dressage as initial training...

[sugar]

<IMG src="smileys/smiley6.gif" border="0">&nbsp;I have a TB that was abused, sold for meat and rescued by a friends friend..too make a long story short I ended up with him.&nbsp; He was a scrawney nervous wreck, not so much around men as around women.
&nbsp;<IMG src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">Now I put the work in him to get him to be a calm laid back friendly horse with good self esteem.&nbsp; And we backed him last week and he was cool with it.&nbsp;
&nbsp;<IMG src="smileys/smiley6.gif" border="0">Because of his weight being so low, his intellect being fairly high and him having been a nervous wreck recently and for most of his life (6 yrs old) I will have him ridden 10-15 mins at a time.&nbsp; I will not be allowing him out of a trot, and he will mainly be walked to avoid physical stress.&nbsp;
I feel this alone in a small arena will be incredibly boring to him and was wondering if teaching him dressage to entertain his brain if I go slowly would be safe.&nbsp; I just don't want to put too much mental stress on him as he is still&nbsp;getting used to his new social skills and confidence.
<IMG src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">Any recommendations?
&nbsp;<edited><editID>sugar</editID><editDate>38398.8318402778</editDate></edited>

[Piaffing]

Yes it would be great for him and proceed at a slow pace, but not too slow. He has to be moved out of his comfort zone every so often.

[chenders01]

I'm not really sure what you're envisioning when you say "dressage".&nbsp; Dressage, to me, is really just another word for training, which *every* horse will benefit from.&nbsp; So yes,&nbsp;your horse will definitely benefit from doing&nbsp;dressage/training, as long as you do small bits at a time, and work him up slowly.&nbsp;
He would also benefit greatly by just going out for relaxing hacks, walking with some trotting and a short canter thrown in every so often.&nbsp;
If you're thinking of trying to ride&nbsp;him in a dressage "frame" I wouldn't even worry about that right now.&nbsp; It's gonna take him a loooonnnnng time before he's able to carry himself round and collected.&nbsp; All you want to do right now is&nbsp;concentrate on getting him slowly back into work.&nbsp; Concentrate on "forward" and "rhythm".&nbsp; Do lots of transitions between walk and trot.&nbsp; And to keep your arena time from becoming too boring, mix up your routine a lot...do tons of circles, serpentines, figure-8s, squares, changes of direction.&nbsp;
Being a TB, he will need&nbsp;you to keep him on his toes and paying attention to you.&nbsp; If you just go endlessly around the perimeter of the arena, he will quickly become bored, so always keep your routine varied so that he never knows what's coming next.
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[sugar]

I used to be in the armed forces, so I have always seen dressage as simply army drill training horse style.&nbsp; ie stand,walk off, trot in a balanced manner side passes, half passes, backing and extending the trot etc...&nbsp;&nbsp;Basically many ways of going, to be performed at request.&nbsp; As soon as he is bored, you add a new way of going so to speak.
The other option is to just let him walk/trot/halt in various directions in the sand arena at my soft request.&nbsp;Let him be bored until he is fit and a decent weight&nbsp;when he can actually start&nbsp;riding him in my fields for longer and have more&nbsp;things to learn about and&nbsp;explore.&nbsp;
Thats him in my avator.&nbsp; Before I bought him.&nbsp; I have to take a new picture of him now.&nbsp; <edited><editID>sugar</editID><editDate>38399.2980787037</editDate></edited>

[Xenasaur]

definitly.... dressage is a great way to keep attention, though it can be alot of work physically as well as mentally, so I would just start slow and work your way into longer more intricate rides...
theres soooooo many excersizes that he can be doing.
I would start just with basic walk trot transitions and circles and not worry about his frame at first.
What have you been doing with him lately? Does he have any previous training in anything other than racing? Though even with race training he should know basic commans.
Still just be careful though, because even dressage can be frustrating and tedious for a high energy horse like that so I would keep it short rides.
Mabey even trail riding depending on what he can do and how comfortable you are on him.
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[Xenasaur]

and I think if you are worried about him getting physical stress just from some trot work, you may need to wait a bit before you even start riding him.
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[*rickie*]

You can always work on Dressage while on a hack/trail ride! That way your horse gets to be outside and you still get to work him. I mean you can't do circles (well not unless you come across an area around a tree wide enough! <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0">) But you can do transitions on the trail, just as you would in a ring, and you can always do leg yeilds and such out on the trail. I acutally find that my last horse (ex-gamer) did SOOO much better outside on a hack (down the road) than in the ring. His mind was just better, and he didn't think I wanted him to tack off like bat outta h*ll! OH and leg yeilding him on the road was soo much better, b/c there wasn't alot of room to go, so it relaxed him, and clamed him down!<img border="0" src="smileys/smiley14.gif" border="0"> <br /> <br />Just my experiences though! <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley14.gif" border="0">