"Exercises" for dressage...

[rileyt]

I have seen a lot of posts asking for "exercises" to accomplish various goals in dressage... e.g. (exercises to build strength, exercises to get horse off forehand, exercises to get horse in front of the vertical).

There is nothing wrong with these questions, but I thought I would post my general thoughts on this subject because I think the answers are frequently misleading...

I think frequently the posters are looking for "tricks" (and I don't mean that in a perjorative way)... For example, to build strength, do hills. Or, do 10 walk-trot-walk transitions on hills. Or "spiral in-spiral out". Or "try lunging over cavaletti".

There is nothing wrong with these answers, per se, but I think they are misleading... ANY "exercise" in dressage is only helpful if it is done correctly -- with the back up, with the horse through, soft and connected. So I think sometimes beginners are misled by these answers, and think "oh, if I want to build strength for collection, I should lunge my horse over raised cavaletti". And mostly, I think they're missing the point, and potentially damaging the horse.

At the risk of sounding preachy, simply working up the levels methodically and correctly is all that is needed to "build strength" or "get the horse in front of the vertical". And these exercises (while useful in the hands of people who ALREADY know how to get the horse working correctly) are NOT useful (and indeed, potentially harmful) in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to get the horse to go correctly.

Maj. Lundgren wrote a book of useful training exercises. It is exceptionally boring (i.e., trot a 20 meter circle, and do figure eights)... but its perhaps the most methodical book I've seen on the subject. What isn't maybe apparent to beginners, is that you can trot 20 meter figure eights until you're blue in the face, and if your horse is trotting incorrectly, all you are doing is reinforcing his bad habits. its only if you DO the exercise with the dressage basics in place, that you get anywhere. Hill work is especially true in this regard... while you may build a certain level of fitness by trotting hills, you won't build true collecting "strength" or advance your dressage training unless you do them on the bit, straight, forward, and through. If you can't get that on the flat, don't bother trying to get it on a hill...

If you don't know how to get the horse travelling correctly,... stop looking for "exercises" and focus on learning those skills. You will get no where without them.

[Eclectic Horseman]

First of all, rileyt, I want to say, "of course."

But on the other hand, doing exercises at that low level of competence doesn't usually hurt the horse either, and it does help the rider's steering and provides time in the saddle.

What I see done by many beginners and crossovers from other disciplines is that they go around the rail in each direction, w-t-c, and then they are done after 20 mins. and put the horse away. The get "bored" in the arena because they don't know anything else to do. They don't even know that there IS anything else to do, let alone how to do it. No wonder dressage is so boring for them!

[Rhiannonjk]

Riley,

What is dressage, if not a series of exercises that achieve the end goals that you mentioned? You can ride a 20 meter circle all day trying to achieve collection, or you can do exercises that bring about collection and then ride the collected horse.
I see every dressage movement as an "Exercise" to achieve the next level of collection. If you are supposed to achieve collection without doing exercises to strengthen the horse, or get them in the correct position, along the way, please enlighten me.

[Gucci Cowgirl]

I agree 100 %

sometimes all the excercises in the world can't replace 'just doing it'

strength, timing, and tact are (IMO) the 3 ingredients to training correctly. mix and match those 3 in intensity and speed, and you bypass many months (or years?) of time and energy (and soundness) wasted on school figures that in most cases are ineffective because those 3 ingredients are missing.

