Amateur Dressage

On the plane ride back from San Francisco today I read a fantasically inspiring article in the Chronicle about Courtenay Fraser , a young Canadian rider, who has trained her PMU draft-cross to Grand Prix.  Since my own horse is a TB / Belgian draft-cross, it was fantastic to learn about this pair that has reached such a high level of accomplishment.  

It sounds like patient and skillful training and keeping the horse's limits in mind allowed the pair to make steady progress.  Since my guy is in his late teens, our goals are not as lofty.  It was really great though to read about a non-traditional horse (who is certainly very athletic and talented as is the rider too!) progress to GP through careful and sensitive training.

For the amateur rider this pair is a reminder that the development of a partnership and the educational journey are worthwhile goals and achievable on a variety of mounts.  At least, that's one of the lessons that I took from the article and story.

Happy trails! 

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