Secrets of Training Secret

Ok now Ange, pressure is on. You promised everyone positive, fun blog—now you must deliver.

Sorry, this one is long. My friend Stacy, of stacylynnephoto.com, got some great shots of Secret at a show last month, and I have a ton from before the training break. I'll get a photo blog to go with this long-winded diatribe posted tomorrow.

The topic of today is Secret.  Secret is an 11-year-old Arabian-Frisian cross owned by Linda Butz.  I have had the pleasure of riding Secret for almost 5 years now. She is a wonderful mare. She has a double-dose of try-too-hard and that keen Arabian intelligence.

The story of Linda and Secret reads should be titled “How to Start out Wrong and Still Somehow End up Right.” 

Secret, right after Linda bought her.

Linda bought Secret four months after she began riding. She bought her from a video. Linda was such a novice that it did not occur to her to worry that Secret was unmounted on the video.  She liked Secret’s pretty trot, and was learning to ride on Secret’s half brother, so that was enough to seal the deal. 

When Secret arrived from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania in December, Linda was a bit surprised at what she saw. The fuzzy, pasture-toughened mare wasn’t exactly the elegant, sleek horse of Linda’s ideals. She asked the shipper if it was the right horse.  Right or wrong, it was the horse she got.

Secret was a 5-year-old scared alpha mare, so Linda followed her instructor’s advice and sent her to a cowboy. There Secret learned to allow humans to touch her ears without rearing, stand like she had parking brakes, and, after 2 ½ months, to carry a rider. The cowboy was concerned about Linda and Secret as a match, and advised her to get lots of professional help.

After 4 months with the cowboy, Linda took Secret to a co-op with her instructor. Her instructor was a student of mine, so when they ran into trouble with Secret, her instructor called me. 

I took one look at Secret and her papers (I had trained her half brother on the Friesian side and many of her Arab-side relatives), and I knew this was an amazing athlete. I also knew she would be hot, a tendency to spook, and maybe a touch of ADD.  Her strengths for dressage were the natural uphill movement and super quality canter.  The training issues for dressage were clearly displayed in her upright neck and weak loins, which were things I am very comfortable correcting, but I was brought in to make her safe for Linda, not turn her into a dressage superstar.

The problem that brought me to Secret’s arena was an ugly buck in the canter depart. Linda, thankfully, wasn’t there—just the current instructor and I.  I really don’t like needing to do a discipline training session in front of a new horse owner. 

I started her on the lunge to make sure that she could easily get into the canter. She could, and had a really super canter. So I got on and worked with the trot to help her to relax a little. Then I asked for the canter.

Yep, the mare can buck.

This was not the cute little unbalanced-green-horse-hop-into-canter buck, this was a head down, back up, I-want-rid-of-this-annoying-human bronco buck.

So I did a little discipline work to explain to her that bucking into the canter is not acceptable. No, I didn’t abuse her, but she had to understand that displaying displeasure by trying to unload a rider is unacceptable, and if she bucked, she would have to work much, much harder than if she just took the canter.

Then I set up the canter depart again, and learned that Secret is a determined little alpha mare.  She tried to unload me again, with a bit more determination. 

So again I tucked her nose on my stirrup and booted her into a tiny circle until she was dizzy, then cued the canter again. She politely took a gorgeous, uphill canter, which I greeted with much praise and petting.

Apparently, when she decided to give me her canter politely, she decided I was acceptable as her rider.

That fall, Linda sent Secret to me for training. The plan was to stay the winter then return to the co-op with her regular instructor. Linda’s personal goals were trail riding, with the ultimate goal being to trot downhill.

Early on, Secret showed me talent for dressage.  Even though competitive dressage was not Linda’s goals, we decided to take her to a schooling show in early spring to see if the training held away from home.

In our area we have a huge horse community, with riders from recreational trail riders to Olympic team members in the neighborhood.  Most of the time, when we go to a schooling show, there’s a wonderful hodge-podge of pony club horses, well-loved ott’s, out-of-season fox hunters, and all-around horses. But sometimes the big boys show up, especially in the spring, to trial-run their tests before hitting the bigger shows.

