Trained in english riding since I was 8 years old, I prefer currently natural Horsemanship and the communication on the ground. But there is something that appeals to me very much:
www.horseboyworld.com
"Perhaps the reason why we are able to communicate dressage well is because we do it for a reason: to help kids.
Ultimately the only reason we do dressage here at New Trails is because we need to create horses that give oxytocin to the children we ride with and therefore open up the child’s brain to learning.
We train dressage so we can teach a kid math on horseback.
The dressage is not the end in itself.
This gives us a perspective on the situation that few other than perhaps bullfighters and showjumpers have – that dressage is there to help a horse and rider get to where they want to get: even if its just to have a really nice soft safe balanced trail horse.
Dressage was never intended to be an end in and of itself. And the problem with sport dressage is that stress is inherent in all sport, because there is a score and a judge from the moment you begin, who never goes away; and the only joy is in good performance, and there is competition and judgment and therefore human ego at every level."