Dressage Naturally with Karen Rohlf: clinic report

[Elaine]

Got up at the woeful hour of 4.40am on Friday morning to catch the 6.30 flight over to Bristol and arrived at the clinic at 9.30am to some surprisingly nice weather in Wiltshire. The clinic was a Parelli - Dressage crossover clinic. Basically the idea was level 3-ish students who could already ride just using their seat for everything (no reins at all) would then start on some proper dressage training.

Karen Rohlf from America was the trainer (lovely, very happy and smilely and explained stuff really simply so it was easy to understand) her website is : www.dressagenaturally.net

About Karen:
Karen trained over 20 years in dressage with Anne Gribbons ('O' dressage judge, International Grand Prix trainer and competitor) and studied Parelli Natural Horsemanship directly with Pat and Linda Parelli.

Karen has trained horses and students to the upper levels of dressage, represented the United States 4 times on the Young Riders team, passed her USDF 'L' judge test with distinction and was accepted into the USEF 'r' judge program.

She now divides her time between traveling the world giving clinics and training at home at her Temenos Fields in Ocala, Florida. There are a few videos on youtube (haven't watched them yet):

www.youtube.com/user/kssage

She did a clinic over in england 4 years ago, but it sounds like everyone is keen for her to come back and do another one in wiltshire next summer.

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[Elaine]

Saturday 9am - talk indoors

Missed the start of this, so I think Karen asked all the riders what they wanted to get out of this clinic. Answers included:

Resolve issues with contact, engages horses backs, improve a hard to motivate horse, contact & reins issue again, one guy wants to wear jods and compete another wants to improve circles and learn more of biomechanics, improve contact & feel on two reins, another wanted nice way to get collected outline.

Ok - so what DO the reins communicate (this was big issue for a lot of folks as they said everything is lovely bridleless but when they pick up the reins it all goes a bit to pot)

Reins - used as a circle of energy and feel. Its another point of communication and we can get information from them.

One lady began to talk about vertical flexion and automatically as she was explaining it closed both hands and brought thenm nearer her chest. Karen said - uhoh, we won't be doing any of that!

When everyone REALLY tried to think what one reins could be used for, the one thing which came up was that they are good for really subtle changes in head direction.

So! The aim of dressage is to create healthy biomechanics. This rang a BIG bell with me as I hate seeing horses pulled down and in to within an inch of their life.

You want power to come from the hind end, and then have a suitable posture to have a light front end. (I'm paraphrasing somewhat there!)

She drew a few pictures of horses on the board. First picture had a hollow back, arse out the back, head up stiff. So thats not what we want.

Second pic had HQ engaged and FQ light. More like it.

So where does all of this dressage business start???

It starts with a 'let loose' posture. This is also a spinal stretch posture. So horses whol topline is stretched, arching like a rainbow from one end to the other.

Energy + relaxation = power.

1. Find the release inside the horses body
2. Then figure out how we can cause this to happen.

So the horse itself will supply the stretch first, then we can limit this / adjust it to what we are looking for, by shortening rein as required.

GOAL: We want big, loose, free, confident horses.

Using the reins is a bit like holding hands with someone. You dont want the 'oooowwww that hurts!!!' verision, but you dont want the wet fish version either.

Ok here is a picture:

FOUDATIONS




You start off with partnership, communication, leadership & lightness. These are starting blocks for the level 3 PNH riders today, should already be in place.

You are aiming for that yellow spot, where you've got your four basics, and on top of these you've found the sweet spot where the 3 circles intersect (yellow in this diagram).

Then using these, we need to work on three areas:

1. Relaxation - if the horse is tense you'll get unwanted posture from him/her
2. Energy - If you ask for more energy, you want your horse to say 'why...yes! ' You dont want to ask for more energy and get a grumpy face.
3. Balance

The idea is you've a stretched horse and once you pick up the reins the horse can still feel like he can stretch and stay big.

Traditional aids:

You've got the first aids that you use then you've got the second aids you use cos the first aids didn't work.

Four types of exercises\gymnastic patterns you can do:

1. Exercises for flexability
2. Exercises for mobility
3. Exercises for collectability
4. Exercises for carrying power

Its about dynamics and the quality of the harmony between horse and rider.

(ok at the beginning I was thinking this all sounds good but its all a bit abstract, what do you actually do, but it started to come together over the three days)

[Elaine]

10.45am SATURDAY All horses out in field (16 horses)

RELAXATION AND ENERGY WORK



I wrote these notes with an unusual pen I had, and realised the next day after it got rained on the yoke wasn't waterproof so I can only do my best trying to transcribe!