Guess who showed up? Hilltop Farm and Iron Spring Farm. Not that it really mattered. I just wanted a nice, uneventful trip around the sand box.

Secret gave me a nice ride.  And she ended up 3^rd, behind Hilltop and Iron Spring, and not by much.  Wow.

So we decided to enter her in the Mason Dixon Classic, a local Arabian Morgan show, a few weeks later, where she earned training level champion.  Not bad for her first recognized outing. Linda promptly fell in love with horse shows.

So Linda and I sat down and made a plan. Most horses need show miles to get consistent in the ring, so Linda and I decided to give Secret a ton of outings.  While we were at it, we’d shoot for a few schooling show year-end awards and hit the Arab circuit. 

We showed her a lot that first year, and although Secret had some inconsistent moments, she became better and better with every outing.  She ended up Top 5 at the Arabian East Coast Championship, 3^rd in All-Breeds that year, and 6^th at the BLM finals against the warmbloods.

Secret continued her winning ways through 3^rd level, racking up ribbons, Legion of Merit designations, high-score Half-Arabian awards, and regional championships. But when we got to 3^rd level, even though she was placing well in the classes, she was having trouble with the same movements over and over in the show ring.  I knew the struggles would only get worse, so after a heart-to-heart with my trainer, Scott Hassler, I asked Linda to let me pull her off the show circuit and work on some of the foundational strength issues that were limiting Secret’s ability to do 3^rd level with ease.

Yea, that’s not a fun talk to have with any horse owner, especially one whose horse has been kicking butt for 3 seasons.

The underlying foundation problem came back to the weak loin and upright neck I had noted when I first met Secret.  Because of her weak loins, when she lowered her neck to the “on the bit” posture, she would support herself by bracing a little in the base of her neck, meaning there was no true connection to the reins.  When I put my leg on, sometimes I’d feel her change in my rein contact, but most often I’d feel her quicken her tempo and get lighter in my head instead, which meant I wasn’t able to recirculate the power from her hind legs through her topline to create true collection and cadence.

 In order to get to Secret’s loin muscles, I needed to work her in postures that didn’t allow her to use the base of her neck for support. These postures weren’t pretty. The work was really hard. Secret would come in sweaty every day, but she never, ever argued with me about the work. This mare is truly special between the ears. 

I would be lying to say that pulling Secret off the show circuit was easy. Linda wasn’t happy about it. There were many, many tense days between Linda and I.  But Secret dug deep, and gave 100% in every difficult strength building workout I planned for her. We took Secret down to Scott monthly to get his unbiased opinion on our progress, and every month he’d point out to Linda where he saw the improvement and what he expected to see change next.

I have to thank Linda for giving me the time to help Secret. Many owners would have moved their horse to a different trainer, but despite the disappointment of not competing and the rather un-dressage-like work I needed to do with Secret to get her stronger, Linda stuck with me. Not all owners would do that. 

And boy has it paid off.  As she has gotten stronger in her topline, she now has a super feel in the bridle. The increased strength allowed her to show more bend behind the saddle, which made her renvers, travers, and half-pass much more fluid.  Plus the added strength took her flying changes from late behind to really, really pretty expressive changes.  She has developed a really nice school canter and working canter pirouette with a long neck, instead of the bunchy Friesian neck.

After the year home, this April we headed to the Mason Dixon Classic again to try out 2^nd and 3^rd levels.  That morning I had a panic attack. What if the improvements in Secret didn’t translate to higher marks in the show ring?

My panic was unfounded.  Secret scored really well, significantly ahead of her competition, and ended up 2^nd level and above champion.   She has continued her winning ways this season, including AHA Region 15 Reserve Champion at 3^rd level and Champion at 2^nd level.

