CRC - Light and Easy Dressage: How To Enjoy and Succeed at Every Level Penny Hillsdon

Light and Easy Dressage: How To Enjoy and Succeed at Every Level , Penny Hillsdon

Publisher: J A Allen ISBN: 978-0851319308

Book Synopsis

Penny Hillsdon's goal is for dressage training to bring pleasure and happy partnership to both horse and rider. This is ultimate achievement not just the fancy movements displayed and judged in the competitive arena. This book explains how average, amateur riders can attain a satisifying relationship with the horse while proceeding happily through the dressage levels.

CRC Review

Penny Hillsdon has put her life’s riding experience into this book and as a trainer everything is thought through consistently and progressively. Above all she is cheerful and encouraging and I found hardly anything that I or CRC members might disagree with. There is a lot in this book to take in and for most of us it would be hard to read it all in one go. Like most things in life it is easier to have a go and start to experience what it feels like to ride a horse with a trainer to give you confidence and then to read about the subject. To progressively understand the meaning of the terms used in a book and the feelings described and to be able to say “I felt that on my horse the other day“ As she says we make mistakes, but we think them through and we have another go.

But she also points out that Dressage is a discipline and that we must respect the authority of the trainer and control our emotions just as we have to control them for the horses sake. Some sections are quite long and she does not shy away from difficult subjects such as the contact. As she says the lack of rein acceptance shows that the horse is not accepting the riders authority, also the hands are influenced by the brain and the emotions and this will be reflected in the way the rider takes up the contact.

Little things that I picked up. Riders should have a sound and stable seat with stirrups before riding without them. Put some welly into your riding, aim to get some results, to train your horse, to improve his way of going – be positive. Think of your seatbones as the top of your legs. When the horse is approaching the cusp of true collection, he is on the verge of becoming a dressage horse. Inside leg to outside rein but eventually you must have equal contact in the rein. Ride with feel, don’t get too bogged down with the theory. And lots more.

There are lots of books on how to train a horse and they all have similar systems but I think this book has a lot more depth to it and even if you are at advanced level in your riding, her book still has plenty to offer.

“Riding Dressage can be full of surprises. We learn more about ourselves, we come closer to the horse and along the training route we discover inner depths to our characters.” “ Dressage is powerful, sometimes a cure for the ills of modern life, demons are killed and the hero hidden within us is released.”