It was my intention to discuss how the training scale relates to Second through Fourth Level in this installment, but I think it’s important to broach a broader topic about the direction of Dressage in the United States. (more…)
This week’s article takes the importance of the training scale and looks at how the training scale aligns with, and is woven throughout, the competitive levels, as designated by USEF. Part I will focus specifically on training and first level.
The last article discussed the importance of the three base layers of the training scale. This article builds on that, focusing on the top three layers — which do not stand alone or separate from the lower half and cannot exist without or disconnected from them.
The training scale is a method with which to order your thoughts within the training process. It is a logical progression of how a horse is developed from untrained (feral) to fully trained (mostly civilized).
“In the right way is intentionally separate from the meaning of more concrete words like talented, perfect, and correct as it denotes that good training is completely separate from natural talent, that perfection is, in fact, unattainable…”
“Whenever you see a rider and horse in harmony and balance, performing their jobs fluidly and enthusiastically, you are witnessing the product of horse training and riding in the right way. No matter what, that is a product of what dressage was initially meant to be.” (more…)