Got a lazy chestnut horse in first. As he trotted around you could see his body was there but mentally he was miles away. For this example we wanted horse to focus attention on human. Karen took over. Before she worked on gettgin horses attention, she had sure she had a cue whcih the hrose coudl understand meant relax. So before you energise a horse make sure you can bring them back down again if needed.


So she did a little in a nice way and got his attention and then lots more bend, etc. One thing which I did notice and perhaps was highlighted in this example where we wanted horses attention, was that when you are circling a horse and you always face the same way, then for part of the circle you cont see the horse as he travels behind you. If we don't pay attention to the horse all the time can we expect them to pay attention to us all the time? Anyway, Karen had caught up on this too and was encouraging the handlers to walk around with their horses are they did circles on one line.

The relaxation cue was to throw stick with rope attached to the end over horses back (friendly game).

Karen: working on idea of asking for a little at a time, and rewarding immediately. I have to say I really liked the way she tried to make things really black and white for the horse, and simple to understand.

Q; If I ask the horse to go, will he?
A; If answer is yes, then stop horse as a reward. (use friendly game)

You want to be able to turn every drop of energy into power.

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Ok, better walk now. More awake and ongoing and more energy. Not hanging behind karen. Nicer quality of walk using body a bit more, more focus on human, shoulders freer, HQ a little more engaged, better walk to trot also.

Cos energy is an issue for this horse, dont circle in trot for ages as your horse might just think 'ahh whats the point, im bored and tired.' Only ask for short bits of good, and make things fun for all. Teach horse that if he does offer a really nice energetic walk, he wont then always have to do it for AGES and regret he offered it in the first place.

• You have to know what you want.
  
• You have to be able to analyse what you're getting
  
• Then you have to be able to compare the two.
  

THE SUN IS OUT!!! LOVELY.

Everyone went off to practise. Use immediate rewards - so if you get a nice trot, instead of then doing a hq yield and drawing horse into you, and possibly mucking up HQ yield or draw and then having to sort this out, while forgetting your lovely trot, rigth after trot, YOU walk to you horse or sit down, or do something ASAP.

You want a flow of energy. You do not want held tension.

Karen said that at her first parelli clinic (she had been doing dressage mainly before and abit of eventing) she realised her horse never quite relaxed. Did friendly game (stick & rope twirled over / onto horse) and since that day horse was more energetic. The horse had previously only done as much as he was asked to do. Now cos he could relax more, he coudl also go more.

All horses back over to Karen. Question abotu hroses and ers back when working. karen had two opinion sof the cause.

1. Horse doing as he is asked but still feels under pressure.
2. Horse doing 99% of what he's asked but goes 'nah' for the last 1%.

BALANCE WORK



Move your horses body in various ways.

trot on circle - HQ yield - halt (without coming into person)
trot on circle - sidepass - halt (without coming into person)

Horse to stop facing same way they were sidepassing to make sure they are in balance and in self carraige at eth end of the mvt as well as during it.

trot on circle - shoulders to be on the outside of normal circle. Then total relaxation as a reward.

When you do HQ yield, horse can end up with most of his weight on inside fore. Watch this with your own horse and see if it does happen. This inst good as we dont want horses to finish manouvre of falling out of balance with weight planted on inside front foot.

If horse is leaning in with body, then try a sidepass to get her belly away from you (sidepass = whole horse sideways) - so you're doing the opposite of what your horse is currently doing.

Run though all your yields. Find which one doesnt work and practise it.

If these are hard, so them at the walk first. Make stuff BIG and CLEAR and easy to understand.

Question - what happens when you put your hands on your horse? Does he stop? get tense? move away from you? relax, etc. Just an experiment.

Sidepassing a horse: did it well, but kept turning back into human after it. Better if they did nothing after sidepass till you ask them.

12.15

(I didnt realise I'd written so much!!!)

Little dun horse trotting around. His HQ were coming in a bit on the circle. handler to ask HQ to go out a little to fix this, but leave everything else as it is. Horse also stretching every so ofte. You need to have a softness through your body to ask the horse to have a softness through his body.

We are looking for the 'let loose' posture.

If your horse is not balanced when you are on the ground, when you get on it'll get more out of balanced and when you ride it'll get worse again.

Imagine you are standing upright. Now lean to one side and put lots of weight on your front leg. So that leg which has a lot of weight is now braced. If you go directly for that leg and try to move it to unbrance it, you'll fall over.Instead you need to rebalance your whoe body and shift your weight back so your standing more upright, then then leg automatically softens/relaxes as there's less weight on it now.

Big focus throughout morning on relaxation and rewarding tries. I like Karen cos she tried to make things really simple for horse, doesnt ask for too much and tries to be fair at all times to the horse.

[Elaine]

SAT 2pm after lunch - all horses out in the field for the afternoon session.

Want to find your horses best walk, best trot, etc.

WALK

So ask horse to walk. Now drop your energy (barely a walk). Now increase yoru energy (nearly a trot). Somewhere in between too slow and too fast is your perfect walk. Please around with the extremes until you find the sweet spot in the middle.

So play about and find your 'good' range. Then find the best spot in this range.

Currently the hrose who is in the arena, his best walk is one notch up from what he is currently offering.

TROT

Same again. So a really slow jog type trot.
Then do a high energy 'nearly a canter' trot. You can see horse get flat and start to loose balance.

OK - now find something in between these two which works.

Dressage - an expession of grace (I made that up!) ;D

Trot is now more rhythmic and flowing. Play with trot to find sweet area.

BIG GREY HORSE IN ARENA.

Trotted. Karen didnt like it. Said to use more energy (i.e. GO) Horse starts to lengthen. Then while still increasing energy horse THEn started to get short and quick and messy (losing balance I guess as trot too fast)

So play with it - try both extremes. Say 'I like this trot because....' then try something different and say 'I like this trot because.........'

Currently horse getting about a 7/10 for energy in trot. During this, you stay neutral - i.e. sit there na denjoy it. If you feel horse going back to a six, ten do something and either get him back to a &, or up to a eight if required and then back down to a 7. Then ride in neutral again (the point being you shouldn't have to kill yourself constantly to get yoru hrose to maintain a particular gait - you should just ask, get it, then let your horse maintain it himself)

3.00 WHOLE GROUP practises.

Play with walk.trot/canter and use less and more energy in all till you find sweet spot in each,

One thing I noticed which I wont do with Oz anymore..... was watching one horse circle with handler on ground and stirrups long, and they were banging off horses sides every stride. That must be really annoying / sore. When I walk around with my saddle if the stirrups are long and banging down my my kness its sore!! So its probably the same for horses too.

[Elaine]

SUNDAY 9.00 TALK - about reins and contact and bits...

Nuno Olivera (spelling) reckoned young horses should be started without bit according to karen (sorry will look this up later to find out). Reckoned a lot of bracing problems come from misuse of the bit. (true, they do, but maybe if you use bit properly you can avoid them regardless of age? a thought only........)

For the turn to a halt when you're riding, basically to turn horses head to one side so there's a bend in their neck. Karen got one guy up from the audience and held his hand and pulled him about the place. He was fine, smiling. Then she said 'now I'm going to do this again but this time I'm not going to hold your hand, I'm going to hold your nose' and you saw the guy visibally shrink away.

She asked him where he tensed up when he though she was going to pull him around from the nose. He said his neck and head and shoulders. She said, yep, same for the horse. To protect their mouth, they can tense up neck, head, shoulders.

So only put a bit in when you know you can use it very lightly.

You can train to grand prix bitless. When you use the bit, you are going inside the horse - really subtle intimate communication.

Its very hard for humans to do something like use their hands and arms and NOT tense up and introduce pressure.

Think of it like dancing......

Freestyle (no bridle or reins) dancing is when you stand near someone, but you both dance seperately. Its fun, and it doesnt really matter if your partner can't dance, you can still boogie away by yourself near him.

With reins (closer, more contract points) This is like ballroom dancing when you dance together with lady having onehand on guys shoulder, and other hand in his hand. More points of contract, more communication.

If your partner is good, this can be amazing and he can make you look REALLY good. (like if you dance with your dancing teacher). If your partner is crap, everythign is just AWFUL, even worse than if you're partner is bad when dancing freestyle.

GOAL

1) use no reins & do stuff really nicely
2) then pick up reins without changing anything else.

Instead of just pulling nose in:

1. Get your horse to stretch out his whole body
2. Bring in the reins a little
3. Then ride whole horse forward
4. Hands to go with your horse.

Dont ask for vertical flexion. Prepare horses body. have your hands ready, then wait. It'll come.

Karen was riding a horse and it was having issues on some of the more advanced stuff. After a while she realised there was no point working on this, instead she took off all the tack, rode horse in round pen and realised he was having trouble sticking to the rail going on the left rein. So did a few weeks of riding without bridle and working on all the basic stuff again, then when put back in tack and did high level dressage again, was MUCH better and more supple.

The job of the bit - imagine you've got REALLY long arms and the bit is actually just your two index fingers, one at each side of your horses mouth.

You dont want to teach horse to break at poll and disconnect with the rest of his body. This causes problems.

You want STRETCH. Lightness - like you're holding hands with someone and you are both going to the same place together.

Dressage - goal is a HAPPY HORSE. This isnt JUST a goal - you should START with 'happy'. If your horses mind is not involved, you dont have an athlete you have a slave.

So if you start off 'I AM A DRESSAGE RIDER AND I ASPIRE TO BE HAPPY' you get:



If you start off 'I AM HAPPY AND I WANT TO DO SOME DRESSAGE' you get:




How many dressage riders are really happy (ok this is a bit tongue in cheek but............)

Olympic dressage training is 5 x 45 mins training sessions per week.

REINS: If the horse is pulling on reins, close your fingers one finger at a time (start with little finger). Then this is done, move hand to where your little finger is (a slightly give in the reins I think, a slightly mvt forward of the hands), and think you are moving towards the horse... the horse will find it tricky to kepe bracing.

This is similiar to the 'feel down the reins' idea to invite horse to soften I've seen at other clinics. Horse gets sensation of pullign on fence post - MY GOD EVERYONE IS TEACHING THE SAME THING!!! lol

If you've got nice freestyle (ie no bridle or reins) then take up the reins.
If you then get an issue, dont fix this issue with eth reins. Use your body instead (like if you were freestyle - to fix the actual problem. 99% of horses body brace issues you can feel through the reins but it doesnt mean you have to correct them using the reins.

Did experiment with dummy horses (people). Got real human and dummy horse to hold reins. Then got rider to shift their focus moving forward with the horse, and moving against it. Dummy horses could feel this even from mvt of 1 finger by rider.

With your horse, play with reins to move horse head all over the place while at halt - move it left right, up, down, up and right, down and left, up and left, etc etc etc.

If both of you are individually not in balance (eg horse pulling on you and you pulling on horse) the team can still be in balance.



If one of you is balanced and the other one is not, the other one tends to automatically want to beocme more balanced (said dummy horse, aka a real human during experiements)



When riding, you want to feel your horses HOCKS in your hands, says Karens dressage instructor.

Good cross training - tai chi or salsa / ballroom dancing.

Did another experiment with people pretending ro be riders & horses. Which is most comfortable place for horse, for your hands to be held? It turned out to be when your lower arms and reins are all in a straight line.

Steady hands come from bein gflexable moving and soft - try lots of things then choose what you want.

I like this idea that we dont just go for what we want straight away - we go to both ends of what we want, then find the place in the middle which works best, adding or taking away extra stuff as needed.

Riding is a paradox - if you want steady you have to get mobile.

FLEXIONS:

1) lateral really useful
2) neck and head up acts as counterweight to HQ - lift your hands up and forward,

Helps to get energy to go forward
Also helps tricky horses whcih are all curled up and over bent and not travellgin forward, all bunched up with short strides not being efficent with energy, wasting it a bit.

Horses NEED to know they can be powerful and go forward.

END OF CHAT. Plan for riding: see what happens when you take slack out of reins. Aim have nothing bad happen, no negative change.

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Went outside to the field. The Eagles were on the stereo, the sun was out, gorgeous and lovely and hot There's not many things better than sitting outside on green grass with the sun shining down, and nothign to do but watch folk work horses.. only thing possiblyt better woudl be to have your own horse there

ELVIS - GREAT BALLS OF FIRE currently on the stereo.

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[Elaine]

(I've REALLY taken lots of notes at this clinic!! My poor fingers, well done to anyone who has got this far!!!........)

[Elaine]

Yields:

Practise yields, you are looking for an instant response. Time your current response and then figure out how many canter strides you would do in that time. For 1 tempo dressage stuff you need stuff to happen immediately.

Demoed with one horse in arena:

Good HQ yield
Good walk to HQ

Asked horse to walk without using reins
Picked up reins, horse veered off a little
Dropped reins continued to walk on

Did it again

Walk with slack in reins, then took slack out (not great) then put slack back in.

