Manolo Mendez Dressage

The Importance of Riding the Whole Horse: Supple and Tension Free

by Manolo Mendez Specialist of in-hand and Classical Equitation with writer Caroline Larrouilh

This article originally appeared in Issue 1 of Baroque Magazine (September 2011)

Article Excerpt: The Importance of Riding the Whole Horse: Supple and Tension Free

“Bring the back up, bring the back up!!!” “Drive the hind leg under, more, more, MORE!” and “Make him more round, rounder” appears to be considered by a lot of rider’s to be the three keys to dressage. To achieve these goals they are taught to put the horse in a frame by pulling on the outside rein while kicking with the inside leg, often while keeping the horse in endless shoulder fore or shoulder-in. Instead of a flexible, supple and tension free horse, this approach creates stiff and crooked horses, with little enjoyment for their work and eventually leads to soundness issues.

When I train my horse, I ride the whole horse, knowing that as I create postures that are biomechanically correct using correct gymnastic exercises, overtime, my horse’s back will naturally rise as a result of the whole body being straight and without tension.Read More on Issuu.com/BaroqueHorse

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