Anyone had a dressage diva transformation?

[EveningStar]

Feeling so rubbish about Billy and me at the moment.

The jumping thing is *finally* starting to come together but his flatwork has well and truly gone to pot.

Considering he has no grass (its winter here) and is on hay with a feed of fibre/chaff/sugar beet plus a bit of hard feed he has a real rocket up his bum, tanking off when the leg goes on and doing his best giraffe impression with attempts to remedy this readily ignored. This is the horse who was acting like he has dead to the leg in November last year (on spring grass!)

He has never been great to school and dressage, he is heavy in the hand and can be quite difficult to get to work properly (well for me who is useless) but he does have his moments where he is easier and can go nice-ish.

He is 13 this year so not exactly 'old' but used to going how he goes and what I really want is any tips and tricks to teach him to be less resistant and lighter in the hand??

Lessons are the obvious answer but unfortunately I don't have my own transport and we can't have other instructors on the yard (yard instructor is not suitable)

Please show me your dressage diva transformations - I need inspiration!

 

[Foxford]

I would post pics of my giraffe turned diva if I was on my home PC - sorry!

I know how you feel about the instructor. Ive just gone on the bhs website to find a new one, as my old one is on maternity leave! Fingers crossed we both get what we are looking for.

If there's one thing I've learned about horses, it's not to take anything personally. Keep going with your boy.

 

[Worried1]

I think CP and have undergone a fairly hefty transformation!
CP from hairy, stuffy cob who took half a circuit to run into canter (think swan trying to take off but nowhere near as graceful!) and me... I've lost four stone! So only transformation for me is there is bit less of me
From this...

To this...

She has qualified for the summer regionals at Prelim but I'm doing two Area festivals instead and yesterday we went out and started our winter regional qualification and got 69 and 71%
Patience, time and a great trainer are key and I wouldn't have been able to do it without Mr W

 

[Foxford]

Wit woo worried!

 

[Keep Trying]

Hi,

Have been there...and then some!!

It depends on what you are aiming for but a general rule would be that your horse must learn to accept your leg without running from it. I found the method to achieve this with my horse was through transitions...hundreds and hundreds of them... but they must be of good quality and no 'making do'. Keep you seat constant, body upright with a forward thinking contact that asks the horse to soften.

If you are looking for a solid foundation to training then be prepared for a long road as there aren't any short cuts and it will take as long as it takes. We have progressed from sheer out of control lunacy to regional quals at Novice and working very nicely at Medium. It's taken me years but I am only a novice rider myself and we have learnt together which makes our results even more rewarding.

Good luck and above all...Keep Trying!!

 

[miss_c]

G and I have managed a transformation thanks to an amazing trainer!

We used to go like this, and managed to shave a whole MINUTE off of the time of dressage tests!

See that board that's turned inside-out in the second two photos? That was us.... The aim used to be 50% and stay inside the boards!


After work....

She's been to RC Nationals, BD Regionals, RC Areas about 5 times, and came 7th in the Nationals at Royal Windsor Horse Show. Bless her! She's never going to be a world beater, but the change in her is rather dramatic!

 

[lucemoose]

You can do it E! Just set really small and realistic aims for each session and dont do too much. Maybe like 20 minutes and just work on leg yielding out on a circle, then the next day just transitions only, then the next day do some no stirrups for you.
I find being on my own hard so I only do work that you can see or feel when you get results or else I drone on and on in the arena banging away at nothing in particular. Never work too long either or you will hate each other!!

 

[zoon]

How about this...

To this....

Excuse the poor quality - both are phone pics. She was an ex racer - 6 months between the pics. She had physical issues to contend with as well.

 

[Lolo]

Another ex-racer here...

Day 1... He went like this, these are't head tossing photos!

Now.

He's never going to challenge Fig or CS for the role of "ex-racer to dressage diva" but he's now scoring sub-30, and Al is really disappointed with anything over 35... It's taken ages (3 years!) to get to the point where sub-50 was always expected. His average dressage score for the first 2 years was sub-50%, then it crept up to 63% for last year, and now it's about 72%!!

Sometimes, they just take a while to get it I think. Reg rather likes poncing now

 

[Deseado]

Wow! Some fantastic before & afters; well done to all - a great inspiration to keep going with my "special" lot.

 

[Pigeon]

He's 10 now, was eight in the first pic. Takes time but it can certainly be done

 

[EveningStar]

Wow thanks for all of the replies
There are some really impressive transformations here - gives me hope!

I'm not wanting to set the dressage world alight (ha!) but would like to improve our prelim scores and maybe attempt a novice at some point but really would be happy with him just being more relaxed and submissive

 

[RachelFerd]

From this...

to this...

to this!

6 months from the first picture to the last. He has doubled in size and weight!

 

[VendettaH]

When I first got Danny

And recently schooling

Less is more is my big light bulb moment, listen to the horse

 

[star]

I dont have any photos but my giraffe has gone from scoring 42 at BE90 to a new personal best today of 24.5 from a List One judge. He used to be soooo resistant and he's still not easy but so much better. His turning point was having 9wks off last year due to a tendon injury and then doing months of straight line work to build up his muscle equally. Since then he's been much more even and easier to work into both reins.