Questions about buying, training and feeding dressage horses?
Right ok I have a project that I have to do for my stables. I have to find out about the horses in my favourite riding discipline – dressage 
I have to imagine I’m buying a young horse to train to be a dressage horse. I need to find out
1. Breed – I did some research and found that Hanoverians are very popular as dressage horses, with riders like Anky van Grunsven and Carl Hester competing hanoverians. can anyone tell me what makes them so good and suited to dressage?
2. What to feed my hypothetical dressage horse – during training and then during competition.
3. How to train a dressage horse! I have never trained a horse before so I have no idea what you do, let alone what you do to train a high level dressage horse capable of crazy dressage movements!
As much info as possible on this one if possible, I’m totally bewildered D:
Thank you for any help
Although some people like Hanovarians there are many different breeds and cross breeds used forthe sport. Others prefer the Trakehners. Most of the warm bloods used for dressage have a certain amoung of TB in them. Carl Hester also has KWPN and Oldenburg horses.
What makes a dressage horse is its movement which, from a foal, should be free, forward and the ability to move with its hocks under it and open the shoulder. They need to be built slightly uphill in that when they more their quarters are slightly lower than the withers this encourages them to have their hocks under them more.
As for feeding your hypothetical dressage horse is like asking how long is a piece of string! Each horse is different and as such should be fed differently. Some might be a bit lazy and need higher amounts than a ‘gassy’ type horse. Also growth comes into it. A three year old will need different nutrients to a grown horse.
The first thing that top riders will ask of a young (ridden) horse is free forward movement, this is allowing them to adjust to a rider being on them by going forward with their head lower than would normally be expected. Then as the horse strengthens and builds up the head will raise naturally and it will come onto the bridle. For the first couple of years there is very little collection asked for. movements are performed at working paces. As the horse learns the basic movements, strengthens and is stronger and is working collected so, the higher movements are asked for.
It all takes many years to teach.
Although some people like Hanovarians there are many different breeds and cross breeds used forthe sport. Others prefer the Trakehners. Most of the warm bloods used for dressage have a certain amoung of TB in them. Carl Hester also has KWPN and Oldenburg horses.
What makes a dressage horse is its movement which, from a foal, should be free, forward and the ability to move with its hocks under it and open the shoulder. They need to be built slightly uphill in that when they more their quarters are slightly lower than the withers this encourages them to have their hocks under them more.
As for feeding your hypothetical dressage horse is like asking how long is a piece of string! Each horse is different and as such should be fed differently. Some might be a bit lazy and need higher amounts than a ‘gassy’ type horse. Also growth comes into it. A three year old will need different nutrients to a grown horse.
The first thing that top riders will ask of a young (ridden) horse is free forward movement, this is allowing them to adjust to a rider being on them by going forward with their head lower than would normally be expected. Then as the horse strengthens and builds up the head will raise naturally and it will come onto the bridle. For the first couple of years there is very little collection asked for. movements are performed at working paces. As the horse learns the basic movements, strengthens and is stronger and is working collected so, the higher movements are asked for.
It all takes many years to teach.
References :
1. Basically any Warmblood breed is popular in Dressage.
What makes a good Dressage horse is mostly good movement. Without good movement you don’t have anything, certainly not a winning animal. A good Dressage prospect, regardless of breed, should have "big" gaits- Ones that naturally cover ground, but more importantly have lots of suspension. They are pretty to watch and seemingly effortless on the horse’s part to produce. The walk should be clearly 4 beats, and track up. The trot should be clear with a natural cadence, and once again track up. The canter should be a clear 3 beats (Foot-fall wise. If a canter sounds four-beat, it sucks.) and naturally uphill and leaping. It is very important that you judge the horse’s movement when he is At Liberty, or loose in the arena. A rider can make the horse’s movement seem better or worse than it is, and so under-saddle movement isn’t a good gauge of talent. It’s also important that the horse is mature.
Here’s a video of one of the more popular North American stallions, Freestyle. You can see how some of his natural movement transfers to under the saddle movement.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H1nkl8ekUg
Of course, temperament and trainability are also critical, but that’s more of a horse-to-horse basis- Within well bred members of a breed there’s some consistency with quality of gait (Someone looking for a Grand Prix prospect doesn’t think for a second to look at QHs.) , but with temperament and trainability that isn’t the case.
Conformation is also critical. You want a horse with solid legs- Although a Dressage horse can get away with more front-end leg flaws than a Jumper, he still can’t be a conformational wreck in any way and do well. Some flaws, like a slight sickle hock, make him seem like he has better movement. But most flaws are purely detrimental- Any crookedness in the leg, or poor angles within the leg (Pasterns too sloping or too upright) is not what you want in a Dressage horse. Generally speaking you want a horse with a shorter, more compact back, medium to upright neck set, sloping shoulders (And, as a side effect of this, usually a more prominent withers), and naturally uphill build.
2. It really depends on the horse, and the level of competition. Equine Nutrition, especially when it comes to a specific horse’s daily feed, is so complicated and personalized it’s tough to truly think it up for a hypothetical horse. Every horse is different- Some are easy keepers, some are not. Some cannot eat Alfalfa, some are fine on it. Some are hot, some need some extra "omph". Some have allergies. And there are so many different feeds out there that are more or less the same. Generally speaking, you need to keep up the calories. However, the way to do this, if hay isn’t enough, is not to add bulk so much as fats, like soybean oil, to your grain. But what grain you use is really dependant on the horse, although you’ll want something with a decent level of protein, at least 11%. Sweet feeds are not generally very good- They’re fine for building weight or feeding supplements because they taste good and are cheap, but nutritionally they’re pretty lacking. You want to stay low in starches.
Generally your feeding schedule for the horse shouldn’t change for competitions. You might add some electrolytes, or some more fat, but any major changes are unnecessary and would do more harm than good, as sudden changes in feed kill off good bacteria in the horse’s stomach and severely hamper his digestive process.
3. Oh, man. http://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/ This can help. There’s no way to summarize how to train a Dressage horse, and there’s really no way to explain it without a book. If I were you, I’d pick a level- Say 1st- and say train it to that point. The lower levels are more about getting the horse to perfect what he already has, become supple and round, and become obedient. The most common misconception about Dressage, however, is that you pull a horse into a headset, and then they are round. This is WRONG. "Round" isn’t curling the neck, and you can’t get it by see sawing on the reins. To get the horse round he must be coming through, lifting his back and moving into the bridle and the contact. You push him into a frame with your legs- If you are a solid rider with steady hands and he is "round" everywhere else, the head falls into place. The mark of a wanna-be Dressage rider is that they obsess on the head and call it good if the horse looks like this: http://www.arabsporthorses.com/gwydd_trot.jpg , Just seeing the head curled and not seeing the dropped back, trailing behind, and bulging underneck from constantly bracing against the bit.
References :