Are you a natural horsemanship student looking to learn about dressage?

Karen Rohlf loves to teach students of natural horsemanship. Students coming from a natural horsemanship education have most often been focusing on developing a good partnership with their horses, as well as making mental/emotional health a priority. It doesn’t matter what discipline you would like to end up specializing in ... a good understanding of healthy physical movement is going to be equally important.

Students coming from a natural foundation often have trouble accessing the information inside of dressage. Too many lower level (and upper level) dressage teachers are solely competition focused, or are simply not excellent enough horsemen. Let’s face it, there are too many so-called dressage teachers out there who use a lot of pressure, insults, force and intimidation. To me, this is not dressage teaching. Students coming from a foundation based in partnership, find this kind of teaching and training intolerable… and that is a good thing! Unfortunately, then too many students simply get turned off of dressage altogether, and that is a shame!

Gymnastic development of the horse is so important for the health of the horse. It is not natural for them to carry our weight on their back, and if we don’t set them up with a way to carry us well, their compensations and contortions can create may physical issues down the road, from sore hocks to front feet lameness, from sore backs to arthritis, to a general bad attitude about being ridden. On the other hand, if we help show them what they can do with their bodies, and we do our best to enable instead of hinder it, they can become empowered, free and balanced, way beyond what they may have thought of on their own out in the pasture! They can become super natural!

Karen Rohlf provides a way for the student of natural horsemanship to access the best information in dressage in a unique way that bridges and blends the qualities formed in a good natural foundation. Her method is not just an intermediary stepping stone from one to the other, but truly integrates dressage principles into foundation, and foundation principles into dressage.

Karen Rohlf's book, Dressage, Naturally: A guide to the basics of dressage from a natural horsemanship perspective, is speaking directly to the student of natural horsemanship. Karen herself considers natural horsemanship to be the context within which she does dressage. This emphasizes her commitment to an attitude of partnership first, and an interest in dressage second. In other words, as much as she is passionate about dressage (and she is), it is never a matter of making the horse perform at any cost. The limits are always decided by the horse.

She looks to the definition of the object of dressage, as written by the International Equestrian Federation as a guide. She believes that these objectives can be met in the earliest stages of dressage, and brought forward with you.

"The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete, through harmonious education, resulting in a horse who is calm, loose, supple and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with his rider." Article 401, FEI Rule Book

Karen Rohlf teaches clinics all around the world to students of natural horsemanship who want to learn Dressage, Naturally. Some of the students have no previous experience in dressage, and some, like Karen, had started in dressage, then found natural horsemanship, but never lost their passion for dressage.

Her clinics are a combination of theory, simulation, group exercises riding and on-line, semi-private and private lessons. She also holds clinics at her Temenos Fields, near Ocala, FL USA.

Are you a dressage rider looking for a new perspective?

Karen Rohlf’s base is in dressage… And right after her general love for horses, dressage is her passion of choice! Many people aren’t sure how to categorize Karen, and dressage students often are afraid to stray from ‘classical dressage’ (what ever that is!). If we take a good look at the Object of Dressage according to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) it is clear how valuable it is to be a dressage trainer with expertise in the mental/emotional development of the horse.

"The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete, through harmonious education, resulting in a horse who is calm, loose, supple and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with his rider." Article 401, FEI Rule Book

Students who are truly interested in achieving these objectives will find the system of Dressage, Naturally to be very helpful, and will quickly realize that her methods do not stray from classical dressage, but embrace the heart of it.

When Karen Rohlf meets a dressage student for the first time, she will want to listen and observe to find out where they are, currently and where their difficulties lay, or simply what the next step in training should be. From there, Karen will do her best to diagnose what is going on. There are often several layers in which to address the situation:

• In the present, which means to figure out how to ride the horse better right now to make things improve.
• In the past, which means how far back must we deconstruct the training in order to resolve a more fundamental misunderstanding, lack of coordination, etc.
• In the future, which means that we may find an exercise that is challenging for the horse right now, but it will add in a missing skill that, when gained, will help things down the road.
• To the side, which means that sometimes an issue that shows up in dressage has nothing to do with gymnastic training and is more of a partnership, trust, or motivational issue. For example, we may do things on line, or in the barn… there are many possibilities!

Chances are there will be a combination of strategies, and most importantly there will be some general principles used from natural horsemanship that may be foreign to a straight dressage student, but will be explained. Karen is willing to work at each student’s level and believes it is possible to blend in these principles and strategies with an already effective dressage team. A dressage rider doesn’t have to fear that on lesson number one Karen will insist that they ride in a halter or do only ground work. Karen just insists that they are open-minded to explore a range of possibilities!

Karen Rohlf’s other requirement is an attitude of love for the horse. Because not all training is smooth and harmonious at all times, it is most important to remember that the bottom line is that the horse is not here to serve us no matter what, but instead it is our challenge to cause him to become involved, as a willing partner. From there, using dressage, we have a chance to make him even better than he would be if just loose on his own… not just natural, but super natural!

The types of dressage students often attracted to Karen Rohlf are:

• Those who started out as a naturally natural rider, who started as a partner with her horse, then took dressage lessons and unfortunately found the wrong trainers and teachers who violated his or her sense of what is fair to horses, and are looking for dressage with more concern for the horse’s experience.
• Those who have had a successful dressage experience until meeting a particular horse that is a challenge, and now they are looking for some new ideas.
• Those students of often advanced level, or professionals who have seen Karen’s results and realizes that the qualities Karen develops are often the most elusive, and so they see the value of this kind of insight.
• Those who realize that the fields of natural horsemanship and dressage are not usually taught by one person who knows both sets of skills and wants to understand natural horsemanship in a dressage context.

Karen Rohlf loves to teach dressage clubs and can customize a clinic for your dressage GMO. Her clinics are a combination of theory, simulation, and semi-private or private lessons, as well as group exercises. Contact us to see about setting up a clinic in your area, or if you are near Florida, you and several of your peers can set up a clinic at Karen Rohlf’s Temenos Fields, near Ocala, FL.

Karen Rohlf began in Pony Club, evented to the Preliminary Level, and learned her original dressage training with ‘O’ judge, Anne Gribbons. Karen studied closely with her for 2 decades. In the early years, she became one of the youngest riders in the US to train her own horse to FEI. She assisted, and observed Anne, as horse after horse was brought from the pasture and, over time, transformed into a Grand Prix horse. She has a solid understanding of a progressive gymnastic training system. Even in those ‘strictly dressage years’ Karen developed a reputation for enjoying the ‘special cases’, showing unusual patience and curiosity towards trying to figure out how to make each individual horse and rider the best they can be.

Her students and she competed locally, nationally and in the International Young Riders Championships. Karen Rohlf was selected 4 times to represent the USA at these championships, twice as part of the silver medal team and once earning the individual bronze medal. A student of hers also was selected for the team twice on two different horses trained by Karen. There are also multiple USDF Horse of the Year placings, Regional Championships and Reserve Championships. So although currently Karen’s top priority is not to compete, she is certainly no stranger to the show ring.