When I was deciding what kind of blog or website I wanted to create, I knew I wanted to do something in my area of interest. I have loved horses for as long as I think I can speak and have been a rider for about 20 years now. I thought I wanted to do something on horses and specifically on dressage. My main concern was that I was not a dressage expert or professional. I thought “I don’t have the knowledge base to have my own dressage website or blog”. Then, I began to think more. You know…there are probably many more people in the world like me that are amateurs trying to learn about a challenging and technical sport, then there are professionals. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to read articles and information about this awesome sport through the eyes of someone just like me? I thought that just might be a great idea. I really enjoy to writing, reading, doing research, and learning. Maybe I should do this!

For this blog, I will never claim to be an expert or to know everything about a particular subject (Do we ever really know everything anyway?). What I will promise you is, I will go to the experts to get the information and then try to bring it to you in a interesting fun to read format. Isn’t that great! I plan to include articles, interviews, photos, videos, and much, much, more. I also plan on throwing in some of my personal experiences just because they can be fun to read about. I’m sure someone out there can definitely relate and I tend to crack myself up pretty often with the silly stuff that happens to me. When you own a farm, lots of interesting things happen. I am sure some of you know all about that!

Choosing The Name for My Blog

Selecting the name for my blog was not an easy task. I came up with all kinds of names and abbreviations. Most of them weren’t very catchy or interesting or captured the essence of what I wanted the blog to be. Then it hit me – The Art of Dressage. To have your own website, you have to purchase a domain name. I thought for sure the name would be taken. I did a search on a domain name site and it was AVAILABLE! I was so excited I bought the name that night. I had no idea what this site would look like, how I would even set it up, or what I would include in it, but I had a name and a good one at that.

If you are visiting this site, you probably have some introduction to dressage. If you don’t, no problem, you will learn something about it! Those of us that are around the sport of dressage know its power. Not only is dressage a physically and mentally challenging sport, it is something more… a form of art. When you watch a fantastic dressage test or musical freestyle it moves something inside of you. You may get absorbed in the test’s rhythm, impulsion, energy, fluidness, suppleness, and that invisible connection between horse and rider where the horse almost seems telepathic to the rider’s thoughts. After the test is over you think to yourself, “wow that was wonderful,” and you may even have a tear in the corner of your eye. To me, something that can move your emotions in such a way is a form of art. Professional riders are the real artists. Through hard work and training they train these massive animals to build the correct muscles to release energy in just the right way. Professionals mold, channel, and control that energy to create the beautiful movements we are able to watch. All you have to do is Google or You Tube a Grand Prix Musical Freestyle and I dare you to tell me that is not art!

Building The “Art of Dressage”

Once I had my topic and name, I had to actually build the site. I did some research and watched online videos on the subject. Since I wasn’t a web developer (even though I am taking a class, I am far from it) I couldn’t build one myself. I decided to use Word Press which has some options for web amateurs. Let me tell you, there is a steep learning curve to building a site! Much of it is pretty technical. I think I lose things in my own house and they are hard to find, but try getting lost in plug-ins, widgets, feedreeders, tags, and much more. I had a case of major information overload many times. I have done my best to sort thorough all of this to put together a nice clean site that is easy to use. It may not be the fanciest site on the web, but hopefully it will serve you well. Kudos goes out to bavotasan.com the developer that created the template I am using. Although it is simple now, I have a lot of options with the site in the future.

Enjoy the site and please feel free to post comments. That will make this site much more interactive for everyone. You may also send me photos or emails to contact@theartofdressage.com. I would love to hear from you. Feel free to bookmark the site, subscribe to the feedreader or via email to get recent posts.