Sorensen Dressage

11/30/2025

Ask the horse to do the thing when he can physically do the thing...AHA!!! It feels like magic. I've been throughly enjoying AHA moments with students who are learning about timing their aids. For me, my introduction to timing goes back many moons ago to one clinic with George Williams (and then the many years following of decoding those lessons, making it my own, then being able to teach it!)..and yes, good timing still feels like magic!

MANY years ago, I did one two-day clinic with George Williams. Two lessons that were a total game changer. I didn’t understand either of them immediately—not even close. No joke, I spent years trying to sort out those two lessons.

The topic? Timing.

He has a series of exercises he calls “kindergarten exercises.” They’re not kindergarten, as in “uneducated,” they’re kindergarten as in “start here—do this first.” Over and over, he’d say “and now, and now, and now” in the same rhythm of the gait.

Timing is a thing I had managed to be pretty successful without a great command of, but when it was introduced so formally and simply, I had to have a good long life-choices think about how I’d gotten along without.

Here’s my favorite example:
The beginning of a trot half pass can easily be misunderstood as a canter aid because the two aids are very similar feeling to the horse. Oops. (Could also substitute haunches in for half pass here)

Let’s say I’m going to start a left half pass in the trot. I ask for left bending in the corner, then when the right front leg is touches the ground, and I’m just before the corner letter, I close my outside aids once and ask for half pass. Not too bad, right? There’s a catch, if I aid for half pass in opposite timing, when the left front leg touches the ground, that’s also the timing for my canter aid. I’ve officially ridden my horse into having to guess. Half pass or canter?

A horse physically can’t canter if you aid when the outside front leg is down. An obedient horse will either pick up counter canter, or take one extra step that brings the inside front down, so he can then strike off to canter.

Outside front leg, half pass.
Inside front leg, canter.

Timing, I tell ya…it might take a lifetime or two to sort it out, but it’s nearly magical when it starts to come together.

11/24/2025

Imagine you’re helping me out with some home renovations. (You’re the greatest, pal!) You arrive able and willing to assist for the day.

I ask, “Could you paint?” and then leave the room.

You look around and think: “OK, I can paint. I see the paint bucket and the rollers and see that the room is obviously prepared for painting. Emily’s all but disappeared, so I guess I’ll start to paint!”
I come back awhile later. “Oh no! I only wanted that wall over there painted blue, not the whole room!”
Because I gave a vague request, you filled in the gaps as best as you could and guessed at my hoped-for result.

Likewise, I could restart this scenario by saying to you, “That wall, blue.”
Again, you see the painting equipment, the room set up, you paint the one wall blue, and start to get cleaned up.
I come back as you’re almost all cleaned up and say, “Wonderful! Also, this wall blue.”
Again, because the initial request was incomplete, you had to guess, and wouldn’t have necessarily thought there would be more to it than painting the one wall. Now you have to get all of the equipment out again to keep painting.

What if I started from the beginning with a complete and clear request that minimizes your guess work? “Could you paint only that wall blue?” …and also that I stayed long enough to get feedback from you that you understand!

Most often, when a rider is having a hard time getting their horse on the same page, the aids don’t arrive as a sentence—they either arrive partially or, arguably worse, at the exact same time.

An example of a partial aid would be: “Horse, go more forward.”
The horse may go more forward, maybe a handful of times even, but eventually, they’ll start asking, “ok rider, I’m going more forward every time you ask, but why?” Over too much time, this horse will either trend towards unbalanced running, or will go into energy saving mode and will feel very dull and slow. This aid is incomplete—it doesn’t explain the purpose of why the horse needs to go more forward.

An example of applying two aids simultaneously could be “more forward” and “bend” physically applied to the horse at the same time. It’s as if the text of “bend” was layered directly over the text of “more forward.” You might be able to decipher it, but it’s extra effort and there’s no clear priority of which word comes first and which word comes second. Some horses are more generous decipherers than others, but commonly, this simultaneous closed leg/closed hand combo over too much time can lead to significant frustration—balkiness/sitting behind the leg being a fairly typical result.

An example that removes the guessing for the horse and creates a complete aid is, “Horse, go more forward because we need to bend.” Increase the energy now because the bending we’re about to do will require that energy.

