Phillip on Mighty Nice
Greetings from South Carolina! Yesterday I returned to the wonderful Stable View Farm to watch another day of Training Sessions with Coach O’Connor. I timed my entry so that I could see different riders than the day before, and see how the flatwork under Coach’s careful eye was progressing. I was lucky enough to catch the end of Phillip’s ride on Mighty Nice (who lives up to his name), his next mount Fernhill Eagle, and also Allison Springer on her newly acquired mare, Copycat Chloe.
When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see Phillip still mounted on Mighty Nice, or Happy. I’ve never seen this horse in person, but I have heard great things about him. I was not disappointed. The horse is positively lovely on the flat, and looks so well trained and smooth under Phillip that he seems a pleasure to ride. I must also say that I was impressed with Phillip’s position and it seemed to me that he has been working very hard over the winter with Michael Barisone to improve in that aspect.
Phillip & Happy practice counter-canter loops and smooth changes
Yesterday was more focused on using the basic tools that the riders worked on the first day and progressing to practicing actual movements. I saw Happy working on his counter canter loops, his changes, and a lot of work on an 8 meter circle into half pass. Coach O’Connor was adamant that Phillip “stay in the moment” with the horse during his turns and circles, instead of riding two strides ahead of himself. He kept mentioning that Phillip needed to finish his circle before he did half-pass, and while the difference is only two steps, the change is noticeable and surely worth an extra point in a dressage test. He stressed that while you do need to prepare for your upcoming movements, you also need to make sure that you finish what you are currently doing.
Phillip Dutton & Fernhill Eagle
Next I watched Fernhill Eagle, who was a bit of a contrasting horse to his stablemate. While Happy was forward and light looking, this horse was quite stiff to start out, and while he warmed up and after thirty minutes was going lovely, he certainly didn’t look comfortable to sit on. To be totally honest, I had a tough time hearing what happened during this lesson, as Phillip is a very quiet person, and for whatever reason they chose the opposite end of the ring to work out of. What I gathered was that they worked a lot on loosening the stride and changing the quality of the gait to help the horse become more fluid. They did this through lots of canter work with transitions within the gait, and a bit of lateral work. Once again, Coach O’Connor worked with Phillip on finishing his current movement before anticipating the upcoming one. At the end, this horse was lovely and obedient, and obviously having completed Rolex twice before, he knows the game.
Allison Springer & new ride, Copycat Chloe
I was especially interested to see how Allison was getting along with her brand new ride, Copycat Chloe, whom she purchased mere weeks ago from student Kelly Pugh, who took the mare up through the CCI3* level. The pair entered in a very low, relaxed frame and trotting very quietly around the ring. However, when Allison tried to put her together a little bit and do some of the movements required in a test, the mare tensed up through her neck and back and was laterally inflexible. Therefore, Coach O’Connor had them work a lot on leg yields in both the canter and the trot, and asking the mare to slowly move her body instead of shoving or insisting. He said that with a horse that gets tight and laterally difficult, it is more important to ask for the change of body positioning rather than demanding that they hold it. He asked Allison to reward her for small changes, and work quietly on that until she relaxed through her body a bit more.
They also worked on using lateral movement (once it was warmed up) to combat the mare’s tendency to come against Allison’s hand. Instead of engaging in the fight with the reins, the solution was to simply move her body over until she relaxed her head and neck. Lastly, they did a lot of canter-trot-canter transitions to make sure that the mare was really through and connected. Their lesson was quite short, as David believes that a horse with that type of tense anxiety should have frequent short sessions.
Allison & Chloe
Today the horses and riders are jumping (yay!) and I will be returning with my camera and notebook in hand. I’m hoping for some better weather, and some excitement!