Walk freestyle (no reins) then do HQ yield freestyle (no reins)
Then with reins, walk and do HQ yield (this isnt as good as once rider picks up reins, both horse and rider tend to focus in on the reins and forget about all their seat cues)

GOAL - horse to think that it doesnt matter if the reins are short or long, the hrose alwyas has to listen to the riders body languague.

Pick something horse does well without reins (lateral mvt)

Then practise doing same while holding reins, but dont actually do anything with the reins.

Do lots of yields from a walk (instead of a halt) which is REALLY good to do.

[There are some lovely horses at this clinic I have to say] ;D

Doing a walk starting from walk should increase horses coordination and balance.

Always warn/prepare your horse BEFORE you do manouvre, then the manouvre will be better.

[This is similiar to Steve Halfpennys exercise of walk-HQ yield- FQ yield - walk]

STORY.............

Karen was teaching a grand prix dressage rider in new york clinic. Rider would NOT drop the reins. Rider wanted to work on softness, lightnes and pouirettes (sp). When she did drop the reins the horse wouldnt stand still, would walk forward instead. This rider also had 2 big dogs. Karen asked her how she trained her dogs to sit. Sghe she she used a verbal cue and backed it up with touch to get dog to sit, the moved away from dog as he stayed sitting.

Karen: why'd you move away from the dog?
Rider: Well I couldnt sit there holding him in one place all day! He had to learn how to do it by himself.

AHA!!!! Then the penny dropped that she might need to do this with her horse as well.

It kinda turned into a sit-stay lesson for the rider.

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Riders would can rider without reins, from seat cues have a HUGE advantage in dressage at the start.

If you want your hrose to stretch his neck and lift his head more, then you do the same with your own body.

(All the above is about CONNECTION)

After all this stuff, then you get into the exercises and patterns.

More cowboy music starts on the loudspeakers

A bit of cantering and galloping around by clinic participants.

BLOODY RAIN STARTS AAAAGGGGHHHH though its only light thank god.

Big coloured horse not actively stretching. Play with different parts of your body to see whcih one encourages horse to stretch. Also can move horse laterally to encourage horse to stretch longitudeionally.

Dont think logically - experiment sometimes with the exact opposite yield you want.

The downside of stretching is horse can go on forehand, so dont just do this - mix it up with something else - eg canter, backup, then stretch again. Your nice trot will be in between these things.

Actively forward, stretch through spine and weight on HQs. Then your trot is in a place where you are doing an easier version of everything.

Can I stretch?
Can I backup?

For both of these, if needs be reinforce with your seat NOT with your reins.

Check you have black & white and then you can live in your perfect shade of grey. If you dont know what black and white is its very difficult to change the grey to the shade you want.

Stretch - do it enough so you get the benefit but not so much you get the downside. If you've got it. move on.

MORE BLOODY RAIN. Light though again

[Elaine]

SUNDAY 2.00 pm

Watching horses warm up, one line stuff. Some nice work.

Chatting to lady beside me and remarked 'isnt it odd how when you do 1 rein stuff on the ground its so good, but when you use the one rein from the saddle its not so good?'

She said a few had been chatting about this the night before. The difference is in the rider. You can be really confident on the ground when workign horse and it comes through your energy and body language feel timing cues etc. In saddle maybe you're not that 100% confident person you were on the ground, so it doesnt work as well. EG - one lady on big warmblood was at a different clinic. Did some nice work in trot. Instructor said - now THAT was a nice trot!!! Rider looked at instructor and said - I felt I was being run away with!

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During the warm up, it was sunny and the PA was playing very loudly - dont worry, be happy'. It was cool - some of the folks started to dance while they warmed up. All very chilled and relaxed

It was QUITE a cool way to start a training session - HAPPY

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Ok - folks doing circling, HQ yield and then horse automatically coming into them for a rub. This can create a pattern where horses kepe ending stuff by turning into you and putting weight on inside shoulder/foot. So maybe instead you can go to them after a manouvre.

So

- trot
- ask for HQ yield but your body gets TALLER and SITS UP (dont crouch down)
- Horse steps hind leg under them
- then so straight to sidepass without any halt (keep em moving then they cant plant on that inside front leg) so this will keep front end light. Dont alow them to come closer to you.

You HAVE to have a good HQ yield here first before you start this hq - sidepassing business.

- HQ steps under
- horse doesnt plant on inside front foot and all legs keep moving
- doesnt come into human

(this is like a shoulder in on a circle)

- look for feeling that horse is light and tall
- you want horse to feel dainty at the end of the line

- shoulder in very useful. often after it they'll feel like stretching

Horse to face you by doing HQ NOT FQ. If you want HQ, then get HQ.

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OTHER VERSION

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FQ yield:

1) basic one - turn forehand, front legs cross over, hind end doesnt move very much.
2) can also do FQ with HQ moving, but not as much as FQ. So all legs (for example) move to the right, but front legs move more so you end up on a circle looking out. This is the beginning of the pirouette. The human needs to be a good dance partner for this stuff.

All feet go in same direction but on a circle - keep the normal 4 beat walk rhythm.

Apologoes for the really bad drawing !!! lol.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Everyone goes off to practise this.

- first check if you've got normal FQ and HQ yields.
- the do the above, keep 4 legs move in walk rhythm with either HQ or FQ moving more (depending which one you're doing) and maintain normal regular walk rhythm 1-2-3-4.

AIM: up, light, not stuck - so keep YOUR body up light & not stuck when you ask for this mvt.

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Everyone goes off to practise this.

Do this in walk first on the ground.
If good, try it in trot.

Dont just keep asking horse to work - keep alternating with rests which horse has tried hard. This is like when I had to retrain Oz not to bolt over fences. Then only communication I could use effectively with him was to stop asking him to jump over the fence which he 'tried' not to bolt over it. It worked.

DEMO JAMES HORSE

HQ with some FQ mvt.

- get HQ moving
- can see horses chest (good) facing into circle.
- keep horse supple, horse not to come into human
- keep walk rhythm.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Everyone goes off to practise this.

SHANIA TWAIN ON PA - DONT BE STUPID

Then dido - reminded me of new zealand............

When doing this exercise make sure you can see horses chest.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BACKUP - part of the balance picture.

Used to tune horse into bringing his weight up and back.
YOU are looking for walk to backup WITHOUT any stop.


So have a normal backup from halt in place first.

Then walk and then straight into backup without any hesitation. Give your horse a warning you are going to do this.

- WALK
- Warn horse by moving your weight back
- Backup without any stopping in between walk & backup.

If it doesnt work at the walk, sometimes it can actually be good to try it in trot or canter.

So for exampel:

- trot
- get ready to backup by gettign tall and puttin gweight back, still trotting but the horse is more up and thinkign 'when will she ask me to backup?'
- then backup

Dont use rope or reins to backup, use your seat.

Also make sure YOU are not hesitating when going from forward to backup.

One student was askign a bot too much, and Karen told him not to get too greedy and not to go too fast for the horse (nice one karen)

I like her cos she's fair on the horse.

- FORWARD - BACK - RELEASE
- BACK - FORWARD - RELEASE

Eventually you'll get

Forward - back - forward - back - forward - etc with no stopping and with regular rhythm.



But if you START off with Forward - back - forward - back - forward - etc it'll turn to crap pretty quickly.

[Elaine]

3.50 all riding

1 - focus on line of travel
2- do lateral manouvre (ie you're got to know where you were going to figure out if you are actually now going sideways - pick a non-moving point of reference in your arena / field)

- walk on forward in a straight line, looking at a point (eg letter A in dressage arena, going up centre line)
-HQ more than FQ on a circle
- then back out and walk on again
- dont let circle get small
- want your chest and your horses chest point into the circle
- dont cross oru rein over if horse walked into centr eof circle. Instead use your body (legs + seat) to communicate 'hey horse dont walk into the middle of the circle'
- use inside leg lightly to encourage HQ out. If you use too much, FQ wont be able to move in same direction.
- inside rein doesnt do much
- At first necks are a little rigid after a while you get softness through neck and they melt into hands. Then walk them straight on as a reward for this.

This is good Because:

Suppleness, lightness, bends and engages HQ. Very good exercise for dressage.

So on a circle you can have long free steps, and then good engagaement and connection.

Both of these exerciese compliment each other.

BIG release when you get a big effort from the horse.

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4.30 one horse demo:

FQ yield with a bit of HQ yield. Either start in the walk, or (easier I think) start with the horse sidepasing.

- Can start on big circle to help horse out
- done in the gait of walk.

This will eventually be a canter pirourette

Its quite cool when you get glimpses for where this stuff can go.

- then coudl do a walk pirouette and add on a canter depart, then back to walk.
- then could do a walk pirouette, ask for the last bit of this in canter (one stride) then canter depart, then back to walk.

[Elaine]

MONDAY 9.00

Today riders will be split up into hourly groups of 4 people, each group will be doing different exercises. Then this afternoon everyone will be back out together.