That Secret is doing so well in the show ring is awesome and quite a testament to applying the correct training and giving the horse the time she needed, so I’m really pleased, but not completely surprised.  What has surprised me is the reaction we are getting from the judges.  With the most recent dressage tests, the rider score is now divided into 3 categories – position, effectiveness of the aids, and harmony with the horse.  The first time I saw all 8’s in those numbers, I chalked it up to a generous judge. By the second and third time, I was feeling truly humbled to get to ride such a horse that can demonstrate harmony to a judge. But at Region 15 Championship, when Kathy Rouse gave us a 10 in harmony, I was completely speechless.

This weekend we get to ride for Debby McDonald at Hassler Dressage. Secret and I worked with Debby 2 years ago, and during our strength-building year, I referred to those lesson notes repeatedly. I am excited to again get to work with Debby and see what she suggests for Secret’s future development.

I’ll let you all know next week.

Winter Funk

When I opened this file to work on this blog, I saw that I started it back in mid May. I guess winter funks are just as yucky to write about as to experience. Plus, once spring hit, things started rolling along nicely, with more ups than downs, which makes this blog feel whiny and outdated—my apologies for being the downer.  But an update is needed before I go into the good stuff that is happening, so here it is. Better late and one post-funk blog than several months of depressing dribble.

That said, last year was tough.

The quick 2012 synopsis: I decided to keep Sling and Secret, two super-fun horses, home from competition.  They both had strength-related training issues, which are challenging because they resolve so gradually it’s hard to see the progress – unlike teaching changes or leg yield, where you can clearly tell when horses have that light-bulb moment and figures out how to sort out their legs.  Strength, on the other hand, takes time. Flash, a super-moving re-train that I have spent a long time sorting out for her owner, fractured her jaw and missed the show season.  Silly, my big, sentimental-purchase mare, gave me a beautiful foal, but she had a lousy labor and lost her colostrum, meaning 2 blood transfusions for Harry and a night with an IV bag for her.  I put Venus on the A-team to get some show miles, but hitting the high-profile shows my student’s needed for their goals, combined with all of the quadrille practices, wasn’t the best plan for getting the best performances from her.  My sweet, wonderful girl was a bit frazzled by the end of the summer.  Eclipse’s PSG show season was compressed for financial reasons, resulting in scores going down instead of up, and a nice case of stomach ulcers. Then, to top it off, in October I found out that he was retiring as of January 1.  Yes, the training level sales horses did really well in 2012, but I didn’t hang out my shingle to be the queen of training level.

Then, adding to this on a personal level, in December, my Grandpa passed away. The horse grandpa.

Needless to say, I spent the winter in a bit of a funk. Every time I heard the song “Some Nights” by the band Fun., I totally understood the lyrics. 

Meanwhile, SFD has been doing well. Doug came on board last summer, and the barn is full. Maddy got promoted from Working Student to Assistant Trainer, and she and I filled our winter days with riding, teaching, and serving the needs of our clients. 

Which helped me do the only thing I know to do when I get in a funk. I stay busy. I avoid thinking about one of my big fears – that I will get so caught up in running my business that I stagnate and become a “good enough” rider and trainer. I didn’t move so far from family and friends to settle for “good enough.”

I’d like to say the soundtrack had become was Billy Joel’s “Keeping the Faith,” but in reality it was closer to Fun.’s “One Step.”

I have some really super supportive people in my life, and they gently, and not-so-gently, kept the pressure on me to keep my goals in the fore front. Linda, who knows how much getting training help inspires me, insisted that I take Secret down to Scott’s regularly this winter, and of course I took Venus along (if I’m going for the day, get as much out of it as I can).  For Christmas, my students sent me to FL for the FEI Trainer’s Symposium.  These things kept me from falling into melancholy, but the funk-fog was still misting around the edges.

The supportive people in my life took it even further. Cara Klothe offered me her FEI mare, Ocarina, for the show season. I hemmed-and-hawed, and with Linda spouting all of the advantages of accepting Cara’s generous offer, I decided to accept. It was the right decision, as working with Cara’s super fun, very-clear-about-how-correctly-she-should-be-ridden mare has been a blast. I’d say more about this, but then I’d spoil a future blog post.  Each time I sat on her this spring, the focus required to ride her well would push the funk further and further away.

