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Let’s face it. Most of the horses we ride would much rather be living it up on the cross-country course than pulling it all together and turning in a perfect Dressage test. And most of the horses we ride probably will never become a Grand Prix Dressage horse. But if you’re like most of the eventers I know, you may have been given the chance to ride one or two of these Grand Prix movements thanks to a phenomenon I like to call ‘Mad Horse Dressage’.
So what exactly is ‘Mad Horse Dressage’? You know those times when you want your horse to do one thing, but they’re dead set on doing something else so they show their disapproval of the situation by throwing a small temper tantrum? Have you ever noticed that during those temper tantrums, your horse generally becomes extremely light in the forehand and occasionally moves their body in a way that closely resembles an upper level movement or so? Well that, my friend, is ‘Mad Horse Dressage’.
My father e-mailed me the other day, telling me that he had a chance to ride a piaffe-like maneuver when his 8-year-old Thoroughbred / Percheron gelding, Lance, decided that he’d rather go for a gallop than work on bending at the trot. “It took me about 10 seconds to figure out what was going on,” he wrote. “But then I realized that he was trotting, but we weren’t going anywhere. It was the coolest feeling!”
Now let me make something clear. I don’t condone badly behaved horses and I would definitely prefer that they listen to what I ask of them than make their own decisions about what we’re going to do on a certain day. But we all know that it’s a given that horses (and their riders!) will make mistakes from time to time. So I took a second to think back to the times that I have experienced ‘Mad Horse Dressage’…and I found myself laughing my behind off as I recalled the memories with my father on the phone later that day.
Sadie’s best friend – or better, Sadie’s biggest ‘crush’ – is my first horse, an incredibly handsome, 22-year-old Appaloosa gelding named Taz. During the first few months of Sadie’s time at my farm, she developed quite an attachment to Taz, and it was during these first few months that we had our first ‘Mad Horse Dressage’ experience. After a great workout in which lots of progress was made, my father and I headed out with Lance and Sadie on a quick cool-down trail ride. Things were going great until Taz noticed that we were leaving and gave a nice good-bye whinny to his friends.
Well, it was then that Sadie decided that leaving Taz behind was a terrible idea and suggested that we go back to get him. She perked her ears, rocked back on her hind end, and performed a lovely half pirouette – in three strides no less! – and continued towards the barn at a beautiful medium canter. All the while, I sat atop her in awe of how wonderful that maneuver felt. Who knew she had it in her! Of course, we turned around and continued on our trail ride, much to Sadie’s disapproval, but I could not stop myself from smiling about the wonderful ‘Mad Horse Dressage’ movement that Sadie had just performed.
Another instance that quickly came to mind was the time that Sadie perfected her canter half-pass. A great accomplishment, right? Well, umm, no…she was supposed to be walking in a straight line at the time. Allow me to explain.
Sadie spent some time at a friend’s barn for a few months last summer and when she returned home, she had developed a slight aversion to working by herself…she had gone out to work with at least one other horse almost every time she went out. So for the first week or so, Sadie was less than thrilled to be working by herself and made that very clear by throwing the occasional hissy fit during our schooling sessions.
One day, she was particularly ornery and had thrown a few tantrums just walking from the barn to the arena. But we had pushed through and were making the most out of rough day. As we were approaching the end of the ride – which had gotten better as we went along – I began to work on the free walk – one of Sadie’s better gaits that had suffered slightly since she came back from a stifle injury. Well, as you may have guessed, Sadie didn’t quite approve of my suggestion of stretching her neck down.
Before I knew it, Sadie was ‘half-passing’ across the arena in a wonderful controlled canter. Of course, she was heading directly towards the barn. Realizing this, I wiped the grin off my face (it just felt so good to be moving laterally so well!!) and brought her to a halt. As I turned her back towards the Dressage arena she had left, she treated me to her version of the levade – a haut école movement in which the horse rocks back and basically rests on their haunches, lifting their front legs into the air and tucking their knees as if they were jumping.
Despite the fact that your horse is generally less than happy while performing these ‘Mad Horse Dressage’ movements, they give us eventers a chance to feel what it’s like to – or close to what it’s like to – ride upper level Dressage movements that don’t quite make it into even four-star tests. And as an added bonus, it gives us a reason to smile and keep going when your usually awesome horse hits a small bump in the road. Just think of it as your horse trying out a different career for a second, and then realizing that they make a much better eventer than straight Dressage horse.
So the next time you’re at an event and your horse makes a little ‘boo-boo’, don’t get mad…smile and start your own collection on ‘Mad Horse Dressage’ memories!
