<em>This article was originally published on <strong><a href=”/”>Eventing Nation</a><br /><br /></strong></em><img alt=”stephenbradley1.jpg” src=”https://assets.eventingnation.com/eventingnation.com/images/home/stephenbradley1.jpg” class=”mt-image-none” style=”” height=”639″ width=”426″ /><br /><br />Saturday was a quintessential autumn day here in Kentucky – vivid blue
skies, sunshine, leaves and a certain crispness to everything, a chill
in the air, but warm with the sun on your back so coats were constantly
being taken off and being put back on according to the wind and cloud
formations. I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to have spent my
morning than at Flying Cross Farm just outside Louisville, watching
Stephen Bradley work his quiet magic on horses and people alike at a
clinic for some 20 eager students who came from all over the Tri-State
area courtesy of Team Engaged Clinics.<br />
<br />
It’s hard to know if Stephen is better known as a clinician or as a
competitor. He’s won Burghley CCI 4*, represented the USA at the
Olympics and PanAm Games, won and been placed at Rolex many times, and
so much more, as well as having earned a general reputation over the
many years for being a classy, quiet, tactful,
patient but effective rider. He freely admits that’s he’s old school,
and he teaches much the same as he rides; classy, quiet, tactful,
patient but effective; before the riders – split into groups of four or
five according to ability – warm up, he brings them together for a
quick chat and tells them that he intends to concentrate on the basics.
From the beginner novice group up to the prelim/intermediate group the
message is the same: work on the quality of the mechanics, the three
main ingredients for success – straightness, going forward, and
relaxation.<br />
<br />
Stephen stressed the importance of being straight over and over again,
and used the analogy of imagining being a gymnast on a balance beam
whilst going over a jump or through a grid, the hind leg must follow
the path of the front leg, not as simple in practice as it sounds. Try
and see the corner of each eye to gauge your straightness, rather than
pulling your horse’s head in any direction.<br /><br /><img alt=”stephenclinic.jpg” src=”https://assets.eventingnation.com/eventingnation.com/images/home/stephenclinic.jpg” class=”mt-image-none” style=”” width=”539″ /><br /><br />
The horse must always go forward, and it must be listening to the aids,
there must be constant communication between horse and rider. Stephen
keeps it fairly simple, and black and white. He’ll work on the rider’s
position because “the more correctly you sit, the more effective you
are”.<br />
<br />
Each session started with a short warm up on the flat, then an X, then
a placing pole to the X, then gradually building up a grid. An X, one
stride to a vertical, to a bounce, one stride to an oxer. All the jumps
had ground lines moved quite far out, and although Stephen keeps things
pretty basic he definitely isn’t afraid to crank the fences up. All the
time though his manner is very calm and inspires confidence so even the
most nervous riders were wont to have a go! Of course he has a keen
eye for picking out the little details in rider position, little habits
and tics that have become second nature, one high hand, a slightly
tilting ear (horse!), and corrects them, and over the 90 minutes that
each group has with him, the improvements are remarkable, but also so
is the growing confidence and the pure pleasure they obviously derive
from learning and “getting it”.<br />
<br />
I asked Stephen how he stays fresh for teaching, and he looked
surprised and answered immediately because he loves it! Duh! And you
can tell by watching him and listening to him that it’s true. He’s
engaged, he laughs, he listens. He tells one rider to imagine he’s put
thumb tacks (although we call them drawing pins in England!) on her
saddle to get her to sit a little lighter, and another rider to imagine
he put sticky fly paper on hers to sit tighter in the saddle. He’s
constantly encouraging and seeing the good things and remarking on
them, and at the end of the lesson he was happy to answer all sorts of
random questions about schooling exercises over the winter, tack and
fitness etc. We did have one rider fall off, and I was secretly hoping
she might not want to re-mount so I could volunteer to catch ride the
rest of her session for her, but happily she got back on and did very
well, and now I am dreaming once again of buying a project horse, and
of re-training OTTB’s and like childbirth, thinking I could definitely
do it all over again – horse ownership, I mean!<br />
<br />
<img alt=”samanthaleo.jpg” src=”https://assets.eventingnation.com/eventingnation.com/images/home/samanthaleo.jpg” class=”mt-image-none” style=”” width=”570″ /><br />
<br />
After the gridwork, it was time for some work on related distances, playing with
adding and taking out strides, shortening the canter by adding energy.
Again, Stephen was very strict about the quality of the canter,
starting with the transition, and then making sure it stayed the same
to, over and away from the fence. The canter should be adjustable, and
yet consistent. He didn’t want riders looking for strides to a fence,
but looking after the rhythm of the canter, and making sure they kept
the correct cadence and energy to the fence. When one rider had a
stop, and then let their horse turn away, he told us that a run out is
always a rider issue, that you should never let your horse run out,
rather you should have your horse stop or run into the standard with
it’s nose! If your horse does stop, wait in front of the fence until
you have made sure it understands what it did wrong, and what the
issue is, and then when you are ready, move away from the fence to
re-present.<br />
<br />
<img alt=”stephenclinic2.jpg” src=”https://assets.eventingnation.com/eventingnation.com/images/home/stephenclinic2.jpg” class=”mt-image-none” style=”” height=”426″ width=”639″ /><br />
<br />
<br />
Stephen trains on the flat with Mara Dean, and work over jumps with
Philip Dutton and Katie Prudent amongst others. About a year ago
Stephen was teaching a horse at a clinic that caught his eye and
happened to be for sale, and that horse will campaign next year at
intermediate level with him. Brandenburg’s Joshua will return to Rolex,
where he has been in the top 10 three times already, goodness knows why
he didn’t represent the US at the WEG earlier this autumn, and Stephen
has a bunch of very nice training level horses coming up the ranks, so
expect to be seeing red come spring!<br />
<br />
Thank you as always for reading, and thank you forever to
Eventing Nation & John for giving me a legitimate excuse to spend my
time doing my favourite things and share them. Also while I’m doing my
Oscar Speech, a big Thank You to Eventing Safety John, LOVED those
Adelaide reports, and I’ve already put in a request for my
accreditation next year! Go Eventing!
Stephen Bradley Clinic Report
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