Adler Ridge Equestrian

DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS: Seek the Connection

To encourage your horse to seek the connection and reach into both reins when asking him to stretch forward and down …

Close your leg and give your reins forward, thinking of the reins as telephone lines where the messages can be sent and received only if the circuit is not broken or loopy.

— Karen Adams

🎨 Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz

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The Rider’s Body: An Overlooked Welfare Issue The Rider’s Body: An Overlooked Welfare Issue

In the United States, it’s not unusual for a child to walk into their first riding lesson and be labeled a “hunter rider” by the end of the week. Trainer David Reichert believes this early specialization is one of the biggest flaws in our system.

“What unfortunately happens a lot in America is early specialization,” he explained. “You go to a riding school, and that typically happens to be a hunter riding school. After day two of being in that school, you’re considered a hunter. And then you stay in that hunter path forever. You don’t get proper dressage education, and you may not even touch [the jumpers] until way later.”

The result? Riders develop in a silo. They may be polished enough to compete in the short term, but they lack the cross-discipline foundation that makes truly competent horsemen.

Reichert grew up in Germany, where every rider learns dressage and jumping before choosing a specialty. To even enter a recognized show, young riders must first pass two “riding badges.”

Badge I: A training-level dressage test, a 75 cm jumping round judged on style, and a theory exam.
Badge II: A first-level dressage test, a 95 cm style-jumping class, and a more advanced theory exam.

Only after proving competence across disciplines are riders allowed to compete. By then, most young Germans have schooled second-level dressage and jumped 1.10–1.20m, regardless of whether they later pursue hunters, jumpers, or dressage.

“For us, it’s completely normal to grow up in both dressage and jumping,” Reichert said. “It doesn’t matter which discipline you end up choosing. If you can ride the horse, you can ride the horse.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/09/22/why-early-specializing-in-one-discipline-early-fails-young-riders/

DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS: Achieve an Uphill Half-Halt

To achieve an uphill half-halt ...

Remember that it’s not just about closing your legs and reins at the same time. You also need to rebalance the energy with your seat. Imagine you are on a bicycle and are about to pop a wheelie. Engage your abdominal muscles, lift your chest and still your lower back to lift the front wheels of the bicycle up off the ground. In the saddle, this same feeling tells the horse to lower his hindquarters and lift his front end—just like the front of the bicycle lifts off the ground.
— Chrissa Hoffmann

🎨 Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz