Liberal Arts Education For All Horses Is A Must

Over the course of my many years with horses (counting nearly 50. What!! That's hard to believe even for me), I've competed and trained many different breeds of horses.

At a recent show that was the qualifying competition at a regional level in dressage I was thrilled to see a variety of horses competing under both Young Riders and amateur riders and professionals. The championship will be held in Kentucky in November and all riders were keen to guide their steeds to success to garner high enough scores to 'make it' to the big event.

 

From Paints to Fjords to horses whose breed I didn't even recognize, non traditional dressage breeds were apparent and their presence added a note of genuine horsemanship to the show. In fact the presence of Fjords competing at a dressage show in the USA had the Facebook group Norwegian Fjords members remarking that even in the country of their breed heritage the Fjord was rarely used for dressage. 

For myself I have seen Fjords be stellar jumpers showing great technique over fences, do clean tests at FEI PSG and be super driving horses and trail buddies too.

When did we forget that a horse can do more than one thing? In my youth horses were foxhunted, jumped and ridden on trails, entered dressage shows and gymkanas and did a bit of everything. "Variety is the spice of life" after all. 

Many horse breeders ( and that goes for ourselves at one point) are so busy breeding horses for a specific discipline they forget to give the horse a chance in its early riding career to experience anything else than the discipline that they have determined its genetics require and that their perhaps limited riding abilities discipline wise can market.

It is crucial that every horse is given a chance to figure out where it excels and to also receive a thorough all-around education so that is does not become sour mentally, and that physically it is developed as an athlete and one with a well developed mind and balance in all things.This of course should go for riders too.

Think of it as liberal arts college study for horses. Do a bit of everything and train the horse to enjoy it all. It is 'liberating' both for them and us!