Clues From His Career Horses who excel at certain of the Western disciplines simply aren't suitable for dressage. In Western pleasure, for example, winning horses tend to move in slow, tiny steps on the forehand, their heads at or below the level of their withers. But that's the bad news. The good news is that a number of similarities exist between certain other Western disciplines and dressage. Probably the easiest Western horse to reschool for dressage is a skilled competitive-trail horse.
Horses trained in Western riding, horsemanship, and reining are fairly adaptable to dressage, too.
You have to get very elementary when you begin the reschooling process with your Western horse. Even if he's been under saddle for years, start with ground work to establish the relationship you want with him under saddle. Make sure he reliably walks, trots, stops, squares up his legs at a halt, backs, turns on the forehand and on the haunches, and yields sideways in each direction while he's being led, from either side. Long-lining is such an underused, but incredibly effective, tool. Basically, it enables you to erase your horse's previous training history and build a whole new concept.