Lise Roberts Dressage

23/05/2025

FREE WALK ON A LONG REIN: A lot of competitors lose marks on this movement because they don’t appear to understand the point of it.

It is a free walk on a LONG, not LOOSE, rein. The horse should draw the contact forward and down, demonstrating (a) that he trusts the rider’s hand and (b) that he has worked correctly over his back and is taking advantage of the opportunity to stretch the muscles.

If you simply drop the reins, you are not showing the horse’s trust in your contact, plus you give yourself a potential problem when retaking the contact if the horse objects.

The horse should also walk forward with purpose, covering more ground than in the medium walk, but without hurrying. This demonstrates suppleness and, again, trust in the rider. As the horse strides out, he should take the contact forward and should not tuck his nose in towards his chest as this suggests a fragile or overly heavy contact, both of which are incorrect.

23/01/2025

I am continually surprised when I come across riders whose horses have no foundations in their training. The most basic and essential of these foundations are RELAXATION and ACCEPTANCE OF THE AIDS. Without these basics, it’s a bit like not teaching a child the alphabet and then wondering why they can’t read and write.

The horse must accept the aids – they must allow the rider to have their legs on the horse’s sides (not gripping, but equally not being held away from the horse’s side), and they must accept the contact. Without this most basic foundation, it is not possible to properly communicate with the horse, and relaxation will not occur.

Sometimes it takes a long time for these correct foundations to be laid, but it will be time well spent. With the relaxation that comes from the acceptance (and understanding) of the aids, comes MUTUAL TRUST. This mutual trust is the real foundation for the entire concept of the dressage horse and rider and the work they can do together.

23/05/2023

Perfect piaffe! I can't see a thing wrong with this photo. 🙂

23/05/2022

https://www.liserobertsdressage.co.uk/food-for-thought/

Discipline and Happy Horses

A horse that knows its boundaries is a happy horse. Just like a child, a horse needs to understand its place in the world and for this it needs discipline and consistency. This does not mean we need to be harsh and uncaring; we must be clear and consistent, and teach our horses that all actions have consequences. Once a horse understands what we consider to be acceptable behaviour, it will find navigating its way through life in general so much easier, making it a much happier horse!

(Note: This is not my horse, this is a picture of an unhappy horse)

For more on this, click the link above for my website. 🙂

17/05/2022

"Prohibit the use of running reins (draw reins) throughout the entire Olympic Games precinct.

“At this level, riders should be able to make do without them, and they are a bad model for all the lower level riders who do not understand the potential danger these reins pose to horses.”

I have personally always hated draw reins and was pleased to read the above which is one of the 46 recommendations for making Paris 2024 the Olympic Games of Equine Welfare, taken from a report produced by the French National Assembly and titled “Equine Welfare Recommendations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, April 2022".

One of the dangers of draw reins is that they encourage the horse to adopt the position in figure 1c, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the correct positions in figures 1a and 1b.

For more information on this, and a link to the full report, click here: https://www.liserobertsdressage.co.uk/food-for-thought/

16/05/2022

Olivia Jayne Prosser looking great on Merlin today, proving that she can walk, trot, canter AND go for a hack on him! :-)

12/05/2022

This is apparently the Dunning Kruger effect and is so apt when it comes to learning how to do dressage!

28/01/2022

06/01/2022

Time to book your next lesson!