[swgarasu]

I think everyone will agree that riders need to learn to ride "the right way". I think almost every rider WANTS to. But while we are "getting there" sometimes things can be made simpler to help the horse and/or help the rider. If the rider could get the horse through and swinging and connected all the time, and could ride the horse completely straight, they wouldn't be asking for exercises to help. When certain exercises are recommended, it's because they will help make it easier for the horse to do what we want him to do, so while it could be accomplished by just riding correctly and doing whatever you were going to do anyway, it can be easier and more inviting to use an exercise that has been found to be easier and more inviting- example- getting a horse to supple and come through via bending instead of on the straightaway. Whether you call them tricks or tools, anyone trying to improve their horse will quickly learn different exercises that help the horse - because we want to make it easier on the horse (which typically ends up making it easier on ourselves- win win! ^_^).
And I don't agree that only exercises done with the horse supple and through will help the horse. (flame suit on). Because at first some horses can't get there. They can't even get their mind on their rider. So you do circles and transitions and such, to get their attention. You keep inviting them to soften, and relax, and get the rhythm, and keep the forward, and take contact, and come through...

[Roan]

I also agree 100%.

As for "helping the horse" -- are you REALLY helping the horse or are you just looking for a quick fix for yourself?

You can help your horse best by learning how to do it right. Learning how to do it right takes a LONG time.

Dressage is not about how fast you can train/learn from point A to C, and skipping B in the process. It's about learning A, B, C, in order, with no short cuts.

In the long run, it's your horse that is the deciding factor. He can either benefit or get hurt from it.

My 2 cents
Eileen

[Bayou Roux]

I agree.

I'd also add that time spent on a schoolmaster to give the rider the full and complete understanding of what the end goal of these exercises is (that through and correctly-working horse) is invaluable.

Like you said, you can do the exercises all day long, but if you don't know what the finished product feels like, you won't know what you're not accomplishing.

[swgarasu]

I'm interested by all these riders who apparantly have always been perfect, and have always ridden perfect horses. It took you a long time, but you never had to do any exercises to make things simpler for you or the horse. Unbelievable.

[Roan]

I'm interested by all these riders who apparantly have always been perfect, and have always ridden perfect horses. It took you a long time, but you never had to do any exercises to make things simpler for you or the horse. Unbelievable.

No. I think you're misconstruing what rileyt posted. Could you try reading it again?

Eileen

[Gucci Cowgirl]

I'm interested by all these riders who apparantly have always been perfect, and have always ridden perfect horses. It took you a long time, but you never had to do any exercises to make things simpler for you or the horse. Unbelievable.


Quite the opposite!

For me anyways, when I was a beginner, and tried to use a 10 m circle when the horse was stuck on the insiderein/leg, I would be told not to "cheat", and just do it properly. the horse doesn't want to let go of the inside, then I needed to flex, push until the horse accepted the aid, then give so the horse could come up and open. It always worked more effectively, and quicker, than the way I wanted to do it, which was just ride 10 m circles all day. The problem with my way was that the minute I straightened off the circle, the horse was against the inside within one stride.

So my trainer taught me to ride things through without having to circle or do elaborate excercises to get the same result...of course we had excercises, many of them, but for a different reason...to make movements cleaner and the horse more elastic or stronger...not just to do figures....it is harder to ride and push things through than it is to do a circle or a figure eight when the going gets tough.

[swgarasu]

No. I think you're misconstruing what rileyt posted. Could you try reading it again?

Eileen

I already responded to her post. I was thinking more about your post and Bayou Roux. I am getting a bit of a high and mighty vibe and it gets a little old. Horses being ridden "incorrectly" aren't usually being abused. I believe horses can be improved with dressage but don't think they are damned to injury and misery without it. The vast majority of riders don't EVER get to take regular lessons on schoolmasters. People generally love their horses and are trying to learn. And they will make mistakes. Yes, by all means, tell people what they don't know, and tell them what they need to learn. But I get sick of people being bashed for trying and failing. Originally all skills were learned by someone through trial and error. Now we try to do better than that by asking for other ways to acquire those skills, but we can't eliminate mistakes entirely.

[Bayou Roux]

Hey, since I'm being perceived as "bashing" people, let me clarify...

I made my post after having a longe-line lesson on a standard school horse, looking to improve my own position and aid work. Good lesson; I have much to work on, much to improve, but I got guidance and had a few "a-ha!" moments.

