Are You Furthering Your Education or Trotting in a Rut

When you get to be a certain age and have accomplished many of your riding goals it is easy to sit back and say, " O.K. Now I know enough." Sure you have worked with lots of big name trainers, attended clinics all over and read every last book and watched every last horse DVD. You have attended all levels of competition, some as a rider, some as a coach. You have sat on a myriad of horses over the years, trained a few, ruined a few along the way and rescued a few too. But is your education anywhere near complete?

This complacence, as with many things in the horse world, is temporary. The focus of your energies may swap about, sometimes training your own horses, sometimes training others but you realize swiftly that the riding discipline you love is ever changing and it is up to you to change with it. For me, this discipline is dressage.

Scoring systems change. Who would have thought twenty years ago we'd be seeing scores of over 90% in dressage? Look at the technological sharing abilities that allow folks to record the test and broadcast in real time showcasing the elite of the sport, and You Tube and social media run amok with self posting promotions and training advice from both the knowledgeable and the not so knowledgeable. Horse breeding changes, the ever collecting array of new breeds, hybrid breeds that are being 'bred out' to better suit their particular discipline for example; who knew that Iberian horses would be moving more like warmbloods and be hitting 16.3hh. Even the methods of training seems to change.

So for me it was time to quit competing abroad for a bit and instead go and take an intensive course of lessons from those that currently grace the top echelons of my favorite sport. So off to Britain I went, ( it is so nice to be able to say Britain and not Germany or Holland), taking up a long time invitation to return to one of my favorite people and to have a lovely introduction to two others whom I never expected to meet never mind ride in front of.

I was surprised at what I saw and what I learned. My mind was open and I was excited to take some time for myself, to work with folks way up the ladder competition wise and was truly grateful for their precious time.  There were very bright, almost garish colors and bling that adorned every rider and horse, breaking tradition at every turn.  Indoors, barns and paddocks had stunning high tech features. But what I learned most about was the training. It had really developed a whole lot differently from the traditional methods I had learned in Germany in the '90's and early 2000's, and I challenged my regular F.E.I. trainer and coach, Greta Kemmer of Switzerland to hop on a plane and join me.  As my kindred spirit in all things dressage and trainer for many years, she dropped everything and did just that, realizing this was a great opportunity.

While I understand the pyramid training system in dressage, the classical ying and yang of French versus German methods, the traditional sporthorse training versus the classical, it was an eye-opener to see just how much training was achieved through work in the canter. There was no rollkur at these yards ( or I would not have been attending), but there was so much suppling work in all gaits and long extended necks taking a butter soft connection with the clever rider's hands, there was not a moment under saddle where the horse was not connected over his back and to the bridle, even in the relaxed walk and cool down.  This was not just dropping the inside rein and checking a connection or eking the rein out to show the stretch as in the tests but a more complex version. The gynmastic pattern designs used in the arena were smooth but technical and the transitions in the advanced work particularly between piaffe and passage, passage half pass and all the fancier stuff were enacted in a seamless battery of half halts, unilateral mostly. The vagaries of true collection, the quickness off the electric leg and all sorts of methods to school the horse to be accurate were just a small part of the most impressive series. And then the riders, smiling. What? When did that happen. Dressage riders are not known for their lack of intensity when riding but these trainers were very relaxed.

When it was my turn to 'have a go' as they suggested, I was more than a bit nervous. But within seconds of sitting on these floaty soft horses my fears were allayed. Discussions of how I could better use my leg position as a rider with the less than perfect longer leg were enlightening, and also more than a few tips on how to improve a score on a movement by quick changes in the set up depending on the position in the ring. By the end of day one I was tired, but happily so. By the end of 3 days I was very glad that I did not have to ride anymore, (frankly my brain and body were becoming overwhelmed), as the next location was an audit only for me.

Greta and I sat down before my trip home and discussed ardently what we had felt, what we had seen, what we had learned and how we could apply it to both our own horses in training and to the training and coaching of our students.  I arrived home refreshed and keen to start work with our young brood of Dutch warmblood fillies that are just coming of age for under saddle training and to test out the newly learned techniques on our older Grand Prix geldings. I have begun adding some of these new insights to our clinic programs having defined them working with them first hand.

So don't be hesitant to get some help from the trainer's trainers. We all need a re-boot from time to time and this was a great experience. I am sure it is the same across all sports. Watch the best, learn from the best, and remember whoever you train with you will end up looking like on a horse and your horse will look like theirs too, so choose carefully.