Judy Walker has been practicing dressage for 30 years and teaching it for 10. Walker teaches dressage clinics at her home and stables outside Cambridge.
Dressage is “just a French word for training,” Walker said. Through that training, a horse learns to perform certain movements at the signaling of its rider, and its athletic abilities are developed. Dressage can be practiced as both a competitive sport and for its own merits. Walker no longer competes though does not rule out returning to competition in the future.
Walker’s approach to dressage differs from many other instructors’. She practices what she calls “heart-based” dressage, which places a premium on the well-being and comfort of the horse, as well as its rider.
“We’re the horse’s yoga teacher,” Walker said.
Traditional dressage instruction makes use of devices like spurs or whips that Walker avoids because, she says, they cause pain to the horse and are therefore counterproductive in the long run to the horse and rider’s athletic achievement.
“If you put a gadget on a horse, even spurs, that’s a gadget,” Walker said. “If you put a gadget on a horse, forcing them into a position, ultimately somewhere they’re going to hurt and break down.”
Walker would like to see more dressage practitioners alter their ways of doing things to be more friendly to the horses.
“Most dressage arenas, whether it’s the show ring or lessons and whatnot, more often than not, people are scowling,” Walker said. “They’re just so intense. A horse just can’t handle that.”
Walker says she loves dressage partly because of the intimacy of the relationship with horse and rider, which she sees as unique because horses are the only animals humans ride regularly.
“Maybe if you rode a dolphin it would be similar,” she said.
Reading about dressage is nearly as important to Walker as riding itself. This is partly because reading material on the subject of horses has existed almost as long as the very concept of reading material.
“The first book (on horses) was written in 400 B.C. by Xenophon,” Walker said, “and he describes riding a horse as if you’re standing on it, meaning that you’re not lounging, you’re not leaning back, you’re not slouched over … Basically if the horse disappeared from underneath you, you’d land on your feet.”
On her website, Walker cites dressage trainers and authors Walter Zettl, Sylvia Loch and Karen Rohlf as favorites and inspirations. In particular, Walker considers Rohlf to be a mentor of sorts, having taken several online courses in Rohlf’s virtual dressage arena at her Dressage Naturally website.
Dressage clinics like Walker’s include both riders and auditors. A few riders, mounted on horses, are instructed directly by the clinic’s teacher in the ring. Auditors, not on horses, observe the instruction from outside the ring.
The prices of Walker’s clinics are kept deliberately low, usually $5 for those who wish to audit. Walker intends her clinics and lessons for “ordinary people with ordinary horses,” she said. “You don’t have to have a $30,000 horse.”
For more information on Walker’s dressage clinics, lessons and boarding for horses, visit www.walkerstripler.com, or call 763-444-3829. Walker’s Triple R Ranch is located at 30221 Holly St. N., Cambridge.