Jec A. Ballou’s distinct love of developing equine athletes is fueled by her eclectic background. Raised in a horse training family, she has devoted herself to the most thorough, correct, and straightforward approach to improving performance for horses and riders alike. In addition to being a nationally recognized educator about equine conditioning and gymnastic development, she is a committed rider, author, philosopher, published poet, and athlete. As author of "101 Dressage Exercises" and her new soon to be published book, "101 Western Dressage Exercises, She will be posting an "Exercise of the Week" to her WDAA educational Blog. Feel free to use this to enhance your western dressage riding ability. You can also visit her website directly at www.JecBallou.com
In terms of developing better balance and therefore improved movement in our equine athletes, symmetry is a constant priority. Patterns that require a horse to smoothly bend his body from one direction to the other promote evenness in his muscular and skeletal system. Changing bends like this while maintaining a slow, steady tempo has multiple [...]
Every year at this time, riders around the country set out with good intentions to get their horses back to a decent fitness level post-winter. Along with this pursuit comes a list of questions. Especially after reading through many of the fun exercises in this blog, riders want to know which routines are appropriate for [...]
Most dressage exercises aim towards an elusively perfect execution, but sometimes when developing the horse’s way of moving we need to let things get a little messy. We need to create gaits that move smoothly through his body and choose patterns that cause our horses to be accountable for their own balance. By asking a [...]
Enjoy this “Western Dressage Exercise of the Week” by Jec Ballou. Feel free to use this to enhance your western dressage riding ability. As spring buds burst open and horses shed their winter coats, daily riding sessions become more consistent. For some, this means setting goals for the season ahead or plotting adventures, but for [...]
One of our biggest jobs as riders is the pursuit of straightness in our horses. Helping our naturally crooked equine athletes become more even on both sides of their bodies presents no small task, and sometimes the goal of symmetry and balance seem elusive. The esteemed veterinarian and dressage author Dr. Gerd Heuschmann (Tug of [...]
Modern science has given us wonderful new tools with which to further understand the horse’s musculature and skeletal functioning under a rider. What has become clear in the past few years of thermal imaging, feedback sensors, and continued bone studies is how blocked or tight the horse’s back can become even with correct regular training. [...]
You might be wondering why so many of my dressage exercises use ground poles, and I can assure you there is no shortage of good reasons for this. Consistent work over ground poles in rhythmic gaits with a rounded topline can lead to all kinds of positive results. Primarily, it helps create stifle flexion in [...]
This is a maneuver that lots of riders make to change direction, but rarely do I see it ridden correctly or balanced. When the horse changes direction by a tight turn like this, he needs a stride or two to re-organize his spine and balance on what will be a new inside hind leg. Also, [...]
Think of this week’s exercise as a tune-up of your horse’s motor, his hindquarters. This fun and challenging pattern strengthens and stretches his lower lumbar region, those muscles in his loins required to tuck his pelvis. It also increases flexion and strength of his quadriceps, which leads to more stability in stifle and hock joints. [...]
A horse’s ability to use his hindquarters for engagement and propulsion depends not on his hind legs but on his front end. Before anyone gets quizzical about this assertion, let me remind them that the horse’s entire trunk is suspended in a hammock-like sling of muscles and connective tissue. A fine network of muscles threads [...]
