Can your dressage horse do this?

A forum for discussion of training in dressage
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Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Chancellor » Wed May 13, 2020 1:08 pm

This looks like a lot of fun. A lot of training too. I want to ride this horse!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A35yPlGeOXo

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby StraightForward » Wed May 13, 2020 1:32 pm

Flight's dressage horse can do that! :D

That looks so fun. I loved doing the trail classes when I was a teenager. Here we have trail horse challenges, but they are more about scary obstacles than executing maneuvers at speed.
Keep calm and canter on.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby heddylamar » Wed May 13, 2020 2:03 pm

Either of my current mares? No. But, we took Mom's dressage horse and my eventer to a judged trail obstacle competition hosted by the local search and rescue. G won. Joy was a hot mess :D

It was more about scary obstacles, and the occasional technical thing: walk across a mattress, through strings of bells, open and close gates without taking your hand off the gate, drag a creaky, heavy chunk of wood behind you ... plus the normal bridges, water (including Joy's nemesis — waves), jackets, etc.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby piedmontfields » Wed May 13, 2020 4:14 pm

SF, that's what I was going to say--Ding and Flight can do it!

Actually, my mare can do a lot of these maneuvers, including jigging between obstacles :lol: . I think it's very fun training and very useful (for trail/life), I love watching these competitions.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Chancellor » Wed May 13, 2020 4:23 pm

Some of my best horse experiences were when I worked with the New England Mounted Police. I went to the NEMPA competitions (not as a competitor) and even got to go to Nationals too. It was a blast watching what those horses would do.
I have fond memories of watching them doing tactical manuevers. It was great.
At Nationals, the horses had to stand while this guy in full regalia did this dance in this HUGELY elaborate costume. He was amazing dancing like that all day long.
And one of the hard obstacles was a grate on the ground with smoke rising out of it. Lots of good police horses struggled with that.

And I still have the winner's cup from winning a barrel race in the groom's class. I spent forever training my boyfriend's Lippizan to be calm and quiet and do dressage. And then we had to barrel race. It was GREAT!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Tanga » Wed May 13, 2020 5:54 pm

Yep. All of my horses do that stuff. I would LOVE if this became serious competition here. I used to always do parades with my horses. Nothing like being zipped by a helicopter to check training. You just never know what will happen, so it's all good training, and fun.

The super looky young one? Well, she is all tripping all over herself spooking at a white thing, but me grabbing the manure rake from the saddle and picking it up and carrying it clean the arena? No problem.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby piedmontfields » Wed May 13, 2020 7:51 pm

Chancellor wrote: I spent forever training my boyfriend's Lippizan to be calm and quiet and do dressage. And then we had to barrel race. It was GREAT!


That is really funny and cool!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Flight » Thu May 14, 2020 3:26 am

We can't do it that good though!

Interestingly, I was demo rider for Pedro Torres at our Equitana in 2018. He was so nice and I learned heaps. It was very nerve wracking riding in front of people but Ding did so well. He's hardly been ridden in indoors, let alone in what a demo arena is like for an Equitana. Pedro had us doing sooo many flying changes in the slaloms, I hadn't attempted it myself before.. but he just was so encouraging and kind that we managed it.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Anne » Thu May 14, 2020 5:05 am

I love love love this!! Horse looks light and attentive and it seems such a harmonious partnership. I wish Working Equitation was more of a 'thing' here in NZ.

Flight, so awesome that you got to clinic with PT.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kelo » Thu May 14, 2020 1:50 pm

I've never tried it but I bet mine could 8-)

Can your dressage horse do this? :mrgreen: I think this was the pic taken seven days after we scored a 63% and 67% at Intermediare I at a recognized show, pictured here in a reined cow horse class. I think we scored a 142 here.
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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby demi » Thu May 14, 2020 2:17 pm

Wow Kelo!! Cool horse for sure!!!!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Quelah » Sun May 17, 2020 11:31 pm

Lucky you Flight! I think that is PT's great horse Oxidado as a young horse in that video, that horse was the reason I dabbled in Iberian horses.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Tanga » Mon May 18, 2020 4:27 am

Kelo My horses LOVE cutting cows! I never competed it, but did some fun stuff. My GP mare that died I did some team penning stuff. As a baby when she would run loose on the trails, she loved "cutting" the cows out there.

And all three of mine now are used to "cutting" cows. Where they used to be in the pasture, the cows were constantly breaking through the fence, so we were moving them in our out of where they needed to be.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Hayburner » Mon May 18, 2020 5:32 pm

Never in a million years. I love watching videos with Pedro he is a fantastic rider with super horses.

Kelo your horse is always amazing!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Chancellor » Mon May 18, 2020 7:31 pm

Kelo was your horse one of the horses of the month when I was still doing that? I think I remember that you were.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kelo » Mon May 18, 2020 9:30 pm

Working cows is the best! I know that's sacrilege to say on a dressage board, but there you have it. Dressage is awesome and I love it too, but working cattle is just the funnest. :D Versatility for the win.

