August 25, 2015 
True confession time…
It took me “forever” to understand that the better way to get a horse light and in at least some degree of self carriage was to learn how to ride with my core, and not with my hands. Only then could I ask my horse to start to use a more engaged hind end to step under in order to lighten the front end.
It seems so simple and instinctive to just pull on the reins. Make it enough uncomfortable to keep going, she will slow down or stop, pretty simple, right?
© Tamarack Hill Farm
The idea of dressage as “weight lifting”, where the horse is carefully developed into a stronger athlete, capable of lifting its forehand, because of a powerful hindquarters developed by systematic daily work was as alien to me as Jupiter. But much of my profound lack of understanding of the principals of correct training came about because of the same situation that exists almost as badly in 2015 as in 1955.
America does not have a dressage “culture” underpinning our training systems, at least not compared to some countries in Europe. Yes, we are trying, but we have lots of catching up still to do.
What we do have are all sorts of “yahoo” training systems, and strong proponents for most of them, accompanied by schemes to make money from those various systems, but if those “trainers” were to suddenly be placed under the tutelage of, say, Klaus Balkenhol or the late Reiner Klimke, and asked to actually “ride” the horses, they would be like that saying, “a fish out of water”.
But who cares, right? Learning to ride well is too hard.
About the Author
Named “One of the 50 most influential horsemen of the Twentieth Century” byThe Chronicle of the Horse, Denny Emerson was elected to the USEA Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the only rider to have ever won both a gold medal in eventing and a Tevis Buckle in endurance. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and author of How Good Riders Get Good, and continues to ride and train from his Tamarack Hill Farm in Vermont and Southern Pines, NC.
