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Description
Prompt: Draw your horse and rider working on one aspect of the Dressage Pyramid

~~~

"Alright, I'd like to take a minute to welcome everyone to the clinic. I apologize in advance if I'm hard to understand, I'm from Russia and this is the first time we've used this audio equipment so we didn't get a lot of fine-tuning done. Either way, I'm Misha and that's Andreas, he'll be helping me out as a demonstrator. We're here on Santo, an 11 year old Lipizzaner, and King, who's a 5 year old Irish Sport Horse/Hanoverian. The first portion of this clinic will be devoted to dressage, specifically the Dressage Pyramid which is a 6 step scale detailing the training required to produce a finished Dressage horse. These steps, from first to last, are Rhythm, Suppleness, Connection, Impulsion, Straightness, and Collection."

"Andreas and King are specifically here to give you a visual for the different steps here, King is a very talented youngster but at his best he's still only at step 3, Connection. He was born with a hell of a lot of impulsion but that doesn't mean we get to skip straight to that step, for the horse's benefit you need to go one-by-one. We're going to do a quick lap around the arena at a trot so you can see the differences in their movements, Santo is fully trained Grand Prix Dressage horse so he's completed all the steps here and maintained them for a few years so it'll be a pretty obvious difference."

"While King currently has a good working trot it won't really pass in higher level competition. At this point there's very little self carriage, he's just learned to consistently stretch down into the contact so he's always searching for those hints from his rider. If I drop the reins right now on Santo nothing changes, he'll hold this gait and this carriage until I tell him otherwise. Santo is also in the ideal form, he's on the vertical and his back is rounded whereas King likes to stay just ahead of the vertical and while he's not exactly hollow, he could be better."

"If you'll look around there are different exercise stations set up around the arena, I'm going to have you branch off into groups based on what step of the pyramid you and your horse need to work on. If you don't immediately know, feel free to ask and I'll let you know. There are posted exercises at each station detailing what you can do to improve at that step, such as trot and canter poles for Rhythm and bending exercises for Straightness. You can get started immediately and I'll be coming around to each station as we go, so go ahead now."

~

1. Rhythm Video Rhythm Diagram (Can be done as poles)
2. Suppleness Diagram Suppleness Diagram 2
3. Connection Article Connection Exercises
4. Impulsion Article
5. Straightness Video
6. Collection Article

~~~
Santo, Misha, King, Andreas, and art: Jyynxx
Refs used: Dressage Riding Trot Stock Riding stock 48

Description
Prompt: Draw your horse and rider working on one aspect of the Dressage Pyramid

~~~

"Alright, I'd like to take a minute to welcome everyone to the clinic. I apologize in advance if I'm hard to understand, I'm from Russia and this is the first time we've used this audio equipment so we didn't get a lot of fine-tuning done. Either way, I'm Misha and that's Andreas, he'll be helping me out as a demonstrator. We're here on Santo, an 11 year old Lipizzaner, and King, who's a 5 year old Irish Sport Horse/Hanoverian. The first portion of this clinic will be devoted to dressage, specifically the Dressage Pyramid which is a 6 step scale detailing the training required to produce a finished Dressage horse. These steps, from first to last, are Rhythm, Suppleness, Connection, Impulsion, Straightness, and Collection."

"Andreas and King are specifically here to give you a visual for the different steps here, King is a very talented youngster but at his best he's still only at step 3, Connection. He was born with a hell of a lot of impulsion but that doesn't mean we get to skip straight to that step, for the horse's benefit you need to go one-by-one. We're going to do a quick lap around the arena at a trot so you can see the differences in their movements, Santo is fully trained Grand Prix Dressage horse so he's completed all the steps here and maintained them for a few years so it'll be a pretty obvious difference."

"While King currently has a good working trot it won't really pass in higher level competition. At this point there's very little self carriage, he's just learned to consistently stretch down into the contact so he's always searching for those hints from his rider. If I drop the reins right now on Santo nothing changes, he'll hold this gait and this carriage until I tell him otherwise. Santo is also in the ideal form, he's on the vertical and his back is rounded whereas King likes to stay just ahead of the vertical and while he's not exactly hollow, he could be better."

"If you'll look around there are different exercise stations set up around the arena, I'm going to have you branch off into groups based on what step of the pyramid you and your horse need to work on. If you don't immediately know, feel free to ask and I'll let you know. There are posted exercises at each station detailing what you can do to improve at that step, such as trot and canter poles for Rhythm and bending exercises for Straightness. You can get started immediately and I'll be coming around to each station as we go, so go ahead now."

~

1. Rhythm Video Rhythm Diagram (Can be done as poles)
2. Suppleness Diagram Suppleness Diagram 2
3. Connection Article Connection Exercises
4. Impulsion Article
5. Straightness Video
6. Collection Article

~~~
Santo, Misha, King, Andreas, and art: Jyynxx
Refs used: Dressage Riding Trot Stock Riding stock 48