what do you think?

[only_me]

have been having shared weekly lessons with a dressage trainer, and horse has been going great, although sometimes i am not quite sure what i am doing but am told that it is correct!

but today in lesson he was trying some half pass with us, and this i felt wasnt really nessacary as both our horses are at PN/1* standard (well, working towards 1*

) and continued on our work with shoulder in. dont mind the shoulder in but i didnt really see the point in doing the half pass.
then we did some counter canter which was ok, as i agreed that our horses should be off the aids no matter what stage they are at. my horsey did the counter canter no probs on a shallow loop, although instead of going straifght back to the track he decided that he wanted to go sideways in canter

thing is, as he is a dressage trainer he wants the horses to go a different way to what is actually needed for eventing - he likes them long and low and to go forwards in that outline, and my horse tends to go wooden when he does that, and dosent actually use himself or brings his shoulder across. found this out when i was having difficulties riding him on monday, so YO got on and had a real battle, the which of was only starting to work on tuesday, and starting to work through himself.

so should i stop the pure dressage lessons, and get an eventer to give me lessons with flatwork for jumping instead of pure dressage? what do you guys think?

 

[ajf]

I found this and have since swapped to (a still pure dressage rider) but used to BE, helps train point-2-pointers, schools young horses and still competes ODE unaffilated.
Half-pass is really good for gettin the horses to step through and I always like them workin more advanced than what they are competein at as then they react quicker and u can move them easier for xc and sj

 

[Bossanova]

If you dont like him, dont go and spend your money with him!!

Fwiw, every horse should be encouraged to stretch long and low at periods whether its a dressager, eventer or sjer. Eventing dressage is judged by BD judges who are looking for exactly the same things.
Re half-pass, I'm using it with my 6 yr old even though she's not going to need it for a long while yet. We keep it easy and keep it nicely forward. It improves the trot and is a valuable exercise for many horses.