Written by Tania Greenwood
Blog
Shorter pieces, written as I go. Technique you can take away and practise, and some of what thirty years of teaching riders has taught me. If you are after the longer, settled explanations instead, those live in the guides.
Dressage
Dressage levels explained, and how to pick yours
The ladder is easy enough to list. The useful question is which rung you are on, and that is answered by what your horse can do at home rather than by what you would like to be entering.
Technique
Canter leads, and the change that comes much later
Most problems with flying changes are not problems with flying changes. They are canter problems that were still there when somebody started asking for one.
Dressage
How to read a dressage test
There are two halves to this, and most riders are only ever taught one. Learning the sheet before you ride it, and understanding the sheet you get handed afterwards.
Technique
Riding without stirrups, and why we use it
It has a reputation as the punishment part of a lesson. It is not, and it works far better in two-minute doses than in the twenty-minute misery most people remember.
Horsemanship
Will not, or cannot?
The most useful question you can ask about a difficult horse, and the one that decides whether you are looking at a training problem or a phone call to your vet.
From the arena
The lessons I got wrong
I have been teaching for over thirty years, and I have got plenty of it wrong along the way. These are the ones that actually changed how I coach.
Technique
The warm-up is for the horse, not just for you
Most riders warm themselves up and get straight to work. The horse underneath has a body too, and a lot of early resistance is really a cold horse being asked too soon.
From the arena
Your horse is not a bicycle
He has views, and some days they are not your views. That is not a fault in the machinery. It is the entire reason any of this is worth doing.
Technique
Forward is not the same as fast
Ask most riders for more forward and you get more speed. They are not the same thing, and nobody ever explains the difference.
Technique
Five groundwork exercises worth knowing
None of these are impressive to watch. All of them make the next twelve months easier, and you can do the lot in a headcollar in ten minutes.
From the arena
Arriving at a place I have never seen
I have taught in a good many arenas across two countries, and every one of them was a space built for the job. Coming out to your place is the genuinely new part of this for me, and it has made me think properly about what I need to look at before we start.
Dressage
What the letters in a dressage arena mean
Everyone nods along at their first lesson and quietly hopes nobody asks. Here is the whole thing, including the markers that are not on the fence at all.
Something here you'd like to work on?
Tell me about you and your horse, and we will start where you actually are.