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***My notes weren't very in depth for this ride unfortunately, this clinic took place a few days after I discovered I was pregnant, and 1st trimester fatigue was really hitting hard.***
****Pirouette Exercise****
Do this with the stiff side to the outside, then reverse it
20 m circle, 3 supples to stiff side (only using snaffle rein), 7-1-7-1-7-1; then haunches in and supple again, then spiral down to 15 m, do supples, down to 10 m circle
*Men versus Women*
Men are stronger so ride from strength, women are smarter and learn how to work around issues
If the horse is too deep, press with both legs, raise the hands and move them forward the same amount you raised them (2 inches up then 2 inches forward)
Needs to be one fell swoop (like the "wave" at a football game)
Supple the horse 3 times to the stiff side when half passing to raise the pressure threshold
This is the last of my notes from the clinic. I had to leave a little early because I was just exhausted and worried about making the hour drive home even
****Connecting Half Halt****
Close both legs
Close outside fist
Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle the inside hand
Do all of this for 3 seconds
Do 3 supples then half halt (while thinking add, add, add); soften and let the neck fall down (ie use suppleness to improve the connection)
Too much flexion on inside is a sign of more focus on the inside rein, need to focus on the outside hand which is the connecting hand; you should still row the boat as you half halt
The outside hand captures, contains, and recycles the power
Your horse must be supple on the inside rein and connected through the outside rein
Inside/outside is not determined by the wall of the arena, but by the flexion and bend of the horse
Precede the opening of your fingers for a stretchy circle with a good connecting half halt
*Do the same thing with a test that asks you to loop the inside rein*
She had an extra long lesson because the amazing Hanoverian that was to follow had an injury. But it turned out to be good for the auditors and the rider because they were just at a breakthrough point when her ride was *supposed* to be over.
If you go +2 or -2 it's too easy for the horse to bend at the neck.
Coordinate closing of calf with turning the key, then in between be quiet
Crest of neck, left and right (flipping the nuchal ligament); try the flexing at the halt, you can see the crest flip, Conrad will start a lesson with this, do NOT wiggle the rein when you do this, just flip the wrist; then do it at the walk
If the horse tilts on a 10 meter circle of Shoulder In then it may be locked on one side of the poll-so supple it (can do it while in shoulder in as well as 10 meter circle or on a straight line)
The moment you get the +7 then release; if you hold him he breaks at the jaw
On a circle, the horse HAS to be on a +1 flexion, otherwise he's not straight; even through the transition
You don't go from stiff to supple in one fell swoop; it goes Stiff-->Less stiff-->A little stiff-->a little supple-->a little more supple-->supple
****Testing Suppleness****
1. When your horse is supple the weight of the horse on your hand stays the same when you supple because the horse just follows your hand around with his mouth
If you have a markedly one-sided horse spend 80% of the time suppleing that stiff side, you can track left and still work the right side of the body
2. When you take on the rein the horse lengthens and lowers his head toward the bit (as you supple)
3. If the horse stays straight on line of travel (doesn't swing its hindquarters)
If the horse swings you have to block the escape route by using passive non-suppleing side leg
****End Suppleness Tests****
Reiner Klimke would school a line of flying changes and then walk on a long rein plus pat his horse, then pick up the reins and do a pirouette, then lengthen reins and pat his horse, in other words-he spent more time walking on a long rein and patting his horse than drilling stuff
During a connecting half halt keep the leg on, don't pulse
Rober Dover-lots of bend, driving aids, and holding rein, on a 20 meter circle accelerate into a 6 meter circle within the 20 meter circle (at the walk), (using lots of bend, driving aids, and a holding rein)
When the horse steps through the closed outside fist the horse comes through and over its back
For this exercise, 20 m/6 m circles when walking, 20 m/10 m circles when trotting and cantering; think of it as if you're going to do a medium gait just before beginning the circle
Once the horse has it on a circle do the finished half halt on the circle
Think add, add, add as you do the half halt, then relax and the horse will round and come on the bit if it was right
Connecting half halt-aid to put your horse on the bit and make it straight
Unilateral half halt=Connecting Half Halt
1st Purpose=put the horse on the bit
2nd Purpose=make the horse even in the rein
If your horse is too heavy in the right rein then it is too light in the left rein
"Schooling is about fixing problems, competition is about hiding problems"
Make sure to add in a way that doesn't chase him out of his rhythm
Horse stiff on right, so go left, do counter -1 flexion, twinkle outside hand, close inside hand, close legs which equals a reverse half halt
Layer half halts like coats of paint, softening in between
If the horse gets behind the leg ask for a lengthening
In competition you wouldn't flex the horse to the outside, so reverse half halt is just for schooling
This guy was a complete sweetheart. He's trained to I1, his owner is riding at Third Level. Her big complaint was "Friesian neck", or how he likes to carry his head really upright, as Friesians are prone to do.
