Ridden: Dressage from the Horse's Point of View

What does the horse feel when a rider is crooked in the saddle? What is it like to go faster or slower, to round curves and travel straight, with an unbalanced load to carry? What goes through the horse's mind when he is over-flexed and over-aided...when he is forced into biomechanically unsound positions? What happens when a prey animal (the horse) must learn to defeat his own preservation instinct and perform on cue with a predator (humankind) clinging to his back?

In this important book, Dr. Ulrike Thiel--a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, sport psychologist, dressage rider, riding instructor, judge, and Xenophon Society classical trainer--examines these important questions, and others. With the use of exercises and astute comparisons, Thiel gives readers an eye-opening tour of the realm of the ridden dressage horse, ensuring we all work to make the job of being ridden part of a mutual pursuit--a dance involving two engaged and caring partners, a friendship binding mind and body.

Dr. Ulrike Thiel has a doctorate in psychology and studied ethology. She is a rider, riding instructor, disabled riding instructor and riding therapist. Born in Vienna, Austria, she has participated in many equestrian sports (dressage, jumping, eventing, hunting, and trail riding), is a dressage judge and works at her own institute for equi-therapy and equestrian sport psychology in the Netherlands with horses and people. For years she has studied human learning patterns and those of animals. She has authored numerous scientific articles as well as several books. She advocates training that is best for the nature of horses and is based on the classic maxims of the art of riding.