Judge’s Forum and FEI Trainer’s Conference

by Ange Bean

Sometimes I feel like my dressage education is an add-a-bead necklace. I take lessons, I ride and audit clinics, and I observe riders, and each educational opportunity gives me a new pearl to add to my chain. In the weeks since the Judge’s Forum and FEI Trainer’s conference in West Palm Beach and Loxahachee FL, I’ve found my teaching and riding sprinkled with the pearls I gleaned from my trip.

The first pearl was for me. The major reason I make the trek down each year is to re-set my standard. Winter in PA creates a challenge—how do I keep my standard high throughout the long months of riding alone? During the summer, I can sit ringside at shows, observing the JJ Tates of the world, and let my cognitive learning skills do their magic. I watch skilled rider’s body alignment, quietly effective aids, and the volume of their corrections. This information worms itself into my brain, and my mounts respond. But the magic doesn’t last forever, so by mid January, 12 weeks after our last show, my training was feeling a bit stale.

After two days of watching 7 CDI Level riders, including such names as Canada’s WEG rider Karen Pavicic on her up-and-coming mare Beaujolais, and Beatrice Marienau aboard her Nation’s Cup mount Stefano 8, develop their horses, my internal dressage eye is reset, my brain is working out new training ideas, and my arena time now feels much more inspired.

Venus was the recipient of the next pearl. She often comes into the arena a touch on the unresponsive side. For her, the pearl came from Alexandra du Celliee Muller’s lesson on her mount, Rumba. I watched as Alexandra tried to subtly, tactfully bring Rumba more in front of her aids, and how that made her seat more and more crooked, just like happens to me on Venus. Then, as the clinicians Lilo Fore and Hans Christan Matthiesen encouraged her to get a better reaction, Alexandra gave him a strong (but not ugly) correction, to which Rumba splattered forward, dropped his poll, and lost the collection. Ah, Venus and I know this pattern well.

Lilo gave cooking advice that clearly resonated with Alexandra. She described cooking soup, and how when the soup needs salt, you don’t come in with the entire bag, because if you get the soup too salty, it’s tough to fix it. Instead you add salt, you taste it, and then you add more if needed.

Was the result magical? I’d be lying if I said Lilo’s words made a 100% turnaround, but it did make a difference, in not only Rumbas balance, but Alexandra’s straightness. Lilo made clear to all of us, riders, judges, and auditors, that this is not a quick-fix problem. And, of course, as horses are apt to do, Rumba set out to prove Lilo wrong – he came in on day two more uphill and more prompt in his responses.

Slingshot also received a pearl, this time from Dana Fiore’s lesson on So Special. So Special wanted to come short and deep in the neck, putting too much weight on his shoulders, which affected his suspension. Dana applied the clinician’s corrections to “show him the way up” through variations in shoulder in– the two that made the biggest difference were trot-walk in shoulder in, and varying the angle of shoulder in while maintaining the same bend. Throughout the ride, So Special’s trot gained more and more airtime.

My students and I all received a pearl from Karen Pavicic’s lesson on Beaujolais and Debbie Hill’s lesson on Cartier, a 9-year-old Dutch Harness Horse (who, incidentally, at one point in his career came through New Holland horse auction). Both horses were big, powerful moving horses, with a ton of bounce in their gait, and a tendency to carry their heads high. The corrections – focusing on hands going with seat bones in the canter, connecting calves to the bouncy horse, and making collection changes in small increments to help the horse understand to use their hips instead of their neck, keep getting repeated in my home sandbox, both to myself and my students.

Like an add-a-bead necklace, each pearl I gain creates a more complete string of knowledge on how to better develop horses and riders in this beautiful sport.

Boyd Martin Clinic

by Karen Clark Rubin

I was pleased to attend a clinic with Boyd Martin with help of a DVCTA scholarship the week between Christmas and New Years in Unionville.

The clinic was sponsored by the Cheshire Pony Club and I organized it.

Boyd started each session by speaking with individual riders about their horses age and level of experience. The groups were organized by experience of the horse and rider and split with adults riding together and kids in their own groups. Flatwork started each group and there was an emphasis on rider position and how it affects the aids. The horses were asked to go forward, back and bend. The riders were given tips on how to achieve this and we discussed why it is important to do these things. Boyd kept things fun for all and we started with grid work after the flat. There was an exercise at one end of the arena of rails on the ground in a curve. This was with a bounce distance for more experienced pairs and a one stride for less experienced. The rails were raised to X’s then verticals. Gradually we added a fence and a bending line to the exercise. Another exercise that day was riding a two fence combo with a forward or waiting entrance to achieve a four or five stride distance between the two fences. There was finally a grid in the center of the arena that we started as an X. Concentration for the group was having the right line, jumping in the middle and staying straight after the fence.

The second day was course walk with Boyd going over each step and what he would be thinking, what he would be asking, where he would be looking and why. There was shorter session of flatwork then we started jumping and gradually adding fences and finally jumping the course. The preparation paid off and everyone had a great time. It was a solid learning experience for all.

