The Natural Dressage Forum

First Name: Julia
*Location: Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia
*Level of Dressage You School and/or Compete at: Novice
*Number of Years In Horses: 20
*Number of Years In Dressage: 8
*Number of Years in PHN or NH: less than 1
*Info about horses do you ride/play with: Star - OTTB rising 9, 15.3 HH grey. Big boy, solid, athletic, RBE/LBE seeing more of the LBE these days. Came to be mine as I saw a photo of him on the net and decided from that he was my next horse. When I met and rode him I knew he was my next horse. Very clever, very cheeky and very loving now. Scout - Appy 15HH gelding. He's a big solid boy, not as graceful as Star, he's a good solid worker but no grace in his stride. He came to me as someone elses problem child. He's LBE with flashes of RBE and LBI and so we have an interesting time. He is experienced in PNH and he's teaching me a lot which I then teach to Star. Jazz - 26YO retired Anglo Arab, lovely girl who teaches my husband about horses. She was destined for the saughter yards when I saw her, she was Star's stable mate, she's now retired enjoying her twilight years with us and going for daudles down the road. Querida - 2 YO Andalusian filly. She's my serious prospect in years to come.
*How you were exposed to Dressage and/or NH: Used to event, had too many falls and one day met a woman who competed in dressage. I always did well in everything but dressage and so decided to get serious aout learning. Got jaded by the training methods of my instructor and my friends, draw reins, big bits bossy people, so got out and had a break. Best thing I did. Watched the PNH video and cried with relief....then got interested in Dressage again and a friend lent me Walter Zettl's DVD set..then found KR.....haven't looked back.
*How you found this forum: Friend on the Savvy Club website mentioned it. Thank you :-)
*Most important lesson you have learned so far: Don't take anything for granted, if your horse wants to do it they will offer you everything they have. If you don't have their respect you will never truly get their mind.
*Favorite horse-related quote: Hi Ho Silver....AWAY!
*Favorite Dressage trainer/rider: Walter...so gentle so light
*Favorite picture of you and/or your horse:

welcome welcome!

*Location: Ontario Canada
*Level of Dressage You School and/or Compete at: Dressage-previously 3rd now back to 1st
*Number of Years In Horses: 32
*Number of Years In Dressage: 11
*Number of Years in PHN or NH: 4
*Info about horses do you ride/play with: Archer:3/4 Clyde fabulous easy going fellow, just wants to please me and eat cookies. More whoa than go but gets very worried if he thinks he's doing the wrong thing. Speedy: 4 yr old American Saddlebred gelding; show pleasure horse. Class clown, removes his own splint boots, full of tricks and tomfoolery. Charley--my sweet baby! she is PercheronXAppendix and will be a year old on June 4. I was present at her birth and imprinted her immediately. She is truly incredible!
*How you were exposed to Dressage and/or NH: Dressage--I needed something to do with my former Saddlebred when I was poor in college! NH: I bought big crossbred colts and didn't have a clue of what to do with them!
*How you found this forum: Google
*Most important lesson you have learned so far: When things are going badly just slow down. Also, think of what is the opposite of what you are doing/getting. As Karen says "What would be the opposite of crooked to the left?"
*Favorite horse-related quote: "If I wanted the easy road, I'd buy a motorcycle not a horse" My Mom
*Favorite Dressage trainer/rider: Walter Zettl, Eddo Hoekstra, Karen Rohlf
*Favorite picture of you and/or your horse:

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great picture!!

Hmm... let me try this, hope this is the right spot!

*First Name:Adrienne
*Location:NE Ohio, on the PA state line.
*Level of Dressage You School and/or Compete at:I don't compete but I'm just starting my two green horses at basic level
*Number of Years In Horses:Most of my life - 15 years.
*Number of Years In Dressage:a few
*Number of Years in PHN or NH:a few
*Info about horses do you ride/play with: I have a semi-retired 15 year old OTTB mare "Chance". A just started 10 year old Arab gelding "Mr Charles" and a just started 9 year old Morab mare "Gracie".
*How you were exposed to Dressage and/or NH: A magazine, then the internet. At first it was PNH then I moved on to a more general field of NH.
*How you found this forum: A link on the web site "inside-out".
*Most important lesson you have learned so far: How to stay with my horse completely.
*Favorite horse-related quote:"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle" -Winston Churchill
*Favorite Dressage trainer/rider: hmm.... I don't have one yet.
*Favorite picture of you and/or your horse: Ah, too many to choose from!