Then, show season started. Secret and Sling both made it very, very clear that my decision to keep them home last year was the right call. They both have walked into the show ring like stars, ready to truly perform for the judges. But again, that’s another blog. 

Now that the fog is lifted, I kept hemming-and-hawing about posting this blog.  I didn’t want to write this over the winter since reading downer blogs is, well, a downer. But after enough comments from readers, I felt like I owed you guys an explanation as to why the blog has been quiet for so long.  Plus it will help put the next few blogs in context.

 The current soundtrack in my head? Jimmy Cliff’s “I can see clearly now.” 

Showing in the Heat

Everyone keeps asking me if we show in the heat, and yes we do. But we take some extra precautions to keep the horses comfortable. The humans, I figure, can speak for themselves, but the horses didn't choose to go to the show, so I feel obligated to make sure they are ok. I have learned a lot of tricks from my endurance-riding friends as well as picking up a few tips from other sources.

Here's how we do it:

First, my trailer has tons of windows and three fans - one for each horse and one in the tack room. When I trailer on hot days, I open the windows in the front of the tack room and between the tack room and the horse area so the horses get the most air that they can.

I use ice to keep the air around the horse's heads cooler. One way horses cool is by panting, so having cooler air for them to breath goes long way towards keeping them comfortable. The hay bag also has ice dumped over the hay. When I am only hauling one horse on hot days, I keep the head divider open so both fans can blow on Ockie.

In this shot, you can see how the fan blows the ice-cooled air over Ockie. We jokingly call this "red neck air conditioning." Ockie usually has a water bucket hanging in front of her too, but she kept playing with it and blurring the photo :-). The trailer door was only closed for the lighting of this photo, usually they are open when the trailer isn't moving. 

Of course, we sponge and scrape with ice water on the horse's necks and jugular areas during walk breaks and right before and after our class. Amy meets me at the bit check area with the bucket ready to go. I am usually pretty independent at a show, but on hot days I really need an extra set of hands to help keep my mount cool.

As soon as we get the tack off, we put ice on the horse's legs. It not only helps prevent minor tendon stress from becoming strains, it cools the many, many blood vessels that flow through the legs. When it is hot, we hose the horses off while they are wearing their ice boots.

On days when the sweat just isn't evaporating, sometimes a spritz of alcohol will help. Alcohol evaporates easier than water, and takes some of the heat with it. We will spritz the horses before warm-up, just before we go into the ring, and during cool down. We try not to over-do this trick, as it will dry their coats

Also, to keep them drinking enough, I offer them beet pulp-alfalfa cube soup in the trailer along with their water bucket. Sometimes I add carrots to the water bucket, to flavor the water and encourage them to play bob-for-carrots along the way. Yes, this makes a huge mess, but in addition to getting water in their systems, it gives them some long-staple fiber in their stomachs to absorb any trailer-stress stomach acid, which helps prevent uclers. Cleaning towels are cheap, Ulcerguard isn't.

I electrolyte the night before we trailer and after we get home. I don't electrolyte just before trailering, as giving the horses something to make them thirsty then putting them in a moving trailer where some horses won't drink, isn't really a good idea.

I am realistic with my expectations on hot days. I can't be angry if a horse isn't 100% when the temps are 100, that just isn't fair. And yes, sometimes we even stay home on hot days. Sometimes.

(yes, I know I haven't blogged in forever, I'll get an update blog up soon. Promise.)

AMHA Magazine picked up my article - and is running some awesome photos!

American Morgan Horse Association picked up my Dressage Experiment article for their annual Morgan Sport Horse issue, and are running it with really awesome photos.  The issue comes out this month, and I got an advance pdf of the article.  Check it out - here's the first page of the article. Click here for he rest of the article.

My girls

My mares have been absent from my blog posts for a while. A few of you have asked me about them, so I thought I would devote a post to how they are doing.

