2019 USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference

2019 USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference

Monday, January 21, 2019

The Right Path


If the horse gets tight in the flying changes, ride the changes on a large circle instead of on a straight line, US Equestrian national developing coach Charlotte Bredahl advised demo rider Jami Kment on Gatino Van Hof Olympia at the 2019 Adequan/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference. Ride the more difficult change to the outside of the circle -- "I don't know why it works, exactly, but it usually works!" Bredahl said. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.
Although, as newly appointed US national dressage technical advisor Debbie McDonald pointed out, there is no single correct approach to take in dressage training because every horse must be treated as an individual, there is one set of basics: the pyramid of training.

Give short shrift to any aspect of the pyramid, and your dressage will suffer. At the end of the day, regardless of how fancy or ordinary your mount may be, much of your success or lack thereof in dressage will come down to how much time you spend perfecting the basics: how rigorous your standards, how intolerant of “good enough,” how much attention to detail you give the steps and the strides and the straightness.

That was the lesson that emerged today, day 1 of the 2019 Adequan/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference, at Mary Anne McPhail’s High Meadow Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida. The event marks the first time since the 2011 Adequan/USDF National Dressage Symposium that all of the US Equestrian national dressage coaches have assembled to lead an educational event. As the high-performance coach, McDonald worked with the two Grand Prix-level horses and riders, Kerrigan Gluch on Bolero CXL VII and Chris Hickey on Contento Sogno. Youth coach George Williams started the day by working with the junior/young riders Tori Belles on Romulus and Sophia Schults on Samour M. Then it was on to young-horse coach Christine Traurig, with Michael Bragdell on SenSation HW and Ali Potasky on Irintha. Newly appointed development coach (and former assistant youth coach) Charlotte Bredahl worked one-on-one with Jami Kment on Gatino Van Hof Olympia and Melissa Taylor on Ansgar. 
US national dressage youth coach George Williams works with Tori Belles on Romulus. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

As Williams demonstrated with Belles, it’s never too early to teach youth riders to dial in their focus on the details. He had Belles count strides in the rising trot, figuring out how many strides Romulus takes in a quarter of a 20-meter circle in trot and canter. Williams uses lots of counting in his teaching, from having Belles sit for three or five strides and then resume rising trot, to demonstrating the “enlarge…two…three” circle exercise he uses to help riders learn to regulate their horses’ rhythms and tempos while coordinating the balance between the forward and sideways driving aids.

Some of dressage training is horsemanship know-how, passed down from teacher to student over the years. An audience member asked how Williams decides which is better for warming up a horse, trot-canter-trot transitions or walk-canter-walk. It depends, Williams responded, on whether the horse needs help with his balance and in developing pushing and carrying power (in which case walk-canter transitions might be preferable), or whether the main objective is to loosen and supple a horse’s back and loin muscles (better served through trot-canter transitions). He chose trot-canter as the best method of suppling Schults’s mount, Samour M.

One of the great pleasures of attending a Trainers Conference is the opportunity to watch some of our country’s top horses. Hilltop Farm head trainer Michael Bragdell rode SenSation HW, last year’s national FEI Five-Year-Old champion. As guided by Traurig, Bragdell showed the audience the importance of teaching the horse about the rider’s outside leg and rein aids in terms of straightness and half-halts.
Christine Traurig, the US national young-horse coach, helps Michael Bragdell on SenSation HW, the USA's top FEI Five-Year-Old in 2018. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“Everyone says ‘Inside leg to outside hand,’” Traurig said, “but until the horse understands the outside leg and rein aids in keeping the shape of the circle, you can’t use the inside leg correctly because the inside leg contradicts the inside rein.” This is why, she said, horse and rider need to be educated about three types of aids: driving aids, yielding aids, and bending aids.

The basics, the clinicians showed repeatedly, are rooted in equine physiology; correct dressage is not “for looks” or “for show.” For example, Traurig explained that tightness in the sacroiliac and lumbar regions of the horse’s back will inhibit the development of impulsion because the hind legs will not be able to work properly to create power and thrust. Assuming a veterinarian has ruled out physical issues, a “stuck” back can be addressed through simple exercises such as leg-yield, which encourage the horse to reach and stretch over his back. 

Traurig also explained that the horse’s trapezius muscles, which are on either side of his neck, open up “like a Japanese fan” when the neck is stretched and lowered. The muscles also connect to the long back muscle and to the nuchal ligament, which helps to lift and support the back when it is put in tension, sort of like a suspension bridge. 

Together the national dressage coaches showed that improvement in our sport involves a drilling-down into the basics, applying them with increasing exactitude until (theoretically, anyway) every step the horse takes is precisely how, when, where, and how much we want. That level of attention to detail permits no coasting. There are no sloppy, yay-I’m-done-I’m-going-to-drop-the-reins down transitions. “Ridehim to the bit,” Traurig said repeatedly, reminding riders to maintain energy and impulsion even while asking their horses to come down to the walk. And don’t just cruise around aimlessly in your walk breaks. “What walk are you doing? It is extended? Medium? Collected? Decide which one you are doing, and ride that walk.”
Think famous trainers are above helping out at the barn? Think again! Olympian Lendon Gray shows her Dressage4Kids Winter Intensive Training Program participants the importance of keeping the arena meticulously picked up. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Our horses, naturally, rise (or fall) to the level of our expectations. Bredahl instructed Taylor to “make the transition from medium to collected trot—boom! That wasn’t clear enough. If it’s not clear, tactfully walk one step” to teach Ansgar that he must come back when Taylor asks. “Then think it [a walk step] but don’t do it.” Soon the horse was responding more crisply to the aids for the transition. 

Similarly, McDonald told Gluch to sharpen up Bolero CXLVII’s responses to her aids for up transitions. “That wasn’t clean enough,” she said of a walk-canter depart. “At this level, you need to have both ends sharp. You need to have their hind legs.” 

Timing is critical, said McDonald, who didn’t want riders “sitting” on any aids. She told Gluch to quicken her own aids and reactions: “Be quick to sharpen him. Quick to pet him. Quick to half-halt. Never hold him. Everything must be sharper. At this level, the horse needs to be more responsible for his own balance, not rely on your hands.” 

One thing that’s definitely sharpened is my eagerness for tomorrow’s session. See you tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. I love to follow your writings, Jen! Always interesting and relevant on some of the highest level current events of our field! Hope Dux is well!

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