April Showers

Hey guys, can you even believe it is April already? I have been at the Hasslers now for three months and time has really flown by! April is going to be one crazy month for us up here which is both exciting and terrifying. Next weekend is my first show of the season which means it will be the first time I don my tailcoat and top hat and go to ride the Prix St. George! I am going to school in it this next week and honestly Val is going really well right now. Scott said he will be holding his breath in the zigzag, the three’s and four’s, and the right canter pirouette – and I responded that I might be holding my breath too! I am feeling really good and I feel ready though. I ran the trot patterns from the Individual yesterday and I had a really nice feeling. There was a good sense of flow and he felt very honest. We will just have to see what comes next weekend. I am so excited because both Mel and Jill, other Young Riders in the barn, are going too. And my friend Maddy from Region 8 will be coming down! It should be a party!

As for April, last Wednesday I officially ordered my new saddle – the Debbie Special from Trilogy.

This is my new baby!

Should be here in 4 to 6 weeks and I cannot wait! Thank you so much to Theresa and Debbie of Trilogy saddles for all of your help. I cannot say enough great things about this company and how helpful they have been already.In addition to the show next weekend the following week is the USEF East Coast Young Horse training session that we are hosting at Riveredge which I am really excited to see. And then the weekend after we have Michael Klimke coming in for a clinic. Our barn is going to be full all the way through the month and we are going to be amazingly busy. Should be a fun time!

“Straight Makes Eight” – Part Two

So, this is a little late. Story of my life it seems like! Anyways, onto part two of the Linda Zang clinic! Because I am writing this late some things might not make a lot of sense. Let me know!

The half pass was a really big “ah-ha” moment, and I am pretty sure that I was not the only one who felt this way. A half pass is really travers on a diagonal line. When you think about that  The head, neck, and shoulder should be put on the diagonal line and then you should ride across the arena in the travers. The shoulder must always stay in front of the haunches. Linda explained that half pass is not a sideways movement but a forward one! Big name, upper level riders will come out of the corner with the front end lined up and then power the hind legs so the horse carries them across the arena – instead of the awkward pushing and driving many riders try. Even before you get to the letter the position of the head, neck, and shoulders should be on the line. Use the corners to really develop the flexion properly. Look up at the direction with your eyes, and this will help lift the leading shoulder and not create that behind the leg feeling. She really stressed that winning a test is all about getting a horse into the flexion correctly before the movement or out of the corner, not only in the half pass but in all the figures. I have kept this in mind a lot riding this past week and it has really helped Val’s expression. I also have to really think about keeping my right shoulder back farther in the left half pass so that he stays straight and the hind legs keep driving. My position is where I need to look for problems first, not assume that it is Val’s fault. It is always the riders fault – sometimes I really forget this!

For proper collection the horse should feel like you could ask for a pirouette at any time – this is truly “on the aids”.You want to ride a horse out in front of you so that the transitions occur uphill. There should be space between your body and your hands so that there is area to influence the horses way of going. A rider should open their inside hip and ab area to allow the horse to come forward into the space that exists with their hands in the proper place. According to Linda “straight makes eight” – this straightness needs to exist in all figures, lateral and otherwise. Straightness also refers to a horse being correct between the aids and balanced. The last rider of the day was a Young Rider so she worked on the Prix St. George which was really beneficial for me to see. Linda helped her work on the flying changes for a while too. When a horse pulls a late change it usually means they are dropping the forehand and shoulders. The rider needs to open their hip and allow them to come up and through the change. Think of it like the first stride in the canter that comes up. You have to present the canter. Her visual connection was to think of fencing. That moment of “en guard” is how you want the canter, and the changes, to feel. A change will get a 7 if it is correct without expression, 8 if there is correct ground cover and no sway, and a 9 or 10 if the corners and collection are good before and after. When riding diagonals you have to complete the movement before the marker otherwise it will be an automatic 6. A good example of this is the extended canter in the Prix St. George. The ‘back’ and the flying change need to happen before the corner marker. For the pirouette’s there needs to be one stride of collected/pirouette canter before and after the full or half pirouette for a rider to score anything more than a 6.

