Gaited dressage: My riding recipe

By Jennifer Klitzke

Have you ever thought about how you ride your naturally gaited horse as a culinary chef experiments with flavors, colors, textures, temperatures, and techniques to enhance a recipe?

I do. I like to keep my mind open to ideas that improve relaxation, balance, rhythm, connection, symmetry, and collection as I ride my naturally gaited horses, Makana and Lady.

Over the years I have learned a lot from a diverse mix of equestrian professionals such as my gaited dressage mentor Jennie Jackson; riding biomechanics clinician and author Mary Wanless; gaited horsemanship clinicians Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer; and classical French dressage clinicians Nichole Walters, Susan Norman, Philippe Karl, and Lisa Maxwell.

Each clinician has taught me life-enhancing ingredients for my riding recipe.

• Jennie Jackson has helped me best understand how to ride a head-shaking horse with contact to develop a quality four-beat gait.
• Mary Wanless has helped me improve my riding position to become a more confident rider which has helped me overcome riding fear.
• Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer have helped me discover how to become a trusted leader for my horse and to understand the bio-mechanics needed to help my horse improve the quality of her gaits by unlocking the braces in her jaw and back, and by engaging her abdominal muscles to lift her back and engage her hindquarters.
• Nichole Walters, Susan Norman, and Linda Kaye Hollingworth Jones, all studied under Philippe Karl, have helped me develop the feeling of balance in relaxation (of body and mind) to produce lightness and self carriage.

I have also learned through the books and DVDs of French dressage masters Philippe Karl and the late Jean Claude Racinet. Their method taught me a different application of dressage which aligns with the late François Baucher’s second manner “balance before movement.”

Blending these essential ingredients has enhanced my riding recipe.

Sometimes one instructor’s philosophy or set of aids differs from another’s. This is when I experiment with the ingredients of my riding recipe to see what will work best for the horse, its level of training, and the situation.

While my goal to produce rhythm, relaxation, balance, impulsion, lightness, harmony, and trust does not change, the ingredients I use in my riding recipe are a work in progress.

In the end, I aim to bring about a riding recipe that delivers a harmonious partnership of trust with my horse, where we move together as one in rhythm, relaxation, and balance to produce my horse’s best movement in elegance and lightness of aids.

Bon Appétit!

I hope this is helpful. Let me know your thoughts by sending a message.

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