Unfortunately I have an old back injury and my youngster tripped in the curved fence exercise and triggered it. I was able to complete most of day one then Boyd did the final grid. I was only able to do the warm up on day two and my daughter finished it on my young horse. I was disappointed to not be able to finish but my horse was a star and I was thrilled with him.

Thank you DVCTA for the support in attending the clinic.

Sincerely,
Karen Clark Rubin

Riding with William Fox-Pitt

Sara Gartland

While clicking the submit button for my entry, I paused for a moment and thought, I really hope the weather holds.  November in Virginia can be beautiful sunshine or bitter cold rain, and the latter would not make for a fun weekend.  However, I pushed my weather concerns away with a second thought, I’M RIDING WITH WILLIAM FOX-PITT!

Early Thursday morning, we trailered over to Great Meadow and upon opening the truck door I could hear William already teaching lessons.  On my way over to the ring, I was met by the clinic organizer, Kelly Gage of Team Engaged Clinics, and a few of the wonderful clinic sponsors, Jeep, Musto Clothing, and Albion Saddlery.  I picked up my rider-goodies and quickly found a seat to watch the morning lessons.

Thursday was a dressage day for everyone, which would be followed by the riders’ choice of jumping or dressage for the following days.  From the novice packers, to the young event horses, to the advanced horses, William kept a consistent theme: the horses must be happily moving into a contact with both reins.  He asked most riders to post the trot (A huge relief for me!) in order to help the horses move freer and loosen up down the contact.  The only differences between the lessons were the movements schooled after the warm-up.  An advanced horse worked on adding expression to extensions and lead changes, a young training horse worked on lateral movements, and an experienced preliminary horse worked on finding better balance in the counter canter.  Throughout all of these different lessons, William asked riders to be accurate with their figures and their aides, to be riding from the leg into a happy contact, and to give the horse breaks at appropriate times.  During my lesson, I worked on transitions within the trot and canter to reinforce the idea of riding from my leg.  It should no longer surprise me that a half hour of very correctly running through simple figures with well-placed half-halts will drastically improve the quality of the movements.  However, this lesson and the ones that I watched served as a wonderful reminder of what can be accomplished with a happy horse that is moving off the leg.

Friday was my off-day since I only registered for two lessons.  After a tour of the Middleburg-Warrenton tack stores, I returned to Great Meadow to watch some show jumping lessons.  As I walked up to the ring, I was surprised to find that William had set what seemed to be a fairly simple course.  A triple combination was set on both quarter lines along with gently bending s-curve lines set across each diagonal that passed through parts of an X formed by four verticals in the center of the ring.  Each horse came to the ring warmed up, and William assessed their readiness by asking riders to jump several fences in the trot.  If the horses still seemed tense, he would ask the riders to stay in the trot while working into patterns that included a clover-like series of roll-back turns through the four jumps in the X.  He recommended that everyone school jumps in the trot at home to help the horses relax.  Riders could approach with a contact or with loose reins, but they could not be wishy-washy.  From there he spoke with riders and observed to find weaknesses to be worked on.  Each combination played with different striding in the lines, altering paths on the bending lines to add or subtract strides without necessarily changing the canter, and finding a happy contact for jumping.  By the end of the day, I was excited to jump!

Saturday was cross-country day, and the exercises from yesterday’s course had been altered to include skinnies, arrowheads, and corners.  Although I had not ridden the course the previous day, it seemed as though he set the lines on a more forward stride to reward a committed ride.  To help re-balance the horses after stepping out down a line, William set a double bounce on one of the quarter lines that could be jumped at the beginning or end of an outside line or bending s-curve.  This course immediately highlighted issues with straightness and forward riding in almost every pair, but that was the point.  Again, William asked riders to begin by trotting everything, especially the new odd-looking skinnies.  Then, he checked in with everyone’s experience and goals before sending us right into the course work.  I spent most of the morning worrying about two of the skinnies: one was a single barrel with a 6’ rail set across the top of it, the other was a 3’-ish by 3’-ish wooden box.  My novice horse had never seen anything like that, and I already knew that straightness was an issue.  William put my concerns to rest by adding wings and lowering the barrel so that I could start out by riding confidently forward.  Once we were jumping out of the right canter and staying straight at the lower height, William put the barrel back on end and raised the corner.  As with the other horses and riders, I wound up jumping a much bigger and more technical course that I had initially thought we were capable of, because he methodically built us up to the task.  He had us focus on the canter, the striding, the approach, and the connection so that the jumps just happened – regardless of what they looked like.  Everyone struggled, and William took care to explain that struggle was a good thing in small doses.  The mistakes and the issues point out what we need to work on, but he warned that we need to be careful to not undermine the horse’s confidence.  He practiced what he preached by pushing horses and riders to their limits momentarily and then sending them down a single line to regroup.  By the end of the day, I felt like I was ready to move up a level!

The experience of riding and learning from William Fox-Pitt is one that I will remember for a very long time.  He thoroughly enjoys teaching, and that was evident in every lesson.  On one of the days, he happily taught from 7am to 8pm!  I want to thank William, Kelly, and all of the sponsors for making this clinic possible.  Also, I’m not sure who called in the 60 degree days for November, but they were also much appreciated!