“I feel like it helped him with his overall base conditioning,” Tamie says. “He came out much stronger this year than he has in years past. I think of dressage like weightlifting. Dressage horses are more heavyweight builders than marathon runners. It helped him gain more muscle and strength, and I felt like that was such a great exercise for both of us.”

Tamie Smith competed through Grand Prix dressage as a junior, and strongly values the skills and refinement that dressage training brings to her event horses. She says that going back to the dressage ring with 18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding Mai Baum and finessing the refinement in their riding before amping up his fitness and galloping work for the eventing season pays off in their dressage scores.

If you have the chance to get on a dressage horse that already has lots of training, Tamie highly recommends doing so.

“If you get to sit on well-trained dressage horses, you’ll be able to take it over to your personal horse and try to emulate that same feel,” she says.

Tamie adds that learning “feel” is critical to becoming a top rider, and learning dressage is a key part in that.

She feels the days of being able to do well in the sport of eventing without a heavy focus on dressage are over. This mentality has kept dressage as a strong focus in both her own and her daughter’s riding careers. (Tamie’s oldest child, 27-year-old Kaylawna Smith-Cook, is also a professional rider.)

“When my daughter was growing up, I had her go work for my dressage trainer for three years and learn dressage,” says Tamie. “She rode through the Intermediate level, and you can see that in her foundation when you watch her ride now.”

While impeccable dressage is a requirement to finish at the top at the 5* level, clean and fast jumping is also a must. Tamie’s training program is clearly working, as she and Mai Baum finished on her dressage score of a 24.2 at Land Rover this year, jumping around both cross-country and show jumping clean and within the time. This put her into first place ahead of Tom McEwen (22.6 in dressage, 5.2 time penalties on cross country) and dressage-leader Yasmin Ingham (22.1 in dressage, 20 jump and 20 time penalties on cross-country).

This article about Tamie Smith’s approach to dressage is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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Tamie Smith, winner of the 2023 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5 aboard the 18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding Mai Baum, tailors her fitness and conditioning program to each horse to focus on their specific needs and goals.

“Going into a top five star, I would be galloping typically every four to five days,” she says. “We have wonderful mountains in our area [Temecula Calif.], so I have access to probably the best gallop that I’ve been able to find in the whole country.”

She explains that having hilly terrain is paramount to being able to get her horses’ heart rates up, especially the non-Thoroughbred horses. The steep inclines test the horses’ hearts and lungs without putting unnecessary wear and tear on them.

For the horses at the lower levels, Tamie does a lot of pole and cavaletti work to get their heart rates up. This works on their rideability, while also improving their endurance.

Once a week, Tamie aims to take her horses for a trot-hack, which she finds extremely beneficial.

“We have all kinds of different types of footing, like a river bed, hard-packed road, uneven slopes, and whatnot,” she says. “I take the horses out and just play and just get them through all the different types of footing. I think that that’s really important for their bones and their tendons and ligaments.”

As far as recovery for the horses coming off of big events, Tamie always gives them ample time off.

“For instance, Mai Baum came home after Kentucky and got three weeks in a field of doing nothing,” she says. “I try to leave them out there to just be horses and let their legs and bodies recoup. During those three weeks, we would go over him to make sure that there’s been no new injuries or anything that might have popped up after a competition—typically if you’re going to have some sort of small injury, it might show up a few weeks after.”

For all of Tamie horses, she tries to give the whole month of November and into the start of December off. The older horses go on hacks to keep muscle and fitness intact, and all of the horses are checked on. Otherwise, they get a chance to just be horses and enjoy some time off.

This article about Tamie Smith’s fitness and conditioning approach is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

The post Next Level: Tamie Smith On Fitness and Conditioning appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.