How do I get started with dressage?

Hi! Before you can work through exercises with your horse, start by teaching the horse to respond well to the aids. The horse should answer lightly to the restraining rein-aid, the forward-driving aids and the side-directing aids before you start putting exercises together. Always begin with the smallest signal you could dream of the horse responding to, and build it up until you get something close to what you intended. The release should then come at once, almost before the horse has finished responding. The release is the most important aid, because it lets the horse link sequences of signals together, and if you are really good at being clear and consistent you will quickly have a horse that responds to small, light aids.

Once the horse understands your aids, you can start putting together exercises such as transitions, leg-yields, halts and so on.