The Learning Never Stops in Dressage

By Karen Nielsen

I am on the path to becoming a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Certified Instructor at Training and First Level. USDF certification involves participation in a series of USDF Dressage Development Seminars, completing a series of practice tests, and passing a final examination that focuses on riding, teaching, and lungeing. 

October 11 and 12, I participated in and helped host a USDF Teaching Seminar at Lindinhof Equine Sports Zentrum with visiting USDF Instructor Trainer Faculty member Bailey Cook. The purpose of the USDF Dressage Development Seminars is to train and teach with classical theory as the basis. 

The first day, which was open to the auditors, consisted of a PowerPoint presentation detailing how to conduct a lesson according to USDF standards. I was impressed with the earnest conversations about the current state of the horse industry. The second day was a mock test for participants pursuing certification. We each taught a lesson, and Bailey was there as needed for support and critique.

Since this seminar was geared towards teaching, the auditors and participants at the seminar were mostly instructors themselves, motivating us to talk about real issues that face instructors. How does Safe Sport and the rules around children impact your instruction? How do you manage personal boundaries with your clients? How do you push students without worrying about losing them as a client? How do you budget with the rising costs in the sport, when tariffs and prices are fluctuating? Although we did not reach any concrete conclusions, it was helpful to learn how different facilities face these challenges. 

In the three weeks since the seminar occurred, I have made a conscious effort to change two things about how I teach lessons. The first change I’ve implemented is telling each student the goal of their lesson after their warm-up. Before the seminar, I was concerned about disappointing students if the lesson changed direction. I realized that I had been thinking about lessons in terms of exercises – specific figures, leg yields, shoulder-in, and so on – rather than in terms of what those exercises aim to accomplish. Now, I find myself telling my students, “Today we are working on bend,” or on suppleness, or on outside rein connection, or whatever the topic happens to be that day. 

Secondly, I pay attention to the changes in the horse following the lesson. One thing Bailey said to me that really stuck was that “the horse should be going back to its stall happier than when it came into the arena.” I now make sure to highlight this to students as well. I work with a lot of beginner students, so this can look like teaching students how to ask a horse to stretch, or asking the student to tell me what changed in the horse’s walk over the course of the lesson. Previously, I picked horses that were good at teaching students specific things, and matched the rider to the horse based on what they wanted to work on. I was thinking more about teaching the rider than benefiting the horse. But what should come first? The horse. I will go forward in my teaching as a more thoughtful educator, both in terms of what I am teaching and how it benefits the horse. 

This seminar would not have been possible without Megan McIsaac graciously allowing us use her facility and horses (and I would not be the instructor and rider I am today without her), Bailey Cook for imparting her wisdom on us all, Anne Fosdale for helping me and Megan get Lindinhof ready for the public, Lisa for feeding us, Derek for helping turn our dressage arena into a classroom, the other participating instructors – Mimi and Carli – for also putting themselves out there to learn more, and all the auditors who came ready to learn and engage in discussion. 

Please consider attending the next seminar near you!