About Dahlgren Dressage
One rider. One horse. In harmony.
Dahlgren Dressage is Amy Dahlgren’s training business, based at Arendahl Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Amy has been a dressage trainer in Lexington, Kentucky since moving to the area in 2017. Amy teaches riders at every level, has horses for lessons and leases, and helps clients find their next horse.
Amy’s story
Amy has loved horses as long as she can remember. She started riding lessons at age 9. At 16, when most kids wanted a car, Amy asked for a horse: Black Tie Affair, an Anglo Arab, and her start in dressage.
Her next horse, Double Darin “Cody,” was bought at a local auction as a 3-year-old. Amy brought Cody along through Intermediate I, then her trainer, Mari Monda Zdunic, rode him at Grand Prix. Together they made history: Cody became the first American Paint to win the USDF All-Breeds Award at Grand Prix. She later bought Bellisario (“Bo”), a 4-year-old found in Germany, and the two showed through Prix St. Georges, where Amy finished her USDF Bronze and Silver medals. She did all of it as an adult amateur while working in emergency medicine and raising a family, so she knows what it takes to fit riding into a full life.
Amy has worked with many professionals through the years and continues to train with Mari Monda Zdunic, the protégé of USDF Hall of Fame trainer Chuck Grant.
How Amy trains
Amy’s background in both the German and French schools of dressage lets her use the methods that work best for each horse. She has worked with many breeds, including ones you don’t often see in the dressage ring. She enjoys improving a horse’s natural gaits and way of going, and she keeps her training positive.
Amy loves to teach. She focuses on the fundamentals of dressage and the basics that matter in every riding discipline. She also believes riders at any level, herself included, can use a good set of “eyes on the ground.”
What Dahlgren Dressage offers
- Dressage instruction for all levels.
- Horses for lessons, plus partial and full leases. Terms vary depending on the horse.
- Horse purchase and import. Amy searches locally and internationally, and she looks at the horse’s mind as well as its movement, because horse and rider have to form a real connection to succeed in the dressage ring.
Where we are
Dahlgren Dressage is based at Arendahl Farm, 4200 Old Frankfort Pike, Lexington, Kentucky. The farm is family-owned and professionally run, and it specializes in dressage. It sits on 100 acres of rolling pasture, minutes from downtown Lexington and Blue Grass Airport, about 15 minutes from Keeneland and 20 minutes from the Kentucky Horse Park.
Come watch a lesson
The easiest way to see if Dahlgren Dressage is a good fit is to come out and watch a lesson. Email Amy at amy@dahlgrendressage.com or call 859-414-0963 to ask about lessons, leases, or finding your next horse. Contact us!
