I took my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse Makana to Lakeview Farms on Saturday, June 21, 2014. The farm hosted an open schooling dressage show featuring traditional dressage, western dressage and gaited dressage. It isn’t surprising that we were the only gaited entry, but, I was surprised to learn that our First Level Test One ride was the highest level test ridden of all competitors that day!
Lakeview is a well chosen name since the facility is located on a lake shore. Only June’s record rains have created a few more than the one lake it is known for. Flooding forced the schooling show to the indoor arena.
After we rode NWHA Training Level Test Three, judge Nancy Porter, a long time USDF R-judge remarked, “That was very interesting. Judging a gaited horse in dressage is a first for me!”
I smiled and thanked her for accommodating us as there are few venues for gaited riders to get expert feedback from an “R” judge on where we are at with our balance, rhythm, harmony, relaxation, suppleness, transition, submission, rider’s position, and use of aids.
Our recent lessons with Jennie Jackson helped us maintain our bending through serpentines and 10 meter half circles at a flat walk, our connection has improved over last year, and my mare’s canter was clearly three beat with more roundness. We received respectable scores of 64.2% in Training Level Test Three and 65% in First Level Test One.
Lakeview plans on one more schooling dressage show this Fall. I hope more gaited folks will give it a try. This is a very low-key, beginner-friendly show with beautiful trails to ride and even a trail obstacle course to play around in after your tests are complete. In fact, I met two women at the show who own Tennessee walking horses and one of the women tacked up after my last ride and we took a lovely trail ride through the beautifully groomed wooded trails.
Thank you to Lakeview Farm for accommodating gaited dressage at their schooling dressage show and to Nancy Porter for judging. It was a privilege to ride for and receive feedback from a USDF “R” Judge.
Since last year’s Jennie Jackson Clinic: Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse, I’ve established more forwardness at a flat walk with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse mare. “Forwardness” is a prerequisite for “connection,” otherwise my mare would meet contact with halt.
Riding Position
In preparation for connection, Jennie addressed my riding position. First she provided an eye-opening illustration. Jennie took my reins and placed them behind my lower back. Then she pulled back and asked, “How does that feel?” I said, “Ouch! It hollows my back!” Jennie asked, “So, how do you think it feels to your horse each time you press your weight into your irons?” Point well made.
Jennie lowered my irons by four holes and for the first time, I literally felt my seat and thighs melt into my saddle. This position provides clearer communication with my horse and allows my lower legs and ankles to wrap around my mare as needed to activate her belly which lifts and round her back. My mare is far more comfortable and less fussy.
Connection
Contact in flat walk with my rather lazy mare has always inferred “stop,” so I’ve gotten into the habit of throwing my reins away and believing that I had been riding with lightness. Riding without contact isn’t connection, just as headset isn’t riding on-the-bit.
Jennie explained that connection is an art form and a whole book could be written about it. So for me to grasp the fullness of connection in a couple lessons is not realistic, but I did get a good feel of it that I hope to maintain it moving forward until I see Jennie next.
Coming from the trotting horse dressage world, riding a head-shaking horse has been a mystery to me. I had always been taught to follow the horse’s walk movement with my hands, so naturally I thought to do the same through the flat walk and running walk. However, my interpretation of this was rather active— sloppy to a judge and noisy to a horse.
Jennie explained that at a flat walk, my elbows are to remain softly still at my sides instead of moving franticly to and fro with my mare’s head movement. It feels like my elbows are connected with my abdominal core—not lock in rigidly, but softly connected. My hands are held much closer together than I am used to (a bit’s width apart from each other), and my fingers loosely hold the reins, but tightly enough so that the reins don’t lengthen by slipping through my fingers.
Our work in connection begins at a medium walk to establish the bend in a shoulder-fore position where my inside lower leg asks my mare to bend through the ribs and encourages her inside hind leg to step under her belly toward her outside fore leg. The outside indirect rein captures the energy and helps to keep her neck straight and the outside shoulder from falling out.
