be more noble to develop a very high quality Training level horse than to mindlessly move up the levels with no understanding of the requirements? Maybe it is worth it, to learn, by moving up. But knowing the definition of, for example, medium trot is important. Don’t expect 8s if your horse cannot show sufficient reach front and rear, cannot show an uphill balance, cannot show a clear lengthening of the stride, and cannot make clear transitions from the hind legs. Judges are bound by guidelines as to the scores they give. Don’t take it personally, but do take their word for it when they offer you constructive criticism.

I challenge each of you: Pursue excellence in your riding and training. Believe me, you will not be viewed as a hero if you keep moving up the levels despite low scores. Judges would much rather see a good Training level ride than a marginal First level ride. In strict terms of the numbers as I stated above, that means that a “good” Training level ride would earn an 80%. A “marginal” First level ride would earn a 50%. Janet Foy must have said ten times during our B Session-“This is an Olympic sport.” The reality is, if your horse lacks the natural, God-given conformation and scope to its gaits necessary to perform the hardest movements with the greatest ease, and you as a rider lack the balance and strength necessary to help your horse, then to expect the judge to be Santa Claus and give you 70% on a horse that doesn't even track up in the working trot or remain pure in its canter rhythm is unrealistic. I challenge you to be thorough and positive in your training. I also challenge you to be realistic in your expectations.

I started this program with no other goal than to learn as much as possible and make myself a more viable candidate for USDF Trainer certification. After two sessions, I now deeply desire to become a judge. I see it as an opportunity to, again as Janet Foy said so perfectly, "sell hope". She really has a way with words. Regardless of my final evaluation by the instructors, I will leave this program deeply transformed as a trainer and rider. This program is the envy of the world and I am deeply thankful to all involved.

Track my progress with the program at www.scwdressage.blogspot.com. Find out more about the Utah Dressage Society at www.utahdressagesociety.net.

-Stacy Williams

Stacy is a dressage trainer based in St. George, Utah.

B Session: Day One

I am going to have to put my other entries on hold while I fill you in on day one of the B Session.

After reviewing the homework/reading for a total of about 7 hours: at home, on the airplane and last night, I felt ready to start today. The written questions reviewing Session A were tempting to do right after leaving that weekend, but I am glad I held off until now so that I could refresh it in my mind.

For homework, I also had to draw out each movement of the tests from Training 1 to Second 4, so that I knew what each movement included - including where it started and ended. This came in handy today, since we watched actual tests and had to score/comment on them at the same time. I will never be nervous to scribe for anyone else again, now that I have learned to scribe and judge at the same time! Not to pat myself on the back, but I was pretty close to the judge's scores... now I just need to get better at articulating my comments.

Knowing EXACTLY where each movement starts and ends, as well as what transitions it includes, is very important to know if you want to be a good judge, competitor and/or trainer. For example, knowing how many movements a blow-up includes can affect a score by several points. Also knowing if a transition is scored separately will make that part of the test very close to a coefficient, since the steps into/out of the transition will affect both scores. For judging, it also makes it very easy to make every step of the test accountable to one - and only one - movement's score.

This systematic approach they walk you through in this Program has made judging a lot less intimidating. I am starting to appreciate the system of scoring by beginning with the key issues of a movement - the basics (think training scale elements) - and then going up or down based on criteria (think the elements of a movement and its directives, then adding/subtracting less for modifiers (things like the accuracy of circles). For example, if you have a horse with a marching free walk and stretched topline that would get an 8 in a perfect world... a few squiggles in his line might give him a 7 (-1 for a mild issue), but a 4 if he didn't show any difference in the free walk (-4 for not showing the essence of the movement).

Ok - off to bed now. I could go on for hours and have plenty of notes I need to copy into this blog, but need my sleep for tomorrow's session.

Night!

Ice Castles

I saw these awesome ice castles outside the hotel in Utah and wasn't able to take photos. Luckily, our USDF Faculty and stand-in photographer, Janet Foy, caught some great pictures and put them on her Facebook page. Here they are: