The hosts: Richard Davison (left) and Carl Hester (right)From left: Richard Davison, Sylvia Loch and Carl HesterClick on the image for the event’s website
It seems that The Dressage Convention is here to stay and will be a yearly event which I am very excited about as I couldn’t make this one in person.
If you are on Twitter, have a look at #TDCTalk tag for various updates from the event. Horse and Hound Magazine also ran a super tweet-report live from Bury Farm and I recommend having a look at their profile for many thought provoking lines: @horseandhound
Here is a little taste for what happened at the weekend. My resolution is to make the 2014 one in person!
7 thoughts on “Pearls of Wisdom from The Dressage Convention with Carl Hester, Richard Davison, Sylvia Loch, Miguel Ralão and Charlotte Dujardin”
I was there and it was a brilliant and very inspiring weekend. I learnt so much! Will write about it on my blog when I get a few minutes. One of the funniest moments was after Carl had demonstrated an exercise they had used to improve Valegro’s passage. He said it was half way between piaffe and passage and they call it “pissage”! The whole weekend was about celebrating the similarities between classical and competition dressage and bridging the divide and they all did that brilliantly, and with great humour and goodwill. Highlights for me were the wonderful atmosphere, the gorgeous Lusitano stallion who had come over especially from Portugal so his amateur rider could be a part of Miguel Raolo’s presentation (he performed beautifully both days), Sylvia Loch with her broken foot getting on a young PRE she didn’t know who was pulling his rider’s arms out and looking ready to explode, immediately dropping the reins, refusing to give him anything to pull against and making him relax (I hope I have a fraction of her courage when I reach her age) and Valegro in party mood, desperate to show off – who could ask for more……!!!
Thank you for sharing this! 🙂 I so wish I could have been there, will have to wait for next year. I am looking to your write up 🙂
I heard Horse & Rider magazine will have in depth reports from the weekend from Feb 2014 onwards so I will have to settle for reading those.
Oh, and Valegro, when he was having a break on a long rein, turning his head and staring at his audience as he walked the entire length of the long side, looking like a king acknowledging his adoring subjects!!!
Official Blog by Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy 
I was there and it was a brilliant and very inspiring weekend. I learnt so much! Will write about it on my blog when I get a few minutes. One of the funniest moments was after Carl had demonstrated an exercise they had used to improve Valegro’s passage. He said it was half way between piaffe and passage and they call it “pissage”! The whole weekend was about celebrating the similarities between classical and competition dressage and bridging the divide and they all did that brilliantly, and with great humour and goodwill. Highlights for me were the wonderful atmosphere, the gorgeous Lusitano stallion who had come over especially from Portugal so his amateur rider could be a part of Miguel Raolo’s presentation (he performed beautifully both days), Sylvia Loch with her broken foot getting on a young PRE she didn’t know who was pulling his rider’s arms out and looking ready to explode, immediately dropping the reins, refusing to give him anything to pull against and making him relax (I hope I have a fraction of her courage when I reach her age) and Valegro in party mood, desperate to show off – who could ask for more……!!!
Thank you for sharing this! 🙂 I so wish I could have been there, will have to wait for next year. I am looking to your write up 🙂
I heard Horse & Rider magazine will have in depth reports from the weekend from Feb 2014 onwards so I will have to settle for reading those.
Oh, and Valegro, when he was having a break on a long rein, turning his head and staring at his audience as he walked the entire length of the long side, looking like a king acknowledging his adoring subjects!!!
🙂 🙂
Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you last night, Equestrian Vision filmed it all and are doing pay per view of the convention on their website, live by Monday evening, and bringing out a DVD in November – http://www.equestrianvision.co.uk/index.php/the-dressage-convention/.
Now that is a wonderful news! Thank you for the link 🙂 🙂
P.S. I hope we will get to meet some time soon!
Thanks for the Link, I´ve watched the videos and they´re great!