David O’Connor’s third and final High Performance session at the USEA Annual Convention focused heavily on theory and being technically correct in riding across all three phases, with a heavy emphasis placed on dressage. He started the session by showing several videos of different portions of dressage tests from three- and four-star events.

DRESSAGE

Entrances and Halts: “I don’t believe in the end that the entrance — the first impression — is good enough,” David said. “I see a lack of precision, a lack of softness and a lack of quality of the entrance. The entrance to the dressage ring is the first impression you’re going to give. Even on a horse that’s not a big mover, it’s very possible to get an 8 there because it’s in good balance, it’s correct and the halt is soft.”

Riders go wrong when they surprise the horse with the halt, David said. And the half halt before the halt isn’t working because when riders practice entrances, they’re thinking about the halt. “I want you to think about what’s happening two strides before the halt,” David said. “If you nail the two strides before the halt, the halt will work. It looks abrupt when the aids come too much from the hand. It’s too sudden, and then the horse has to leave a leg because he’s unbalanced on the strides before the halt.”

David also said riders needs to rely more on their seat and less on their hands to achieve correct halts. “If you don’t have an effect (from changing your seat) for that moment and you don’t practice it, you’ll never have the effect, David said. “Your seat dictates the tempo of the horse. If you don’t change the tempo with your seat, how can you effectively half halt? When I move my seat and use my back differently, there needs to be a change. The halt doesn’t come from your hands. It comes from your seat. You have to practice that over and over again.”

Straightness: David also said we need to work toward achieving straightness, which he challenged the riders at Pau to practice when the afternoon sun cast a shadow of a fence board on the arena floor, creating a visual straight line. The riders practiced cantering on the line, and while there were some wiggly lines at first, everyone was able to stay straight after several attempts. “I see a lack of awareness of the straightness,” David said. “You have to own the feeling of straightness. Work on it in the winter, and I want to see it in the first competitions next year.”

David told the riders to create a straight line in their rings — a drag line or other visual marker — and practice until they can consistently achieve straightness. “Own this feeling of not just being straight, but when you change your seat, there’s a reaction. Don’t always associate it with a halt. What I’m really after is the area two to three strides before the halt.”

Contact and the Walk: David said our riders need to focus on achieving better contact, the third element of the training scale. “I see a weakness not just in the acceptance of the contact, but the quality of the rider’s hand so there’s a connection.” These weaknesses are especially notable in the free walk, when David said he sees riders with long reins and immobile hands.

“At the walk, the horse uses his head and neck. That’s she way he’s designed. In order for contact to be consistent, your hands have got to move at the walk,” David said. “The horse will never let itself go if your hands are still with long reins. Experiment with moving your hand with the motion, and then keep your hand still. Even with no contact, the quality of the walk will change.”

Another mistake David sees occurs during the transition from extended walk to collected walk, which is really more of a change in the horse’s frame. “Your hands need to keep moving in the transition from extended walk to collected walk,” David said. “That is consistently in the tests where the horses will jig because you’ve frozen. You have to keep your elbows moving. Good hands come from good elbows. It’s not actually about your hands.”

Body Angles: David also emphasized correct shoulder and hip angles by pausing the dressage test videos during certain key moments so the riders could see the angles on screen. “Your shoulders should always be parallel to your horse’s shoulders, and your hips should be parallel to your horse’s hips,” David said.

Counter Canter: Just as horses should canter on a slight shoulder fore, David said they should also counter canter in shoulder fore. “Horses are built so their shoulders are narrower than their haunches,” David said. “Shoulder fore is not created by pushing the haunches out. It’s truly having the feeling of putting the shoulders in front of the haunches. We see people counter cantering in haunches in because your outside leg is trying to keep him from changing. And it’s wrong. You have to canter and counter canter in shoulder fore.”

To avoid getting into trouble with counter cantering through corners, David told the riders to practice leg yielding to the center line to engage the inside hind leg and give the horses an exercise where they “ride the outside” of the corner. Achieving a proper counter canter in shoulder fore is “a technical thing. It’s not magic. It’s technical,” David said.

Flying Changes: David challenged the riders to practice achieving total straightness in flying changes, which he said starts with being straight through simple changes at the trot and canter. “Get that same idea you have of (being straight on) the centerline, put it on a diagonal with visual cues, and see if you can make a transition through the trot and never lose the line,” David said. “Can you do that? If you can’t do it, then you’ll never get a straight change. You have to be that technical.”

