CLASSICAL DRESSAGE WITH BIOMECHANICS IN MIND

Doina Fischer International Educator

The trainer behind the trainer

Even experienced trainers need someone who can challenge their thinking, sharpen their eye and help them see what they may have overlooked.

Doina Fischer works with riders, instructors and fellow professionals who want to deepen their understanding of the horse and become more thoughtful, effective trainers. Bringing together classical horsemanship and equine biomechanics, she turns complex principles into practical knowledge that can be understood, applied and developed in everyday training.

Her approach always begins with the individual horse. Every horse has its own conformation, movement patterns, temperament, strengths and challenges. Understanding these differences is essential to choosing the right gymnastic exercises, recognising physical limitations and finding a way of training that allows each horse to develop with confidence, balance and harmony.

Learn to see. Understand the why. Train with FEEL

Doina's teaching brings together three essential elements:

Classical Dressage

Rooted in the teachings of the old masters, Classical Dressage explores the principles that develop a horse's natural balance, suppleness, strength and collection. Through thoughtful gymnastic training, we seek harmony between horse and rider, allowing true collection to emerge through patience, feel and correct training.

Biomechanics in Practice

Developing an eye for how the horse's body moves, adapts and responds to training — recognizing the connection between movement, balance and muscular development, and how correct work improves strength, freedom and confidence.

Professional Development

Creating opportunities for continued learning, reflection and growth. Refining practical skills, developing greater clarity in training decisions and strengthening the ability to assess progress and plan the next steps. An individual and supportive approach that encourages curiosity, independent thinking and a deeper appreciation of the art of training.

Whether you are an ambitious rider, an experienced trainer or an instructor looking to deepen your knowledge, working with Doina offers an opportunity to broaden your perspective, refine your skills and discover new possibilities in your training.

Drawing on her international experience in Classical Dressage and Working Equitation, Doina combines extensive practical knowledge with an individual approach to every horse and rider.

For Doina, good training begins with understanding what each horse needs and finding the right way to help it develop. The aim is to build strength, balance and confidence through correct, progressive work, giving each horse the foundation it needs to fulfil its potential.

Learn to See. Understand the Why. Train with Feel

Working Equitation: Dressage with a Sense of Adventure

Working Equitation offers the opportunity to apply classical dressage principles in new and practical situations. Obstacles challenge our precision, transitions test our preparation, and the trail often reveals details we might never notice in the dressage arena.

It encourages adjustability, straightness, responsiveness and confidence, while reminding us that training can be serious work without taking ourselves too seriously.

Sometimes a pole, a gate or a few cones can explain a dressage principle better than another twenty minutes of circling.

Classical Dressage with Biomechanics in Mind

Classical Dressage is not simply a collection of impressive movements. It is a progressive gymnastic education that helps the horse develop the strength, balance, suppleness and coordination required for increasingly demanding work.

Biomechanics helps us understand how this development takes place.

Together, they provide a framework for asking better questions:

Is the horse physically ready for what we are asking?
Where is the movement coming from?
Is the horse finding its own balance, or are we holding it together?
Are our aids helping the horse understand, or are we creating confusion?
What could we change to make the exercise easier to understand?

I want you to leave a lesson with more than just a better ride. I want you to understand what changed, why it changed and how to recognize it again.

How We Can Work Together

Clinics and Seminars

Practical, thought-provoking education for riders, trainers and equestrian professionals.

Private Training

Individual sessions focused on you, your horse and the questions that matter most to your development.

Professional Education

For instructors and trainers who want to deepen their understanding of Classical Dressage, biomechanics and the art of teaching.

Working Equitation

Develop your dressage skills through obstacles, precision and practical challenges.

Bring Your Questions. Bring Your Horse. Bring Your Curiosity.

You don't have to know all the answers before you arrive. You only need to be willing to learn.

MEET DOINA & EXPLORE THE BLOG

A lifetime with horses — and still asking questions

I have spent more than 40 years working with horses and riders in different countries. Along the way, I have learned from remarkable horsemen and women, trained competition horses, taught clinics and discovered that the more you understand horses, the more there is to learn.

I was born in Switzerland, but my education as a horsewoman has taken me across Europe, the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

Along the way, I studied with distinguished classical trainers, including Sadko G. Solinski, Dominique Barbier and Luis Ramos Paul y Davide co- founder of La Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre in Jerez, Spain. My continuing interest in biomechanics, including studies with Dr Gerd Heuschmann, has helped me connect classical principles with a deeper understanding of how horses move and develop.

My career has included training horses from their early education through to FEI competition, working extensively with Lusitanos and Andalusians, managing a training programme in Brazil and helping to develop dressage education within the Lusitano community.

