Francis Whittington admitted, among other things, on EN’s thursday night live blog with Clark Montgomery, that the last time he’d been in the States he’d got caught speeding. That night we also learnt that he isn’t partial to using any sort of gadgets on a horse, that his two top horses aiming at Badminton next spring (with an eye on the Olympics) are already cantering at home, and that if you’re in the market for a sledge, Francis is your man.
Clark and Francis – headed for Rolex & Badminton respectively
During the course of the weekend we all learnt much more about Francis’ philosophy towards horses and teaching, and I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been converted into diehard Francis Whittington Eventing groupies! We also all owe a huge debt of thanks to Carl Bouckaert for so generously allowing us to use his fabulous Chattahoochee Hills Facility, and to Laurie for all her help organizing everything. Between this amazing location, and this wonderful teacher it turned into something like the perfect storm of clinics.
Carl Bouckaert hacking Mensa in the mist on Sunday morning with Zoe
Francis’ main mantra is Rhythm, Balance, Control – Once you have two, the third comes easily, but it’s all about getting two parts of the triangle so that you can aspire to ride with all three – just like Francis!
On his first day in Georgia, Francis gave a couple of private lessons on the flat, emphasizing the need for leg first, rider leg that is, and the horse to move off the leg, into a steady contact. Francis rode both horses to get a feel of what he was seeing, and then also to demonstrate what he would like the rider to try and do. Throughout the weekend, and unfailingly to each rider’s delight, Francis got on quite a few of the horses, and in his quiet, patient and tactful way managed to bond with each one and show considerable improvement; not only that but he was able to communicate what he was doing and how he achieved the desired result to the riders so that when they got back on they could almost replicate that afterwards.
Francis also had the same effect on the on people riding in the clinic – patient and articulate, he made sure to take his time with each one in turn, and everyone left with assigned “homework” for themselves or their particular horse’s needs to take away with them. The groups were small and Francis told me he doesn’t like to teach more than five people at a time for this very reason.
On the first day Francis worked all the groups in the Grand Prix arena over show-jumps. After a brief introductory chat, and assessing the horse and rider combinations as they warmed up, he had them canter over two poles on the ground at no particular distance, probably about six or seven strides, and then warm up over a cross pole. Then the riders went straight into related distances and mini-courses.
Francis is very similar to Lucinda Green in his approach to jumping; he doesn’t look for strides, but believes instead that your rhythm is far more important. The jumps that were set any further than two or three strides apart weren’t’ measured, but the riders were expected to “feel” the distance. All the levels worked the same principles, just at varying sizes. They did mini courses with angles, roll-backs, and related distances, all the time working on achieving the perfect triangle of rhythm, balance and control.
Unlike several other clinics I’ve attended which have focused a lot on grids and gymnastic jumping, it was eye-opening to see the riders tackle cantering around a course pretty quickly, and also see them improve equally so with Francis’ suggestions – subtle hints for the most part, and some simple tack changes – raising the bit on one horse, removing the martingale on another.
Cross-country Day was also a revelation: Francis told us when he schools cross country he rarely gallops from fence to fence, but instead concentrates on exercises in trot or slow canter that work on the principle, and so, after making sure the horses were attentive to the riders on the flat at canter, for the majority of the day we stayed on the bank complex and at the water, only putting together a mini course at the end.
Francis’ philosophy on the second day is that when schooling cross country your aim should be to build up the confidence, of horse and rider, by doing simple, and then more complicated exercises, but all gradually, and all in a natural progression, so that once you do upgrade to galloping in competition, nothing should phase your horse.
Several times Francis repeated that your horse should CHOOSE to jump for you, and told the riders to take their leg off at some of the smaller drops and jumps to allow the horse to make that choice. Of course, at times you have to encourage with your leg, but never to force. When he rode he also exemplified this – gently insisting but patiently waiting. Can you tell we’re all a bit smitten with Mr Whittington?!
We did lots of different exercises around the bank, using rustic show-jumps on and around it, making sure the horses were relaxed and listening in their turns and during their little courses. If horses got strong, riders stopped in between fences until they relaxed and then re-started, sometimes walking over a fence from a stride away – that was the beauty of having them small, and I remember GB Team Trainer Yogi Breisner doing a very similar exercise back in the day at Waterstock for horses that rushed called, imaginatively, “walk, trot and pop” (in a very thick swedish accent!) Walk until you’re a stride or two away, then trot up to and pop over the fence, and walk again as soon as possible. Repeat with fences dotted around in no particular order; they used to get quite big!
We moved from the bank complex to the water jump. First the horses and riders all just walked and trotted through it, and then they came down off a pretty decent drop straight into it. As Francis explained, it was a natural progression of everything we’d done that day, and in fact over that weekend: on the first day the riders had worked on control, which also means moving off the leg, not just steering and stopping ability, balance and position, and of course rhythm. That second day they’d practiced drops on the bank, more turns, more control, all with the horse going in a very relaxed way, and now, having shown the horse the water, they were asking him to put it all together by trusting the rider, and choosing to jump down into the water in a nice, soft manner.
Every rider I spoke to, (and I spoke to them all!) was extremely impressed by Francis – by his teaching methods, his manner, his riding, his observations and by his genuine concern for them. He spent a lot of time after the clinic chatting with the riders, discussing their horses, trying to figure out solutions if they had problems, discussing feeding, shoeing, dentistry….
Truly passionate about the sport of eventing, and the safety of horses and riders involved in it, he devotes a giant chunk of his time to managing ERA, whilst also juggling about 16 horses in work, and a family life. Due to popular demand, we hope to try and bring him back to the US to clinic again soon, although it may be hard to limit his groups to five once word of his magic spreads! Thank you so much for reading, thank you to Francis and all the riders for coming to the clinic, and Go Francis Whittington Eventing!
