Horses need consistency in their training

Horses need consistency in their training and we need to be logic and accurate and as riders we need to be very accurate to reach this consistency in dressage. It is extremely important to focus on where we're riding in the arena. When you are schooling you need to stick to your line, wether it's an accurately sized circle or the correct line across the diagonal. Then your horse will learn to understand what's being asked of him. If you want to focus on riding accurately, the following exercize may be useful:

Exercises 1 - CORNERS. Make sure your corners are really accurate by riding as deep as you can into the corner. If your horse starts to fall in, try halting, then allowing him to turn around the corner, almost as a quarte pirouette. Repeat this until your horse is remaining deep into each corner.

Exercise 2 - SERPENTINE. Ride a three, four or even five-loop serpentine, making sure you know exactly at which points you want to hit the track. Ensure you ask for a change of flexion each time you cross the centre line.

Horse riding lesson: a good outline

How to achieve a good outline? Again horses need consistency in their training to achieve a good outline. There are many different ways to achieve a good outline and very often some methods work better than others depending on the different horse and the different situation. What is really important is not forcing and not feeling pressed to achieve the result. You need patience and time and especially you need to understand what you are seeking. If all the basic and simple exercises are well executed with the aim of reaching lightness then the outline will come as something magic. Do not be impatient when you find a good shape and then you cant maintain it: time, good work and comprehension of what helps and what does not help will lead you to have a horse able to develop and sustain a very nice outline.At Il Paretaio, horse riding centre in Tuscany specialized in classical dressage all is about teaching the riders how to reach a nice outline with light aids.