On a random note that I took from the clinic, but that I thought was too important and thought-provoking enough to include, when you are riding a circle you are really riding straight! When on a circle you want to use the outside hand down low and have the outside leg on to make the horse straight. When you are riding straight you are actually riding flexion and suppling at all times. It is rather an interesting and intriguing thought that the only time you are not constantly flexing and suppling is when you are on a circle allowing the horse to flow around the soft inside.

Linda also revealed how you can win your test, and it reminded me a lot of what Jimmy Wofford says about winning an event. Linda says to win a test you must have the horse correctly in the flexion before the movement (I said this once already but it was important enough to say again!). She also said that disciplined riding is the only way you will win. You have to be honest and really consequent in your riding. Accuracy and precision can never be given too much weight in your training. Be hard on yourself and don’t let yourself get away with ‘just okay’. You have to use every bit of space in the arena and not let a single moment pass you by. The short side should be where a rider shows off the quality of the gait – that is how a good rider turns 7′s into 8′s. Present the horse because that is really all the judge can critique when you are on the short side. Funnily enough, this was not the first time I had heard this advice! Jason and I had talked about this very thing last summer going into Kentucky and Gladstone.

And now for your random fun fact of the day, the first ever Kur was in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympics and there was a huge debate over whether adding music would inherently ruin the sport making it a spectacle graded on entertainment value and not correct training. Personally, I think the Kur is one of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the sport, and I know a lot of people agree! Linda talked about how she remembered the debate and how she believes it really helped to keep the sport vitalized and going strong today.

“Straight Makes Eight” – Part One

First, I apologize for not posting sooner. The days just get so long up here and with working five and a half days there never seems to be enough time to really sit down and write a blog post up. I sort of just live in a perpetual state of exhaustion so that is why it can be difficult to sit down at the end of the day after coming home and write. I am taking lots of notes though so I am keeping up with it all to write about when I do get the moment!

This past week Scott has been riding Val quite a bit. This is so he can really feel and dig down into Val’s training, that way he can help me. Sometimes Val rides and feels different than he actually is, and the time Scott is spending in the saddle will only further his ability to explain and understand what I am feeling that way he can help us through it. Our big obstacle in the St. George right now is the half pass zig-zag. Val’s issues come from the right shoulder mostly and the exercises Scott has been riding and then explaining to me all deal with how to ride the right shoulder up into the body in a way that his straightness improves. With the improved straightness, his cadence and bend can improve. Lateral suppleness within a small channel just between the point of both shoulders – that is the name of the game. The closer I can keep him to true center the better and more through he will become. Our favorite exercise right now is a few steps or meters of leg yielding to true straight back to steps of leg yield back to straight and so forth – as many times as I can fit it in. This is making his honesty to the aids very present in the work and he really has to respect the channel and my intentions that way. The more in control I can be of straight to sideways, the better the half pass becomes. I am starting to really be able to ride each stride and step within the movement and be very in control of the line.

However, up until today I had not yet ridden the full Prix St. George test as a whole. I was inspired after our wonderful clinic (which I will get to in a moment) today at the barn though and with the regulation arena, complete with letters, still set up in our indoor, I decided that I needed to woman up and run it through. I was really hesitant and worried about it but overall I am pleased. The trot work is really shining right now and felt spot on today. Taking the advice from Linda about the half passes really improved their quality. The medium and extended trot have become a wonderful highlight for him as well finally – his improved balance and cadence really shine. The walk work was rough to start with but it got much more through towards the end. After doing a bit of half step work after the test the clarity of the steps and rhythm improved. That is not something I would suggest to anyone else since half steps can really ruin the natural beauty of the walk, but for Val it helps him understand the collection better and lean less towards his lateral tendency – his walk is just too big for his own good! The walk pirouettes were okay, better to the left than the right (stuck a little). The extended walk was very free and had great overstep and rhythm. The canter depart itself was good but the collection after was a little rough. The canter half pass didn’t quite make it to X but it was correct with clean changes so it was a good start as well. The canter pirouette to the left was a little stuck behind and we swung into it, but the right one was spot on. Both counter canter changes were right on. After the pirouettes he was a little frazzled and so I opted for only three four tempi’s. The five three’s were spot on although I had to over ride for the correct count and they climbed a little. The extended canter started well, but the transition back was rushed and worried so he took the flying change early. Both halts were great and square and prompt down center line. It was a good trial run putting it together.

