Taking Up the Reins: A Year in Germany with a Dressage Master

Taking Up the Reins: A Year in Germany with a Dressage Master A fantastic book. A reflection of time spent in Germany. Does not just apply to horse owners or riders of horses. It is about following a dream and reflecting on the experience. Learning, growing and changing.

Priscilla Endicott did what many people only dream about. She ventured to Germany for a year to train with master trainer, Walter Christensen. The ups and downs of the year were clearly explained and the ups always conquered the downs. The routine of teh stable was like nothing I have ever seen or read about before. And Priscilla came back to America with an experience that she will never forget. I got the book as a gift and could not stop reading it! I have loaned it out to my horse friends and they have all loved it! It is a must read for all dressage riders. It will make you more determined than ever to get to Germany and train with the best in the world!

If wishes were horses (and for many of us, they so often are), then just about any passionate dressage rider would want to follow in Priscilla Endicott's adventure. She clearly chronicles what it is like to enter into a relationship with a wonderful horse, and then to trust her mentor, Walter Christiansen, with that relationship far from home. She submits herself and her horse to the regimen so often looked upon with envy and awe by American riders...German dressage training. She takes us from the barn she comes to call home for a year to visits with the great Herbert Rehbein; and from Christine Steuckelberger and her trainer, Georg Wahl. Mainly, though, she takes us deeper into her growth as a rider and as a person, and into those extraordinary way horses and dressage teach us about life.It is a wonderful read first from the standpoint of horses and the art of dressage, but it also speaks of the courage to leave your own country to learn from another culture. I loved this book.