Walk Pirouette: Phillip Dutton asked about preparing for the walk pirouette in Four-Star Test B, and David said the key is to “always keep the inside hip going. “A true pirouette ends up being a lead in to piaffe. Teach it more through turn on the haunches. Don’t come around and immediately start on a 180-degree turn. Teach it in quarter turns. … It’s more of a turning exercise than a sideways exercise. It’s a turning of the shoulders over the inside hind leg.

“People get in trouble by thinking it’s a sideways exercise. The inside hind leg has to become a pivot leg. It has to move. Start by doing 90-degree turns. Then 120-degree turns. If you consistently do that well, you can go 180 degrees. Every time that you do it, always do your first one with the three-step, 90-degree turns.

Shoulder-in: Jan Byyny asked about shoulder-in down the center line coming off a corner, which also makes an appearance in Four-Star Test B. “Finish the turn, then bring the shoulders over and think about shoulder-in. Your outside knee is on the inside of your track. That’s a good way to judge your angle. And you hands cannot move. Once you’re onto this line and this angle, if your hands move at all laterally, you are now playing pinball, and you’re going to bounce from one side to the other. Your hands and your position have got to freeze and stay there.

“Why does a horse come off the angle in shoulder-in? You solve that through the half halt, not by the lateral pushing of the shoulder. That half halt needs to work. Set up the tool and then use the tool.”

CROSS COUNTRY

Think “Next”: Instead of keeping your eyes up, David said he tells riders to think “next,” as in always be looking ahead to the next element on cross country. When your eyes are up, your brain is already moving on to the next thing. “It’s a mindset. It can be learned,” David said.

Fitness: “Our horses have to be fitter, and they need to be fitter younger. It used to be when we did all A, B, C and D phases that our horses were fitter as 6-year-olds, generally because we had steeplechase to do,” David said. Now one-star isn’t that different from a horse trial, and even two-stars aren’t that much different. It catches them out at three-star. Get them fitter younger.”

“It’s not that your horse suddenly breaks at three-star because of the level. A lot of times, it’s that they’re not fit enough and strong enough, and that’s why they break down,” David said.

SHOW JUMPING

Making Decisions: David emphasized that he wants riders to making mistakes at the final jump before a combination, especially when the jump requires a bending line in six or seven strides to reach the combination. “This decision you’re making after the first fence really needs to be made before you even get there. This reaction when you land has to be whether the horse went right or left, David said. “Six to seven strides is just long enough to panic. Practice. Believe in your rhythm. Be very determined that as you come into this thing. Know where you’re going to land and what you’re going to do.

“Say it out loud: ‘I’m going to move up. I’m going to hold.’ So there’s a reaction time. Give yourself some longer distances. … Don’t expect that your talent will show up on the day. Repeat it on different horses. Come in too fast and react. Come in too slow and react.”

DOC Quote of the Day: “We’re looking for repeatable performances, not just from individual riders, but as a group.”

Today’s High Performance session kicked off with Dr. Mark Revenaugh, the lead vet for Team USA, and Dr. Duncan Peters, the evaluating vet for Team USA, discussing two new drug rules that will go into effect in 2014 is part of the FEI’s ongoing effort to implement its Clean Sport Initiative.

2014 Drug Rule Changes

Team Testing: If one rider on the team tests positive for a banned or prohibited substance at a team competition, the whole team is now disqualified, even if there’s a drop score available. It used to be that if a horse tested positive, only that rider was disqualified and the next score on the team counted. The FEI is continuing to implement the Clean Sport Initiative, so what’s why this new rule is going into effect.

8-Year Rule: As new tests are developed to more accurately detect banned and prohibited substances, the FEI can now test stored samples up to eight years after competitions. Even if the horse didn’t test positive at the competition, titles and medals can still be stripped if the samples test positive up to eight years later. “This is a very real part of our life now,” Mark said. “We’re trying to be proactive and not just reactive. The FEI has decided that they really want to be tougher on any type of infraction. The FEI has decided to be absolutely relentless.”

“We can no longer rely on a lot of how we’ve typically treated horses on Saturday night after cross country as far as medication, which really emphasizes what you can do leading up to the competition,” Mark said. “We really have an emphasis on being proactive and getting the horses to the competition as sound and as fit as we possibly can.”

The 8-Year Rule will primarily play in at the WEG and Olympics, and perhaps the Pan Ams. You can have a positive test for something that didn’t test positive at the time of the competition due to new, more accurate tests being developed. Just because you pass the drug screen at the event doesn’t mean you’re in the clear anymore.

