Category Archives: Improving Your “Eye”

Fun with photos: the trot

Posted on January 26, 2019 by liascott

The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words, yet so many involved in Dressage want to deny what the pictures tell us. The most common complaint is that a photo is “just a moment in time” – … Continue reading →

Posted in Improving Your "Eye" | Tagged biomechanics, Dressage, Eadweard Muybridge, engagement, extended trot, hollow back, improve your eye, photos | 8 Comments

Sculpting the Equine Body, Pt 2

Posted on September 30, 2018 by liascott

In a recent post, I discussed the general notion of how you can change the horse’s body, for better or worse, based upon the nature of the work. The inspiration for that post came from Coffee. Recently, my mother had … Continue reading →

Posted in Horsemanship, Improving Your "Eye" | Tagged apparent conformation, Classical horsemanship, Coffee, horse anatomy, horse biomechanics, horse conformation, horse movement, Otto Zietzschmann, The Rider Forms the Horse, Udo Burger | Leave a comment

Sculpting the Equine Body, Pt 1

Posted on September 14, 2018 by liascott

One of the aspects of classically based Dressage training is the way in which it changes the horse’s physique. It is true that any equine activity that involves a level of conditioning will tone muscles, and should make the horse … Continue reading →

Posted in Classical Training and Philosophy, Horsemanship, Improving Your "Eye" | Tagged Classical horsemanship, Coffee, correct training, Dressage training, equine biomechanics, Felix Burkner, Herder, Tally, Udo Burger | 1 Comment

Eye of the Beholder

Posted on July 8, 2018 by liascott

A Facebook friend recently posed the question as to why so many people enjoy watching today’s competition, and don’t see the ugliness and the damage done by the training methods being used. Why do they not seek the beauty that … Continue reading →

Posted in Classical Training and Philosophy, Horsemanship, Improving Your "Eye", My Journey | Tagged Classical Dressage, classical equitation, confirmation bias, horsemanship, horses as teachers, showing horses, training horses | 2 Comments

Which would you choose?

Posted on August 13, 2016 by liascott

The controversy still swirls around the method known variously as rollkur or LDR (low, deep, and round). Someone from a Facebook group I’m part of recently posted photos and video from Falsterbro, a high level competition in Sweden. This evidence showed that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Improving Your "Eye" | Tagged Adelinde Cornelissen, Biotop, competitive Dressage, Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Dr. Reiner Klimke, Dressage, Gigolo, Grand Prix, Isabell Werth, LDR, Olympics, rollkur, training, Writing of Riding | Leave a comment

How it was: 1976

Posted on November 11, 2015 by liascott

Someone shared this lovely video on Facebook, and in my estimation it has not had enough views – so I’m doing my little part to spread it around. The video is of the top two rides from the 1976 Olympics. … Continue reading →

Posted in Classical Training and Philosophy, Improving Your "Eye" | Tagged 1976, Bromont, Christine Stuckelberger, correct Dressage, gold medal, Granat, Harry Boldt, Montreal Olympics, silver medal, Woyczek | 6 Comments

The video that will not die!

Posted on August 29, 2015 by liascott

Once again, for the “millionth” time, someone shared the video of Blue Hors Matinee on Facebook. The comments are always the same … “Can’t get enough of this!” … “I could watch this over and over!” etc., etc., etc. Even … Continue reading →

Posted in Improving Your "Eye", Thinking Out Loud | Tagged aggressive riding, Akeem Foldager, bad dressage, Blue Hors Matine, blue tongue, cruelty, Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Epona.TV, FEI, Gunther Seidel, Tørveslettens Stamina, Tug of War | 14 Comments