After the lesson, the trainer was testing out a new saddle on her personal show horse. After she found out what she wanted about the saddle, she said, "Grab your helmet!" and I got 10 minutes on a schoolmaster.

Well holy-crapoly, was it ever a come-to-Jesus moment. Having just come from a lesson where I had to work hard to get myself in a position to get good work from this experienced (read: stubborn!) lesson horse to sitting on this amazingly talented, conditioned, intelligent, capable, skilled horse, I had a transcendent moment of OH! SO THIS IS WHAT WE'RE GOING FOR!

My point, in my post, was that I could ride lesson horsey all day, and only get what she and I could put together, with her capacity and interest and my meager skills. And we might think we were doing fine. But five minutes on the schoolmaster, and I had a whole new world of appreciation for how much more there is to go for. We may never get there, but I can see it from here.

So my agreement with the OP and suggestion to never forget we can learn from talented horses was, yes, an awestruck and gushing moment from someone who been in the presence of greatness, but it certainly was not high and mighty preaching and accusing anyone (including myself) of "abusing" a horse for riding it incorrectly.

[swgarasu]

So my agreement with the OP and suggestion to never forget we can learn from talented horses was, yes, an awestruck and gushing moment from someone who been in the presence of greatness, but it certainly was not high and mighty preaching and accusing anyone (including myself) of "abusing" a horse for riding it incorrectly.

My apologies then, I stand corrected.

[Bayou Roux]

My apologies then, I stand corrected.

Fair enough! Apology accepted! :)

Back to our regularly scheduled lively discussion--

[FancyFree]

Well holy-crapoly, was it ever a come-to-Jesus moment. Having just come from a lesson where I had to work hard to get myself in a position to get good work from this experienced (read: stubborn!) lesson horse to sitting on this amazingly talented, conditioned, intelligent, capable, skilled horse, I had a transcendent moment of OH! SO THIS IS WHAT WE'RE GOING FOR!

You are lucky. I was able to ride my trainer's horse a few times and had the same response "Oh that's what it's suppose to feel like!" If only all dressage riders had access to a schoolmaster. It's such an eye opener.

As for exercises and not doing them correctly, I think what Oprah says is right on "When you know better, you do better."

[FleetwoodStarr]

Riley I disagree. While its obvious you should work you're horse in the best balance possible, I've yet to sit on a horse talented enough to give more collection just by a well applied half halt. I have had to go in the back door so to speak, with hills, cavellti, lateral work, bending lines, transitions, and half steps. Of course I did all this work with the horse as through as possible and with fairly decent timing, but ime its those "tricks" that really develop a horse. I reread you're post and maybe we do agree? All I know is that my bag of exercises has served me well.

[slc2]

I sort of agree...with a part of each post...LOL.

What is 'an exercise' varies depending on who you talk to. To some, an 'exercise' is a series of different movements put together, such as a trot, halt, turn on the forehand, and trot off. To others 'shoulder in', a movement, is an 'exercise'. To others, 'cavalletti' is an 'exercise'. So hopefully people are all talking about the same things....but it sounds like they aren't.

I think it IS a mistake to have a fundamental part of the whole dressage equation missing and to ask, 'isn't there one simple quick THING i can do and get rid of this problem? Just something I can get done in one day?' People essentially ask that question all the time, and they get answers here that they LOVE....LOL. Appealing answers. Horse not forward in the ring...don't ride forward in the ring and train in a response to your leg - too boring and hard - take him out in a field and aim him at the barn, he'll want to go fast! Eureka! No contact on the reins? Get a different bit, drop the reins or don't try to make contact for a couple months!

Actually...I think this is where the 'fixit' mentality is at its worse and where 'exercises to fix' go the most wrong.

