Is he making a comeback for the US or scouting for the Canadians?
Today was not a quintessential Ocala day in terms of weather, but I think everyone here would take the scattered rain and 40’s over snow and freezing in most of the country. There was only a half day of sessions today because Mark is traveling to Aiken this afternoon. Let’s get right to the lessons:
1) Elinor MacPhail and Parador Mail (Jumping)
Ellie is on the Developing B list, but she definitely looks like someone to keep an eye on for the future. Parador Mail is a very good jumper, but has a bit of the classic impatient event horse in him. Mark didn’t try to reinvent the wheel, and he just had Ellie circle until the horse calmed down, go jump a jump, continue with the course if the horse stayed patient, and circle if it didn’t. The one important thing he added was to have Ellie stay forward with her seat because when a horse is impatient, sitting against it and holding will only exacerbate the tension and impatience. By the end, things were much improved.
2) Karen O’Connor and “Quin” (Dressage)
Because pictures of Karen and David riding together are just cool
Yesterday Karen told me that Quin was much better on the flat in a double bridle and today we really saw evidence of that. Karen used a double bridle for the lesson and I expect we will see Quin in a double at all of the events this spring. Like yesterday, Mark encouraged Karen to let Quin stretch down and relax his neck position. Quin naturally has a very high neck carriage, so the elevation of the poll will always be there when Karen needs it for the competitions. As a result, schooling at home should be all about stretching into the contact. Since Quin was being so good, they moved on to more complex movements such as flying changes, which like most of Quin’s work, are very talented but need to be ‘confirmed.’
3) Hannah Burnett and Harbour Pilot “William” (Dressage)
Hannah rode through the worst of the rain today. “William” is named after Mr. Micklem, and he was very successful at the preliminary level in 2010. Less than 15 people showed up to audit today (I expect quite a few more in Aiken), and none of us could hear much of what Mark was saying during Hannah’s lesson because of the wind and rain. Mark worked a lot on lateral work, especially haunches-in and shoulder-in. We’ll hear more from Hannah in the first of her EN spring guest blogs soon.
Nice Maui Jim hula girl
4) Heather Morris and Slate River “Roe” (Dressage)
The theme of improving communication continued for Heather and Roe today, specifically with respect to the subtlety of the aids. Heaher is a very strong rider, which is very useful in many situations, but it can create the tendency to overuse the aids. Again, Mark didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and he just instructed Heather to give with her hands and tune Roe to her leg by applying it lightly and then more forcefully if he didn’t respond. The important part of being strong is that then you have to melt to avoid creating tension. If a horse isn’t lightly tuned to the aids, pretty much everything else is going to be twice as hard. I was also left with the impression that Roe has a lot of talent and their dressage scores will keep going down as Heather gets even better about bringing out that talent.
5) Jessica Pye and Lightning Bound “Bounder” (Jumping)
Jessica started out her lesson with a hackamore, which, as we we have been writing about since last year’s spring training sessions, are one of the latest show jumping trends. This was only my second or third time watching Bounder jump and when they started out I would have said something like “it looks like Lightning Bound has to try harder than the other training session horses we have seen.” But, Mark, who doesn’t really like hackamores, quickly made Jessica switch to a bit. Jessica had wisely asked her groom to bring along a bridle with what looked like a snaffle full-cheek. Lightning Bound immediately started jumping better and, after he tapped one of the heavy wooden rails he started showing off some serious hops. After that, they got to go out and practice over some XC fences. Afterward, Jessica told me that she had been show jumping in a hackamore for a few months, and that Mark hadn’t hated it, but he eventually recommended the switch.
As a brief note on hackamores, I would say that, like anything, there is a time and a place and it all depends on the horse. From personal experience, I find hackamores to really help my communication with the horse by reducing the role of the arm/mouth connection by about 80%. Using your hands to do everything just won’t work with a hackamore so you are forced to enhance the use of the other aids. Also, I find that when I put the bit back in after jumping in a hackamore for a few weeks, the horse is much more responsive. But, the risk of using a hackamore is that the horse can easily get strung out and flat, and the quality of the jump can start to suffer quite quickly if you are not careful.
That’s all for now. I’m leaving right now to drive to Aiken for the training sessions tomorrow, and to see one of my horses, Toby, who I just sold to a fabulous young rider. Go eventing.
