How do I make dressage fun???

Hey there

I know that there are a lot of people on HF that love dressage!!
I don't really like it, and neither does my horse!!

I have been told by a dressage judge that I am good at it, and I think that is a good thing, and I have been practicing lots more since I was told that, but still I just don't Like it!!

Please help me cause I want to do it cause i know it is good for my horse!!

haha that was my problem when i first switched from jumping to dressage...it was soooooo boring! lol well, i dont really knwo any ways to make it fun, it grew on me and now i love dressage. to make it fun for your horse: make sure you do NOT circle and circle and circle, that will make him fall asleep. try to do lots of different patturns, and exercises that require him to stay listening really well, it will keep your focus on what to do and where your going, adn it will keep his focus to.

haha i have to eact opposit problem as you, my horse loves dressage (weird mare!) and doesnt like jumping all that much.

Yeah, I agree with ridergirl123. You need to make dressage fun for both you and your horse. One idea I have is that you get your mum to donate a five dollar note or a coin could work and then you put it under your leg and to teach you to keep it still when you are doing sitting trot you've got to try and keep the money for however long and if you still have it in the end then you get to keep it.

Its great, because you get to make some pony money as well! But you need very nice parents, offer to do some jobs around the house as well, it helps.

hahaha your mare sounds funny!!! That is my problem!! Both me and my horse don't like it!!! We both love Jumping!! thanks soo much! i will ask my instructor to help me with paterns, i know some like teardrop, and 3 loop serpitine !!!

Thanks SOOOOOO much!! I will report to you when and IF i get better with my problem!

How do you know your horse doesn't like it? You use dressage in jumping, warming up for jumping is dressage, walk, trot and canter is dressage...It is all basic dressage.

but theyre not focusing on it as much when they warm up to start jumping i think is what she means, and that her horse loves jumping wayy more then the warmup that has to come with it

Yes you are right ridergirl. She always warms up correctly, but she is enjoying it because she knows whats a head, and just does it for Nugget,

You could do:
-Figure of eights
-ride a large circle, wind in to make it smaller, then wind out again.
-leg yeilds
-lengthening and shortening strides- could also use ground poles for this also.
-Practice transitions, as well as the usual, walk to canter, halt to canter, canter to walk etc.
- Bareback or no stirrups (although this may not be considered fun haha)
- You could make up your own dressage tests to ride, or write them and swap with friends etc.
- Getting someone to video you, then watch it back. (always motivates me because i can see what i need to improve on)
- Instead of riding circles ride squares, rectangles.
- serpentines.
- Snowman. Along with the normal figure of 8's, you can try one large circle then one small circle, maybe 20m and 10m..
- Practice canter lead changes.
- Sit trot

Hope these helped. Dressage is definatly not as exciting as jumping but in the long run it will improve your jumping alot! Good luck!

Thanks SOOOOOOOOOO much ThatNinjaHorse!! it haas helped sooo much!!

CrazyChester, my horse doesn't like dressage, because he doesn't like arenas, we don't jump in arena, but i jump in a fenced yard that has cavalettis, wings, XC jumps and jumps I made my self!! I know that I need dressage for jumping, and like I said, I don't like it but do it to make it better for jumping!! Just because I do it doesn't meam I like it!!

Welcomestranger28, horses don't 'not like' things. Jumping is exciting because they get heated up getting to hoon around leaping over things, so it's going to appear as though they 'like jumping'. You are probably refering to dressage as going around and around in endless circles doing the same thing. NOT dressage, thats pony club flat work! Your horse probably 'doesn't like' it because he's just being made to go around and around doing the same thing over and over, dressage is intended to keep the horse thinking, she needs to be tuned into your aids, concentrating on waiting for you to tell her what to do next, not doing circles and straight lines where nothing is changed for each circle, thats when they get nappy because they start thinking of ways to evade the work because they've got the time to think about it!! The exercises ThatNinjaHorse put up are fantastic for keeping a horse thinking, so mix some of those up next time you intend to ride 'dressage'.
Also as for your horse 'not liking' the arena, well tough. You don't like going school I bet, but you have to. You're parents don't let you stay home from school just because you don't like it, you're forced to go and you get there and if you're kept busy you realise it's not so bad. Same with the horse, bet she knows that if she's nappy and acts up in the arena, you won't work her in there and will take her out for a hoon over some jumps in the paddock. Don't avoid the arena, use it as much as you can, a few times a week work on your flatwork IN THE ARENA and then a couple of days go out and jump to mix it up a bit. The majority of serious eventers/showjumpers now days rarely jump there horses more than once to twice a week. They work heavily on their dressage because they know that by getting their horses performing at a decent level of dressage, their jumping will improve 10 fold. It's a very 'young' idea that to improve jumping you just jump! Very not true, you're not going to go out and do well at a showjumping comp or ODE at the higher grades if you can't do a reasonable dressage test, with the horse light, orr the forehand and sharp off your aids.