Logbooks: The new drug rules set the stage for looking at the requirements for the horses. High Performance will now issue logbooks so riders can keep detailed medical records in order to assist the team vets in assessing horses.

Dr. Duncan Peters has developed a log book that will be provided to the riders so they can track physio work, supplements, medication, etc. At this time, the log book is not required, but riders need to be able to provide accurate and thorough medical records on their horses at all times. “This a no-brainer way to help everyone keep track of what has and hasn’t been done to their horse,” Mark said.

Dr. Peters explained the logbooks will be set up much like an FEI passport, with an area for the date, condition that’s been diagnosed, diagnostics and treatments provided.

“It collectively will help to manage and keep all the information in one area. We want to be supportive and helpful and be an outside set of eyes that can help manage with you. We don’t want to take away from the veterinarians and the team you’ve set up. But if we can help provide oversight and prevent any problems, we want to help,” Dr. Peters said.

Doug Payne asked about security at competitions, as there’s now even more of an increased concern about horses being sabotaged. After a serious moment of silence in which I imagine all the riders were thinking about how easy it would be for someone to slip their horses a banned substance, Will Faudree wisely quipped, “Get duplicates of your medals made.”

Dr. Peters explained that most venues are now going to have security cameras. “At competitions, I don’t think that’s going to be quite as much of a problem. But the month leading up to that is definitely a concern, so the riders need to know who is handling their horses and who is around them.”

David noted that the log books will be voluntary, but he hopes all the riders will get into the habit of using them. “It will be mandatory for the WEG team from the time of selection June 20 through the Games,” David said.

The FEI actually currently requires riders to keep a logbook, as they want to see those records if a horse does test positive. So the new 2014 drug rules are really a major factor for implementing the logbooks.

High Performance Training Sessions

• The winter training sessions will be three days of intensive lessons.
• Riders are encouraged to say for other lessons, as this creates time for discussion and visual learning. “It’s not just about you and your horse; it’s about raising the level of the riding,” David said.
• The new show jumping coach will be at the first training sessions. Applications are due Dec. 13. The coach will hopefully be hired before Christmas.
• Cross country will be a part of some of the sessions, focusing on simple, basic concepts. “I really want to make sure we’re continuing to work on the basics,” David said. “From other sports, I’m a big believer in going back to the fundamentals. Baseball does it, soccer does it, football does it. And we tend not to do that because we think it’s all about the horse.”
• Baseline vet evaluations will be done at first training session.

Potential USEF-Supported Events

Saumur CCI3* — Another chance to see Pierre’s courses. Saumur was very supportive this year of a team being there and asked us to return.

Luhmuhlen CCI4* (secondary) — “When we really think about the Games, your primary way to go is through Kentucky or Jersey Fresh because of the time between those and the WEG,” David said. “If that doesn’t work out and we need to adjust, we can work it out.”

Aachen CICO3* — For horses based in Europe, that could be a place where a final trial could happen. “We’ll talk to the course designer to see if the Germans are using it as a final trial,” David said. “It might be a little too aggressive for a final trial. But if the Germans are using it as a trial, it could be an option.”

Burghley CCI4* — The alternates for WEG will go to Burghley, as it’s the next week.

Blenheim CCI3* — This is a very good first international three-star in Europe. “It’s a 3 1/2 star, so you don’t take a young horse,” David said. “It’s not that course. But as a first European experience, it is a fantastic place.”

Boekelo CCI3* — Nations Cup is an important program David wants to keep going, especially based on support received from the USOC. “Boekelo is still very strong in the dressage,” David said. “It’s almost the 8-/9-year-old Championships in some ways. The cross country is not as strong as Blenheim. It has a different feel to it when you get there. It’s a great part of your education to show where you are.

Pau CCI4* — “I would encourage it for a horse’s first four-star,” David said. “Burghley is outright not the competition for every horse. There are a lot of horses I would say could be medallists at WEG and the Olympics but are not Burghley horses. It has terrain that can be tough for horses, and it can take a lot out of horses. … It needs to be in your mix for your career, but it’s not every horse’s competition.”

Naming the WEG Team

The WEG squad named no later than June 20. The team and alternates will then come under team control, and logbooks will be mandatory. Drug testing can be done at any part of the process, and out-of-competition drug testing is a part of the selection procedure. David will develop a plan with each rider and travel to individual farms to coach.

Prep Event

There will be a combined test prep event the week of July 26-30 in Great Meadows, Va. That still needs to be approved by the High Performance Committee, but David believes it will be approved. Irrigation has been promised for the footing at the venue. Dressage will be held in the morning, with show jumping held in the evening. A fundraiser will likely be held that night, with cross country held the first thing the next morning. “It won’t be a tough cross country,” David said. “We’re not testing the horses; we’re preparing the horses at that point.” Any European-based horses named to the team would run a prep event in Europe in the first week of August.

