Your Horse Doesn’t Know It’s Dressage

Humans seem to really like labels.

Dressage.

Showjumping.

Natural horsemanship.

Western.

Classical.

Working equitation.

Groundwork.

We categorise training methods, argue about which philosophy an exercise belongs to and occasionally behave as though crossing from one discipline into another requires a passport.

Your horse, meanwhile, has absolutely no idea.

They don’t know they’re a dressage horse. They don’t know that yielding their hindquarters might be considered natural horsemanship, that trotting over poles supposedly belongs to another discipline, or that backing up appears in one training system under a completely different name from another.

The horse only knows what we are asking, whether they understand the question, and what happens when they find the right answer.

That opens up an enormous toolbox for the dressage rider.

The Goal Matters More Than the Label

Dressage requires a huge range of physical and mental qualities from the horse.

We want rhythm, suppleness, connection, impulsion, straightness and eventually collection. But underneath those familiar Training Scale terms are more fundamental abilities.

The horse needs to understand pressure and release. They need proprioception, control and awareness of their own body. They need to be able to move the shoulders and hindquarters independently, regulate their footfalls, respond to subtle cues, remain confident when presented with something unfamiliar and maintain attention without becoming dependent on constant direction from the rider.

These things are understood best by the horse when they are first presented from the ground.

And they certainly don’t have to be taught inside a 20 × 60 metre sandpit.

Moving the Hindquarters

Can you ask your horse from the ground to move their hindquarters away from a light cue?

At first glance, it looks like a basic groundwork exercise with little relevance to dressage.

However, consider what the horse is actually learning.

They are learning that a cue directed towards one area of their body means move that part of your body away from the pressure.

Later, from the saddle, we expect the horse to understand that the rider’s leg can influence the hindquarters without simply meaning go faster. This is easier for the horse to understand when they have first grasped the concept from the ground.

The finished dressage movement such as Travers may look completely different, but part of the horse’s understanding has already begun by simply learning to move their hindquarters.

Moving the Shoulders

The same applies to the shoulders.

Being able to influence the shoulders independently is fundamental to straightness, accurate turns and eventually lateral work such as shoulder-in.

Teaching this from the ground gives the horse an opportunity to understand the basic concept without also having to balance a rider, maintain a particular outline and interpret several aids simultaneously.

Breaking a complicated question into smaller pieces makes the learning processes easier, more enjoyable and more relaxed.

That’s not a natural horsemanship idea or a dressage idea.

It’s just good teaching.

Backing Up

Backing is another exercise that appears across virtually every school of horsemanship.

Done thoughtfully, it asks the horse to coordinate their limbs in an unfamiliar direction, respond to a relatively subtle request and organise their body without simply travelling forward.

It can also begin to introduce the idea that an aid doesn’t always mean more forward which can often be a horses go-to.

Later, rein-back becomes a formal dressage movement.

The horse doesn’t know that.

To them, it’s simply another movement they have learned to perform from a particular set of cues.

Poles, Obstacles and Uneven Questions

Dressage arenas are deliberately predictable.

That’s useful for competition, but it doesn’t mean all training should be. Variety is the spice of life.

Poles, obstacles and varied exercises ask horses to think about where they’re putting their feet.

A horse stepping through poles has to organise their stride, think about where they’re putting their feet, how to balance themselves through the obstacles and negotiate the question in front of them.

Those skills can contribute to proprioception, coordination, confidence and body awareness. All of which are necessary for dressage.

You don’t get extra marks in a dressage test because your horse can walk over a tarpaulin.

Nevertheless, a horse that has learned to calmly assess unfamiliar questions and work out where its feet are may bring something valuable back into the arena.

Lunging Over a Small Jump

This is one of my favourite examples because, on paper, jumping has very little to do with dressage.

We’re not trying to turn the dressage horse into a showjumper.

A small, appropriately set obstacle on the lunge presents the horse with a physical problem they have to solve without a rider organising every stride for them.

They need to approach in rhythm, judge where their feet need to go, coordinate their body over the obstacle, balance for the take off and regain their balance on landing.

The jump is simply the tool.

The lesson is body awareness, coordination and self-organisation.

Leading Is Training Too

Even ordinary tasks such as leading can be useful training when we pay attention to what we’re teaching.

Can the horse walk when you walk?

Stop when you stop?

Increase or decrease the pace without barging ahead or falling behind?

Change direction while remaining attentive to your body language?

Stand quietly until asked to move?

These aren’t spectacular exercises. Nobody is going to gather around the arena fence to applaud your beautifully executed walk from the gate.

Responsiveness to small cues and being in tune with the rider is something we’re going to ask for repeatedly in dressage.

The communication starts long before we climb into the saddle.

Don’t Collect Exercises; Understand Them

There is a trap here.

Looking outside of dressage doesn’t mean grabbing every interesting groundwork exercise you see and assuming it must be beneficial.

Before adding an exercise to your training, ask:

What am I trying to teach?

What does this exercise actually ask the horse to do?

What physical or mental quality could it develop?

Does my horse understand the question?

Will this help us towards the training goal we’re working on?

If you can’t answer those questions, the exercise may simply be something to do.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Horses are allowed to do things purely because they’re enjoyable.

Training with purpose means understanding what you’re asking and why you’re asking for it.

Good Horsemanship Doesn’t Belong to a Discipline

There is plenty we can learn from dressage masters.

There is also plenty we can learn from showjumpers, eventers, western riders, natural horsemanship trainers, racing people, working-equitation riders, equine physiotherapists and the person down the road who has quietly handled hundreds of horses for forty years.

We don’t have to adopt somebody’s entire training philosophy to recognise when they have a useful idea.

Take the exercise apart.

Look at what it teaches.

Keep what helps the horse.

Leave what doesn’t.

Because while humans may spend hours deciding whether something is really dressage, the horse isn’t remotely interested in the argument.

Your horse doesn’t know it’s dressage.

They just know whether you’re making sense.