But knowing something to do to make a correction isn't ALL bad. A zig zag problem might be fixed by doing a little strategic leg yield like position at a point in the zig zag, if the horse is forward, bending and mostly on the bit. A lateral walk might improve with some leg yields. A heavy on the forehand horse might be more balanced with an exercise of a series of transitions. A half pass might be very easy if we circle, then shoulder in, then haunches in, then do the half pass....Sure...these have to be ridden correctly, but they CAN be very helpful.

[mp]

I agree that exercises correctly done are much more beneficial to rider and horse. And there are no shortcuts. But ... every rider has to start somewhere.

I was a member of the clueless unwashed for a long time. So I fully understand the frustration of trying to do something that I simply didn't have the skills to do, and of asking questions and not understanding the answers. But I tried anyway. I wasn't even focusing on dressage. I just wanted to ride better.

And I can assure you the exercises you mention are helpful, even if the rider can't do them particularly well. They help focus on a problem, and if you get just a very marginal amount of improvement, that's better than where you were. And that glimmer of what you're seeking may lead you to find a good instructor who can help you work toward "correct."

And that's what most riders really need. Not an "I've been to the mountain top" attitude that makes riders from disciplines roll their eyes.

[MyReality]

I disagree. It sounds correct, and probably is correct in some cases. We do have something that defines the fundamental development in dressage, called the training scale. However, we are talking about techniques, not tricks, not extraordinary, unnatural things. Why do we need techniques, because every horse is different, their strength and way and learning, way of responding both mentally and muscularly is different... AND because every rider is different as well, and we are different in even more dimensions.

For instance, my little Draft cross mare, for her right at the beginning, it's forward forward forward. Her muscles relaxes when she is forward, she is better balanced when she is forward, she has no time to misbehave when she is forward, and it is the ONLY way to get her to work over her back. My OTTB gelding, totally different... for him at the beginning, when I pushed him forward, he thought he had to tighten all his back muscles and move his legs as fast as possible. Only when I slowed him down, he was able to grow a brain, relax and let me balance him. When he became more steady, then we worked on forward.

True, there is no quick fix ever. But you absolutely need to vary the technique according to the horse/rider. It is never black and white. Let the horse tells you.

[bip]

I guess I'm confused. Say I want to use a 20m circle as an "exercise". Is a "wrong" 20m circle worse than just staying large? What if the first circle is "wrong", but with subsequent circles they get better and better?

Are you saying that one can't benefit from an exercise unless they have ridden it correctly on a schooled horse? That is, one can't come to an understanding of the training scale and basic aids on paper, and then apply that to what they are feeling on the horse. Instead, you have to feel it done correctly before you can ask for it on a horse who needs the exercise to improve some element of where it is on the training scale?

What if you learn an exercise in a lesson, where the instructor tells you when you are doing it correctly and when what you are feeling is right? Can you benefit from practicing it on your own? It seems like you must be able to, otherwise no one would know how to ride!

If you are in lessons and learning the elements of the training scale, if you are verbally told or read a new exercise that uses elements of exercises you have done before, why wouldn't you be able to benefit from them?

[sm]

I have seen a lot of posts asking for "exercises" to accomplish various goals in dressage... e.g. (exercises to build strength, exercises to get horse off forehand, exercises to get horse in front of the vertical).


rileyt, I don't know if my TB Exercise thread prompted your thread here. If it did, I'm looking for specific exercises to help TBs build "lift." If you look at a WB moving you'll often see the suspension built in. Yes, it's nice to say the rider did the work by correctly moving up the training scale, but there is the horse's natural gait factor. And the horse's natural build: many TBs are croup high while others are built uphill with a natural "lift"...

Obviously, the best trainers use exercises geared to their horse's specific individual needs.

Christine Traurig had specific exercises for a TB to build lift, I audited a clinic of hers. I am wondering about others. This is in addition to following the training scale, not instead of.

