From Eric:

Stand outside the warmup arena of any show.  Dressage, stadium, or cross-country,  anyone can look from the outside in, and observe complete chaos, no order, and a bunch of riders fighting for something they did not bring to the show.  I’m not talking strictly about the amateur or the novice level rider, but also the advanced professional.  The riders working with their horse in harmony are far and few between.  There are riders sweating bullets, others mumbling profanity to their equine friend while trying to get their head down, still others feeling the need to tell the whole world how wonderful their horse is (slapping them on the neck and riding a track that could not be described as a straight line or a circle), and then you have the trainer yelling “half halts” and other “coming from behind” sayings all the while dictating every move of their student, but of course the student has no resemblance to what their coach is saying.  The warm-up could not even be described as a warm-up, but a war zone of tension and insecurity.  Are we loosing touch with what we intentionally wanted to train the horse to do?

As soon as you throw your leg over your horse’s back, ask yourself, “What is the overall goal you want from your horse.”  I have been asking this question to every rider that has ridden with me in a clinic for the past 3 years.  After watching them warm up for ten minutes, I make my assessment of horse and rider pairs, and then I have the rider describe their warm-up and ask the infamous question.  Their answers have been 100% identical!  Every rider described a small portion of the overall ideal.  Common answers were, to get relaxation,  and to get their horse’s attention.  Some comments focused on getting the horse in front of the rider’s leg, to get the horse to submit to rein pressure.  Some answers where so creative that I don’t care to mention them.  But overall the answers I received were not wrong answers;  they were just such a small portion of the overall picture.  What happens next when you have your horses attention, relaxation, or get him in front of your leg?  The ideal answer I was looking for was a “balanced horse.”  Then, what is important to reveal, is what makes a horse balanced?

A dressage judge has a one dimensional view to a horse, and the blind judge could see a horse’s head come up.  Unfortunately the rider is immediately focused on the head instead of the balanced horse that allows for the beautiful picture in the end.  If one where to give their equine partner a little more credit and treat them more like a dance partner, I think we would have many more sympathetic riders thinking about placing their horse’s feet, rather than dominating the head placement.  Whether jumping or on the flat, riders associate control with the horses head being down.  Because the rider is not centered or balanced, they are relying on the reins for their handle bar to the horses mouth.  There would be a deeper understanding of accountability of balance from both parties, if one were to take the reins with the same feeling and respect you would have with your dance partner.  One would, of course, start by working with the rider.

If we as riders are going to domesticate a horse and ride for our own amusement, I think the least we can do is respect the horses natural way of going and train ourselves to listen to our equine partner instead of getting caught up in asking them to do something that they are not ready to do, let alone able to do.  We live in an instant gratification society today.  There is a huge market for artificial aids.  Some help in a positive way to magnify your natural aids, others make up for shear laziness on the riders part, such as putting the horse in a false frame and unnatural way of going.  One can get caught up into the fast track, goal setting, gotta get there attitude before looking back and enjoying the balanced, harmonious dance with your horse.  Nine times out of ten, you are not getting what you want because you are out of balance, which causes your horse to be out of balance.  Take a breath, respect what your horse is trying to tell you, and do your best to follow through with your horse.  Then reward your horse for their effort.

I put up the Eventing Nation bat signal to our writers last night, which essentially means I’ll be traveling and need some posts for the site tomorrow. Carrie Meehan, our guest blogger targeting the Bromont CCI*, was kind enough to answer the call. In this post Carrie talks about her ride at VHT and looks forward to Bromont. Thanks for writing this Carrie and thank you for reading.

—-

From Carrie:

So this will most likely be my last post before I write about my adventures at Bromont in two weeks (ahh!!).  Duke is feeling better than he’s ever felt, though I should hope so with all the riding I’ve been doing!  We’ve done 2 horse trials since my last post, and both ended very successfully.  Our dressage hasn’t been up to par lately, so these next two weeks we’re going to crack down on our flat work so we can be more prepared to have a great test at Bromont.

      Duke and I seem to be keeping a pretty rigorous training schedule, doing no less than an hour ½ of riding every day which includes at least 45 minutes to an hour of walking/trotting out in the hills.  Some days Duke protests more than others to the long work, but it’s something we have to take seriously because he’s such a big horse, and it takes a lot to get him fit.  A lot of the work we do every day is for building up his strength, because when he’s strong things come so much more easily and he doesn’t make me work so hard!  Jeff, being the wonderful vet he is, has been keeping close tabs on Duke making sure he’s as comfortable as he can be leading up to our last two events, and even more so now that we’re two weeks away from Canada!

      I have felt such a positive change in our partnership over the last few months. The preliminary cross-country courses that used to make me feel a bit queasy, now ride like we’re running around a training level course.  Though I suppose that’s how it should feel heading into a CCI*!  I’ve gained so much more confidence in my riding, and I’m feeling totally ready to take on this next challenge.  Show jumping has always been my weakest link, but the last two events at Fair Hill and Virginia felt so awesome and spot on which gives me a ton of confidence going into the bigger show jumping at Bromont.  Our stadium round at Virginia H.T this past weekend was hands down our best one to date: everything felt smooth and Duke was as relaxed and happy as he could be.

      Emily says these next two weeks are crucial in coming to the event with a fit and happy horse.  We are planning it just right so the last week we are ‘winding down’ a bit so Duke stays fresh for the event.  This works out well for me as well because then I can focus more on making sure I have everything ready to go.  Not to mention, giving me time to make last minute checks that I’ve filled out and turned in every one of the many, many forms needed to compete in this event. And of course, I’m making the highly anticipated trip to the mall in the next week to pick out my first jog outfits!  I’m not really the shopping type, but all of my friends seem to be more excited than I am to come along and help me choose something awesome.  I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done before we leave in 10 days, but hey, it will all work out and it’s going to be over and gone before I know it.  So, until next time, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and that we have a safe and successful event!

      Thanks guys,

      Carrie and Duke

British eventer and Eventing Nation contributor ‘lec’ has kindly sent us a report from England. Thanks for writing this lec, and thank you for reading.