Bookshelf > Dressage > 101 Dressage Exercises for Horse & Rider

101 Dressage Exercises for Horse & Rider
By Jec Aristotle Ballou
Foreword by Olympic Medalist Lisa Wilcox

Softcover : 240 pages (July 2005)
Plastic comb bound at top
Language: English
Storey Publishing ISBN: 1580175953

In the first installment of a three-part series, Sport Pony Magazine is pleased to bring you a series of exercises from Jec Aristotle Ballou’s book, 101 Dressage Exercises for Horse & Rider. This book from Storey Publishing follows the popular 101 Jumping Exercises for Horse & Rider.

The book opens like a calendar, and each two-page spread has a diagram of the exercise on the top page, with walk-through instructions and tips on the bottom page. The book is designed so it can be hung up in the arena as you work, with a sturdy coil binding and a hole for hanging. The exercises range from simple warm-up exercises to more complicated ones designed to develop suspension, flying lead changes, lightness and lengthening.

As with any book of exercises, riders should realize they can only get out of them what they are able to put into them. Regular feedback from a qualified coach or friend, listening carefully to what your horse tells you, and respecting the difficulty of seemingly ‘simple’ exercises will help riders move forward.

Download the exercise in PDF format:

Exercise #2 - Warm Up: Needlepoint(676kb)
Exercise #22 - Serpentines with a Bend(1.7mb)
NEW Exercise #59 - Improving the Canter: Transitions on a Square(2mb)

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Contents

Foreword - Olympic Medalist Lisa Wilcox

Introduction "Dressage requires that we make athletes of our horses and ourselves. As with any fitness program, it is helpful to have a coach who can wear many hats: advice giver, expert, cheerleader. For most of us, though, working with a trainer every day is impossible. Even once a week can be a luxury! This book was written to serve as a coach when you and your horse are going solo... As you ride through these exercises, you will develop a sense of how your horse responds to them and learn to recognize differences in his quality of movement before and after each exercise." - from the Introduction

Section 1 (Exercises 1-7) - Warm Up Exercises
Section 2 (Exercises 8-18) - Looseness
Section 3 (Exercises 19-29) - Straightness
Section 4 (Exercises 30-41) - Rider Position
Section 5 (Exercises 42-56) - Lateral Work
Section 6 (Exercises 57-65) - Improving the Canter
Section 7 (Exercises 66-73) - Building Suspension
Section 8 (Exercises 74-77) - Flying Changes
Section 9 (Exercises 78-84) - Developing Lightness
Section 10 (Exercises 85-87) - Lengthening the Strides
Section 11 (Exercises 88-101) - The Importance of Fitness

Glossary
Index

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