Once my riding position and the connection are established, we transition from medium walk to a flat walk on a 15-meter circle. If my mare evades the contact by taking short, quick steps (what Jennie refers to as “flat walking in a tight skirt”) we leg yield to a 20-meter circle while maintaining the bend and connection.
To enlarge the circle, Jennie said, “Imagine that your belly button has an eyeball and point it towards the direction you want to travel.” What a simple metaphor that works every time! Immediately, my mare’s head nod returns, and I feel her hind steps grow deeper beneath me.
Another strategy Jennie taught me when my mare evades by flat walking in a tight skirt, is to apply a one to three stride half halt using my seat and closing my fingers on the outside rein. Just before my mare slows to a walk, I urge her forward to a deep stepping flat walk. Each time my mare moves forward with deep steps, I feel the energy from her hindquarters travel into the soft connection with my hands while my riding position remains still and held together through my inner core.
Throughout the lesson, Jennie reminded me to breathe deep into my belly to help me stay relaxed and ride with soft eyes by looking ahead with less of a concentrated and focused vision. A still riding position blends core tone, relaxation, and deep breathing and is not to be confused with rigidness, tension or stiffness; just as a relaxed riding position is not to be confused with sloppiness.
Combining a still riding position with connection will be our new home work for the coming days. Thank you Jennie for traveling to Minnesota for the second year in a row!
I took my naturally gaited and barefoot Tennessee walking horse mare Makana to our first novice endurance ride of the year: Sisu on the Border. We rode 13 miles in the optimum time of two hours and 15 minutes. The strategy is to ride the first hour and forty-five minutes at a brisk pace (oops, I mean tempo) so that the last 30 minutes is at a walk cool down to get the horse’s heart rate and respiration down for the post vet check.
In addition to reaching the finish line within optimum time, the horse is judged on pre and post vet checks for pulse, respiration, heart rate and recovery, soundness, hydration, and obedience. I’m so proud of my girl! She took first place among Arabians, half Arabians, Pintos and another gaited horse.
If you’ve never ridden at an endurance ride and enjoy trail riding, you’ve got to give it a try. It is a blast and the novice group is led by an advanced endurance rider who will keep you on time and from getting lost. Plus the endurance people are a super fun group to hang around with.
Every year I ask myself this question. Two feet of snow makes gaited dressage training difficult without an arena. I long for warm weather and dry ground to ride my naturally gaited walking horse, Makana.
However, aside from the darkness and below zero temperatures, riding in the snow is one of my favorite things to do! My rather sluggish TWH horse comes alive in the snow. When she gets the chance to escape the icy paddock, she loves to rip across the field at a hand gallop and dabble with some animated trot and gait on cue.
(I’d still rather it be 75-degrees and sunny, but I’m making the best of it!)
Why show gaited dressage? What motivates us to show? Is it all about blue ribbons and bragging rights? Read on and you’ll discover even better reasons for showing your naturally gaited horse in dressage.
Why Show Gaited Dressage?
Granted, showing gaited dressage is not a requirement for becoming a student of dressage with your naturally gaited horse (or for riders of the hard trotting variety for that matter).
I roll my eyes and gasp when I think back to my first years showing dressage with my Trakhner/Thoroughbred gelding SeilTanzer (Seili). Yes, he was one of those hard trotting varieties, and dang, was his trot hard to sit!
I had saved my money to buy the best trot I could afford, because back in the day, that’s what you looked for when considering a dressage prospect.
At first, my primary motivations were to take Seili to the top levels of dressage. Why? Because I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to be recognized. I wanted to be accepted among my peers.
It didn’t take long to realize that these were really bad reasons to show dressage.
If you were at my first recognized show in 1992, you’ll likely remember it to this day. I know I will never forget it.
Seili and I were practiced and prepared: I ate, breathed, and slept with dressage on my brain. I rode Seili six days a week at a deluxe dressage facility, took regular dressage lessons by a winning instructor, read books by the dressage masters, watched videos of how to become a better dressage rider, recorded and analyzed my rides, attended dressage clinics, and journaled my every ride.