Shipping Dates

• Ship to Europe week of Aug. 13-16
• Ship to Chantilly (where the team was based before Pau) for team training for seven to 10 days
• Ship to Haras du Pin on Aug. 25
• Jog is Aug 27

“We need to be quite flexible in the last eight weeks. A lot of times, we’ve committed to a place and then the weather turned and suddenly that was not the place where we wanted to train,” David said. “If we get drought weather, we’ll go to places where we know we can manage the gallops.”

The alternates will be named as grant recipients to Burghley or Blenheim but will still come to training camp in case a replacement is needed.

Sneak Peak at WEG Cross Country 

David showed pictures of the course at Haras Du Pin that he took during the Test Event. The terrain features a lot of short, sharp hills that create a type of roller coast effect. There is a large, flat section toward the middle of the course, which will have an optimum time of 11:40.

Look for U.S. course designers to inject elements of WEG course designer Pierre Michelet’s style into their courses this year in order to prepare the horses and riders that will be named to the team.

Greetings from the 2013 USEA Convention and Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio! I caught an early morning flight and arrived in time to sit in on the first of Coach David O’Connor’s High Performance sessions, which focused on what happened this year, as well as how the program fared on goals set at least year’s Convention. All my notes are written in David’s voice, so feel free to read along using your best DOC impression.

Looking Back at 2013 Goals

1. Assess riders, horses, different programs, see what’s going on in the country to make long-range and short-range plans.

2. Product 70% dressage scores

3. Create buy-in for riders to believe in the program

4. Create a system of owner recognition

5. Create a team atmosphere and a sense that we’re all going through this together.

6. Continental push to travel to different countries instead of just using England as has typically been the case.

7. Explore logistics of how we do these trips, where we train, where we stay, where we fly into, etc.

8. Be competitive in the European CCIs

9. Create a new vet/farrier program that is more proactive instead of reactive, i.e. evaluating horses at training sessions and not just after competitions, as well as having better conversations between riders, owners and vets

“I believe we have all the talent we need to win medals. That is a core belief of mine. None of that has changed this year.”

Balancing Your Business

For riders with very large programs — time management is still a huge issue. How do you manage your time? Not jus time you ride your horses but have enough time to think about riding your own horses instead of getting caught as the hamster on the treadmill you end up gong and going and going and you end up losing the details. Soundness to stable management to training. That is a continued covnersation.There is no one easy answer.

How do you balance the business side and how do you balance the competitive side? In every country, it’s a bit different. It’s very different in the U.S. with a country that’s 3,000 miles wide and 2,000 miles high. Here, we have an education system, since you take your students everywhere you go, as opposed to being a competitive system like it is in Europe.

Investing in the Next Generation

I think people are hungry for wanting to do well and be able to put their foot on the map. I want to continue that investment in your education and in the international competitions.The immediate results of that are not always going to be apparent right away. In investing into the next generation of riders, we’re not going to see some of those goals being achieved for two to three years.

That was a mistake we made before — not investing in the next generation. If we only bet on the upper-level riders, we get in trouble seven or eight years from now. It’s a mistake to just bet on the top riders. They will be bet on too. But we have to bet on the next generation.

We Need Strings

I think we’re short of top horses as a group. We have individual horses that are fantastic and as good as anywhere in the world. Nobody that I know across the whole country has a string — not one. And I can’t look at anybody and say that I would bet on and say they were going to be on every team in the next 10 years.

I believe that’s one of the people we’re looking for — to make sure we do have riders who will be on multiple teams in a row on multiple horses because their program is strong, they have a system of bringing up horses underneath them, and they have a system that’s working. I don’t know of anybody who has that whole system working. And I think that’s a thing we’ll keep working toward. The top riders that are going to fight for it are going to make it happen.

 Under 25/Under 18

I think the Under 25 program was very successful this year. They had clinics on the West Coast and East Coast, access to coaching at competitions and through phone calls. It created a support system. We start the Under 18 program on Dec. 27 with a week-long training session. Similarly, we have to tweak how these riders are recognized and how they’re found. We need to be better at that next year — determining how they’re identified. Hopefully next year, the program will be big enough to have training sessions on the West Coast and East Cost.

