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!