So what happened?
Getting to the show grounds that day, my calm and relaxed gelding transformed into a creature I no longer recognized. Snorting and saucer-eyed, Seili darted around the bleachers, crowds, and announcer booth like a meth addict. He didn’t even know I was there for the ride. Nothing seemed to get his attention. Feeling out of control launched a full-blown panic attack.
I did my best to courageously negotiate Seili through the movements of Training Level Test One. After the final halt and salute, I released Seili to a free walk on a long rein. The judge stopped me on our way out of the arena (which is very uncharacteristic at a recognized show).
The judge said, “You have a wonderful horse who can go very far in dressage.”
Flattered, I proudly remarked, “Thank you.”
The judge replied, “But YOU, your riding will NEVER take him there. Can I buy your horse from you?”
My motivations for showing collided head on with the judge’s harsh and inappropriate words, and my disappointment that I couldn’t bring out Seili’s best. Stunned, I left the arena blinded by my tears.
Devastated, I faced a cross roads: Either change my motivation for showing dressage or give it up. If showing isn’t fun or educational, it isn’t worth the effort.
Changing my motivation for showing is what I did. Seili and I continued to show for the next few years. We even received a Central States Dressage and Eventing Association award for Second Level Amateur of the Year in 1995. Then our show career ended in 1996 when Seili developed chronic laminitis.
Fifteen years passed.
Yes, I admit, I rode those bumpy, trotting horses for decades until my body longed for smooth. That’s when I set out to find my first naturally gaited horse.
In 2007, my search for SMOOTH led me to a barefoot and sound, just turning three-year-old naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse filly. Her name was Gift of Freedom, a.k.a. Makana, which is Hawaiian for “gift.”
Makana became my first naturally gaited horse. She had a lot of handling and 20 rides on her when she arrived, yet dressage was the only form of riding and training I knew.
Then I began to wonder, “Can I train a naturally gaited horse with dressage?” The competition dressage world I came from said dressage was only for horses that trot. Gaited horse owners said that dressage would make their horse trot. Others said that dressage would ruin their horse’s smooth natural gaits.
So I put that aside and set out on a mission to discover for myself that dressage is more than trot.
Our first gaited dressage show in 2010.
In 2010, I learned of a schooling dressage show only 10 miles away at Walker’s Triple R Ranch, so I entered my Tennessee walking horse, Gift of Freedom (Makana). We were the only gaited horse on the show grounds and rode Training Level Tests One in the same class as the trotting horses.
I never imagined that I would return to dressage competition on a horse that didn’t trot!
Since 2010 Makana and I have shown gaited dressage at dozens of open schooling dressage shows (Intro through First Level). My motivation for showing is about getting feedback from a qualified judge on where we are at as it relates to rhythm, relaxation, connection, engagement, straightness, and collection; my riding position; and the use and timing of my rein, leg, seat and weight aids. The judge’s written feedback on my test sheet gives us something to practice until the next time we show. (And yes, it does feel good to get a blue ribbon, even if I am the only gaited dressage rider in my level! At least I put in the effort.)
Committing to a dressage test forces me and my naturally gaited horse to work on transitions more precisely in both directions, develop the full range of gaits and movements the dressage level requires, and face the test requirements I would otherwise avoid. Things like developing the counter canter, shoulder-in at a flatwalk, and showing a noticeable difference between a medium walk, flat walk, and running walk.
Plus, showing gaited dressage lets others see that naturally gaited horses can be trained using the humane training methods of dressage. After all, dressage is more than trot!
As long as I check my motivations at the gate, and as long as my barefoot naturally gaited walking horse enjoys traveling to gaited dressage competitions, then we will give this gaited dressage show thing a try.
P.S. Seili is lived to be 34 years old. His laminitis had been managed with natural barefoot trimming and a low carb diet. I enjoyed riding him until he was 29 years old. (Yes, he was still very bouncy!) Naturally Gaited
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