The reason I haven’t written about them is, well, they are both doing quite well. Blog posts that say “my mares are fun to ride” really aren't that much fun to read. But this week, a student forwarded me a horse personality test, and I had fun answering the questions about my girls. The quiz nailed my girl’s distinctly different personalities so well, and in such a humorous way, that I figured it was a way to spice up a potentially dull blog.

First, Venus. The personality quiz labeled her as “The Wall Flower,” which describes her perfectly.  In the write up, it details this kind of horse as sensitive, sweet, good-girl type in need of strong leadership, but if the leadership gets too strong, the Wall Flower will back off.  This kinda explains why, in the past, she was hard for me to ride–no one would ever describe me as subtle.  I would overpower her, then she would suck back, then I would get all red-headed you-do-your-job-horse on her, and she’d suck back more.  But over time, I've learned to get the balance of leadership and support right, and she makes my heart sing, because man, can that horse move.

I have been humbled by how hard it is for me to ride my good girl. Venus is definitely not loony, spicy or naughty. Quite the opposite--she is very determined to be good. As a professional trainer, no one pays me to ride "good girls." My education was all about learning to ride the kinds of horses most people don’t want to ride. So Venus has given in the opportunity to learn to ride a consistent horse.

My good girl in public :-).

With the help of all of my instructors, friends, and poor strangers who have listened to my struggles, I have learned how to ride my girl. Ironically, for Venus to really shine, I need to back off. After spending my career either settling hot horses or inspiring sour horses, I had to learn to inspire her hind legs enough to create activity without overpowering her confidence, then sit still and enjoy the ride. Most of the time, at least at home, we get it right.

Next, Silly. Silly has, against all odds, return to work sound. I strongly considered breeding her again, but I’m having too much fun riding her.   The personality test calls her “the macho man,” and says if she was a human, she’d wear colors and ride a Harley.  I laughed out loud when I read this, because we have called her “the biker bitch” around the barn for years because of her strong confidence and clear opinions.

One place she differs from her personality profile, though, is she loves dressage (especially the tricks) and likes to teach.  Or rather, she likes telling riders when they are wrong and when they are right. She had been helping me educate riders before her injury, and has returned to that role. She is so popular as a lesson horse that I have to schedule my rides on her.

Those are some amazing ears. 

Silly educates riders with her huge, amazing ears. When a rider is riding her correctly, they flop to the side. When a rider gets the aids incorrect, she flips him back towards the rider, almost like she’s saying “are you sure about that?”  The minute the rider gets the aids correct, Silly returns to the floppy – eared relaxed mare that she is. Silly and I have been together for so long, that I can practically correct the riders mistakes by just watching Silly’s body language.  She is truly a wonderful, giving mare that is a joy to ride.

Like I said, a blog about how well my horses are going is really kind of dull. But at least I can include some  fun photos.

If you are interested in the horse personality test, here’s the web site http://www.horsepersonality.com/index.html

Musings on my Florida trip

Fair warning to the non-dressage-geek types that read my dribble, this post may bore you to tears. For the dressage geek readers out there, this post will probably be right up your alley.

As you know, January 21 and 22 I attended USDF’s FEI Trainer Symposium down in Wellington, Florida. During that symposium, I got to watch Steffen Peters work with nine different riders for two days. I extend my stay for a couple of days, and spent one morning watching Catherine Haddad Staller train. The week before I went to Florida, I was down at Hassler Dressage where I got to watch Scott ride.  True to my dressage geek nature, I have spent a lot of time comparing what I saw.

The first thing I saw is there many, many similarities in good training. With all three trainers, I could watch their work and logically figure out what they were trying to explain to the horses. There was no random riding around. Everything was very purposeful and very clear. They were quick to correct, and equally quick to reward their horses. Because of this, all three trainers made significant differences in all of their mounts. Two areas where I noticed differences were slight differences in thigh position and different warm up plans.

First, the thigh position and how that affected the leg aid.  Steffen, of course has that beautiful vertical thigh/deep knee leg position that we all drool over. Ironically, with one exception, he didn’t stress the thigh position with the riders he taught. He did, however, admonish several riders to keep their toe underneath the knee. That toe-underneath-knee alignment was common to all three trainers, regardless of their thigh position. Scott’s thigh wasn’t quite as vertical as Steffens, and Catherine had at least vertical thigh of the three.