Chancellor wrote:Kelo was your horse one of the horses of the month when I was still doing that? I think I remember that you were.


Nah, but I've talked about him so long I'm sure everyone's heard and is tired of his story by now :mrgreen:

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kyra's Mom » Tue May 19, 2020 5:30 am

Kelo wrote:Working cows is the best! I know that's sacrilege to say on a dressage board, but there you have it. Dressage is awesome and I love it too, but working cattle is just the funnest. :D Versatility for the win.

Nah, but I've talked about him so long I'm sure everyone's heard and is tired of his story by now :mrgreen:


I wish I had some cows available. Most horses love having an actual job to do. Rock on Kelo

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby chantal » Tue May 19, 2020 11:38 am

So no, we are no where near working eq. or cutting, but we have cows at our barn and Mikey ignores them at the hunter paces. This was our latest adventure, as per demi's suggestion. It pales in comparison to Kelo and Flight, but hey, I am not a trainer and we are just coming out of lockdown. He could not wait to get to the hounds. Maybe he isn't a dressage horse. :lol:
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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kelo » Wed May 20, 2020 12:58 pm

Chantal, that is AWESOME! What an amazing experience that must be to do one of those, I am a little envious! :D

I think all of us enjoy a little change of pace once in awhile, so I bet Mikey will be refreshed and ready to work when it's time to dressage.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby khall » Wed May 20, 2020 8:54 pm

We were just going to start working more WE (have a few obstacles here, need to build some more) when COVID struck. I had dealt with my dad's illness and death Jan/Feb and was ready to go get the supplies to build bridge etc then the pandemic:(

This is what my WB and I have also played with: https://www.facebook.com/34754646198627 ... 951825421/
the garrocha pole. Both WE and the garrocha put the dressage work we do in practice. Its fun too!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby chantal » Thu May 21, 2020 8:49 pm

Kelo wrote:Chantal, that is AWESOME! What an amazing experience that must be to do one of those, I am a little envious! :D

I think all of us enjoy a little change of pace once in awhile, so I bet Mikey will be refreshed and ready to work when it's time to dressage.


Ha, easy access for us since our trainer's SO is the master of hounds at their hunt club. This is actually his second hound walk, first was 1 1/2 years ago. He is so happy, we had a jumping lesson yesterday and did our first actual (baby height) course. We are both trusting each other more, it's really fun. And this instructor I love, she had me really set him back on his haunches and make him listen to me and adjust his stride. We've been struggling with that, were just getting into a groove before lockdown. Maybe a break was good for both of us.

My girlfriend wants me to play with cows, yea, I dunno. I would like to try it on an experienced cow pony first. He loves cows, they don't bother him. He'd prolly saunter over and invite it out for lunch, I mean the grazing kind. I think your horse is so cool!! Cross-training is excellent, I know that from a human perspective so I've applied it to him.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kelo » Thu May 21, 2020 9:39 pm

chantal wrote:My girlfriend wants me to play with cows, yea, I dunno.


Do it!

I don't know what kind of cattle you have access to, but you're more than likely not going to have any that you could actually work even if you wanted to - you need fresh cattle for that. But you can push them around, and if he's not scared he will enjoy it. Just practice moving them by controlling their bubble at a walk. Can you push one forward? can you slow/stop/turn one? If they go faster than a walk, that just means you pushed their bubble too hard.

But it will make your horse more forward -- the cattle draw them -- and lets you work on stuff, like lateral cues, halt, back, without your horse even noticing -- because the cues will make sense to him as he is working to figure out the cow. Plus it's FUN :mrgreen:

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby blob » Thu May 21, 2020 10:34 pm

I would love to do cows or working eq with MM. She's so purpose driven with her energy--so I think she would love doing something different that has a very clear tangible objective with either an obstacle or a cow!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby chantal » Fri May 22, 2020 12:23 pm

Kelo wrote:
chantal wrote:My girlfriend wants me to play with cows, yea, I dunno.


Do it!

I don't know what kind of cattle you have access to, but you're more than likely not going to have any that you could actually work even if you wanted to - you need fresh cattle for that. But you can push them around, and if he's not scared he will enjoy it. Just practice moving them by controlling their bubble at a walk. Can you push one forward? can you slow/stop/turn one? If they go faster than a walk, that just means you pushed their bubble too hard.

But it will make your horse more forward -- the cattle draw them -- and lets you work on stuff, like lateral cues, halt, back, without your horse even noticing -- because the cues will make sense to him as he is working to figure out the cow. Plus it's FUN :mrgreen:


So what are fresh cattle? I have a fresh one just delivered yesterday in the freezer, I don't think that will work... :lol: I think my friend has access to someone around here. Something to ponder, thanks for the input. The more you know... :D

Oh, and we got to work on our gates the other day too, speaking of lateral work. He's great at moving gates. Yay pony!!

