Young Horses with Carl Hester

West Coast Dressage Convention with Carl Hester (PART 1 – Young Horses)

April 8-9, 2017

Carl Hester, who needs no introduction as an internationally acclaimed trainer and competitor (British Olympian and trainer to Charlotte Dujardin) flew to Del Mar, California from the 2017 World Cup competition to provide a two-day training clinic.

Each morning began with the 4-, 5- and 6-year-old horses and then afternoons were advanced levels. Carl’s education and training ideas centered on the horse’s rhythm, relaxation and connection as well as the stretching, bending and collecting exercises. He believes in variety for the horse’s training, such as hacking, riding on hills, and working in the field instead of the arena.

When each horse first entered the arena, before evaluating the horse’s paces, Carl checked the rider’s position. The rider should be sitting on the horse just like a standing position on the ground. For example, visualize the rider in the saddle, then take the horse away. Would the rider be standing, falling forward or falling backwards? He wants each rider’s hands to be in front, not near or behind the saddle. Everyone in our sport knows Charlotte Dujardin’s famous quote from articles and clinics, “short reins win medals”. Carl says it means keep your hands in front of the saddle which will help you ride to the bit.

The key discussion points are:

• Be Safe
• Establish connection
• Keep the horse in balance and test self-carriage
• Ride a lot of transitions

The first goal when riding a young horse is to be SAFE first then start work on gymnastic training. At 4-years-old, horses don’t understand leg and rein together so start with the leg and stop with the reins. Work the newly under saddle horses only 20 minutes.  If a horse is growing, give him some time off because there is no sense riding a horse that is uncomfortable.

Ride a rising trot until the horse is about 6-years-old. In the early stages of training work on exercises such as circles, serpentines, change rein and stretching. Some horses can’t stretch early in the ride so stretch them at the end. Always perform hundreds of transitions. Riders need to be very particular on how the horse steps forward in the downward transition. Usually this means letting the reins out a little in the transition. Carl never allows a sloppy transition without repeating it until it was good – even the transition into a walk break! In Carl’s training barn, the piaffe is slowly introduced at 6-years-old and is developed over time once a week.

Establishing and maintaining connection is important from the very beginning. When one of the young horses was looking at the crowd, Carl told the rider, “let him look and keep the contact”. The rider should never break the contact.

The balance on a young horse needs to be level. As the horse develops and strengthens he can accept weight onto the hindquarters for an uphill balance. A horse that isn’t in balance, or is out of balance because of the rider, will probably experience loss of rhythm and may contribute to the horse losing confidence. On the 5- and 6-year-olds check the horse’s balance with an exercise where the rider posts three steps sits three steps posts three steps, etc. to see if the horse’s back changes. One young horse didn’t have the balance to perform a medium trot so the rider schooled the transition to medium, not the medium itself. It was lovely to watch the horse learn and develop from place of confidence.

Related to balance is the horse’s ability for self-carriage. Because riders tend to hold and help a horse’s balance, at the earliest stages of training the riders were asked to give and take the rein. To improve alignment, the rider leg yields a few strides, ride straight a few strides, leg yields a few strides and ride straight a few strides repeatedly down the long side. In developing the shoulder-in start with two reins on three tracks not four tracks. Four tracks is too difficult for a young horse.

One rider was complemented for riding the corners like a half circle. Young horses should not be ridden too deep in the corners or they learn to lean through the corner or anticipate and take over. Most dressage test movements start with a corner. Some exercises to improve them are riding to the corner, halt, turn on the forehand, and ride to the next corner and repeat. Another version of this is for the rider to trot the horse, walk when approaching the corner into a bit of a leg yield to activate the inside hind leg and trot when finishing the corner, and repeating the exercise at each corner.

It takes a lot of skill and patience to ride a young horse. As Carl explained, they can be so quiet and then turn into raging monsters. In his cheeky British accent he said “Ok ready to have a go now? Open your mouth take a deep breath and go.”