Classroom: February 2010 Archives

(1) I arrived just at the end of Jan's flat lesson, but Waterfront looked great and it was all smiles in the traditional post-lesson chat.

(2) I remember my first experience with how spooky Arthur can be.  I was at an Aiken training session two years ago and Arthur wouldn't trot near me sitting on the rail.  At the time, I offered to move, but Allison handled it patiently and said 'no, he needs to learn.'  It seems like that patience has really paid off because he didn't spook once today, and there were a lot more super-scary people sitting on the rails.  That said, the lesson started with a discussion between Mark and Allison about how to manage the spookiness when it does occur.

(3) Allison and Arthur started their jump lesson by trotting a vertical.  They eventually progressed to trotting probably an advanced sized vertical, which made the crowd gasp.  Arthur had one or two crooked jumps, but then looked super as the vertical got bigger.  Heck, I watched Bru Maguire trot into the Head of the Lake at Rolex a few years ago, so trotting fences is vastly underrated.

(4) This theme of a great jump not needing a fast approach continued into the canter work.  Arthur used a relaxed, calm, and steady canter to jump some very large fences.  Arthur really demonstrated that a canter does not need to be 'fast' to be forward.  Arthur has really developed a beautiful canter that will really help the show jumping.

(5) Rumor has it that The Foreman jumped with Mark later in the day, after I had left.

(6) One thing to remember as we look at selection for the WEGs is that the USET vets have a tremendous say in the process.  The vets looked at A&B listed horses today, trying to get a feel for where each horse is in terms of soundness, and to help the riders develop a management strategy for the spring.  We might watch a horse win everything this spring, but if it doesn't look good to the vets it will stay home in September.  Go eventing.

I just had 'one of those days' with the vet, but writing this post is a welcome distraction.  This morning, I watched a few of the US training sessions being held at Meredyth South.  CMP was extremely focused on getting riders to use their leg.  Probably 90% of the corrections he suggested involved the leg aid, and he kept saying things like: "leg to go slower," "leg until he comes rounder," "talk to the hind end with your legs to give you the feeling you want in your hands."  I think a lot of riders either focus on making horses work off of the outside rein (modern) or seat (classical) and that the leg is getting a bit lost in the process, which might be why Mark put such an emphasis on it today.  Everything was about the leg.  CMP began every lesson by schooling a principle at the walk, mostly teaching the horse to come round from the leg and develop a solid connection.  Here are a few specific thoughts from the rides I watched.

1) Jumping fences is about being consistent.  Horses learn by repetition, and balancing before the fences to a good deep distance needs to be repeated every single time, no matter what the size of the fences.  During warmup, several riders just cantered down to open distances without paying much attention.  While that worked fine on the smaller fences, Mark pointed out that the riders were missing important training opportunities.  If you have a flier, you need to make sure that your next jump is to a deep distance, otherwise the horse will get used to leaving long, causing problems at the next technical element.  Good balance is what gives you the options to pick the spot.

2) Don't worry about your lead.  This surprised me a bit, but Mark said to worry about balance and the jump, and if the horse is more comfortable on the wrong lead, don't worry about it.  I'd be interested to see if he would say the same thing at the training sessions tomorrow with the top riders.  Personally, I've never understood why counter-canter has such a bad reputation.

3) Read the ground.  This might have been the most mentioned point in the whole lesson.  The course builder in Mark came out, and he regularly spoke about the path before the fences, including the slope, turn, and camber (whether tilted to one direction or the other across the line of travel).  Ground that naturally balances horses includes uphill, turns, and camber with the turns (like a NASCAR track).  With ground that naturally unbalances horses, such as downhill, and against-turn camber, riders need to balance before reaching this ground.

4) Ride leg to hand (shocking, I know).  Mark said that the hardest XC technique with a really forward horse is remembering to put the leg on before using the hand and seat.  Using the leg to generate pressure in the hands is the proper technique for holding a horse on the line to corners and narrows. 

5) Don't let your leg aid go to Indiana.  After one sticky jump at a corner, Mark commented that the rider's leg was "somewhere in Indiana."  I'm not sure Mark has ever been to Indiana himself, but I thought it was an amusing phrase and plan to use it for the next few days until everyone around me gets sick of it.  Go eventing in Indiana.

Training sessions, whether US or Canadian are a great opportunity to learn by watching top riders learn.  I spent some time today watching David work with his Canadian squad on cross-country technique at the beautiful Meredyth South.  Not surprisingly, one thing that I have noticed is that the quality of horses and riders for the Canadians has improved dramatically over the past few years under David, and it is only a matter of time before they start winning Olympic and WEG team medals.  The only other thing I will mention before writing about the training is that turnout was a bit questionable for a couple of the riders.  I will never claim to be a turnout master, but I would hope that I wouldn't show up to a cross country training session for the right to represent my country in old Woof boots.  

The training sessions ran in hour long lessons with 4-5 riders in each.  At the beginning of the session, David spoke about the importance of good fundamental cross-country technique and repeatedly stressed the importance of drills to build those fundamentals.  David identified the five rider responsibilities: direction, speed, rhythm, balance, and timing.  Each of these responsibilities needs to be established 5-6 strides before the jumping obstacle so that those final strides can be about maintaining and riding to the fence.  David also stressed that a rider needs to teach the horse to balance from the body rather than the hands.  Using a good position, a rider should teach the horse by asking first with the body and then correcting if necessary with the hands.  Gradually the horse learns to rebalance from the body.  This training should be an integral part of conditioning work.

The exercise: David placed a vertical showjump with a small log underneath it (to provide some structure and a good ground-line), and used markers to denote 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 strides away from the fence.  Riders were asked to treat the jump as a galloping fence, and then as the A element of a coffin.   Whatever the type of fence, the riders needed to establish proper direction, speed, rhythm, and balance by the last (5 strides out) marker.  Gradually each rider found the distance before the fence that they needed to begin to rebalance to achieve the desired result by that last marker.  As the position and technique of the riders improved, they were able to wait longer and longer to begin the rebalancing process.  According to David, fast XC horses can rebalance from a 4* gallop to whatever canter is appropriate for the obstacle in around 3 strides.  Eventually the riders jumped a galloping fence before coming back to a coffin canter for the vertical.  So, if you have an open field (or arena) that isn't covered in snow, grab some makers, pace off distances, and go eventing.