DVD Review: **** Craig Stevens: Theory of Dressage

Disk 1 ****

Holy Maccaroni.....this is a GREAT dvd for Parelli students.  If you are doing finesse in any sort of fashion, be it in a dressage saddle or western saddle....you really should watch this dvd.  You will not see any pictures or moving video of horses.  It is a theory lesson, regarding why we do what we do, and why we shouldn't do what we hopefully are not doing.  In a short amount of time, you can learn quite a little bit about the French Classical Dressage (FC) style of riding that Pat talks about from time to time.  While it may contradict Linda's "Game of Contact" (founded with German Classical Dressage) it does not in any way contradict PNH with Finesse.  He covers such things as the history of dressage, rein effects, weight and balance effects, resistance effects, half halt, halt by combined effect, rein adjustment, how to hold the rein, and classical seat balance

He states we should never make a rearward retraction, (pull on) the reins, rather only in the halt should we used the combined effect of driving into a solid hand.

I love this saying regarding timing and strength:
"It's not the effect of force, but the force of properly timed effects."

He has a great explanation of whether or not humans are capable of balancing a horse, loved it.
"To modify balance thru suppling excersises to help the horse/rider discover where the center is"

Ride with tact....
Tact: "The application of imagination to sensation"

French:  Never attempt to deal with more than one resistance at a time.  When a horse gets out of balance physically or emotionally, Start with the halt to eliminate resistances of the weight, second: deal with the resistance of force, ie: supple the stiffness....third: then carry on.

German: Ride the horse forward through the resistance into patterns designed to gain suppleness.

In no way am I going to stand up and say every thing he says is a golden rule, simply because at this point I really don't know that much about FC dressage, but honestly whether or not I may agree or disagree, I certainly do understand it all better due to his explanations. His work is supported by French Classical Dressage master Phillipe Karl and Natural Horseman Ed Dabney.  So I am going to say that despite what ever controversy may be going on in the 'modern' dressage world regarding his work, is of no consequence to me, especially since the 'modern' dressage world is most predominantly German Classical at it's roots, if not execution.

Having now watched all 4 of his dvd's, I know he is big on classical equitation gained through suppleing and strength exercises designed to force you to find your balance and the proper seat as opposed to having someone tell you 'put your leg here and your arm here", they can easily be done in a round pen as opposed to having someone lunge you, if your horse is good in the round pen and good with passenger lessons of course. These excersises can be found on disk 1 of the "perfecting the seat" dvd set he has.

I also think this dvd set goes well with Phillipe Karl's dvd's.

Click here for a great article written by Craig regarding French Classical Dressage vs German Classical Dressage equitation.

Click here for an interview with Craig

This video series is no longer available for sale, but you can rent it from Giddyupflix

Click Here for more info on Craig Stevens