Dressage Q&A with Janet Foy: Hundreds of Your Questions Answered: How to Ride, Train, and Compete--And Love It!

USEF "S" and FEI 4* Dressage Judge Janet Foy issued an invitation to the dressage population: “Ask me your toughest dressage questions; ask me about the things about riding, training, and competing that you just dont understand; or, just ask me the questions youre always afraid to ask because you dont want to look like you dont know what youre doing!” The result was an outpouring of queries, from riders at every level, and from both those who just ride for fun as well as those who show.

Foy has earned a dedicated following over many years teaching popular clinics alongside US Olympians Steffen Peters and Debbie McDonald, and her vast knowledge of the sport of dressage and trademark sense of humor propelled her first book Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse to bestseller status. Now, for her eagerly awaited follow-up, shes responded to the hundreds of dressage questions shes received in an easy-to-engage-with Q-and-A format. Readers find no-nonsense answers to everything from understanding how horses learn the movements to really “getting” the importance of the outside rein to gaining coordination and achieving “throughness.” As always, Foys enthusiasm emanates from her words, and her drive to provide solid understanding is underscored by her insistence that riding dressage is, above all, fun.

“Janet Foy needs no introduction … [a]lways right on the money with her succinct manner and advice, she sees every detail. … A good book and a good companion to her earlier book Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse.”—The Horse Studio (thehorsestudio.com)

Janet Foys interest in dressage started when she lived in Oxford, England, and she passed several British Horse Society Instructor Exams. She is currently an FEI4* judge, USEF S Dressage Judge, and USEF Sporthorse R Breeding Judge. She has judged at all major shows in the United States, as well as national championships and CDI***/W in Guatemala, England, Colombia, Costa Rica, Barbados, Canada, Poland, Australia, and Mexico, and the FEI World Cup League Finals for the United States, Canada, and Australia. Janet is a former member of the USDF Executive Board and the USA Equestrian Board of Directors, and a current member of the Federation Dressage Committee and the International High Performance Dressage Committee. She is also on the USDF L Faculty and instructs federation judges training programs throughout the United States for dressage and sport horse breeding.