A lot of people think that dressage is fancy and snobbish and probably hard to do, but Dressage is a french term that simply means “training.”

To me, it means more than circles, half passes, and piaffe. To me, it represents a life long journey in deep communication and connection through positive reinforcement and clicker training.

When I practice dressage with my horse, we come together in a two-way intimate connection that goes beyond aids and cues, beyond collected trot and tempi changes. A sense of oneness, facilitated by my horse, takes over and my ego goes backstage for awhile.

In the present moment, it doesn’t matter whether the your horse is a a Grand Prix dressage horse or a green rescue of unknown breeding. It doesn’t matter whether you are new to dressage or a seasoned FEI competitor. What matters is that we accept each other and listen and truly hear each other, responding to each other with as much empathy and understanding as we can muster in each present moment.