For those of you sick of my oppinions on dressage training, look away, because I'm starting again.

I will conceed that my views on training in dressage are often conflicting and don't make sense, but they are still valid.

I will have no one call me cruel for asking a horse like Gypsy to cricle in walk on a long rein with an allowing contact slightly behind the verticle to relax, because the alternative is to allow him, when he gets worked up to go tearing round and round at top speed with no regard for anyone else and possibly injure himself. Anyone who stands by one single method of training is being cruel. By this I do not mean modern training versus classical training as they are both training systems. By one single method I mean rollkur, riding endless circles, pole work - single methods within a system of training.

To produce a horse that is fit for the purpose in dressage you must have a varied system of training that looks at every aspect of training. You can not just decide that you are going to leave certain things out because you have a preconceived idea about them, because, by doing so you may miss something out that will be of enormous benefit to your horse. By this I am not suggesting that everyone go out and start riding their horse with it's chin pinned to it's chest, as not even I would advocate that extreme of training, as rounding that severely traps the trachea and oesophagus between the muscles of the neck and the spine, making it hard to breathe and swallow (hence my use of slightly behind the verticle on a long rein with an allowing contact - meaning the horse can lift it's head if it so wishes).

When I use the term rollkur (hyperflexion of the neck, round and deep) I refer to having the horse on a long rein with an allowing contact where it is asked to come slightly behind the verticle. My training philosophy is simple: try everything once as far as you can to see what works and what doesn't for the horse. Once you know the full limitations of your horse and what exercises work for it, you can work on improving the horse. This doesn't mean that you overlook yourself as a rider as you must also try exercises to improve yourself and your position so that you can further help the horse to be the very best it can be.

A couple of weeks ago I sat on a young horse for the first time. I had never seen him work before, so had no idea of how I should go about riding him. Instead of going through my usual warm up of suppling with leg yield, circles, and work on a long rein, I also worked on finding the limitations of the horse, what he was comfortable doing and able to do with his rider. I found that he had problems with the initial transition to canter and balancing himself in the pace and that he had a tendancy to rush his trot work. I managed to gather all this information about him from 15 minutes work and still have a nice supple horse who was willing to work for his rider. Some may ask why I didn't use my schooling whip on him. I didn't use the whip because he was already trying to do what was asked of him and the use of the whip would have made him worse. I know of riders who will sit on a young horse and resort to the whip to get them to do what they want. There are also those who will take a perfectly good young horse and ruin it by forcing it to assume positions and do movements it does not yet have the strength for. I have seen 4 year olds ridden in a Grand Prix outline, and the worst thing is that the rider is rewarded for this abuse. You may ask what the problem is, well it is this:
At 4 years old, a horse is still developing the muscular structure needed for carry itself throughout it's working life. It is like asking a 4 year old child to take up an extremely advanced yoga position - they may be able to achieve that position, but it puts enormous pressure on a developing musculo-skeletal system, which can lead to problems in later life and even sooner if it is continued.
People in dressage are divided over one training method, if they continue to argue about the merits and problems of it, they will damage the sport infinately more than those against rollkur believe it will be if use of the exercise is allowed to continue. For the sport to move forwards and develop, those involved at every level have to look at the training systems that everyone else uses and work together to improve the sport, not fight continually and bitch behind the backs of others. There needs to be an open discussion where everyone can air their views on the subject and everyone can learn from mistakes being made by others and themselves.
Remember: one exercise is not the be all and end all of training. There must always be variety and innovation to improve every aspect of work.
And to those who seem to have a problem with my training: comment if you must, but make sure that you have read thoroughly everything that I have to say on the subject and digested it first. Don't jump to conclusions.