Welcome Adrienne! I love your avatar!!!

I'm kind of curious about the web site you found us on.... what site is this??

Hi Horseriderk8,

Thanks for the welcome! :-) Glad you like my avatar, that is my mare Gracie.:-)
I love yours too! Very nice.:-)

I can't post websites, etc. links yet, since I just joined.

I came across the website www dot whitehorsefarmwi dot com / home

and went to their links page and saw this link;
members dot aol dot com / WrknHorses / inside-out dot html

Then I checked their calendar of events and saw a link to;
www dot naturalsporthorse dot com

And then I got here.:-) If you can't figure out the addresses I'll post them after I post enough times to have links in my posts.:-)

Oops, I forgot about that rule!!! We've tried to change it, but no luck!!

Thank you, that makes sense!! Good job getting around the rule! Very Happy

Feel free to post a couple 'test' posts in the 'Welcome' thread to get your 'minimum' in....

*First Name: Muriel
*Location: Italy
*Level of Dressage You School and/or Compete at: never officially competed no idea of my level schooling in the UK or US Question

*Number of Years In Horses: 8 years-big break- 4yrs
*Number of Years In Dressage: Dressage was part of French riding tuition so don't know Question

strong interest the last 4 yrs
*Number of Years in PHN or NH: 1yr in PNH, dabbling in NH the last 4 yrs
*Info about horses do you ride/play with: horseless, but my mare was my best trainer
*How you were exposed to Dressage and/or NH:
*How you found this forum: Karen Rohlf Newsletter
*Most important lesson you have learned so far: Attitude is more important than technique
*Favorite horse-related quote: Question

*Favorite Dressage trainer/rider: Philippe Karl, Jean-Claude Racinet, Mark Russell
*Favorite picture of you and/or your horse: photo of my WB mare

I've been lurking too long on this consistently positive-minded forum but lacking computer savvy to copy the intro questions has stopped me from "outing" myself!
Name: Adelheid
Location: Salinas, California, USA
Dressage level: Schooled to beg 3rd, showed 2nd.
Years in Horses: 36
Years in dressage: 20
Yrs PNH/NH: No Parelli but have worked with Terry Church since 1987 (before Tom) though with large time and geographic gaps lest you think it's her fault I'm only at 2nd level! ;-) Active NH since return to California with Parfait and Gray in late 1998.
Horses:
Gray-28 yo Appy gelding, now retired and decorating my paddock, who did Western Pleasure before I bought him in 1987 and moved him to Terry's barn to *finally* pursue my dream of learning dressage.

Parfait-19 yo TB mare, also retired and decorating the other paddock, who has taught me more than any other horse I've known and necessitated my exploration of NH approaches. We stalled out at Second Level in 2006.

Whisper-a just 4 yr old Hanoverian mare I bought 1 year ago unstarted. She's a dream-come-true and who knows what the future holds?

Quincy-my friend's 22 yo paint gelding I've been riding for the last year to keep the dressage muscle memory intact! Until last year, he went out on trail rides 2-3 times per year for the prior 15 years. He's a most steady, agreeable and quite athletic guy who seems to enjoy dressage as much as I do.

