by Craig Stevens | Feb 13, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
The wisdom of dressage has come to us over many centuries. There are literally thousands of masters and hundreds who have written about dressage. So many visions based on so much experience with horses, by minds who were both brilliant and profound. While the depth of these teachings over the centuries may strike the student of dressage as overwhelming, it is far better to be overwhelmed than to shrink down and dumb down the teachings into just a few lineages of masters. Modern dressage, as it is commonly presented, is a shrinking down and dumbing down of a very broad and rich field of knowledge. It is a rare student of dressage who has cultivated an appreciation of the broader field. Instead, most of us are spoon fed on this dumbed down “instant” dressage, completely unaware of that this has happened. This has been done for us by countless faceless teachers, trainers and instructors who are promoting their own agendas usually for the “good” of the sport as they see it. These ancient wisdoms, however, can show us that there is a path, a way to work with the horse, and can point to how the human-horse relationship can work in an enlightened way. We do not need to search endlessly to reinvent the wheel or to concoct our own recipes while inventing a “new” dressage, but we do need to explore the field of history in order to find value and illumine in our current practice. We also need to explore our own inner landscape and find ways of understanding the horse which enable us to find harmony with...
by Craig Stevens | Feb 11, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
Finding a voice in the work in dressage is both important and difficult. The underlying simplicity and at least an empathetic listening are needed but better still is the leap into a natural wisdom which is always present. Most dressage, unfortunately, at least in the way it appears to be taught and practiced, is about the imposition of a standard by varying degrees of aggression. In what most people call better dressage, the aggression is usually veiled by the use of various mechanical devices such as side reins, draw reins and special bits. Oppositional aids and a sea of other aggressions are usually justified by the need to go “forward” or keeping control through a caveman like understanding of something which is passed off as leadership. Imposed authority is not the same as leadership and there is a lot of confusion around this idea. The weight of our dressage organizations and the public media presentations form a psychological and cultural container to keep the masses in line and to make sure that what is frequently just barbarism is justified and the horse and rider are kept in an acceptable box. This makes a dressage “machine” which centers on keeping the money flowing in the sport and is about so many things other than the horse. Genuine work may sometimes seem to be wrong because in really good dressage the horse is permitted to be less than perfect. The progression of training is not controlled by the imposition of outside authorities but by the evolution of the horse’s subjective experience. The subjective experience of the horse is most obviously connected...
by Craig Stevens | Feb 10, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
The enemy of good dressage is in deception. Cultural, individual or methodological deception are the neurotic aspect of our own trail through life. Deception occurs first in oneself, and then deception is spread to others, but the horse is rarely deceived and even if it is, the deception is simple. Horses do not suffer from the complexity of human life. Deceitfulness is one of the main obstacles to realizing the principles in good dressage. Whatever we do with the horse or in our study of dressage has the potential for deception. Because of deception, we are unable to see clearly. The experience of the moment to moment feelings which occur in working are pure and clear, altogether unwavering. The feelings are always right but it is our interpretation or ignoring of those sensation which creates the problem. The heart which finds the horse and which we connect to our authentic self is the way we hold ourselves properly and upright in this work. It is the goodness in dressage. Goodness in dressage is the finding how to join properly to the authentic center in any movement in space. To properly understand this is to realize that the physical mechanical center, the psychological center and the physical center harmonize and overlap in space and time. Each relates with the other in some manner and when we bring our awareness to this we find the way to work properly. We can then find the common center of it all. Start slow and stay simple. It is not the objects of the work or movements which matter but the play of space....
by Craig Stevens | Feb 9, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
To be properly with a horse can be a matter of how we act. However, good dressage is rather a matter of how, we are behaving rather than acting with the horse. Acting is what we try to do when we show a horse. We do things just for the sake of display, whereas in the day to day training it is more a matter of consistently behaving correctly. This correct behaving is a matter of how you feel with and interact with the horse. Education in dressage first attempts to look at the way we acting is the way something looks when we are with the horse but behaving is the way we are without thought or concern for who is looking. In training it is important that you are being genuine. The horse instinctively knows your level of working as does an educated instructor. When I watch a rider handle a horse, I usually know their level before they even mount the horse. It is sad that what is perceived upper level work is based on how we act but when you are acting, you are concerned with other people’s possible reactions. Genuine dressage is really only about how you are behaving. The moment to moment actions and their tone, and the way you are just behaving when nobody is watching is what matters the most. There is no absolute visual of your behavior and your acting is nothing but the visual. Working with the horse is always a private concern, so there is a quality of genuineness in good dressage, and your manner of working is...
by Craig Stevens | Feb 8, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
All too often in our practice we find moments where we become aware of difficulties and resistance. We honestly feel the horse working against our will but the horse has no way to know that will. What in truth we feel is not in the horse but the reflection of our own aggressions. In essence we are attacked by our own aggression. Resistance needs a resistor and a “resistee” (if such a term exists. The idea is that every resistance is transmitted and received). Our own issues are reflected back on us through the horse. That does not particularly presents an obstacle to creating the start of a positive relationship with the horse. Relationships are not without their problems and in the relationship we have with the horse, what is most important is that we start to see what we do as a means to grow into a greater closeness with each other. What is needed is to cultivate an approach which lights up the path before us. So it is that we need to begin to find a way to develop kindness toward ourselves and then to develop kindness toward the horse. This sounds very simple-minded, and it is, but at the same time, it is very difficult to practice. This is superior dressage but it is not a strategy of door mat passivity. It is a dressage of an active and intelligent loving presence. The understanding of the meaning of these words is the whole point of equestrian instruction. Coming to terms with our own aggressions and finding clear vision is the path which brings the greatest rewards...
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