The interesting thing about the thigh position was how it affected the use of the calf and spur. Steffen uses his calf as the primarily leg aid. He was very, very sparing with the spur. He advocated a pressing half to encourage a longer stride (which differs from the leg aid discussed at the Young Dressage Horse Trainer’s Symposium in November -- which is the topic I intend to discuss with Scott when I see him next week). He used the spur more as a correction when the horse did not respond correctly to the calf.

Scott, on the other hand, was working with the horse to get a more prompt, active response from the hind legs. He used the spur further back, aligned with his hip, as the initiating aid for more hind leg activity. He supported the spur with his voice and with rhythmic taps from the whip. With the angle of his thigh, he could easily use the spur that far back without rotating his leg onto the hamstring.

Catherine, whose thigh position is the least vertical of the three (but still much more vertical than the huntseat-horizontal thigh), advocates using the spur three ways -- tapping with the spur, resting the spur against the horse’s side, and a pressing spur.   Her a-bit-more-vertical thigh position allowed her the control to differentiate these three aids without moving the rest of her leg.

Of course, since I’ve been home I played with all three thigh positions. From my research and teaching, I know that the amount of arch someone naturally has in the lower back and the tightness of their psoas muscle often determines their thigh position. With my build, no matter how much I want to, I’m not sure I am physically capable of riding with my thigh as vertical as Steffen’s. When I try, I spend so much time focusing on my thigh that I get distracted from what I’m trying to do with my horse. That being said, if there’s a camera nearby you bet I’m going to try to get my thigh to look like that. 

Focusing on keeping my toes right under my knees, however, has been helpful.  This seems to stabilize my wandering right leg, which gives me the control I need to use leg and spur in a more specific manner.  Which, in turn, helps me activate hind legs of the horses I ride that need activating-- although I need to remember to turn it off. When I got on Liz Dobrinska’s horse, Rocky, who has a quick, active hind leg, right after riding Venus, who tends toward a longer, bigger, slower stride, he got his hind legs cranking so much that he had a hard time maintaining his balance. I could hear Scott’s voice in the back of my mind, “easy, Ange, easy.”

Second, the differences in the warm-up and how that flowed into their training session. Steffen spent a lot of time discussing warm up. He has a strong advocate for warming the horse up in a balance that really helps them. Which means not every horse was warmed up long-and-low. When he chose to keep a horse in a more uphill frame for warm-up, he clearly stated that he felt that taking that particular horse long-and-low compromised their balance. That being said, he had each horse go forward in steady, rhythmic, ground-covering strides during their warm up, regardless of how high or low he asked them to carry their neck.

Another large component of Steffen’s warm up was testing the aids. He used different exercises and school figures to check if the horses were responding to each leg individually, both legs together, the seat eight, and the rein aid. Once he was happy with the horse’s responses to his test, he would then ride test figures.

For example, one horse was not responding properly to the right leg. Steffen, who was riding with microphone, commented that the horse was pushing against his inside leg when making a right corner.  He spent a few minutes schooling smaller circles, asking the horse to be more responsive to the right leg. He then tested results of his schooling with a half pass. He wasn’t happy with the first half pass, so three strides into it he turned right, and went back to schooling the horse’s reaction to his right leg. He then tried the half pass again. This time it flowed beautifully.

Catherine, on the other hand, seemed to have a fairly consistent warm-up routine with each horse she rode. She started them all out in a longer, rounder frame. Once the horse was starting to swing its back, she used transitions between or within the gait to bring the frame up. Then she gradually flowed from less complicated movements more complicated movements. For example, on one horse, she began with a half pass from the corner to the centerline. Next she rode the half pass from the corner to the second quarter line. Then she rode the half pass from the corner to X. She did the same thing in the other direction. Then she rode a half pass zigzag.  She gradually increased the degree of difficulty each time she rode the half pass.

