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.”

Dorie Vlatten-Schmitz, USEF “S” Dressage Judge, presented a Continuing Education workshop for a great group of participants on Saturday, August 20. The atmosphere was encouraging, inviting, and educational. Everyone was able to speak and gain confidence in the judging process.

Most USDF L Participants & Graduates use too many words, making the job of the scribe difficult. Throughout the day the participants were encouraged to condense words and phrases to be clear for the rider and scribe-friendly.

Dorie told the group to “just own it”. She didn’t want participants to second guess comments and scores. She wanted an immediate assessment. The participants were expected to trust their training and first impressions. While judges strive to be accurate, it is only human that one may make mistakes from time to time. All judges continue to learn throughout their judging careers. The point of the first exercise was to go with one’s first impression and move on. It is important to keep up with the pace of the test. Judges do have to justify their scores. To participate in any USDF L or USEF Dressage Judge training program, the participant will have to be able to articulate his or her reasons.

There were many discussions, such as how important the horse’s whole body was to every part of the training pyramid. When defining or explaining words, such as “connection”, sometimes the focus tends to be on the rider’s hands and the horse’s mouth. It’s so much more than that. The participants also learned some new judging terminology from FEI Dressage Judge Stephen Clarke, such as “could spring more off the ground,” “small disturbance” and “show more uniform bend”.

Understanding and formulating collective marks are always a great topic in workshops and clinics. Dorie provided an explanation of the difference between impulsion and submission, although she’s not a fan of the word submission. One way is by asking the question: “Is the horse physically and mentally prepared and capable to do the movement vs does the horse want to do the movement?” She also shared how she prepares for collective scores and comments while the test in in progress. She didn’t want to see the participants judge a test and then get to the collective marks and think “now what?”

Participants reviewed judging terminology and discussed what the rider may think as a results of the words. It was clear even in our group that words had different interpretations. The risk with some of the judging terminology is that it can be misinterpretations by the rider. For example a comment “needs more energy/impulsion” could result in the rider chasing the horse. The group brainstormed to come up with other ways to say the same thing, such as saying sluggish and sleepy instead of the lengthy alternative. A judge tries to avoid saying anything that may results in the rider blaming or punishing the horse. What a judge says should not contribute to a horse’s training going in the wrong direction. Another phrase which created discussion, was “above the bit.” Some participants had different variations of what that meant and what the criteria was for using it. In addition, the participants discussed “irregular steps”. The group defined what rhythm meant, discussed what lateral or a lateral tendency was, and noted what could instead be a balance issue.

The participants gained a lot of confidence and education in the workshop. I like the phrase “just own it” and can apply that to my life and riding as well!  Thanks to Dorie Vlatten-Schmitz for providing an educational day. We all wish the current group of L Participants good luck in their upcoming testing.

I was working with my yearling this morning.  What seemed like a basic request to free lunge in the round pen became a big problem ending with his massive temper tantrum.

My yearling knows how to both free lunge and lunge on-the-line, but today he said no.  At first I thought pushing him, growling at him and just asking again and again would work. But it didn’t.  I stood there confused. Lunging is a simple request and something he knows.

Finally I thought about the pieces he needed to be able to lunge.

• Move
• Pay attention to me

Both of these pieces were lacking. It was easier to access his hind end so I was able to get his hind legs moving. Then I went to the front end to move his shoulder – and there was the problem. He would not yield from his right shoulder.  After re-schooling stepping left from the right shoulder for a while, I was able to get back to lunging. I’m sure we will need several days of reinforcement.

Today’s experience was an interesting lesson for me. To think something so basic (in my mind) as lunging would need to be broken into smaller pieces (for the Yearling’s mind) wasn’t something I was expecting. By breaking down the pieces, I was able to stop his tantrums from escalating and we ended with a successful training session.

…Now, mind you I have a hole in my shirt from his tantrum attention-getting reactions.

USEF Dressage Judge’s Clinic with Lilo Fore

I attended the USEF Dressage Judge’s Clinic at the LA Equestrian Center in Burbank, CA, February 27-28 . The instructor, Lilo Fore, from Santa Rosa, California is a USEF “S” Judge, FEI “I” Judge and Sporthorse Breed Judge.

Over the weekend we learned from Lilo as we group and individual judged dressage tests though Grand Prix.  Though many of us were not “credentialed” to judge FEI levels, it was a treat to be able to evaluate so many wonderful FEI classes.

Lilo’s theme in our training: always be able to say something positive.  In fact, she had us judge whole tests only observing and verbalizing the positive. One horse in particular was a challenge because he was very tense and naughty throughout the test. However, we noticed the tactful rider and that the horse stayed in the ring and mostly made it from one letter to another. Lilo said we still need to see the positive within what we want to see improved, i.e. “some degree of bend, but tight in topline” or “some cadence, but hind legs should match front”.

