I stumbled upon this website, and was immediately intrigued.
http://dressagenaturally.net/
The background (copied directly from the homepage):
About Karen Rohlf
Karen Rohlf trained over 20 years in dressage with
Anne Gribbons ('O' dressage judge, International Grand Prix trainer and competitor) and studied
Parelli Natural Horsemanship directly with Pat and Linda Parelli.
She has trained horses and students to the upper levels of dressage, represented the USA 4 times on the Young Riders team, passed her USDF 'L' Education (judge training) Program test with distinction, and was accepted into the USEF 'r' judge program.
She now divides her time between traveling the world giving clinics and training at home at her Temenos Fields in Ocala, Florida.
Karen Rohlf began in Pony Club, evented to the Preliminary Level, and learned her original dressage training with 'O' judge, Anne Gribbons. Karen studied closely with her for 2 decades, In the early years, she became one of the youngest riders in the US to train her own horse to FEI. She assisted, and observed Anne, as horse after horse was brought from the pasture and, over time, transformed into a Grand Prix horse. She has a solid understanding of a progressive gymnastic training system. Even in those 'strictly dressage' years, Karen developed a reputation for enjoying the 'special cases', showing unusual patience and curiosity towards trying to figure out how to make each individual horse and rider the best they can be.
In this video, Karen describes her background in dressage and her introduction to natural horsemanship.
Her students and she competed locally, nationally and in the International Young Riders Championships. Karen Rohlf was selected 4 times to represent the USA at these championships, twice as part of the silver medal team and once earning the individual bronze medal. A student of hers also was selected for the team twice on two different horses trained by Karen. There are also multiple National USDF Horse of the Year placings, Regional Championships and Reserve Championships earned by her and her students. So although currently Karen’s top priority is not to compete, she is certainly no stranger to the show ring.
She was well on track to become a dressage judge, when Karen realized that although she thoroughly enjoyed the training process to become a judge, and has a lot of respect for that skill, it just wasn't what she wanted to do. Somehow she knew she would be making a different contribution to dressage.
Here are some words from Karen Rohlf: "It's funny to me, that there is so much debate about whether natural and dressage can be combined. It probably is due to people's differing pictures they have when they hear each of those terms. I started out very natural with horses. I was lucky enough to have had opportunities to just be with horses when I was young. I learned to ride bareback before I rode with a saddle, and I learned to just hang out with a horse before I rode at all. When I had my first horses, it was with my best friend in a very private and secluded property. There was lots of room for play (and thank God, I survived it!). I did crazy things like climb on them in the pasture and sit backwards, then get them moving to see what it would feel like. I went on adventures with them. They were friends to me. One of my first teachers, in the 1970's, was a wonderful woman who was in her 70's, with great experience in the hunt field, who taught us to ride with no reins, including jumping.
Even later as I began doing dressage, I still had times where my horse and I went on trail rides and I would let my horse make all the decisions. One horse, Brave Tom, absolutely refused to do dressage on Mondays. I thought that was reasonable and so never challenged it. This horse was very injury prone, and I can remember when he was lame I would just go and sit with him, holding the injured part in my hands ... for hours.
This horse had not passed the veterinary exam for dressage. I got him when I was 15 and he was 7 years old. Neither of us had done dressage. He ended up going all the way with me. Time and time again he came through for me in the show ring and in general. I am still amazed at how much "above and beyond" he went for me.
As I became more "professional", I stopped doing these "silly" things with horses. The horses I was responsible for were more and more expensive; they were treated royally and well ... according to us humans. I got much more serious about my training, and it paid off. I learned a lot! In those years with Anne Gribbons, I had great opportunities to ride horses of Olympic caliber. I trained the easy ones and the challenging ones. I taught countless students of all levels. But I do remember thinking, how none of these horses gave me what Brave Tom had given me ... and he had only a fraction of the natural talent that these super athletes I was working with at this time had.
I will make this long story short, but it wasn't until I took a retiring Grand Prix horse to a Parelli clinic that I realized that all the things I instinctively had done with my horses when I was young, were actually something valuable that I could do on purpose even now. Those seemingly silly things I did had a powerful effect on my relationships with those horses. As I gained knowledge in dressage techniques, I had forgotten many of my natural horse partnership techniques.
It was with this Grand Prix horse, Vivaldi, after playing with natural horsemanship principles, that I felt something I hadn't felt since Brave Tom ... partnership. It is hard to describe exactly what I felt. Vivaldi was a horse who had retreated inside himself. I met him when he was 11 years old and already at FEI level, but no one at the farm really wanted to ride him because he was about as close to an inanimate object as a living creature could get. He was not that much fun to ride, and I'm sure he hadn't enjoyed it either. But there, in that barn aisle, late one evening, when everyone else had left, I felt it. He opened, he trusted. In the couple of years I had with him, between practicing natural horsemanship with him and until his soundness made him retire for good, he offered me more than he had when he was in his physical prime.
It was impossible for me to ignore the facts. Physical training is not the only thing necessary to do dressage, or any sport. The partnership, the mental and emotional connection between human and horse, is absolutely necessary in order to maximize the physical potential. Of course, if we train well, we improve them physically as we improve them emotionally and vice versa. Yet, I am so thankful that I found Parelli Natural Horsemanship in time to help me remember what it is to be natural with a horse. I am so glad that now I can be as consciously competent about how to develop partnership as I am about how to develop suppleness, balance and strength.
More photos here:
http://dressagenaturally.net/about/photos-videos/photos-d-n-students