Walked through stables this morning on the way up to the field, so it reminded me of pony camp in Clonmel. Grey horses being cleaned (yes I too owned a lovely but nearly always dirty grey pony), horses being fed, tacked up etc. It would be cool if this WAS pony camp - imagien working on yields, riding purely from the seat as a basis for all riders, playign with the beginnings of canter pirourette It'd be amazing. Doable too I reckon. If you coudl do maybe four sessions each year for a few days each, work on this stuff and then give out homework/individual training plans for all rider to work on in between sessions it'd be fabulous. PLus horsey homework - books to read, horse projects to do etc. God I would have loved it when I was younger

Its also a good idea to do some crosstraining, maybe in tai-chi (did this and had an unfortunate incident with a chair) and dancing (must get back to my salsa classes).

HORSES WARMING UP

Nice FQ yield with a little HQ by a big bay warmblood.

FLEXIBILITY EXERCISE.



At trot (start at walk if you like though) prepare for circle to right, while going down long side of arena beside the wall on your right.

Picture the balance you want on a circle. Now yield away from the wall still bent like this circle (see pic above).

Once you've actually got room to do this circle (maybe once you're past centre line) then do and ride the circle, and you'll then end up back at the wall going the opposite direction. Then repeat in this new direction.

When going sideways across the anera MAKE SURE horse is crossing hind leg over. You shoudl have feel of his shoulders wrappign around. You DONT want him to head off with his front legs and just drag teh back legs after them without any back legs crossing over. Its like a HQ yield - back legs CROSS OVER. If you have issues, go back to working on normal HQ yield till you can do that on its own.

- change positioning
- then change weight
- then change direction

As you go across the arena, keep horse PARALLEL to the wall you are moving away from.

Have a soft inside hand. If you feel you need to use inside rein, use tyour insude leg to push horses HQ over instead.

Make sure you can go 100% sideways first. Then this is just 50% sideways and 50% forwards.

DEMO horse was doing this in walk, and then did a trot depart. At one stage (REALLY COOL) he did an early trot depart and did some of the lateral bit on TROT!!! Horse was actually offering to yield at the trot.

NICE!!

Its good to start this in walk then as horse gets more confidence he will offer it in trot. Dont push him for this. NICE WORK.

Can turn into a yield in trot with a canter depart
Can turn into a yield then a flying change canter depart.

[Elaine]

MONDAY 10.30 SECOND GROUP

Warmup- some nice one rein riding.

FLEXIBILITY EXERCISE:

If horse falls in or leaning in put in a stop. If not, keep going.

Do a circle first with correct bend, then with incorrect bend (good for counter canter)

When doing a leg yield, dont lead with one end - both ends move same distance sideways, and have hind legs CROSS over each other, not just following front legs.

Imagine when you are riding this, someone is holding your outside shoulder and pulling it the way you want your horse to go.

When doing a counter bend on the circle:



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Dont make your reins the main method of communcation with your horse.

Ok - circle with counter bend. When it feels good, keep this same bend and change circle direction so now you've cantering on new circle with the correct (normal) bend.

Add in canter transitions. If you are positioned right, your ready for canter on the right. Play with bends when on canter circle.

In trot, push weight to outside then inside leg light ready to reach out into canter.

FLEXIBILITY EXERCISE (a yield to increase suppleness)



OVERCAST BUT THANKFULLY NO RAIN

another exercise:

- canter towards middle of arena
- trot 1 stride before centre line
- trot one stride over centre line and change bend
- trot one stride away
- Canter

GOAL: be prepared for the canter BEFORE you start the circle.

If its all going too fast, you can slow down. Can also do in trot, with a walk change over the centre line.

This exercise is suitable one the horse doesnt bulge outside shoulder and once there's an 80% chance they will pick up the correct canter lead.

[Elaine]

MON 11.50 THIRD GROUP

Was chatting to one of the students so he said she was the best dressage teacher he'd ever met and her book will become a dressage classic.

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Everyone to practise transitions between gaits.

Check that you can do this without reins first, especially with backup.

WEATHER OVERCAST AND A BIT GLOOMY

- demo horse walks on circle - not much energy
- karen asked rider 'do you feel ready to backup'?
- try increasing nad decreasing energy in walk to get your best walk.
- change something so you feel ready to backup, but keep the walk going while you do this.