[Roan]

I already responded to her post. I was thinking more about your post and Bayou Roux. I am getting a bit of a high and mighty vibe and it gets a little old. Horses being ridden "incorrectly" aren't usually being abused. I believe horses can be improved with dressage but don't think they are damned to injury and misery without it. . . .Oh, no, nooooooooooooooo -- not what I meant :)

I was referring to using shortcuts to get to places that the horse is not physically ready for. Riding small circles for "balance" when the horse can't even balance in a large circle. Pushing them into "collection" when they haven't even learned how to use their hind end properly. And so forth -- that's what I was referring to.

The vast majority of riders don't EVER get to take regular lessons on schoolmasters.. . .I've never even ridden a "schoolmaster" in the true sense of the word. When I need to know how something is supposed to feel, sometimes just getting on an older lesson horse (even a hunter or jumper) and asking them to do the same thing is enough to push me in the right direction.

People generally love their horses and are trying to learn. And they will make mistakes. Yes, by all means, tell people what they don't know, and tell them what they need to learn. But I get sick of people being bashed for trying and failing. Originally all skills were learned by someone through trial and error. Now we try to do better than that by asking for other ways to acquire those skills, but we can't eliminate mistakes entirely.Of course we can't eliminate mistakes. If we did, there would be no learning process.

I know not everyone can afford lessons. I can barely afford one a month! Not everyone has access to trained horses. My Lipizzaner mare, and they are very difficult rides btw, could probably do 2nd level with my trainer on board if they worked at it for a month. If you are not "correct", my girl will simply not do! God knows that that correctness is what I've been working on for a year. Yes, a year. I've spent the last year just learning how to have the proper SEAT and getting my mare consistently forward and swinging so that she develops a good ethic and proper topline. I still don't have it! But, I will and I will not try to go further until I do.

There are *other* ways of learning and not just asking questions on CoTH or other boards. Books! Lists! Web sites! If you want to follow the German scale and their riding, look for books written by people who agree on how it should be done. If you want to follow classical, pick one of the four schools and follow that school. Pick one of the ODGs and follow his teachings. Be consistent. There are Yahoo! groups for classical training -- and these guys are purists -- groups for people who are beginners to classical and I'm sure there may be groups and sites for each individual ODG. If you don't understand something, ask!

I'm not trying to be preachy at all. I'm just saying that there are alternatives for those who don't have access to lessons or schoolmasters. Yes, it will take even LONGER to get there, but the discovery process is quite a eye-opener in itself.

Bah -- if I rant, I apologize. If I sound like I'm on "a high horse", that is certainly not my intention. If anything, I just want to help and getting what you mean across on the internet ain't at all easy peasy.

Eileen

[swgarasu]

If anything, I just want to help and getting what you mean across on the internet ain't at all easy peasy.

Eileen

Yes, I agree. And that's why we have to ride (and thus chance making a mistake) in order to test the theory and to practice, and improve.
I think the ideal is that a person would learn all the theory from a master, get on the perfectly trained schoolmaster and perfect their seat on the lunge, then go on to ride every movement perfectly on a schoolmaster several times a day, and THEN maybe deal with a green horse, who maybe isn't as suited to dressage.
AND it STILL wouldn't be EASY.

[PaintHorseHunterFreak]

while i agree with the OP wholeheartedly, I also feel that for those who don't yet have the ability to get the horse through, balanced, collected, w/e are the ones who benefit the most from these exercises.

by this i mean that a rider who is ready to start riding collected movements but is not yet confirmed in riding them would be best to teach the horse the balance needed and yeach themselves about the feel through exercises that help with that. obviously, exercises for various purpose are not a quick fix, as long as the rider or trainer understnads that, they are strictly beneficial.

[AM]

I took some time to think about this and I beleive RileyT just took several paragraphs to remind us that practice does not make perfect but only perfect practice makes perfect. If your horse is leg yielding with his back dropped, his shoulders three feet ahead of his hips, his head in the air, and his hind legs not crossing at all, the exercise is probably not benefiting the horse in any way.

