Dressage (Spanish Mustang Style)

Trail Obstacles and Dressage

By Jennifer Klitzke

While riding in the dressage arena last week, I could tell my Spanish Mustang Indian’s Legend (Indy) was getting bored. Then it occurred to me that I could make dressage more interesting for him if I were to add a trail obstacle to our riding session. Better yet, I could add the trail obstacle as part of the dressage exercise—and that’s what we began to do.

The other day we practiced leg yield, rein back, and pivot the fore around a trail obstacle to help Indy get better balance and shift his weight to the hind quarters. Indy’s reward was a release of the reins and getting to go over the obstacle. It’s was a win-win!

So if you have a horse like my Spanish Mustang that is highly intelligent, likes trail obstacles, variety, and gets easily bored, here’s an exercise we tried and made us both happy.

Video: Trail Obstacles and Dressage