I think both approaches have their place in my toolbox. With my over-achiever type horses, I think Steffen’s approach would probably make them anxious. When I ride them, I find I intend to build more lines, like Catherine’s approach.  Some of my more laid-back types, on the other hand, seem to understand better when I insist on quick reactions to each aid before I set up each movement.

The last week and a half, I’ve really had a good time applying all that I learned to each horse I ride. I really enjoy sorting out each horse’s mind and body, and helping them become more relaxed, fun athletes.

Special thanks to all of my boarders, who gave me the Christmas gift of a check to spend on my education. Thanks to their generosity, I was able to spend these four days in Florida. Watching this caliber of training inspired my winter training. Thank you again for investing in me.

A Glimpse at my FEI Symposium Notes

Anyone who knows me knows my education is really, really important to me.  For Christmas, my boarders took a collection to be put towards just that cause.  In Linda’s words, “investing in your education makes sense, we get it back.” 

I used my Christmas education gift to do something I’ve wanted to do for years—attend USDF’s FEI Trainer’s Symposium in Wellington, FL.  This year I was really chomping to go, since Steffen Peters and Scott Hassler were the presenters.  Plus it is in Florida at the end of January, which usually has a bit better weather than Pennsylvania this time of year.

In this Symposium, Steffen worked with 9 horse-rider combinations at various stages of their FEI journey, from learning changes to schooling Grand Prix, and Scott recapped the rides.  Steffen got on every horse at least once, and his ability to articulate what he is doing while he is riding is truly impressive. Getting a glimpse inside of another trainer’s mind is really neat.  All of the horses improved dramatically, and I think we’ll see a couple of them on future teams.

One really neat thing about symposiums with Steffen and Scott is how they emphasize the importance of indentifying each horse’s strengths and weaknesses, and creating a training plan to improve those weaknesses.  Because they were so clear about what each horse’s weakness, I could see how each training plan could be applied to specific horses I ride every day.  Plus they were super clear to emphasize that a weakness is just that, a weakness, not a limitation, which, of course, just gets me all the more excited to get home and train.  But since it is 75 here and 15 at home, I’ll stay until Thursday and visit an old friend as planned.

Here I am, at the conclusion of day two, and I thought I’d share some snippets from my pages and pages and pages of notes. Please note—these are my unfiltered translations of a master, so any fault you find in them is most likely my translation.

Train like you show, show like you train.

Don’t “kick the can down the road.”  When a training issue comes up, fix it. Don’t wait for the elusive “strong enough” to happen. 

Stay true to yourself as you train.  All of the input from judges, instructors, and peers should add to your training path, not replace it. Stick to a horse’s path.

Another word for discipline is priority.

When a horse makes a mistake in a movement, it is a problem with the acceptance of one of the aids. Figure out which aid needs tuned up, then try the movement again.  Fix the root problem, not the movement.

A good seat goes with a manageable contact. You can’t have a good seat if the horse is incorrect in the contact. They go hand in hand.

Contact needs to be correct first, then add  cadence and swing.

Every step needs to be controlled.  Each aid has to be purposeful.

Let  a horse make mistakes, then take care of it. Don’t ride to prevent mistakes.

Horses need to come back as easily as they go forward.

As a trainer, we need to figure out when a horse struggles with strength and when the horse struggles with understanding. Handle each differently.

If you need to ride strong, do it, but immediately be light.

If you can’t fix the outline/balance/rhythm in 2 strides, simplify the work and fix it. Then go back to more complicated movements.

Every movement has 3 phases:

                Phase to set up

                Phase to execute

                Phase to finish – movement isn’t over until the quality, balance, and relaxation are reestablished.

Very few horses are deliberately disobedient. More often, resistance is caused by confusion, fear, or pain. This is why attention to your horse's welfare and simplicity and clarity of aiding are paramount.

Loaded with all of this inspirational goodness, I'll bundle up on Friday and train to my heart's content. Within the limitations of the weather and my tolerance for frostbite, of course.