 Need for an Assistant Coach

I would like to keep the Under 25 and Under 18 programs for the next couple of years, but I really do believe we should work toward having a separate coach. I believe there needs to be a separate coach at some point that we could fundraise for, and we’ve already started talking about fundraising for a coach who could give a 10-year commitment to handle the Under 25 and Under 18 programs. We’re still several steps from that point, but that’s something I think would be useful in order to make sure whoever the head coach is has more time to deal with just the High Performance riders and not be spread too thin.

I want to make sure that in the job that I was hired for that I actually have enough time to back off and take a look at the bigger picture. That’s the goal in starting the Assistant Coach program in the coming years.

DOC’s Travel Stats

On the road 255 days this year
Took 75 flights
Taught 50 days of training sessions
That’s in addition to work at private farms and competitions.

Evaluating 2013 Performances

The dressage work is going in the right direction. I really do see improvement, but not a lot of comfort in the competitive ring. As we talked about last year, technique leads to theory, theory leads to instinct. What you’re seeing in the training sessions and in warm up is leading to experimenting in the competition ring, so it’s going in the right direction.

On the day before dressage in Europe, I can’t tell you how many times I was really excited before the competition. But the work didn’t always transfer over to the next day. As people become more comfortable with producing that work in the box, we’ll see more results.

We accomplished the goal of creating buy-in. I believe that everyone is starting to move in the right direction and come together. The people who fight the hardest are the most aggressive who produce results that are repeatable, repeatable, repeatable. Those are the people we are looking for. Those are going to be the Olympic teams. And we’ve gone to four riders on teams now. It’s a fight. It’s going to be a fight among you and us all together, and then we all celebrate the four people who stand on the podium together.

Joanie Morris is a game changer. <insert large round of applause for Joanie> Owners are getting a level of service they’v never had before and a communication level they’v never had before. That’s a huge big part of the program. Bryn Wells has been unbelievably organized. <insert round of applause for Bryn> A lot of that communication with owners is coming from her office. The combination of the two of them has been amazing and has made my job easier.

Looking at European CCIs

We came close to winning one CCI3* and were in the game for a CCI4*. At European CCIs, we had seven top-10 finishes and four in the top 20. I really do believe we’re going to win a European CCI very soon.

New Vet/Farrier System

The new vet team 

Mark Revenaugh — leading vet team
Duncan Peters — evaluating vet
Susan Johns — U.S. traveling vet
Tim Randle — England-based vet
Marc Koene — Continent-based vet
Dr. Mieke Does — Vet assistant and physiotherapist

We kept some horses out of injury by being more aggressive about physical therapy. That will benefit us all, especially as we look at being more proactive instead of reactive to physical therapy as the new medication rules go into effect. The proactive side of the vet program is huge.

Looking Ahead to WEG, Pan Ams, Olympics

I believe it’s going to take three years before this system hits on all cylinders. That takes us up to the 2016 Olympic Games. Last year, I said the Games feel really close, and now we’re one year closer. Have an open mind. Don’t be in a tunnel. See what’s happening around you.

The Olympic Games are different than the Worlds. The World Games to me will be a cross-country dominant competition. It’s a hilly piece of terrain. And it’s a Pierre Michelet course, which means a lot of jumping efforts. It’s very technical in its own way. The Olympics will be different even though Pierre is also the course designer there. We’ve already been on the site and seen it’s not that hilly. There is one big hill that’s used about one-third of the way through course.

The Olympics will be back to double show jumping for two medals. Team medals are won on the first round of show jumping. That competition is going to be most likely going to have a 10-minute cross-county course, just like most of the Olympic courses in the past. I don’t think it will be as cross-country dominant as the WEG. Dressage and show jumping will become more important. Are these the same horses (that will be suited for both competitions)? Some may be and some may not. Keep in mind which competition you’re getting ready for.

Hopefully we will not need to use the 2015 Pan American Games as a qualifier for Rio. I am counting on getting qualified next year at the WEG; the top six countries qualified for the Olympic Games. Otherwise, you have to qualify at your regional championships, which is the Pan Ams. The Pan Ams will be a mixture of two- and three-star horses. If you have 6- and 7-year-olds, start thinking about preparing for the Pan Ams as a step toward other things.

Goals for 2014

60% of riders under 45 in dressage
75% clear on cross country
60% clear on show jumping

Team medals depend on clear rounds. I want to emphasize 45. If we get 45 as the number, that’s the first step. And you end up on a 45, I can guarantee you can get one of the top two medals as a team. We’re absolutely behind on the dressage, but we have to bring riders home clear on cross country too. We’ve had very good performances in the different phases, but we need results where all three phases come together.