First Dressage Lesson!

Today I had my first dressage lesson!

I was originally going to ride a gorgeous Lusitano stallion, but he's always ridden in a double bridle and I've never used one. Instead, I rode a really cute Andalusian Percheron cross named Savannah. Not really sure what level she's been trained to, but she's definitely more advanced in her training than me, haha. Here's the video of it:


I realized that I'm still in Huntseat mode when it comes to turning and I constantly look where I want to go, rather than where the horse is going. I also have insane puppy paws (which I knew about) and tend to straighten my elbows. To me my leg looks way too far foreword, but she never commented on that, so I'm not sure. I'm not used to horses cantering the way she does at all, so that completely confused me.

My horse is lame at the moment and probably will be for a while, but afterwards I'm going to have another instructor come to my barn and train him, as well as me...because once people actually ride him, their way of giving me advice changes once they realize how...different he is.

Nice riding and what a nice mover that cross is :)

Thank you! Yes her movement is SO nice and extremely easy to sit. :)
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You are lucky you can ride a nice horse for the lesson! It's definitely not a case in most of barns in my area. :)

I really am. That barn is an hour and a half from my house, so It's not exactly in my area, but I'm really lucky to even have access to it. That was definitely a one time thing...an hour long lesson there is the same price as three, hour long lessons from my other instructor.

At the end of the lesson the trainer said, "Yea, Savannah's a really good girl...I mean she's not fancy or anything...but she does her job well." I was like "Hehe yea...not Fancy at all."

CA, what kind of horse you have yourself? (the one you said is lame right now)

Congrats! I went to my very first paid dressage lesson last May and fell in LOVE with it. I brought my very floaty egyptian arab to ride and boy did he stick out in the group with all of the tall warmbloods! I only was able to take lessons for 4 months, but she gave me enough information to last me for years.

I won't quite forget what she said on our very first lesson together (the instructor) - I was telling her what I thought we should be doing/what the problems were I was having/etc and then she said 'you shouldn't feel the need to explain everything you are doing because I can see everything you are doing wrong from over here'.

LOL! She is a tough ol' lady but I learned so much! I hope you enjoy your training. I think it will be loads of fun!

Here's my arab - I love how he goes on such a soft rein!

Your horse is gorgeous! My lazy leopard appy would certainly stand out if I brought him to that barn haha.

Oops, sorry didn't see this. He's an Appaloosa. :)
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So do you plan training him dressage as well? Appys are very smart, so will be very interesting to see how he progresses.