Pennsylvania Riding Academy

Here is Paul on a fine morning this week, schooling piaffe with his young Andalusian mare, Eleison. Thanks to Jessica Gadbois for capturing this beautiful moment!

Holiday sale for the History of Dressage Poster! A beautiful art piece showing 5 centuries of dressage training lineage in 5 countries and a Classical Training Pyramid to inspire and guide you. A unique and remarkable poster that should hang in every dressage barn. An incredible gift for a rider or for yourself. Shop here for the holiday sale! https://paulbelasik.com//the-classical-training-scale-and/

Paul Belasik, internationally respected trainer of horses to beyond Grand Prix and author of 8 books on dressage, is now booking clinic dates for 2021! Contact [email protected] for more information. Visit paulbelasik.com to see articles, videos, shop our new poster and more!

High School: The culmination of the Classical Dressage Pyramid! Read the fifth and final article here: https://www.horsemagazine.com//high-school-the-final-buil/

Collection: The Fourth Building Block of the Classical Dressage Pyramid. Read Paul's full article here: https://www.horsemagazine.com//collection-the-fourth-buil/

Register now for our last lecture demo of the year! "The Young Horse" on October 17th, 1-3 pm. Seating is limited. https://paulbelasik.com//lect/lecture-series-registration/

A fantastic gift for all dressage riders!

If you tried to order a poster and weren't able to complete the process, we have fixed the issue! Please try again here, and reload the page if needed: https://paulbelasik.com//the-classical-training-scale-and/ Thanks and happy riding!

As of October 15, We have an opening for a horse in training. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

New! History of Dressage and Classical Training Scale Poster! We have an extremely special new project that we are excited to share with all dressage riders! Author and trainer Paul Belasik has created a unique and remarkable poster that embodies a lifetime of study and riding in classical dressage. This oversize poster is a beautiful, frameable artwork that should hang in every dressage stable. It is a synopsis of dressage history from the Renaissance to modernity. The genea...logy of five centuries of different national schools is a telescope into the past, and illuminates some of the outstanding contributors to classical dressage around the world. The training scale that is included codifies the universal collaboration that overcame national rivalries and prepared a masterful body of evidence on how to train a dressage horse that can guide any thinking rider toward the future. The poster's size is 36 inches wide by 56.5 inches tall. Order yours today at: https://paulbelasik.com//the-classical-training-scale-and/ See more

September Lecture/Demonstration Recap: Dressage for Everyone A sizeable audience, including a good representation from Pony Club, attended our most recent lecture demo, Dressage for Everyone. We even had an attendee drive down from Michigan for the event! It was a lovely fall day, perfect for comfortably settling into the arena to hear Paul’s opening lecture on equine biomechanics, balance under the rider, and how basic dressage principles can assist riders and horses of... various disciplines. He also addressed many questions from the audience about common misunderstandings of dressage foundations, the role of stretching, and the early history and techniques of classical dressage riding. We deliberately chose not to showcase any typical dressage breeds such warmblood horses or pure Iberian horses during the afternoon showing instead several non-traditional horses that are currently in training with us. Rose presented a 15 year old 1st/2nd level Belgian/Quarter Horse cross mare, a 7 year old 2nd level Arabian/Andalusian gelding, and a nine year old 4th level BLM Mustang. Each horse had quite different conformation from the others. Rose rode a repertoire of exercises and described each horse’s history, training challenges and progress. Paul suggested specific adjustments to the work and future goals. As usual, it was an entertaining and interactive afternoon. Thank you so much to our owners who let us show their horses and to Jessica Gadbois for the photography. We are looking forward to our October topic - The Young Horse.

We still have a few spots left for this lecture/demo - extending registration through the 18th!

"Pure Experience," excerpted from Paul Belasik's latest book, Dressage for No Country. In riding, mindfulness takes on a double importance. For the human, mindfulness brings you closer to the person you were meant to beyour best self. It develops a calmness with acceptance. When your attention is on the task at hand, and not on the endless scenarios of disaster or the fantasies of exaltation, which dilute pure experience, the event becomes more concentrated. Recent studies... have shown that as much as 50 percent of the time, we are thinking about ourselves instead of what we are doing. The more attention you put on experience, the better you get at handling itgood or bad. This efficient and focused calm can help create a mutual focused calm in the horse. The notion of competition being based on the pursuit of winning makes a person vulnerable to external definitions: you are an A rider, a B rider, a C rider. These categories conveniently let people who don’t know you define you quickly, put you in a box, and allow you to do the same thing to others. People are complicated; too much external evaluation promotes anxiety and stress, especially if it conflicts with the individual’s feelings and ideas about themselves. These are debilitating effects, which can promote illness rather than well-being, eventually impacting the progress and health of the group. Instead, consider the notion of competition built more on the idea of scaffolding, where an individual is important because the better she develops her own particular and individual skills, the more she contributes to the overall healthy development of the group. The group therefore has a vested interest in all members’ continued development, as opposed to the group mining the highest skills of certain individuals for propaganda and then discarding them once a particular target is achieved. Mastery in riding requires one to control one’s emotions and develop attention (focus), which will in turn sharpen attention even more. Developing attention can help uncover your true motivations and give you skills to adjust them. It can increase your powers of perception, so you can edit information more effi- ciently; you actually see more, faster. In learning to focus, you discipline your attention, which leads to increased awareness, and that increased awareness will translate into better performance. #horseandriderbooks Jessica Gadbois photography. See more

"Your Best Self," an excerpt from Paul Belasik's latest book, Dressage for No Country: What if dressage was instead about reaching a place where you are near the best idea of yourself? You might not be famous, but your horse likes and respects you, people like and respect you. You work hard, but you’re not nervous about the outcome. How you feel about your work won’t change much because of some judge’s opinion. You are less concerned with how you measure up to an external y...ardstick because you are seriously engaged in how you meet standards established by your own tests. When you are riding, training, or teaching, you are so focused, you are often unaware of time. Even when a session is difficult, you feel right with your horse. The stiffness in your back seems to have disappeared. If you get frustrated, you can quickly recover your attention. Your emotions can’t seem to get a foothold; the anxieties in your life seem suspended for a while. What you do together with your horse seems like cooperation; a mutually beneficial dance, and not like a continuing argument. Have you ever seen pictures of people swimming in the ocean, their hands clasped around the dorsal fin of a dolphin as the dolphin carries them along? They feel excitement, fear, joy their faces say it all. They can’t put into words the rapture they are relishing, a suspension of any editorializing or sarcasm. It is a powerful jolt of pure experience, in that moment of communion with nature itself. Even though the positive effect of that connection can’t be entirely explained, most people acknowledge it is important. We ride horses. Do we find ourselves forgetting how ridiculously amazing that is? #horseandriderbooks

PM for video and more information on this very beautiful gelding who has the disposition to match his looks. 7 years old, 16.3 Andalusian cross. He is truly a once in a lifetime companion. Extremely reliable, no vices or misbehavior. Hacks quietly, has tremendous work ethic. Comfortable gaits, easy lateral work, ability to collect and schooling tempis. Excellent barn manners, good shipper, everyone's favorite horse. Friendly, healthy, and sound. Uncomplicated, no maintenance, well behaved for farrier and vet. Registered Half Andalusian, IALHA, by accomplished Grand Prix stallion Excelso.

After years of training, the horse adjusts its balance through the lever of its own body at the suggestions of the rider. It is a beautiful thing to watch because there is nothing to see but the horse.