"A straight arm has no give" -Micheal Poulin
Push your hands DOWN as you rise in the trot; put your hands on the wither to maintain it as you get the feel for it (nearly every rider had problems with stiff elbows at the trot and canter)
When suppleing (7,1,7,1,7,1); keep the hand doing the suppling close to the neck, so that it is an indirect rein, pulling it far away from the neck is a wide opening hand; remember to close your inside leg and visualize a "falling down neck"
Tighten your tummy muscles as if doing a sit up; it slows the horse because it stills your hips, slowing the forward motion
You can do the suppleing on a quarter line leg yield
At the halt, maintain steady rein pressure, close calves, let horse pull the reins through your fingers as it reaches forward and down.
In the beginning Jane stood next to him and helped to encourage him to stretch down. In a very short time he was reaching his head down and out with just a squeeze of the legs and steady rein pressure.
Then, Jane had the rider try it at the walk, the response wasn't as immediate, or as noticeable, so she had the rider stop the horse while maintaining the pressure, let the reins slide as he reached, and asked him to walk forward again as he was reaching down.
"The transition can't be any better than the stride before the transition."
This horse was super, super, super nice! Absolutely exactly what a training level horse should be. Unfortunately he was off today, from a week old splint, so the Saturday notes are all I have.
Keep your hands together (side by side, in alignment so that you only see the closest one from the side) or you block the outside hind
When the horse is lookier in one direction it's because their dominant eye is away from it, generally that's also their stiffer side.
To figure out what *your* dominant eye is, point at an object in the distance, without moving your finger, keep pointing and the object and close your left eye and then close your right eye, whichever open eye causes your finger to seem to not move compared to where it was with both eyes open is your dominant eye!
When suppling don't hold the +7 for more than a second, or the horse will break at the jaw.
The first ingredient of a connecting half halt is to close the calves and the outside hand so that it captures, contains, and recycles the energy back to the hindlegs; it lasts 3 seconds, long enough to inhale and exhale; give it by closing the legs, close the outside hand, and vibrate the inside rein while thinking "add, add, add"
Don't use the inside rein until just before the horse bends to the outside due to the closed hand.
When the horse can learn to go forward through a closed outside rein then you have a horse that can truely be on the bit.
Half halt through the transition to make it nicer
Work on keeping the horse from subtracting the gait, when half halting
****Exercise****
Lengthen trot on open side of a 20 meter circle, half halt on the opposite side, the half halt should have the same power/energy as the lengthening; use tummy muscles to shortern from the lengthening
Lengthen long enough to get an answer
When you close your eyes you should get the lengthening for 1 stride before closing the hand when half halting
After the half halt allow the neck to "fall down"
You need an extra insurance policy in the beginning by having more go than you need
I didn't catch this horse's breed, he is a 7 year old WB whose rider wanted to work on elastic hands and accepting contact as well as working on the horse's tendency to go BTV.
The rider had a tendency to ask for flexion at the jaw, instead of the poll, which is why the horse was going BTV.
She also was not following the horse's mouth with her elbows so the horse was nodding *in* because he couldn't poke his nose out as he walked and his neck naturally oscillated.
Jane started out with a visualization of imagining the reins are two solid sticks that you need to push forward; push your hands forward until the elbows are almost straight.
If one arm is more elastic, bridge the reins and let the elastic arm guide the stiff arm (this rider had a tendency to follow well with the right hand, but not the left).
We can't ask the horse to be on the bit if the contact isn't elastic.
The horse is built like a parallelogram, you need to get it slanted forward, with the neck out and the hind legs under the horse, rather than the horse's neck sucked back with hind legs trailing.
