The Art of Natural Dressage

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:18 pm 

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2014 5:17 pm
Posts: 3
Location: Portland, OR
Hello!

I am very excited to have found this site. My name is Heather and I just moved to Oregon from Arizona, and before that West Virginia, and before that Pennsylvania! :sun:

I have a 16 year old Thoroughbred gelding named Steimee that I have had since he was 2, so we have really grown up together. My whole life I have been a hunter/jumper, this includes not only Steimee but the welsh pony and quarter horse I had growing up. I think for a long time I didn't even know other riding styles existed. Since moving away from home, Steimee has come with me up to Oregon and this is the first time I have him all on my own, without help from my mom and my sister. He has definitely been keeping me busy, but I love seeing him after a long day at work.

Recently, Steimee had begun being very unruly on the jump course, so much so that decided to make a huge change and start trying some dressage, so he could try to relax more and enjoy our time together. I'm not sure what happened that caused the stress on the jump course, but the last thing I wanted to do was stress him out, so I was willing to change how I rode in order to help him. We started taking some dressage lessons from a classical trained dressage coach near our barn. They went really well, but I found that I just didn't connect with the trainer and she also kept telling me to buy more equipment, bits, fancy dressage saddles, different boots, a new bridle, etc, which I really didn't have the money or need for, since I have no intention of showing.

I spent the rest of the year just practicing skills on my own and looking up training online, but we got bored pretty easily on what to work on, since I have been working with him on flat skills for about 14 years now. I am really looking to start over, however, and just work on the bond that the two of us have. I want him to be able to trust me and I want to have a happy, humane, and effective relationship. I believe that AND is the great place to work on that. I haven been reading through a lot of the step 1 topics and am excited to try them out tonight.

Steimee can sometimes be a bit stubborn and has more strength and energy than he know what to do with. I am a big nervous about trying to ride him without a bridle, but I hope that we can work up to it and really do well!


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:20 am
Posts: 6281
Location: Dresden, Germany
Welcome, Heather, nice that you have joined us! :)

I had to smile when I read that Steimee can be a bit stubborn, because my first thought was that the same goes for me as well - but then of course I would never perceive myself as stubborn, just very sure what I do and don't want. 8) :funny:

I am looking forward about reading about you two! :f:

Best wishes,
Romy


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:42 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:42 am
Posts: 2147
Location: Vienna, Austria
Welcome Heather! :f:
Have a nice time here on the forums. Please feel free to ask when you need anything, or open up a training diary in the Daily Training section, if you want to share your journey with Steimee.

hcbradley wrote:
I am a big nervous about trying to ride him without a bridle, but I hope that we can work up to it and really do well!
Funny, I'm not very nervous about riding bitless, but doing a jump course? That's something to make me nervous! :funny:

_________________
Volker

The horse owes us nothing.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 10:17 am 
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Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:00 am
Posts: 567
Location: Scotland
Welcome :)
Haha I agree with Volker . bridless riding, not so scary. But show me anything higher than a pole on the ground and all you will see is a cloud of dust as I leg it :funny: :ieks: You must have nerves of steal to jump :)
I look forwards to hearing about your journey and adventures together , you will find lots of support and positivity in this lovely forum ....
Good luck :sun:


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:54 pm 

Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:12 am
Posts: 2
Hi Heather, I'm glad to see there's another person close by with similar training interests. I'm in Oregon City, just 35 minutes south of Portland. Are there many others on this forum who are close? I'm new to the forum. I suppose I'll go make a post and introduce myself!


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