Lilo’s talent is undeniable. She’d mention a training issue and what the likely mistake would results from it, and she was right-on all the time. But she made sure we were not looking just at the mistake, and if we saw a mistake, she said we need to be careful not to judge ONLY the mistake. She said, “In tempi changes, a miscount is less of a mistake than a late change”. She said to score mistakes with basics more severe. Score mistakes in timing less severe. She asked us to not punish a mistake severely unless it was the result of bad training. Lilo was quite clear about her methodology of rider’s who take risks. She said, “Don’t punish too severely if a horse and rider takes risks. If the effort was there, (+), if the horse and rider doesn’t try (–)”. She said judges have to be willing to go as much up in a score as we are willing to go down.

Lilo said that the judge has to know what we want to see. She says, “You have to have your standard. Set your standard so you’ll be fair to all riders”. She also believes that judging is based on the horse’s training. She says every rider is a trainer. “Think ‘can the horse go on and get better’?” She told us, “Make sure the rider feels good about what they did well and what need to be improved. Was the criteria met? If not, what happened? Was the quality there? If not, what happened”?

Lilo explained her methodology and what causes her to go up or down in a score. She asked us to mention corners and geometry as training tools starting at first level. She said that she regularly writes on tests “allow geometry to help your training”. And she also helped many of us with visual indicators to assist us with our assessments. For example:

• Check if the power is going out the front door or the back door
• If self-carriage is not established, contact will suffer
• What is in front of the saddle should match what is behind the saddle
• If the shoulder in has too much angel, the horse can’t sit

It was a wonderful and educational weekend. Lilo was fantastic at making us feel as comfortable as possible learning and growing as judges. All of us had opinions, many of us asked questions, and those that did the individual judging did a good job and learned some little things we needed to improve!

Michell Combs and Charlotte DuJardin

A fun group of dressage enthusiasts attended a Through The Dressage Levels symposium with Charlotte DuJardin October 3-4, 2015 at the lovely Devondwood Equestrian center near Portland, Oregon. There were about 1800 people in attendance.

I assume Charlotte needs no introduction, but if so, she has the current World’s Record scores in the dressage rankings for Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle. She is ranked number one in the FEI World Individual Dressage Ranking. She was the 2014 Individual World Champion at Grand Prix Special and Freestyle at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and she is the 2012 Olympic Gold medal individual and team winner. Now she is preparing for the upcoming Olympics in Rio. Charlotte specializes in training dressage horses from the very beginning to grand prix.

Charlotte shared a lot of personal stories about her experiences leading up to her current “superstar” status. She didn’t come from a wealthy background but she was lucky to have access to horses from a young age.  She trained advanced dressage movements on her Thoroughbred when she was just 11 or 12 year’s old.  Charlotte had some instruction and eventually she landed a job as a groom for a British Olympian named Carl Hessler. A short time into her employment, Charlotte saw that Carl was trying to sell a difficult and hot horse. Charlotte, who was a self-described “nobody” back then begged Carl not to sell him and to let her ride the horse.  Eventually Carl agreed. The horse, Valegro, is the amazing talent that has taken Charlotte to an unbelievable riding career. Charlotte shared that there were many nay-sayers in her life. These people told her and Carl many negative things including that Charlotte was just an amateur rider and not worthy of such opportunities. However, her perfectionist attitude and courage persevered. Charlotte says the hardest part of being at the level that she is at today is dealing with media and fan expectations. She feels the pressure to always have the perfect ride but she also knows that every person and horse has good and bad days.

We had the privilege to learn about Charlotte’s training program as she applied her program to the symposium’s horse and rider combinations. She provided plenty of specific instruction and training exercises to improve each horse, who ranged from 4 year’s old to 20 year’s old and with all levels of training under saddle. The common theme was to always keep the horse in front of the rider’s leg and for the rider to not get stuck in one rhythm. Charlotte was very adamant that each rider be brave and be correct. If a rider rode a bad transition, she had them do it again.  If the rider didn’t ride a corner correctly, the rider had to do it again. If the rider was not clear in making the horse go forward from the leg she told them to KICK and go for the “yeehaw”! Charlotte said she wasn’t fond of using a whip except to train the flying change or the advanced dressage movements piaffe and passage.  She says the rider’s leg must be the aid to make the horse go forward. She also was direct about not punishing a horse for mistakes, but to keep riding forward. She told the riders, “don’t make a thing of it or the horse will be tense.” Charlotte says when she rides horses she bends, straightens, stretches and collects. She says her goal in riding is “to give my horse as much confidence as possible.” She literally does 100 transitions per ride. With her program, she supplements the arena work with long hacks twice a week and a day off.

There are many write-ups of the clinic that I’ve seen posted on our various Facebook pages.  They describe the training philosophy and methods quite well.  If you need access to any of them, let me know.

It was a wonderful experience to learn from Charlotte. She’s such a down to earth person. At the symposium, Charlotte was clear, understandable and exhibited a fun sense of humor. Now armed with pages and pages of notes with helpful exercises, training tips and explanations, I’m eager to get started on revising my project horse’s training plan. And I recently purchased a youngster whose uncle is Valegro, so my plan is to have an exciting future!