The real reason for this post and the title comes from the Linda Zang clinic Riveredge hosted today! I am looking forward to her return so I can ride with her. Everything she said was beyond helpful and I gained so much just auditing. The first rides were training level and four-year olds, so it gave Linda a great chance to talk about gaits and overall impression. As a judge, to determine clarity and correctness she always looks for the V – in all three gaits. She said that most judges and clinicians don’t want to talk about the walk enough and so she spent ample time really going into depth about it. In the walk we, as riders, must allow the head to move and don’t ride the head still, otherwise we are riding front to back instead of back to front. In a walk the ideal track up is 3 to 4 hoof prints. If it is barely tracking up the highest score you can get would be a 5, if it is lateral on one side a 4, and lateral on both sides a 3. For a free walk the height of the poll does not matter. However, for an extended walk the eyes should be at the height of the withers. In all gaits when the shoulders come up, or when the rider is trying to ride the shoulders up, the issue is directly related to the straightness to the hand. Two thirds of the horse (energy) should feel in front of you, and one-third behind. To correct a horse for straightness we must move the shoulders rather than the hind legs. The hind legs are the power while the front legs are stilts. Because the front legs are connected to the horses body not on a joint (they are connected by the shoulder) there is no true power in them. We must bring the shoulder into the body and place it in front of the hind leg to create freedom, expression, and eventually collection. When talking about collection in a young horse the term is only used as a description of the ability of the hind legs bending and the joints articulating. As a side note she mentioned that she often sees that short backed horses can develop tightness and problems if the saddle sits too far back laying on the ribs. This issue is something to be very aware of if you own a shorter backed horse, like one of the horses in the clinic.

She was also a big stickler on rider position. She says that if a rider comes in and does a lateral movement with the inside rein the judge cannot give more than a 6 on overall rider score. Every lateral movement must be ridden from the outside rein. The lateral movements serve to strengthen and develop the guarding aids. When working on this kind of work the head and neck can start to leave that ideal but she cautioned against riding the head rather than the hind legs of the horse. “Don’t fix the result – fix the cause.” No matter what we have to sit square in the middle of the horse and ride the bend up and through inside to outside. Our hips must push down and our ribcage up. Her example was to imagine sitting on a swing and creating the feeling of pushing when you want to swing higher. That is what our seat should feel like. When the position is good the horse will begin to wait for the rider and that is when the true harmony will show up. To tuck and engage in transitions the rider should imagine sitting on the edge of a bed with their feet flat on the ground. Then imagine laying backwards on the bed with your feet remaining on the ground. When you do this your tummy and back will engage – the same muscles you need to use in correct transitions. A rider needs to get their hands away from their body to create a space for the energy and throughness to live in as well. This is why riding with your hands in your crotch is wrong. There is no space between your hands and your body for the horse to fill up.

With the remaining horses that were farther along she began to get into true lateral work and the idea of collection, the half halt, and engagement. A shoulder in should be on three tracks, and everything else should be on four. This is why the shoulder in to renvers in second level trips up so many riders – the transition from three to four tracks. In a shoulder in the hind legs must stay straight – if they cross the movement instead becomes a leg yield. She cautioned that collection does not mean slow but that it refers to the bend of the hind legs and the lifting of the body. If you are holding with both reins for the half halt then you are doing it wrong. You must always ride forward to the hand – even in that half halt moment. To develop that feeling Linda says she likes to do trot/halt and walk/halt transitions. This gets the body and back to come up and lets the rider feel the idea of the growing of the back and the energy coming under and over a round body. Without impulsion a horse cannot have suspension and a rider cannot get either of these without engagement.

This post is getting far too long and I have a ton more notes since these were only from the first couple of riders. I will finish this up tomorrow and talk about her explanation of the half pass, flying changes, and test riding. Until tomorrow!