The nose should be 5 degrees in front of the vertical, though can be on the vertical during some Grand Prix movements.
Flexion-pinkie goes as close to the center of withers and stays there when you flex it (suppling the poll, not the jaw). This closes the gap between the jaw and the muscle in the neck under the poll, not the throatlatch.
This is also what's called being "through the poll"; flexibility is needed at the poll
Uberstreichen tests that the horse is really in the left poll (after asking for flexion to the left) because he won't look to the outside when given that release
The horse should be flexed at +1 in the direction it's going, meaning, head directly center is 0, and 1 inch to the inside is +1 and 1 inch to the outside is -1.
***Really good suppleing exercise that when done correctly, it's really good, done incorrectly, it does a lot of harm (see below)***
"The horse's neck is simply his back out in front of you"
Suppleing in the neck is when you bring the horse's neck to +6 above the regular +1, so for a total of +7.
What the rider does, quickly and without holding the horse in the flexion, is go +7, back to +1, +7, back to +1, +7, and then +1 again.
However, don't fall into the trap of replacing the leg with rein; squeeze with the leg on the same side as you're suppling when you supple the horse, this is why this exercise can do more damage than good, when the rider depends on the rein
Keep your hands in a box, side by side, and don't leave that box...don't give too much with your outside hand and don't pull your inside hand back too far
This exercise is like giving a fit 3-day event horse valium; it relaxes the body, which relaxes the mind.
It's important to do the suppleing with the horse, but it's just as important what you do AFTER the suppleing (ie row the boat when walking or wash the clothes when trotting), in other words, keep an elastic connection
After suppleing the horse would chew the reins out of the riders hand instead of needing it to be wiggled down.
When doing this exercise, ride at least 6 or 7 strides between suppleings, this gives the horse time to answer you.
This was a 5 year old Friesian that was very lazy. The rider had to help him with just about every stride. I'm just going to write down my notes as I took them, hopefully they make sense, but I can try to explain anything if there's a specific question.
Warming up...it's ok to warm up under tempo to ensure the horse is calm and adjusting to its environment, but when schooling piaffe/pirouettes over tempo because they tend to go slower because they have to lift their knees.
If you look too much to the inside of a circle fake yourself out by looking at the outside ear
The length of the horse's neck is proportional to the length of stride of the hind legs
"There's no laughing in dressage."
The first few riders Jane spent a lot of time emphasizing elbows. When walking, you push the elbows forward and backward, like rowing a boat (she would often say row, row, row your boat to the rider). When trotting you open and close your elbows like a door hinge.
An exercise for trot elbows is to stand with your legs bent like riding in front of a chair or a desk. Rest your hands in riding position on the chair/desk and practice pushing down as you straighten your legs to simulate posting and keeping your hands in one place, by opening and closing your elbows.
It's important to keep your elbows correct for transitions, move from walking elbows (push) to posting elbows (open/close) seamlessly and as soon as the new gait begins.
Flexion at the jaw encourages chewing which closes the angle of the throatlatch. This is the last kind of flexion that a rider should mess with.
In right/left flexion flip your wrist so that the thumb is facing away from the other hand (palm up) and then back, make sure you support with the outside rein so that he doesn't bend his neck. You need to keep the pinkie of the flipping hand close to the withers, but not over them to ensure you're using an indirect rein, not an opening rein.
The horse needs to be "thinking" forward...
1. It is the horse's responsibility to maintain his energy at a gait, not yours
2. Will be covered tomorrow
To test forward, take your legs away from the horse's sides, see how long it takes for the horse to lose just one ounce of momentum, then give a *correction*, either multiple kicks or taps with the whip, just one kick/tap is an aid, so you want to do multiple to ensure the horse knows it was a punishment
If your horse kicks at the whip, don't use it for the correction, because when a horse is kicking/bucking its hind legs are being directed backwards, behind them, rather than forward, under them.
Start the exercise at the walk, on a circle. Get a good walk, then take legs off, when he slows down a fraction, kick him until he trots, then back to a walk and repeat. The first time you do this exercise you can leave the legs off for a long period, just to see how slow the horse ends up, and if it even stops.
Tomorrow....
In front of the driving aids
On the bit
