Coach David O’Connor giving Bruce Duchossois’ Mighty Nice a pat after a good flat training session with Phillip Dutton
Before I even start writing I must thank Joanie Morris of the USEF who does a herculean task organising these HP Training Sessions amongst a million other things, and does so with such grace and charm without ever even looking slightly flustered; in fact she always looks wonderfully hip and appropriate whilst we’re all bundled up like michelin men/eskimos – it’s a dazzling gift! Thanks and awe are also due to Stable View Farm, a jaw dropping venue for the Aiken Sessions; I know that we’ve featured some design your dream barn articles recently on EN and this must surely served as inspiration, what a place! Despite another freezing cold morning, pouring rain and a biting wind there was a sizeable turnout to watch in all manner of outerwear – Dubarry’s of course, parkas, puffas and horse blankets to stay warm and toting tea, coffee and even two unnamed equestrian journalists who brought their own mimosas, (I wish it had been me!) but really we all longed to be or take home Mara Depuy’s puppy….
Best seat in the house!
This is the first Training Session that I’ve been lucky enough to attend, and I think it is a huge privilege that the USEF have not only opened them up to the public, but really made them very accessible. If you like the USEF High Performance page on facebook there are ride times and directions, and after feedback from the previous sessions David was wired up with a mic this time so that all the spectators could properly hear what he was saying to the riders; you really get to peek through a window into elite riders’ private lessons with the US Coach and it’s absolutely riveting!
Props to Allison Springer, ever the trooper, first on at 8am, especially after a nasty car accident over the weekend which totaled her car and luckily left her no worse than battered and bruised. Typically she toughed it out and played golf in the HP Owners Day Tournament on Tuesday, joking that the fact that she was too stiff to move her neck and shoulders much had improved her swing, but she did add that Chloe had the day off that day and so was a little out of sorts at having to come back and work on the flat and not go out hacking which is what she would normally have done.
A fairly new relationship, Allison and Chloe already look good together and did their first competition last weekend at Pine Top. They spent a little time discussing their goals with David, and then started working. David continually stressed that Allison is building a partnership with this mare; he was delighted with the improvement he saw in the two weeks since he’d last coached them but didn’t want to make things too hard for Chloe, he wanted to give her easy ways to get things right. He told Allison to be very obvious, to help her out, to think about it from the perspective of having done these things that she does now over and over again so that in six months time it will become instant reaction.
David is incredibly thorough on the basics, noticing every minute detail – it’s reassuring to see even the very best riders, horses and coach concentrate on riding corners correctly, looking at the shoulders, paying attention to the outside rein and all David’s instructions were very simple, “When you collect, add energy, collection is up not back.” Even at the very end Allison had to re-ride her downward transition from trot to walk three times until they were both happy with it. David is also very quiet, hence the mic, and very reassuring; even his vocabulary consists of words like release, consistent, quiet, it’s very soothing but at the same time very effective. He told both riders to think about ‘picking the saddle up’ a few times which is a good description, and told Allison to be quite aggressive about moving her back in canter, almost as an extension of her seat, but that also might have been a side effect from the car accident. David progressed from haunches in with Chloe, then moved on to leg yields, shoulder in and then half pass but they did a lot of their work on a large circle. I managed to get a little video of each horse, here is Allison and Chloe.
I also managed to catch up quickly with Allison after her ride – apologies for keeping her standing in the pouring rain, and many thanks to her for chatting.
Fernhill Eagle achieves levitation!
Phillip Dutton rode Team Rebecca’s Fernhill Eagle next who is big and long where Chloe is petite, has huge movement and a firmly established relationship with Phillip. David asked Phillip for lots of transitions in the trot between medium and collected, paying attention both up and down, asking Phillip to sit slower, and being strict with him about adjusting his weight in the stirrups. He told Phillip he must “be really consistent with your reins and let him sit at the end of your contact,” which I, again, thought was a rather nice way of putting it. In the canter he suggested that Phillip let his famously strong lower leg swing a little against Eagle’s side so that the horse didn’t have anything to brace against, and again asked him to think about picking the canter UP rather than driving it forward. They worked quite hard in canter on Eagle’s changes and counter canter; giving Phillip something to focus on up ahead of him worked well to keep him straighter across the diagonal and prevent some of the twisting in his body right before the change. Leg yielding in counter canter, from the long side to the centre line “is a better way to deal with when they get muddled.” Eagle did get tense at times in the canter but David worked through it methodically and calmly with Phillip and he showed some very impressive work. Although the style and principles were exactly the same – tactful, interactive, calm and effective, David gave him a completely different lesson to Allison which, as Phillip commented later, is the mark of a great teacher, to not just teach the same thing over and over again.
Phillip rode Bruce Duchossois’ Mighty Nice, or Happy, next. I’ve made no secret of admiring this horse, but he started off acting very uptight and nervous. Again David had Phillip start riding transitions within trot immediately, telling him to leave his mouth alone, to create the half halt from his seat and to let Happy find him. David said Phillip might have to be patient, that at first it might take eight strides but the goal is two, and to keep doing the same thing each time. Then they rode the transitions in lateral work, up and down in medium and collected trot in shoulder in down the long sides, David telling Phillip to “be really consistent about making every step the same.” As they continued to work on collection, David asked Phillip to think about “forcing (Happy) to flex his joints behind, which is where you create the power behind, and then make it even more extreme,” and to always collect but keep on moving.
As tense as he had been to begin with Happy also finished with some great work, and Phillip told me he was pleased with both of them and that he really enjoys working with David.
A shout out to all our recovering riders – Thankful that Allison escaped serious injury, happy that Holly Payne underwent a successful surgery on her foot and also commiserations to Conor Husain who broke his elbow in the warm-up at Pine Top. Sending you all EN karma and best wishes for a speedy recovery. Also hoping that everyone else who was attended the Training Sessions this morning has warmed up by now; Leslie will be back out tomorrow morning and I’m hoping to swing by there in the afternoon before wending my regretful way back to Kentucky. Thanks as always for reading, and Go Eventing!