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Kelo » Fri May 22, 2020 12:53 pm

chantal wrote:So what are fresh cattle?


So a cow that doesn't have experience being worked by a horse would be a fresh cow. They're going to have a great big physical bubble, and when you approach them they're going to want to move fast and hard to get away.

We use fresh cattle in our cattle competitions (reined cow horse, cutting, etc) because that's what you need to get the athletic performance.

Once the cow (or buffalo!) has been handled very much at all, it isn't as nervous about the horse, and its bubble gets much smaller and its reactions duller. So instead of coming to attention and darting somewhere when you start approaching, it will ignore you until you're right up on it, and once you get it to move, it doesn't go very fast.

While in competitions we have fresh cattle (well, sometimes at our everyday shows, the beginner cattle classes use "rerun" cows - ones that have been in the ring before - because it's easier for them as the cattle are duller, and cheaper for the show as it's one less cow you have to rent), it's more tricky in everyday life. Unless you have access to a ranch or feedlot, you have to keep cattle for awhile because it's quite expensive to trade them out for fresh.

Hence my saying it's pretty likely the cattle you'll have access to are not going to be fresh, and thus if you're picturing a cutting competition level of cattle working, well....no. :lol: Also if whoever is providing the cattle has any sense at all, they're going to specifically kick out some dull cattle for you to get started on.

I mean, when a newbie says "hey I want to learn dressage" we're not going to ask them to do passage in the first lesson, right? We're gonna work on 20m circles today. Same idea with cattle.

And, yes, I've known plenty of steers in my time that I was not unhappy when they went on to their 2d career as a hamburger.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby demi » Fri May 22, 2020 1:43 pm

Fresh cow in the freezer...second career as a hamburger. Haha you guys are funny!!

My Bff and her husband, Jerry, are cattle ranchers but don’t use horses. One day, bff and I took our horses over to another friend whose husband trains ranch horses. The trainer was working some horses on cattle in an arena that day so we decided to try our own horses. Bff on her champion 2D-3D barrel horse and me on my husband’s paint trail horse. It was hilarious. We were trying to cut one specific cow out and move it to the other end of the arena. It was taking us forever. Bff finally said “Well hell, I could do this a faster on the ground with Jerry yelling instructions at me from the pickup!”

I have a lot of respect for good cowboys and their horses. The trainer did tell me that my paint would be good at it because his ears were glued on the cow the whole time.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby chantal » Fri May 22, 2020 11:24 pm

Oh wow, so cool! And I don't mean the frozen beef. :lol: Okay, on my list. I love Mikey's attitude and exposing him to new things.

We saw a plastic bag in the woods hung up on the roots but his trainer said it didn't count because it wasn't blowing. Poop. ;)

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby Chisamba » Sat May 23, 2020 4:05 am

I find pole exercises aka cavaletti are useful for " drawing forward " out of a horse. In absence of a fresh cow. :D

My friend brought her herding dog to practice on my sheep. After the shepp stamped at her and rolled her a few times it was decided not all sheep herd well. Not all cows do either .

My mom operated the livestock pound in South Africa. People would bring stray animals that invaded their crops, mom would compound them and the owners would have to pay s fine.

Well one day we go the steer from hell. Damned mean long horned African draft steer that had gotten away with murder and terrorized us. And we had been around steers our whole life. The owner refused to pay the fine so said beast was advertised for sale. It was a rangy athletic fence jumping behemoth. Anyway, its fame preceded it and no one wanted said steer. Frankly I think the owner was happy that he no longer was responsible. Well this large boer came to look at the steer. He had his truck and trailer and a set of driving traces. He stepped into the fortified enclosure to check out the steer. He had a considerable audience. Steer looked at him, and came at him head on. Darn that guy whipped this giant steers head around twisted his neck and had the driving gear on in no time. I was awestruck. Anyway he drove the steer onto his trailer as polite as can be and off they went.

He winked at me and said, "sometimes you just have to know how to chase a cow" I use that expression whenever I accomplish something enormous.
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I've seen lots of teams of driving steer. I miss it. It's something I just havent seen since I left Africa. I have not even seen the Amish plow with steer.

Nothing quite as impressive as a 12 hitch of oxen bringing maize to the mill. My goodness those whips are so hard to crack. Anyway sorry I got diverted by the steer career change comment. What a fabulous memory that was.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby StraightForward » Sat May 23, 2020 4:29 am

Great story, Chisamba!
Keep calm and canter on.

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Re: Can your dressage horse do this?

Postby chantal » Sun May 24, 2020 5:20 pm

Chisamba, that's amazing! The right person for the job, so cool. Yes, sometimes you have to know how to chase a cow, yikes.

Here are few blurry pics from videos of what we did after hound walking. We had a lesson last Weds and worked on my lower leg, in addition to other things. :lol:
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