European Training Journal Week 6 | |
This week English trainer, Charlotte Lassetter and her two horses Excellance and Panduur came to work with Mr. Schumacher prior to his departure for the USDF convention and Young Riders Clinic in the United States. Excellance is a Grand Prix horse with lovely gaits and a generous temperament. And even though he can perform all the movements, he needed work in developing the quality of the movements by addressing the issues of suppleness and throughness in all his gaits. Keeping these objectives in mind, Mr. Schumacher utilized many of the same exercises that I have previously described. Charlotte worked not only on improving her horse, but on her seat, balance and subtlety of aids as well. Excellance made great progress, having developed a wonderful freedom and expressiveness by the final day as they reworked many of the Grand Prix movements with these concepts in mind. Mr. Schumacher emphasized that this transformation had been accomplished through attention to the BASICS. He reminded us that once the foundation is solid, the movements will take care of themselves. The second horse, Panduur, is a recently purchased 7 year old, formerly a jumper and then quickly schooled in the basic movements to be sold as a dressage horse. His highly set-on neck predisposed him to the appearance of being through his back and on the bit, giving the impression that he was collected. Charlotte has been patiently taking him back to the beginning and showing him about contact and connection, while working towards more honest collection. Mr. Schumacher was adamant that one of the most important themes while riding young horses was to stay as quiet as possible throughout your body while providing consistent contact, thus giving the horse clear parameters, so he has to work in the given frame that you set for him, and is not startled by sudden changes in the rider's position. Additionally, he stated that patting the horse while working is possibly confusing (because of the loss of contact) and not nearly as rewarding as stretching the frame and allowing the horse to relax from his work for a few moments. Mr. Schumacher then put Panduur to work with exercises designed to improve his balance and throughness by reinforcing the half halt through transitions. First the horse was asked to walk a 10 meter circle followed by a transition to a 20 meter canter circle as he approached the wall (having completed the walk circle), and back to a walk transition (having completed the canter circle) to a 10 meter walk circle again as the horse approached the wall, so that all the upward and downward transitions happened at the same point along the wall, using the wall as a balancing point to help improve Panduur's understanding of half-halts. They then proceeded to a volte, leg-yield along the wall followed with another volte in both the walk and trot to improve lateral suppleness. Charlotte also was asked to leg-yield in walk-trot transitions, and to perform renvers during trot-walk transitions for improved engagement, as well as walking on the circle with many walk-halt transitions. And as always, consistent, steady contact with the horse was paramount, letting them find the connection. Mr. Schumacher encouraged Charlotte to think of her arms as an extension of the reins, performing like a pair of sidereins, and the wrists functioning like the rubber donut in a side rein, with the emphasis on maintaining the same small range of motion. Then the horse can feel confident that the rider is with them and go forward into the connection. |
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