01/17/2024
Notes from Day One -
Adequan/USDF FEI Trainers Conference
With Sabine Schut-Kery and Sven Rothenberger
Bonnie Canter & Vitalis, riding with Sabine
-use shallow leg yield in canter to get more lateral suppleness
-Think of collection, but don’t let him SLOW down
-Forward through elbows to hands in the corners, so he doesn’t feel blocked when you bring him back
-Discipline as a rider is that we do not do the job for the horse
-He must be sharper off the aids. “If you and I were talking, you would be yelling at me.”
-Sometimes it’s good to work in the walk, break it down even more for the horse. You can accomplish so much just in the walk.
-Envision in your mind, the collected canter you love. Don’t just canter around. Really insist on the best quality.
-This horse is not quite forward enough because he’s stiff. So we need to supple him, not chase him faster.
-Your inner leg must be long and BREATHING
Breathing means you’re not tight, clamping, or gripping – never get stuck in an aid.
-Teach him to push himself with the hind leg and not pull with the front leg.
-Every day you must have a high standard with your position – do not get drawn up in the heel or resistant in the arms and elbows
-Take lots of little breaks
-I don’t care if he walks (from Canter) this is a training opportunity – can I teach him something?
-Connection should be like a bungee chord. Even when you give, give in an elastic way.
-Keep the bit forward in the mouth, don’t pull the bit back to you.
-Make quality before you make things exact (like perfect placement of transitions or changes) because exact can come once there is consistent quality.
-Before I communicate, I must make the horse sharp. Like a chef, I can’t start to make a meal with a dull knife.
-A good position makes it so I can have quality aids.
Kelsey Dunlap & Heirendale, riding with Sabine
-Medium trot & when the neck comes up, ride a volte, so the volte keeps him supple, and you don’t have to pull him back.
-The neck is just a reflection of what you have behind the saddle.
-He must get comfortable with a challenge. A challenge cannot be a negative.
-Piaffe can be a little like a trick, but you have to connect in and out, so it goes THROUGH the body.
-You have to connect pushing power with carrying power.
-There’s a fine line between challenging and working on a subject and over-drilling. You can’t do too much because you’ll break their spirit and go beyond their physical strength. But you must stay in it long enough that they show an understanding.
-Leave the door open in front, but be there when he wants to run through the door.
-As a rider, you must have awareness of the rhythm, and don’t follow him when he runs off in a faulty rhythm.
-If you want the back up, you have to ride BOTH ends.
-Sven - he’s a big horse but not always the most coordinated. Don’t help him so much anymore. He must have more accountability for his own coordination.
Marjolein Geven & Sir Frederico, with Sabine
-Think of a bow and arrow. When you bring him back (draw the arrow back) he still has energy. So much potential energy.
-The canter to trot transition is so helpful. It can be hard with an FEI horse who has learned to come behind the rider. The horse must take the bit OUT and ROUND in order to do that trans well.
-Get OUT of him in the walk.
-Let the corner bring him back, not the hand.
-With a horse like this - raise the bar but have shorter sets. Really good quality for 29 mins is better than insisting on riding dor 45 mins.
Molly O'Brien & Fortunato H2O, with Sven
-The extended walk should be like walking in the forest with your dog- with energy and relaxation.
-Use the warm up to make an athlete out of your horse.
-What walk are you doing? It must either be an extended walk or a collected walk. If collected - short reins, neck up, weight on the hind legs. If extended- poll low, nose out, free in the shoulder.
-Activity IS dressage. In a few years, we don’t want a lazy duck.
-Sh in, he tilts on the R rein. You just get him to fill up the R. You have to make horses fill up the softer side.
-Everything you do, do it correctly. Don’t waste time doing a shoulder in for a 6.5.
-Quarter pirouettes are very good because it can be hard to get out of a pirouette. So you get to practice the first stride and last stride many times.
-When you have a horse this nice, you have the DUTY to concentrate and create good quality in all movements.
Kristen Stein & Karamba, with Sven
-The horse must get stronger in the core and more open through the chest. If they are tight in the neck, they will get narrow in front and tight with the front leg
-Flex him to soften him. If you want contact with 2 reins, keep him a little straighter in the neck.
-Transitions create better contact - more if they are too light and less if they are too strong.
-To be a dressage rider means a lifetime of criticism. 😂
-When there is a problem, next time you can’t come thinking there will be a problem. You stick to your program.
Tanya Rennie & Faldo, with Sabine
-The easiest part of the horse to move is the neck, then the hind leg, then the shoulder/front leg. The hardest are the ribs.
-The horses are sensitive enough to be fired up or relaxed by just your energy.
-In trot the rider must swing, but Tanya is swinging a little up in the knee and heel with each stride. There must be a swing down and in each stride.
-To get the midsection up you need both a front and a hind end. Allow the contact to be a place where they can balance *lightly*. Like if you were doing a deep lunge in a workout and you touched the wall with one finger, it is easier to balance than with no hands. But just one finger can create better balance, and just a light contact can help the horse.
-In extended walk, if he dunks his head down each stride, use your calves a bit to help keep the belly and back up. Don’t let him get slouchy and drop his sternum.
-In half pass R, he isn’t allowed to bring his R shoulder back. His chest must stay parallel to the short side. Exercise - trot on the diagonal totally straight, then haunches in but DONT let the shoulders turn.
-Don’t “ride” so much in the walk, because there’s no suspension. But you can’t be totally passive either.
-Transition to canter from walk - think UNDERNEATH you, not away from you.
-Just try it! The worst that can happen is it goes wrong. Then you can ask, WHAT went wrong?
-In the test, I want to have the walk score “for free,” so I have room to make mistakes in the harder stuff. But you must practice the walk!
-He pops the croup with the whip, so that’s the one time the leg must support the whip, instead of the other way round. The leg teaches him - no, you must push the leg under, not out.
Ended Ots & Lion King, with Sven
-In the beginning - rising trot, don’t lose activity and power. Not so passage-y. Horses lose power when too passage-y.
-Your inside tenseness - when you don’t like what he’s doing, you put that tension on him.
-Make him proud! Tell him, Look! You did it!! 👏
-Be smart - don’t ride a flying change from a tense canter. Then you make one problem on top of another.
-When he’s tense, don’t make yourself light in the saddle, sit into him to help relax the back.
-The more the horse is running away from you, the bigger you should sit. Don’t make yourself small when he’s tense.
-If we don’t get to relaxation before the working phase, he learns everything in tension.
-With these tense horses, take them out again in the afternoon for a walk in the fields, to show them that you are friends!
-Piaffe is not tenseness and pressure.
-How young to start half steps - not before 5, and then Sven likes to just play in hand, not thinking towards a real piaffe. You’re just teaching response and reaction.
-Sabine on training piaffe - I don’t get excited about piaffe, I get more excited about a really good trot - walk transition, because piaffe is in the transition.
JJ Tate & Romeo, with Sven
“The rider forms the horse.”
-The rider must paint a picture of what they want.
-In the GP, you only have one place to give a mark for quality of canter - directly after the passage. I wish there were more places to directly address quality, because it’s so important.
-For the training of the ones - do 2, then a few strides, then 2, a few strides, then 2. And soon you can do 5.
-Focus on improving the steadiness of the contact, not little moments of LRLR.
-Make it so the horse likes to work in the show frame, but don’t stay there forever.
-You are still doing too much to improve the contact. Trust your previous training that he can now stay steady.