[Rusty Stirrup]

I agree with the OP. Progress and fitness are something that should naturally happen as one works using the guide of the training scale. Exercises have evolved from the experience of those who have gone before but if not done correctly the muscle develope and carriage of the horse will show it at a glance. The horse will reflect the rider. (Correct) riding should make the horse more beautiful.

[fry]

Okay, I think the whole point of this thread is that there are people who are hoping for some exercise that will have the horse become through, connected and engaged without learning how to create and ride throughness and connection. The basics are throughness and connection. Once you've mastered that, then the exercises will enhance much for horse and rider. Without that, the exercises are just patterns for the sake of riding patterns. Yes? And the rider must be fit enough to learn the basics of connection and throughness.

[sm]

fry, I think you summed it up beautifully.

[slc2]

I guess I'm confused. Say I want to use a 20m circle as an "exercise". Is a "wrong" 20m circle worse than just staying large?

-- I think it's a little bit like arguing if Superman would beat Spiderman worse than Superman would beat Batman. Sorry, it's supposed to be funny. The point being that a rider does a circle while training his horse for a purpose. Say, if the horse is getting too stron and losing his bend, he rides a circle. If the circle is very incorrect, it might not serve its purpose.

-- I like to think that everything we do when riding is like a conversation with the horse. The horse has things we want to fix, we work on them, if they get better we go on to the next thing, if they don't, we stick with the exercise and try to make it work better or try something else. So each ride would have sort of a goal and direction.

What if the first circle is "wrong", but with subsequent circles they get better and better?

--Depends on how much you want to have correct work. Usually it establishes a pattern of 'we do a lot of incorrect circles and then we do a good one', and every day when you go out, that's what you get.

--And that doesn't work at a show because we want the ones we do at the show to be good. If we warm up for an hour to finally get one good circle and run to the ring and hope they stay good for a couple minutes more, we might 'leave the horse in the warmup' (the horse is tired or sick of it or both, and doesn't do a good test) or the circles might just go down the drain again.

--It doesn't work for me because I don't want to run up the odometer. A horse has only so many miles on his legs. I want to do 3 nice circles, instead of 20 bad ones and 1 good one. I think I can also safely say if I do 20 bad ones, the 1 good one won't be as good as if I did 3 nice circles every day.

-- I also would just be doing the same stuff over and over. My ride would be full of trying to do the damned circle (figuratively, as it would be the same with ALL the work in the ride) and I would never get to go on to anything more advanced.

Are you saying that one can't benefit from an exercise unless they have ridden it correctly on a schooled horse?

--I might say that a person would find teaching an untrained youngster flying lead changes, piaffe, passage and pirouettes easier if he had ridden them on a more trained horse and understood them, but I know people who have done that, they just understand what the trainer is saying or the trainer gets up on their horse and has the horse do it, then the owner gets back on.

-- I don't think a person has to ride a schoolmaster (schoolmaster at least used to mean a horse trained to GP) to experience a correct circle, a straight diagonal, or most of the other work from intro to third level.

--If a schoolmaster is just a 2nd or 3rd level trained horse, I think most people can understand enough to know when their own horse is doing a circle correctly to not have to get up a more trained (2nd-3rd lvl) horse to 'feel' it.

That is, one can't come to an understanding of the training scale and basic aids on paper, and then apply that to what they are feeling on the horse.

--It varies from person to person, and the horse and trainer count for something. Some trainers are amazing at getting very inexperienced people on very average horses to understand and do alot. Others are not.

Instead, you have to feel it done correctly before you can ask for it on a horse who needs the exercise to improve some element of where it is on the training scale?

--There's a point at which a person can't learn to ride by reading or being talked to. It helps immensely if you have a very, very clear visual picture in your mind of what you're trying to accomplish.

--I don't think ANYONE gets good without a lot of riding, a lot of reading, and a lot of watching their instructor and other of his or her students riding.

