From my time in the US, fall of 2006

Mukilteo, Washington
December 3, 2006

Regarding Lena Danius

To Whom It May Concern:
Lena was my dressage coach for the past 3 months while she was in the USA.  I discovered that Lena is a wonderful teacher and that she has an excellent eye for really seeing what the rider is doing.

I have been studying with Craig Stevens for four years now so her teaching matches what I am doing with Craig.  What was great for me is that Lena noticed a flaw in my half halt the very first ride and the correction made a huge difference in my riding. She also noted in another ride that I was bracing in my stirrups, but instead of pointing out a flaw, she simply asked if I thought I was stepping into my stirrups.  The change I made in response has completely fixed my downward canter transitions by simply lifting my toes as I ask for the downward transition.

These are technicalities, I realize, but I truly admire Lena's teaching skills, her patience and good humor.  In fact, Lena worked with my Andalusian over the time she was in the US, that is how much I believe in her riding capabilities!  I most highly recommend her as a teacher and trainer and am delighted she has a career in the horse world.

Suzanne T Poppema, MD

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Lena,
In the short time you taught me (I wish it had been longer!) I found you to be a great teacher. I think you are a well-educated, approachable, and fun teacher--you have a great hands-on method in which you are always encouraging a two-way dialogue--always stopping to explain things and asking questions so that the rider will learn to understand and think for themself.

The good of the horse was always the first concern--any time that I began to be confused and pull on the reins we would stop and talk about how to ride without pulling. Learning to ride with just one rein or just one hand made me begin to figure out how to influence the horse's movement with my whole body instead of just covering up the mistakes made on one rein with the other rein.

You are very good at finding just the right phrase, question, or mise-en-selle exercise that will fix the rider's problem! Just asking me "can you lift the knees up and away?" would make me realize that I could not because my upper body was drifting forward again! I think that my posture has improved in everyday life, not just when riding, as I have become more conscious of the tendency to "hunch over" and carry tension in my shoulders.

One more thing that I always remember is my first few shoulder-ins. They were not perfect, of course, but you said to someone one day that I had not done them before and was a natural. Well, I don't know if that is true--I think that you told me how to do it in a way that made it very easy! I wasn't confused, trying to do a lot of different things at once with a lot of different body parts, but really felt that all I had to think about was the indirect rein.

I think you're a great teacher, Lena, and I think your students and their horses are lucky to have you. My best wishes are with you and I hope you will come back to NSAE sometime to see us again.

Yours, Shelley Curtis