{"id":19092,"date":"2025-08-28T23:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dtmembership.wpenginepowered.com\/news\/work-less-to-get-more-out-of-your-dressage-horse\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T23:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:01:00","slug":"work-less-to-get-more-out-of-your-dressage-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dressagetoday.com\/instruction\/work-less-to-get-more-out-of-your-dressage-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Less to Get More Out of Your Dressage Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you ever feel like you’re working too hard in the saddle, as in your rides seem to require super-human cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength? Here, Grand Prix dressage trainer Jackie Kinney<\/a> helps a rider learn how to do as little work as possible by teaching her horse how to be more responsive to subtle aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A lot of times I’ll see riders wearing spurs on a giant horse like this one, but the rider looks miserable because it’s so much work and they\u2019re constantly pushing and pulling,” she noted. “In that case, I tell them take off the spurs and go back to the very basics.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Kinney helps this rider feel her horse’s rhythm and teaches her how to use body language to encourage a forward walk and trot. Their goal is to get the horse to be more responsive without the rider resorting to pulling and kicking. They focus on an active walk to a working trot before moving on to warm-up canter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhythm and Relaxation Are Key at First Level<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRhythm and relaxation are on the bottom rung of our training pyramid and are things we really want to pay attention to. It\u2019s our foundation with every horse. Keep in mind that because your horse is a prey animal, he\u2019s very conscious of body language so he\u2019s going to be keyed in to how your body is moving on his back and follow that.<\/strong> When you go to trot the rhythm completely changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSimply start by thinking and feeling trot. It\u2019s kind of like bouncing a basketball. It\u2019s a slower dribble at the walk and then faster at the trot rhythm. Even though I\u2019ve done nothing to cue my horse to trot yet, I feel it inside me, and the next thing I know my horse is trotting. This is especially important with a big horse like this and something you have to think about it all the time because otherwise it\u2019s going to be an uncomfortable push-and-pull ride. And he doesn\u2019t deserve that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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