Eddo Hoekstra Clinic Notes...Day 1...Horse 1...

Yesterday was the first day of the Eddo Hoekstra clinic. It was a cold, dreary day in Bulverde, TX. The clinic is taking place at Providence Ranch and the facilities are amazing. The large ring where the rides took place was huge with really nice footing that held up to the rain. They also have a dressage ring and a large grass field with jumps in the grass and a dirt track around the outside. Definitely my dream Texas place to board, too bad it's 45 minutes away!


I arrived just as the first horse was finishing up, but I did catch Eddo talking about looking to the right for shoulder in (when tracking right) and looking to the left for the travers, he was having the rider alternate between SI and HI and then riding forward for a few strides. I wanted to audit the clinic due to the fact that I love Walter Zettl and his style of teaching (and horsemanship) and I knew Eddo is a longtime pupil of Walter's. The exercise was very familiar from the Zettl clinic's I've been to in New Jersey and would become very familiar over the next two days.


The next horse was a darling Appaloosa mare with a sweet rider. The start of their ride was spent focusing on the horse and ensuring she was fulfilling her job as the horse in the partnership. To start Eddo had her walk on a loose rein and evaluate if the horse was going with purpose, not hurrying, but with purpose. She wasn't quite there so he had the rider walk on a loose rein and squeeze with the inside leg as the inside hind foot was leaving the ground in order to activate the walk a bit more.


When backing up the leg with the whip he said that if the horse is irritated by the whip on the hindquarters than use it on the shoulder instead. And of course, once you get a response, back off so that the horse knows it fulfilled your wishes. When the horse is more foward then you ask yourself if the horse is moving forward with purpose and relaxed. For the rider that likes to really ride every stride he said "the horse does the walking and trotting and cantering, you do not actually do those things".


One thing he really emphasized for this exercise is that a jog does not coung as a trot. When the horse breaks into a jog while trying to activate the walk it's going from a non-forward walk to a non-forward trot; it's the horse making life easier for herself. So if she breaks into a jog turn that jog into a real trot. Once the horse is moving with more purpose you need to do lots of changes of direction to test if she keeps her sense of purpose.


The more the horse goes with purpose the wasier your job gets. Once the walk was improved they began working on transitions, lots of walk/trot transitions with only a stride or two of walk before trotting again. Basically considering the idea of walking to be a possibility, not a promise.


After that they worked on Turn on the Forehand and Turn on the Haunches at the halt. Eddo said that the nice thing about working on things at the halt is that it lets you know what you're doing too much of and not enough of (for example, if you are asking for TOF and the horse steps backwards, you are using too much hand). Once a few steps were possible from the halt he had the pair start trotting foward, walking, stopping, doing a few steps of TOF, and repeat.


The final exercise was to work on connecting the horse to the seat at a standstill. This was done by at the halt, asking for flexion while squeezing with your seat until the horse chews. Then you can ask for TOF or TOH.