1 - ride around at yoru best walk
2 - do you feel ready to transition to SOMETHING? (note didnt specifiy what this SOMETHING is)
3 - then transiiton and see how it goes
4 - then learn from this and try it again see if you can improve anything

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- walk
- trot
- walk
- think of backup
- trot - not as much forward but got up energy going up!

Check you've got a nice version of both gaits (walk & trot)

Them PREPARE and have a nice current gait, then do transition and see how it goes. (including a backup does work well)

As you are walking prepare for the trot transition.... BUT THEN DO A TRANS TO BACKUP!!!

THe idea is that you want your horse while in 'walk' or 'trot' to be in a state of readyness and in perfect balance so its as easy for him to move up a gait as it is to move diwn a gait.

Tom and Sarah Widdicombe do a similiar thing when the horse is in halt - its balanced 50-50 so its as easy for the horse to go from halt - backup as it is to go from halt - walk. Nice to see this also happen when horse is moving along

So you are looking for 'prepareness' like a tennis player in athletic balance, in the middle of the tennis court waiting to see if the next ball will go to the right or to the left.

GOAL - you want to know what it feels like to be prepared.

Its a juggling act.

So find the trot when your horse is ready to canter............ then backup.

[Elaine]

MONDAY 2.10 LAST GROUP OF 4 RIDERS

- walk about
- karen says... everyone stop with haunches to the left and bend to the right

(like an odd game of simon says!)

eg...............

- walk about
- think about what you will be doing in 1 min (move 1 step tp the right with the HQ and end up then with a bend in the front end to the left)
- everyone stop and do this
- then walk on again

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SUN COMES OUT

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try again this time.... walk on, then stop with front feet do i step to the right and bend to the left.

This stuff is REALLY good to do at a halt, makes it much easier and simpler to do and gives you more time to get it right, than trying it in walk/trot/etc which gets confusing.

Try again... then stop and get HQ to move to right and bend head to right.

Try again... walk on, then halt and get HQ to left and bend neck to right.

Try again... walk on, halt and Get HQ and bend in neck both to go to the left.

- THen again - shoudlers leftm bend left

- shoulders left bend right (rombers right)

- shoulders left bend left (shoulder in left)

- shoulders left bend right

- HQ left bend left (haunches in left)

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- walk down centre line
- halt, HQ left, bend in front end to the right.
- At halt, can you bend right and left front of horse (neck and head) without moving horses feet?



Then can you move HQ back so horse is back in his original position? (this was quite cool)

- walk
- halt shouders to the left, bend neck & head to the right
- then change so shoulders rigth of centre line, bend in neck to the left

(going from rombers right to rombers left)

This stuff is GREAT to practise. Do it all standing still or from walk first

Cant believe its August and its cold

After each position, walk away briskly forward like it never happened.

When in each position relax when you get the position and remember what it feels like.

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EXTEND - LENGTHEN TROT

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On short sides, have a willingness to put in the power.

- Feeling is building up the energy ahead of time, but keep it hidden ready. Then when you want to go, BOOM GO.

- there is a difference betwene energy and gait.

Horses usually either good at going forwards or good at going sideways.

If horse breaks into canter on short side, dont say 'whoa' say 'trot' ie maintain the energy while changing gaits (difficult)

SUN IS SHINING!!!

STORY:

Karen had a remedial dressage horse who used to rear a lot. 9 months later she was doing piaffe with horse and decided to play around with this a little. Asked horse to sit down on hocks and incarese energy. Horse did as asked and reared straight up.

Karen (once she checked she was ok) had to think quickly abotu how she was going to react to this. When horse came down, she rubbed horse and told him that was the best rear EVER! She had asked the horse for it so he was only doing as he was told to do. She knew she was going into the danger zone. After rear, horse had expected bad things to happen to him. If they had, vicious rearing cycle would probably have started agian. Instead he got a rub. They continued session and doing some lovely piaffes abd passages and then walked in home on a loose rein. That rub after the rear had been the right reaction.

[Elaine]

3.45 pm ALL HORSES BACK OUT TOGETHER

Everyone can work on whatever they like - so extension, transiitons, paterns, yields, etc.

REALLY NICE WORK FROM EVERYONE. THIS WAS A GREAT CLINIC. I liked Karen a lot amd she taught in a way that was simple logical and when you put all the small bits together it all got quite cool.

NICE WORK FROM ALL HORSES. There were definitely a few I'd have liked to have taken home

[Elaine]

Karens videos on youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMrZfpDomRQ&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMH7EVylqNg&feature=related

[Elaine]

Karen is over in Wiltshire for another clinic this summer at James Roberts place.