About Linda Shore
Dressage 2B Shore is the dressage, working equitation and general horsemanship training business run by Linda Shore. Based just south of Toowoomba Queensland on a fabulous 80 acre property at East Greenmount.
Linda offers coaching and training for horse and riders based on classical training supported with a whole holistic training approach which is customised for each horse and rider so that every horse and rider can develop to be the best they can.
Riders in all maner of equipment styles, english, western, stock, baroque etc are encouraged to attend Linda's lessons and clinics.
Linda's philosophy is "no matter your style or passion, correct training gives you the freedom to do anything".
History of Linda's riding career
Linda has been passionate about horses and riding since very young but only got her first pony at age 13, this was an unbroken part brumby that her father received as part payment for a job.
Little did anyone every guess where this would lead. From starting that first 11.2hh welsh x brumby pony in their back yard in Rockhampton and riding it around the neighbourhood bareback with only a halter in 1978, to purchasing a 3yo warmblood stallion, Northern Classic, in 1988 and starting River Range Warmblood Stud, to starting a young warmblood stallion (Copenhagen) she had bred from Northern Classic (foaled in 1994) and training and competing this stallion to Grand Prix Dressage before selling him overseas in 2005.
Today Linda still runs her breeding business, River Range Warmblood Stud, from her property in Toowoomba but her focus is much more in the training side now than the breeding side.
Linda's passion is training horses to be the best partner for a rider that they can be using training based on good dressage principles. However Linda's competition focus has turned to the wonderful sport of Working Equitation which is a 3/4 phase discipline based on dressage training but incorporating working the horse around obstacles and showcasing skills required for the working ranch horse.
Working Equitation is a relatively new equestrian sport in Australia but is growing rapidly and Linda has to date competed at all levels of working equitation from Introductory to Masters and is the current 2022 Masters and Consagrados 2 National champion with her two competition horses Boulevarde Gabrielle and RanchBoss Cortez. Linda has also won Queensland Championships at Preliminary, Debutante F, Consagrados 2 & 1 and Masters. Linda has also won Queensland Horse of the Year at these same levels.
Linda is also heavily involved in the development and management of the sport with the Australian National Working Equitation Ltd as an accredited Judge and Coach and is the current Queensland Judge Educator
Current Training philosophies
There are many training philosophies for horses in the world today, especially with the regular use of the term 'Classical training' and with so much now available to us as riders and owners via the internet it is very easy to get confused with how to proceed and what to do when it comes to improving our skill with handling, training and riding our horses.
For Linda there was a lot of assistance along the way with many great trainers and coaches, some well know and some not. However eventually it was one horse in general that diverted Linda's training style to what it is today.
In 2005 the final foal from Linda's Grand Prix horse Copenhagen was born and he was a cracker and destined to be Linda's next Grand Prix dressage partner.
However fate has a way of diverting things unexpectedly. This young colt, Coupe de Grace, was lightly started under saddle as a 3yo without incident, superb to ride and handle, and began his dressage career.
However at the age of 4yo he suffered a fracture to a vertebrae in his neck and pinched the nerves to his hind quarters causing sever paralysis or ataxia. The prognosis was not good, at best he could be a paddock ornament, at worst put down. However Linda's feeling was that the horse himself never really felt he has any problem and didn't give up so Linda didn't either.
After months of box rest and walking in hand he showed enough improvement in his balance to start lunging and eventually be ridden. There was much less internet information available back then and very few people who could help with his rehabilitation as most horses with this disability are put down.
So the ridden training began approx 4 months after his initial injury, and slowly improvement was made. However Linda found that the usual training philosophies of driving the hindlegs under the horse to help engagement and doing lots of long and low stretches just did not help with this horse's rehabilitation.
This is where really listening to the horse and looking for a different way of doing things came about for Linda. It was found that instead of trying to get the horse to bring his hind legs into engagement by driving them under, instead the horse was asked to use more upward thrust with his forelegs, causing better engagement of his thoracic sling which ALLOWED the imbalance of his hind quarters to come forward into balance and support the lifting front core of the horse. So Coupe de grace was taught to piaff, levade and piroette canter to help his balance and it worked.
The best way to describe how it felt to ride a horse with this level of ataxia is like being the dance partner of a partially paralyzed person. The rider needs to have exceptional feel for the balance and footfalls of the horse so as to assist with co-ordination required for balanced forward movement.
This success then stimulated Linda to reassess her training techniques with other horses which has enabled her to develop a training style where all horses are individually assessed for their requirements according to their natural biomechanics, conformation, posture, symmetry and muscle tone. Emphasis is also placed on helping the horse to de-contract braced muscles which are causing
The basis of this training style works with all breeds of horse and styles of riding to develop horses that travel in correct symmetry, carry their riders in balance, have an easy upward light cadence in their paces and are a pleasure to ride no matter the sport or discipline their riders wish to do.