As the horse and rider get tuned into their shared aid system, the language of using sentences of aids becomes fluent. Complete sentences become easy and expected, and start to become paragraphs and conversations. Reliability and clarity in the simplest elements of your aid system are what allow you to teach your horse new movements while minimizing confusion and guessing on their part. The complexity of the movements increases as you go up the levels, but the aids you’re teaching your horse with are increasingly simplified and very reliable. Additionally, your requests are always completed with feedback from the horse and allowing them to answer, “do you understand?”

And we love when they say, “YES!”

11/24/2025

11/15/2025

Moves to allow voice aids in dressage competition, made after rider feedback, have been welcomed as a positive step by competitors. From January, British Dressage (BD) and British Riding Clubs (BRC) will allow “discreet” use of vocal aids, including tongue clicking, during tests. BRC has also ru...

04/04/2025

If you’ve been waffling about saddles, now is a great time to try an EQ!

Celebrate our 25th Anniversary with savings of up to $250! With four great promotions, there's something for everybody.

Thank you to everyone - and every happy horse - who have supported us for all these years. The future is rosy!

https://www.eqsaddlescience.com/campaigns/view-campaign/ilsSw7eaR7Ei6RsJLPkgWRel_X_3lsoHAh2_o2BLcMuhpDr-j84M3Dfvoz8Vl8LWtHkkpTszuG2W0beuK5kZYH-lfTZHFDCs

12/08/2024

⏰ IT'S THE FINAL DAY! ⏰

The Dressage Foundation's Annual Online Auction closes TONIGHT (Sunday at 7 PM (CT)) — and we need your help to reach our fundraising goal! 🐴❤️

There are still incredible items that are undervalue or have NO bids yet — meaning you can score a great deal AND support the future of dressage in the U.S. 🇺🇸

💥 Bid now before it’s too late! 💥
🔗 Place your bids here: https://www.32auctions.com/TDFAuction2024

Every bid makes a difference. Let’s cross the finish line together and support our dressage community across the country, at all levels! The clock is ticking! 🕰️

Thank you! 🖤💛

11/21/2024

I’ve been very lucky to have had the opportunity to ride in EQ saddles for the last couple of months. The difference it has made for us cannot be overstated.
Pre-EQ, I had mostly stopped riding Frankie in a saddle because I was having incredible back pain, especially in canter. Flying changes, once a favorite thing for us, became dreaded because of the incoming whiplash effect that I’d feel. Frankie’s canter had made some major FEI upgrades, but the balance point of the saddle wasn’t keeping up with us anymore. Something needed to change. Enter EQ…
They’re undoubtedly the coolest feeling saddle I’ve ridden in. Kitty and Frankie have both tapped into layers (plural!) of athleticism that have been in there, but still somewhat elusive to truly tap into undersaddle. Because the saddles don’t have a flap (you can easily attach one to make them competition-legal), it creates a very unique hybrid saddle/bareback feel. I feel SO much more feedback from them.
I’ve started taking the saddles with me to clinics and have had a good number of my students try them. “Wow!” is usually comment number one. If you’re on my clinic schedule, you can assume I’ll have at least one of the EQ models in tow. If not, and you’re interested in trying one or would like information, contact me and I can connect you to both of those things.
In fact, here’s a great start—this is a super interesting video from Hilary Clayton’s lab that includes quite a lot of information about the EQ saddles (beginning at 41:15 mins).

Set aside a full hour to watch Dr. Hilary Clayton explain the conclusions she's reached after decades of research on horse and rider mechanics and saddle des...

11/21/2024

I'm all ears for a good metaphor...dressage and bread? Tell me more!

Imagine you have a large amount of bread dough. You divide it evenly and fill one long loaf pan with half and put the other half in a shorter pan with taller sides. How would the two loaves look once they’re baked? The one in the long pan would look closer to a baguette, and the one in the short p...

11/19/2024

🎉Get ready for The Dressage Foundation's Annual Online Auction November 25 - December 8 🎉

Today's sneak peek is a BIG one!

Over 31 dressage instructors/trainers nationwide have donated lessons or clinics. WOW!

Preview all available options at https://bit.ly/3UZ6Mbv then mark your calendars, invite your friends, and stay tuned for auction previews. Every bid helps support The Dressage Foundation!

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to this auction! 🖤💛