Feeling Dressage: How to Achieve Harmony With Your Horse [Hardcover]

Ruth Sabine Schaefer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2003

While many dressage books detail the mechanics of riding and training, this book offers much more to horse people of all disciplines by presenting classical dressage as an important foundation for any horse.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A resident of Frankfurt, Germany, Ruth Sabine Schaefer has over 20 years experience teaching horses and riders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Eclipse Press (April 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581500939
• ISBN-13: 978-1581500936
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Animal Care & Pets > Horses > Showing & Training

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ho Hum, January 7, 2004

By 

"notadq" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling Dressage: How to Achieve Harmony With Your Horse (Hardcover)

If you are a reader, studier and/or practitioner of dressage, this book is probably not going to knock your socks off. It's pretty much the same old thing. From the title, I was hoping it would provide some interesting insight into feelings, attitude, etc. about dressage, riding, horses, and the horse/human relationship. It actually is a step by step review of the basics. If you already have basic dresage references and you want something deeper and philosophical to enhance your understanding, try Paul Belasik, Sylvia Loch Jane Savoie. We all need to work on the basics, regardless of our level of knowledge or riding - I just had different expectations for this one!

If you have not read anything about dressage, and have little experience training in dressage, and you are interested in gaining some basic understanding of the concepts, this is a good gook. The discussions are quite clear and thorough. It's a good start for your dressage library.

Personally, I'm not crazy about the frequent references of <"WE" do it this way> ("we" being the germans, I assume). I'm also not crazy about the fairly frequent references to <"in order to translate this book to english ..." I had to lose some critical meaning>. It just sounds a little germanocentric. I think the combination of this and the less-than-illuminating content makes it sound a little patronizing overall.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful, August 12, 2004

By 

Dressage CPA (TN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling Dressage: How to Achieve Harmony With Your Horse (Hardcover)

Readers of this book will find a very useful guide in learning the art of Dressage by listening to your and your horse's body- feeling correctnees instead of overthinking it. I often use the book as a guide to help fix my riding problems, horse behavior problems or just to fine tune a movement- i.e. shoulder in or half pass because of the clear concise explanations. Enjoy!

1.0 out of 5 stars Really disappointed, January 7, 2009

By 

Iberian horse lover "student-of-dressage" (Southern Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling Dressage: How to Achieve Harmony With Your Horse (Hardcover)

I read many Dressage books, and this is the first one that I have ever given one star to. The title is completely misleading as to the content of the book. It is though the book was written, and then a few chapters on "feel" were added and the book was titled with the catchy name. However most of the book never mentions "feel" anymore. This would have been a 2 star book, but even the "feel" portion was so full of contradictions that a reader will come away more confused that before! An example: Author Schaefer suggests the best timing of an impulsion aid is when the inner hind leg leaves the ground, yet suggests the timing of the inside leg aid at the trot is when you sit. Unfortunately this is the moment when the horses leg touches the ground. Ruth suggests the timing at the walk is when the horses ribs touch your calf. Sadly, this is also when the horses leg touches the ground.
So I cannot make sense of that Ruth wrote and what she actually means. A book with this title should be absolutely clear on the feeling/action relationship and this one left me cold. If you disagree with my understanding of her descriptions, please respond.