~*~ "Dressage is a precision sport. The more you learn, the less you really know" -Libby Mc Mullen ~*~ ""There is not such thing as a bad horse. Its the owner and how they treat it!" Anonymous
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"Like human beings, horses are all individuals with singular personalities, their own virtues and their own faults. We become bound to them for their beauty, their eccentricities, their heart and the love they so often return to us" - Anonymous

"It's the hardest horses that have the most to teach you." - Anonymous

"The only guideline is that there are no prizes for travelling quickly. Time means little in work of this kind. Rush ahead too eagerly, and you will soon find the need to go back and retrace some of your early steps. Travel at the right speed, and each step will take you, surely and steadily, to the next one. You still may find the need to retrace your steps from time to time. We never, in a way, outgrow the earlier exercises as we pass on to the later ones." - D. Fontana

"Classical dressage is about preserving the longevity, soundness, happiness, and beauty of the horse. One can only preserve these qualities by adhering strictly to the time-honored and proven principles of the old masters." - Anonymous

"The psychological dimension is all too often ignored or neglected, although it is every bit as important as the physical one. As classical horsemen, we study the mind and the language of the horse, in order to learn to understand and to communicate with each individual of the species." - Anonymous

"In order to train the horse to do a movement, the rider often merely has to seize the right moment and polish what the horse is offering. Before the right time has come, however, the thinking rider will not punish the horse for the premature execution of a movement he wants him to perform at some point in the future. Rather, we will observe and remember the circumstances that made the horse volunteer the movement, so we can use them to our advantage when the time has come." - Anonymous

"Adhering to a methodical training in the education of the rider as well as the horse, consisting in progressive lessons and reprises, is therefore the strict duty of the riders of this institution. Every rider has to be perfectly clear in his own mind at what stage of dressage training the horse he is working is at any given moment, and as to the goal he wants to pursue and eventually achieve from movement to movement. Asked about its purpose, he must be able to answer clearly and with few words any time." - Anonymous

"In one word, the rider must not only be able to ride, but also to think, as only a thinking rider can reach his goal with the utmost consideration for the horse in a relatively short amount of time." - Anonymous