--I think dressage books are both a curse and indispensable. And they are worthless by themselves. Most dressage books are totally worthless from the start - they make a rider think in terms he isn't even near ready for and that can be very confusing and discouraging. Dressage books have to be read in a very particular way.

-- What's the saying? Seeing is believing, and feeling is when the rubber hits the road.

-- For example, reading in a book and seeing a picture, a person may nod sagely and say, 'I must circle smoothly', and they will STILL aim a straight horse at the wall and yank him around the second before his forehead rams into the kickboards. seeing hundreds of people at shows making a smooth circle, the person probably won't aim a straight horse at the wall, jerk his head to the inside the second before it rams its forehead into the wall, and have his shoulders need grease to slide down the wall because his head is so cranked to the inside and his shoulders are not. It DOES help to be able to visualize what you want to wind up with. But that picture has to be internalized in a different way than just looking at it.

--To a point.

--Alot of that is the physical fitness that one needs and the ability to get into a 'body aware' position on a horse (having both of your legs at the same place on the horse, same amt of weight in each seatbone, etc), and having the ability to control the muscles and follow the motions of the horse.

--Some people are very good at feeling what's going on - for others their body does not work that way. Feeling can be very hard for them.

What if you learn an exercise in a lesson, where the instructor tells you when you are doing it correctly and when what you are feeling is right?

--Well if most of the people i worked with ever said anyone had done something correctly i would think a Pulitzer Prize was should be given the rider. Usually it's a begrudging, 'that's a LITTLE bit better'.

Can you benefit from practicing it on your own?

--Some people can, some people can't. Some people can't take that feeling home and reproduce it. Some people can do it sometimes, and not others. Alot of times, that's just knowledge - it may not be at all that one little twiddle with the reins or the legs that 'fixed' whatever was wrong, but a whole different warmup and orderly progression of warmup to exercises. People can get mixed up as to what really did the trick.

It seems like you must be able to, otherwise no one would know how to ride!

--Not true. They would just take a lot more lessons.

--Most people struggle along confused about what to do because they don't get enough lessons, or there's not enough continuity to their lessons...they might go to a lot of different clinicians or various instructors, or they may get totally confused by books and different methods their friends talk about, til they are so completely confused about what they are supposed to be doing that they do nothing.

--People often would have a fit if you told them they were confused, but their riding and everything they say about their riding shows a very deep and profound confusion, even just to the casual observer.

If you are in lessons and learning the elements of the training scale, if you are verbally told or read a new exercise that uses elements of exercises you have done before, why wouldn't you be able to benefit from them?

--I think this is covered in 'Rhetoricals'? as Radar O'Reilly said? You're saying that you should be able to learn the elements of a training scale, go out and do any exercise you read about, and benefit from it.

--And the answer is the same as in several previous posts: If you do it right.

--There is no guarantee that a rider is going to ride correctly every time because he knows some principles up in his head.

--He's lost without those principles of the training scale, without them he has no direction and is drowning.

-- but they aren't like a lifeboat, a paddle and a life jacket that you just pick up and they are there, poof!

--They are more like, 'what's a life jacket made of, ok, now go make that lifejacket, details from your instructor to follow as you make the lifejacket....oh by the way, the lifejacket, the paddle and the life raft aren't any good by themselves, you need to work on making those other things at the same time as you make the lifejacket as they all are interwoven'.

-- He may not even feel mistakes he makes, or he may have to change what he's doing to address something the horse is doing, and he may not know what changes to make to fix something that's going wrong.

--Georg Theodorescu once said he left this country and went back to Europe because American people wanted 'dressage recipes'. They thought they could progress in a mechanistic fashion. Give them a recipe, they read it, voila, out pops piaffe, passage etc. press here with your leg, there with your rein, get the right combination of this and that and out pops a piaffe. There is so much feel to this, and so much 'custom mixing' to get a result.