Training in Holland - Training Notes Part II

(W with Imke, Imke’s Words of Wisdom)

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W: 

• Rewards: Imke was great at reminded everyone to always look for a chance to reward. I think this is really important to keep in mind during a frustrating ride. If you are asking a horse to do something better, you have to be focused enough to recognize when they respond. This becomes even more important when you horse is struggling with something basic. I was looking for W to be active behind, straight through the body, lifting his shoulders and soft in the jaw, but he was struggling with even the most simple requests. If you have been riding long enough, you have been here at some point too. It can be very frustrating, but important to remember that it is frustrating for both of us. So in order to get W headed in the right direction, it was really important to reward him as soon as he makes an effort.
• Riders aids: When we make response to our aids such an important part of training, the timing and application of our aids becomes very important, both the aids we use on purpose and the ones that slip in accidentally. For instance, if I correct my horse every time he is slow to my leg aid, but I squeeze him with every post in the trot, how is this not confusing? So if I am not asking for something specific with my leg, I need to keep it quietly by the girth. If I am not asking for something with my seat, I need to keep it very relaxed enough to follow the movement. If I am not asking for something with my hand, they need to steadily receive the energy of the hind leg. Riding this way, helps to avoid confusion and makes the aids you do apply, that much more clear.
• Waiting: A lot of focus is put on activity and forward response, but that is just one element of good balance. W was pretty willing to go forward, but his preferred way of going was running that energy into the bridle. He needed to wait for me in order for that energy to be compacted and collected. We rode series of quick trot-halt-trot transitions looking for both the upwards and downwards to quicken. Once in the halt, as soon as his energy stopped shifting forward, I “give him space” in the hand as a reward. This was not a change in rein length or even hand positioning, but just a softening of the muscles in the hand and wrist. I needed to really close my hands during the downward transition with W, so just softening this closure gave him room to relax and carry himself in that moment. This was also the same feeling that I gave him when asking for a prompt upward transition.
• Bending: Straightness is always first, but as horses advance, there becomes a need to be able to properly bend the neck during suppling exercises and movements such as half-pass and pirouettes. When beginning work on bending, I knew how much of a bend Imke was looking for, but W just couldn’t give that yet. So, we started with a relatively small amount of bend, just so I could ask, get a good response, reward him and then ask for 10% more. The first two or three “levels” of bend were pretty easy for him to give, but as the amount become bigger, the response became slower. Although he was beginning to feel more challenged, it was really important for me to stick to my goal of only 10% more and look for any chance to reward him. It is a longer process, but he only objected a bit, because it was clear and fair. I am quite positive that had I gone directly to the bigger bend, he would have become upset. During all of this work on bending, it was always important that the rest of his body remained properly aligned. When I was bending him to the left, his right hind leg had to stay under his body and when I was bending him to the right, his left hind needed to stay in its place as well. This is why straightness is so important while a horse is developing. When an unbalanced horse is asked to bend, instead of giving fully in the neck and jaw, they tend to step wide with the outside hind to avoid alignment. A rider that is not aware of this, feels a “yield” and thinks that the bend went well. So even when asking for a big bend, straightness is always paramount.
• Working pirouettes: W thought of himself as a master of pirouettes and although this was funny in the beginning, it really limited my ability to ride effectively. So we approached the pirouettes as if he had not done them before, making sure to stop at the point were I began to lose influence and stay there until he gave it back to me and then we moved on. He could sit nicely, which is a great ability for a dressage horse to have, but when he was first being taught pirouettes, someone allowed him to do his thing, because he was talented in it and then over time, pirouettes became W’s trick. Training a horse to do something that is easy for them is a big responsibility. We have to ensure that we are just as influential during the easy moments as we are when they have trouble. We began by riding transitions between collected canter and medium canter on a well aligned twenty meter circle. Once he could make these transitions while remaining straight, I brought him onto a fifteen meter circle and asked for the same. Doing these transitions on the smaller circle required him to not run through my outside rein during the medium canter and to not begin his own pirouette when he was asked to collect on the smaller circle. Next we moved onto a circle around twelve meters wide and began riding a few strides of travers on the circle being careful to not spiral down any smaller or lose the bend. This was the hardest part for him. Asking for travers on a small circle is so close to a pirouette, but I was very careful to ride clearly and to bring him right back to the same exercise in the same place when he made a mistake. He had a few little meltdowns, but we finished being able to bring him down to only a small portion of a pirouette that I had complete control over and when he would leave the collection willingly and we moved on to something else.​