I have also worked as a clinician and judge in Working Equitation, a discipline I particularly enjoy because it combines precision, responsiveness and versatility with a healthy dose of adventure.

But titles, competitions and years of experience only tell part of the story.

What really interests me?

The individual horse in front of me.

Why does this horse move like that? What is making this exercise difficult? Is it a question of strength, balance, understanding or perhaps something we are doing as riders?

And what can we change to help this particular horse succeed?

These are the questions that keep me curious. They are also the questions I want to help riders and trainers ask for themselves.

I don't believe in fitting every horse into the same training programme.

Conformation, movement, temperament, previous training, fitness and confidence all influence how a horse learns and develops.

One horse may need a quieter approach and more time. Another may benefit from a more challenging gymnastic exercise. A third may teach us that our carefully prepared plan needs to be put aside for the day.

That isn't failure. It is training.

Learning to adapt without losing sight of classical principles is one of the most valuable skills a rider or trainer can develop.

I believe in serious learning — with room for a smile

Horses are extraordinary teachers, although they don't always follow our lesson plans.

They remind us when we are impatient, when our timing is questionable, when our position has wandered somewhere unexpected, and when we have spent ten minutes explaining something the horse understood in the first thirty seconds.

I love the technical side of Classical Dressage. I enjoy analysing movement, exploring biomechanics and finding practical explanations for complex subjects.

But I also love sharing the funny moments, unexpected discoveries and little breakthroughs that make working with horses such a rewarding part of life.

My teaching is demanding when it needs to be, supportive when things become difficult and always driven by curiosity about the horse and rider.

Since April 2025, I have been based in the tri-border region of Switzerland, France and Germany, while continuing to teach internationally through clinics, private training and educational programmes.

Whether you are an ambitious rider, an experienced instructor or a professional trainer, I hope to help you see something new and take that understanding back to your own horses and students.

Training

The Blog — Learning, Thinking & Sometimes Laughing

Welcome to my corner of the equestrian world.

Here, we explore biomechanics, Classical Dressage, rider position, collection, training questions, Working Equitation and the many curious things that happen when horses and humans try to understand each other.

Some articles go deep into the technical details. Others begin with a question, a training experience or a story that made me laugh.

You might find yourself looking differently at a familiar exercise, questioning something you have always taken for granted or recognising a situation from your own stable.

That is exactly the point.

I don't want you simply to collect more information. I want you to become more observant, more curious and better equipped to understand your own horse.

Because the best education doesn't end when the lesson is over. It continues when you return to the stable and start noticing things you never saw before.

Choose a topic. Ask a question. Keep discovering.

Blogs

Bring Three Days of Inspiring, Individual Training to Your Farm

Together, we create a clinic that suits your facility, your riders and their horses.

Whether you prefer to focus on individual dressage training, combine private lessons with group Working Equitation sessions, or include lectures, demonstrations and a competition, the programme is developed together with you.

Doina will help you make the best use of the time available, taking into account your facility, your participants' experience and their individual goals.

Individual guidance tailored to their horse and personal goals.
A better understanding of biomechanics and how the horse moves.
Practical exercises and ideas to continue working with at home.
New perspectives on developing balance, suppleness, strength and responsiveness.
Greater confidence and clarity in their training decisions.
Fresh inspiration and a deeper understanding of their horses.

BRING DOINA TO YOUR FARM

Booking

Two Experts one Complete Approach

Doina Fischer & José Antonio Olea

Following the outstanding response to their previous clinic, Doina Fischer and José Antonio Olea are joining forces again for a unique 3-Day Working Equitation Master Clinic.

Their proven combination brings together classical dressage, biomechanics, judging insight and high-level Working Equitation competition experience—giving riders a complete approach to improving both horse and rider performance.

DOINA FISCHER

With more than 40 years of classical dressage experience, Doina combines dressage, biomechanics, horse understanding and Working Equitation to help riders develop better balance, communication, suppleness and precision.

As a Working Equitation judge who has judged in different countries and at championship level, she brings valuable insight into what judges look for and how riders can gain points through better balance, accuracy, harmony and communication.

JOSÉ ANTONIO OLEA

Spanish Working Equitation Champion with extensive national and international competition experience. José Antonio has represented Spain internationally and was part of the silver-medal Spanish team at the 2022 World Championship.

His focus is on precision, obstacle technique, efficiency and speed—helping riders turn their training into stronger competition performance.

TWO EXPERTS. ONE COMPLETE APPROACH.

Doina’s dressage and biomechanics expertise combined with José Antonio’s Working Equitation competition experience creates a powerful training combination.

Develop a more balanced and responsive horse.
Improve precision through the obstacles.
Understand how to ride for better scores.
Become more efficient in Ease of Handling and Speed.