How exposed to NH: Terry Church told me of Tom Dorrance around 1990-don't think we called it "natural horsemanship" back then!
How I found the forum: Surfing the web, a few years ago, then there was the link from Terry's website...
Most important lesson I've learned so far: Breathe in and out, always.
Favorite Quote: "Slow is fast."-Tom Dorrance
Favorite trainer: Terry Church (Others are inspiring but Terry's my favorite for day in, day out training help.)
Favorite rider: Many inspire me, especially Reiner Klimke with Ahlerich on video and Hubertus Schmidt in articles/interviews.
Favorite picture of me and my horse: I'm lacking computer savvy for this and also have no ability to narrow down favorites! (There are pics of Parfait and me over the years on the Terry Church Cupertino, CA clinic website.)

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Welcome Adelheid and Muriel!! Thanks for joining in!!

*First Name: Elle

*Location: Melbourne, Australia

*Level of Dressage You School and/or Compete at: None really, just coming back after about 5-6 years with no riding!

*Number of Years In Horses: 20 on and off

*Number of Years In Dressage: 10 on and off

*Number of Years in 'NH': Have just bought my Level 1 Pack and joined Savvy Club and have been reading and watching everything i can get my hands on - my new horse comes home in 37 days!

*Info about horses you ride/play with: I've just bought a 10 month old purebred Friesian gelding (Aristo) who will be my main partner.

*How you were exposed to Dressage and/or NH: Dressage because my old instructor had a big dorky WB that no one else wanted to ride and i was horseless! NH because my boy's breeders do NH with him. It's going to be a few years before i can ride him so i wanted something to do to keep us both interested in that time and grow the best relationship possible.

*How you found this forum: Googling Karen Rohlf trying to find a podcast!

*Favorite horse-related quote: There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.

*Favorite Dressage trainer/rider: This is rapidly changing the more i learn about NH so i'll pass on this one for now!

*Favorite picture of you and/or your horse: can't post one yet but lookout when i can it will be pics galore!

Great! We LOVE pics!! OUr little forum has been growing and it is always nice to welcome new members aboard!

Welcome Elle!!

Hi you can call me Jubilee

I currently live in Southern Tennessee, just above the Georgia boarder, but I will soon be moving to Indiana for a Dressage training internship.

I am a complete beginner when it comes to Dressage. I have been riding horses for ten years now and have been working with them on a more professional level the last two years. I mostly have ridden Western in the past but Dressage is what really gets me fired up and is what I want to do most. I have been working towards getting my degree in Equine Science but am putting that off for a while to work the Dressage internship. I will be learning how to ride, train, and instruct Dressage under the teaching of a FEI Dressage Clinician. Even though I am knew to Dressage, she was gracious enough to take me on as an intern because I display the desire and determination to learn.

I have been experimenting with Natural Horsemanship for the past few years but I have had no instruction on the mater and have not been able to afford courses such as Parelli's. But I have worked with what I can using books, TV instruction, and the internet. I was working to train my own horse, Vega, a high energy formerly abused gelding. I used a lot of natural methods and taught him ground manors and how to trust people again. But my experience was not enough to finish him under saddle so I just recently sold him to someone who could train him. Now I am just focusing on furthering my own skills.

I'm not exactly sure how I was first exposed to Dressage. I have mostly ridden western my whole life, with just the basics of the english seat mixed in. But something always felt missing in my riding experience. Then when I really sat and watched Dressage for the first time and began to learn about it more I realized that Dressage was the thing I was missing. Complete harmony between horse and rider. I know that's what I want.

I found this forum simply for searching for Natural Horsemanship and Dressage. It's hard to find a lot of information on the subject.

I think one of the most important lessons that I've learn through using natural horsemanship with my horse Vega is that there is so much more to horses than just riding them. I was only ever able to ride Vega a handful of times, falling off three of those time (braking my arm during the most recent fall, haha). But during the three years I've had him I have experience more joy just being with him more than I ever did simply riding any other horse. We knew each other at the deepest levels and he taught me so much. It's because of him I decided to make a career out of working with horses, something I never thought of doing before when I use to ride twice I week on a leased horses.

It won't let me post any pictures yet because I haven't made enough topic posts yet. But I will show you some pictures of Vega and I soon.

I hope that wasn't too long, thanks for baring with me. I'm looking forward to learning more about Natural Dressage with all of you.

Jubilee