| The secret to riding your dressage horse like a | | | | balance my horse before I start the leg yield. And give |
| professional is to ride from half halt to half halt rather | | | | another one to coil the spring of the hind legs so my |
| than from movement to movement. The half halt is | | | | horse can "boing" into the lengthening." |
| your connective tissue between the dressage | | | | Look at a test sheet and map out (in writing!) where |
| movements. They're what make your ride or | | | | you're going to give your half halts. Every time you see |
| dressage test look like it flows seamlessly like a dance. | | | | any kind of transition, plan to give one. Think of them |
| I rode with Olympian Robert Dover for many years. | | | | as the doorway through which you do every change |
| One of Robert's favorite sayings is, "Amateurs ride | | | | of gait, movement, or bend. Without them, your ride will |
| from movement to movement. Professionals ride from | | | | just look like a bunch of individual dressage |
| half halt to half halt." I think those are words to live by. | | | | movements strung together. |
| So when you think about your ride or start memorizing | | | | Also, keep in mind that transitions aren't just from gait |
| a dressage test for a horse show, don't focus on the | | | | to gait. Transitions are ANY change. Those changes |
| individual dressage movements such as, "I do a 10 | | | | could be from a working gait to a lengthening and back |
| meter circle here, and then I do a leg-yield there. After | | | | again. Or from riding on a single track to starting a |
| that, I do a lengthening across the diagonal." If that's | | | | two-track movement like leg yielding or shoulder-in. Or |
| what you do, your ride will look choppy and amateurish. | | | | changing from right bend to left bend on a a |
| Instead, think, "Do a half halt to prepare for the turn | | | | serpentine. |
| from the centerline to the circle. Give another one to | | | | |