Fresh off her 7 minute domination of the USOC plank test on Wednesday, Tiana Coudray rode in the Training Sessions with Mark Phillips on Thursday and has written about it for Eventing Nation. In 2010, Tiana won the Jersey Fresh 3* and placed 6th at the Boekelo 3* with Ringwood Magister. This year, Tiana is a High Performance B-List rider and we will hopefully see her at Rolex. Visit Tiana’s website to learn more about her program. Thanks for writing this Tiana and thank you for reading.
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From Tiana:
Today the first west coast training session started for the High Performance and Developing List riders. We’re at the amazing El Campeon Farm in Hidden Hills, California and we are truly lucky to be at such an amazing facility. While lessons with Mark would draw people most anywhere, we’ve also got amazing footing, lots of hacking, and beautiful scenery to sweeten the deal. Oh yeah, and it’s 75 degrees and sunny. This is why I live in California! Ringwood Magister aka “Finian” and I started the day off with the first lesson at 8:00. Although Mark arrived at 2:30 AM without any luggage, he walked into the indoor on time and with a smile, coveting an extra strong Venti something or other from Starbucks. I had one of Mark’s famously simple lessons on the 20 meter circle, but this time I actually came asking for it! I haven’t done much dressage work since Finn’s winter vacation, and I felt we needed to start from the beginning and get him properly connected and relaxed. It’s not like we had an option though, as with Mark, you’re never allowed to go on if the basics aren’t in place. As is usually the case, by the end of my 45 minutes, my horse was forward, relaxed, and stretching into the contact when those very things have been eluding me for the last month. Somehow with mark standing there, saying “push him through”, and “yield him” like a mantra, telling me to do all the things I’ve been trying to do at home, it just works better. It never fails to amaze me just how good he can get my tense, high stepping, hollow backed horse to go, with such simplicity.
After me, Amy rode Leyland and I missed the whole lesson but I heard it was good. Then I was back on Master Hill, “McCool”. He’s a brother to Finian and shares many of his traits although slightly greener. It was the first time I’ve had a lesson with him, and I’m happy with how it went. He was quicker to settle than Finian, and so we moved on to half passes and flying changes, both of which seemed to be up to Mark’s standards. Allie Slusher rode next and again I missed her ride since I was putting McCool away. I heard she and her mare Fergie were perfect and I am sorry to have missed it. Maris Burns rode next and had a lot of improvement with her horse Max. She had a similar lesson to Finian’s, working on getting the horse’s neck to fall down and push into the contact. On a side note, Max is super cute and won me over with his workmanlike attitude. Amy rode Coal Creek next and I only saw the very end but he looked great working on shoulder-in and half pass. He’s another one that seems to go along like a good soldier. It’s obvious the relationship Amy has with him, as you never see a question or an argument and they just does the movements seamlessly. Maxance McManamy rode Beacon Hill “Taylor” next and had a wonderful lesson. I know she was nervous about riding with Mark for the first time, but she got on the same page with him quickly, and did really well. She too found the value of yielding on a circle and getting the horse “pushed through”, and Taylor was looking really good by the end.
Today they’re filming a Jeep commercial at El Campeon so we’re told we will have to be moving around staying out of the way of the camera’s. For the life of me I don’t know why they don’t want us in the back of their shots! It could be interesting though, as they’re already telling us we’ll have to park off in a field with the catering trucks, and we will be directed all day by cones telling us where we can and can’t go.
More news tomorrow,
~Tiana
