Spectacular...This mare is dancing!!!

[redmustangwoman1]

This is ablosutely fantastic I have seen this before too and love watching it over and over again...AWSOME

[patty dukes]

That video was amazing!!!! That is for all the ppl that think horses are just big dumb animals!!!

[patty dukes]

I must know how to get a horse to do this and what age is too old?

[bndranch]

Dressage is a life long art LOL. That mare is actually pretty young I believe they said she was 9. They also have to have the athletic ability.

[patty dukes]

I would love to learn how they do that although I don't have the horses for it. I enjoy watching. Is this something that has to be learned from an early age?

[tinypony]

dressage definately doesn't have to be learned at an early age but if you have big plans for a horse to make it grand prix they usually start them with it from the time they're broke and they tend to prime at about 9 years old (or so i've noticed). i've been riding dressage for about 5 years but only the past 2 have become pretty competetive in the sport. i actually put a musical freestyle together this past summer but never got a chance to compete with it (it wasn't competetion worthy at the point i had it anyways) i had used music from kelly clarkson - her song Miss Independent - as you saw in the videos, several songs are usually used in one performance but because i didn't have the software available to mesh songs together i was lucky to find one song that matched up pretty nicely with mollie's walk, trot, and canter.

the horses definately can tell the difference in the music. a couple years ago there was a musical freestyle clinic at our barn and the woman running it brought up TONS of different music selections and was trying certain ones on certain horses based on the music's beat per minute and the horses step per minute. on draft horse absolutely HATED jazz music and proved so by throwing himself through the air each time a jazzy piece was played.

as you saw in the videos when a freestyle is done correctly it is absolutely beautiful. i highly suggest it to anyone thinking they'd like to give it a try - even the horses have a blast :-)

[susieq]

this is the one that i like www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHfyby_veU&mode=related&search=

[patty dukes]

all that sound neat but what I can't understand is how the horse gets to learn that. Like how in the world do you get the horse to actually pick its feet up like that? I am not going to try to teach my horses or anything. The mare that I have is about to foal and even if she wasn't I wouldn't dare try to do anything with her like that and my stallion had a broken leg at 2 yrs old. He is almost 14 now. He is smart enough and has a good enough temperment to do something like this but he is way too old and with his leg being broke when he was young would stop him from ever doing anything like this anyway. I really don't ride much it sounds funny but I am afraid of heights and my stallion is taller than I am so when I do ride I go slow and steady..........lol
It is just a mystery to me how they learn that.

I was also wondering ..... It looks like the horse could do it without anyone on its back Is the rider telling the horse what to do? I am sure they are but I have always heard a horse is an animal that learns off of repeative action it seems like the horse could do it on its own if it wanted to.

[Deb12c]

susieq said:

this is the one that i like www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHfyby_veU&mode=related&search=

ROFLMAO that is hillarious ;D ;D ;D ;D

[bndranch]

Patty,
In dressage you start out very basic level. Dressage is all done in patterns and the very first thing the horse needs to learn is to give and bend, be soft and supple. The basic patterns start out with walk and trot, then you work up to walk, trot, canter. Then later on the horse will be asked to extend the gaits ie extended walk, extended trot and extended canter. On that same note the horse also has to learn to collect and remain in the frame. When you get into higher levels like this mare is, it all stems from the basics she learned. More advanced manuvers are the piaffe, passage, etc. Someone with more knowledge might be able to give you more of an insite to the training that is involved. Most of these Warmbloods aren't started until 3 and 4yrs old so for that mare to be at the level she is at, at 9 is AWESOME. Alot of your top dressage horses are in their late teens early 20s. Do a search on Dressage and see what you come up with! Pretty neat to watch the upper levels (sorry but the lower levels tend to bore me LOL).

[patty dukes]

well that is great info.
thanks

[amby]

THAT VIDEO WAS HILARIOUS!!! ROFL !!! I'm sure Casper would LOVE the car ride until a butterfly came byLOL!!!

[susieq]

lol

[kitcat0601]

Ive seen that and its awesome. If you go on www.youtube.com and type in horse birth, you can view tons of video's of mares giving birth.

[patty dukes]

I think the gray mare should've won did you see how she had her tail going? She knew she is good.........lol She also looked like she was having alot of fun. This sport should be called Dancing not dressage.