• Flying changes: On the first day, I was not entirely sure that W knew how to do flying changes. He sort of responded, but his response was very delayed and they were not clean in either direction, so it was apparent that they needed some work. Over the next few rides, as his response to my leg became quicker, the changes became better as well. Although they were happening closer to when I asked, they were still not good changes. I only did one or two each ride, but once the other elements of his work started to improve, it was time to clean up these changes! The changes were not reliably clean, because his hind leg was neither reliably straight or active. We alternated between very straight diagonals and counter canter, putting a lot of focus on the tracks he was moving on. I needed to be able to bend him to the inside or to the outside without him losing the straightness in his body. Once he was properly straight in the canter, the changes were clean and once the changes are clean, we can begin working on the quality of the change. We began by adding activity to the canter leading up to the change. This helped make the change bigger, but in turn, he became a bit to long and lost the collection in the change and the strides after the change as well. So, I put a lot of focus on balancing enough activity in the hind leg with a steady, consistent contact that kept that energy compact. I think I am the most proud of the improvement I made in his changes during our time together. They became quite nice towards the end and on our last ride together, we were able to make nice series up to two tempis with good clean changes.
• Half-pass: In both the trot and canter half-pass, we focused on maintaining the alignment of his inside hind with the track of his outside front leg. This prevented him from leading too far in with his inside hind leg (similar to what I worked on with Gabbana), but W was very one sided, so in order to maintain this alignment, I need to think about the half-passes differently. The half-pass left needed to be a bit quicker in order to continue expecting a good response to my right leg, but the half-pass right needed to maintain a shoulders forward positioning so that W was always correctly positioned around my inner leg. This meant beginning the half-pass in shoulder-in (this is always a good idea, but we put a little extra focus on it with this horse), keeping the shoulders in front during the half-pass and occasionally riding shoulder-in out of the half-pass. This exercise requires a lot of space and good use of the arena. If you are riding a horse like this, it is important to not find yourself in a place where you no longer have the room to continue in a proper position. Imke was very big on using every inch of the corners and being able to maintain total straightness on each line. Structure and straightness go hand in hand.

Imke’s words of wisdom:

I absolutely loved my time sitting in on so many lessons. Every day, I took the things I heard her say in the morning along with me to the arena that afternoon. Here are just a few wise words that I jotted down.
​All of these are paraphrased of course…

• You must be able to imagine exactly what you are riding for. A rider must be able to imagine the perfect balance, amount of energy and feel in the hand and then you ride for that. If you don’t have a knowledge of what you want, then what are you riding towards?
• Always keep the bit in the middle of your horses mouth with even contact.
• There must be structure to what you are working towards during a ride. Even if you don’t get all the way to your goal for the day, you must always be riding towards something specific.
• When mistakes happen, you must be able to hold to the original plan. A mistake can never make you lose your plan or two things just went wrong.
• It is important to make a correction as soon as you need to, but remain where you wanted to be before the mistake took place (hold your line).
• Never let forward become too long or too straight in the hocks.
• When you need to give a big aid, your horse needs to respond enough that you can then give a big reward. If not, repeat the aid straight away, always looking for a chance to find space for a reward. 
• When your horse gets too close or behind the bridle, be careful not to bring the contact back in order to create a connection, but make the connection better through more activity in the hind leg.
• If the canter is not great, you cannot make a good flying change.
• It may seem that it takes a long time in preparation, but don’t ask for a change from a canter that is not properly straight and active.
• If your horse will not go quickly and wait patiently, it is not your flying change.
• Good preparation is always worth the time spent.
• If your seat and requests are not well organized, your horses responses will not be either.
• A good rider needs to be addicted to the feeling that the hind leg will push the bridle out.
• If you work the contact backwards, you only create heaviness for yourself.
• If you have asked for something wrong, your horse cannot help but give a bad response.
• Only ride what you know you can do. If you are not confident that something will happen, ride there until you get a better feeling.

*** I really loved this: During a lesson, a rider asked Imke if they could try something and she said no. A few seconds later, she said, “No. You cannot try something, but you can DO it if you want.” I just loved her response. It may seem like its just a word, but it so important! Ride with structure and be confident that you are well prepared for what you are about to ask for.