The Gifted Fund

Ann de Matteo

USDF Region 1

My clinic with Martin

For the past six years, I have been riding with German bereiter Martin Kuepper twice each year. He has taught me on five different horses and, while the horses were all very different in their abilities, Martin's lessons have always focused on the very base of the German training scale: forward and straight.

When I was chosen as the first recipient of The Dressage Foundation's Gifted Fund training grant for Region 1, I was excited by the prospect of using the grant to further the training of my 10 yr old Ukrainian warmblood, Sasha. After three years of health problems, Sasha and I were finally moving forward. I planned to work on getting him confirmed at Fourth Level. Tragically, Sasha colicked and died in May. He was truly a once-in-a-lifetime horse, and losing him so suddenly was terrible. Needing another horse to try to fill the void Sasha left, I called Martin in Germany.

Martin is a huge fan of horses from the former Soviet Union. He found Sasha for me three years ago, and I knew he could find me another horse to love. Six weeks later I was in Germany, riding the new Ukrainian love of my life.

Fortun, aka Tag, is a 6 yr old, 15.3 hand, bundle of equine energy and charm. Forward is never a problem; straightness is another matter all together. Martin arrived from Germany ten weeks after Tag did to help us out.

Before our first lesson I admit I was nervous. I thought we had made lots of progress since Tag's arrival in the US; the un-sitable trot in Germany had become softer and less bone jarring. The braced neck had started to lower and loosen. However, after years of Martin clinics I knew I was probably going to have my comfort zone taken away in the first hour. I breathed a sigh of relief that Martin was at least happy with our "forward". But it was obvious that our "straight" left much to be desired, and that was the work we concentrated on right away.

I had to straighten Tag using the outside rein and inside leg (what a shock), keeping my hands low and close together. Martin's mission in the US is to keep my hands from getting wider and wider in the warm-up. While Tag was happy to flex right, he was very reluctant to flex left. I spent lots of time leg-yielding at the walk, getting Tag on the right rein and "giving over" the left rein. I could ask for the smallest flexion left, "giving my left leg" when he came against the left hand, moving the haunches toward the wall. The work was slow and calm (I want to be a very busy rider; the one word I think of Martin saying over and over again is "Caa-alm.") and gradually Tag loosened in the poll.

In canter, Martin wanted me to ride with a lighter seat, "riding the rhythm with your lower leg". Give over with the inside hand and circle without pulling the horse around by the inside rein. Martin is a great believer in using the "skills"--leg yield, walk pirouettes, shoulder-in, etc.--as a means to improve the gaits. The "skills" are not a goal in themselves in training, you use them to get a better gait, a straighter, more supple horse. Since Tag was hypersensitive to my aids; I needed to be very quiet and conservative that day.

The next day was a huge breakthrough. Tag came out focused and relaxed. Martin commented immediately that he was much looser in the shoulder than the day before. Our straightening exercises were much more successful, resulting in a straight horse much earlier in the session. The trot became awesome! The slightest flexion left brought Tag's neck lower and his back softened. I felt him lift his back right behind the saddle, finally unlocking the last little piece of his back.

We spent some time working on the reinback: I was to make him round at the halt, "give him my legs" and DON'T PULL BACK! In other words, put the horse in the right place and let him do the work. At the end of the session, Tag was happily reining back, unafraid that I was about to pull his teeth out each time he stepped back.

The next day, we cantered. Again using a light seat, I made Tag keep the balance of the canter on his own, giving over first with the inside hand and then with both hands. Not throwing the reins at him, but lengthening the contact by about the length of my fist. It was amazing what that small difference made to the quality of the canter, and to the length of Tag's neck.

Martin used the counter canter to straighten the canter, and culminated with a quiet flying change to the correct lead. Tag didn't want me to use my legs as much as I was used to with other horses when asking for the change; just changing the flexion and using the new inside leg at the girth was the aid he needed. We finished with a wonderful trot, trotting in a straight line up the centerline. This posed its own set of problems. After the turn, I immediately had to concentrate on "straight". Who knew that simple thing could prove so vexing? I learned to immediately take control of the left shoulder, and the trot opened up again without the security of the wall next to us.

The rest of the week was for pounding these things into my brain: don't pull back, left shoulder in front of the left hip (his, not mine), give over with the rein, keep your hands low and together. Nothing fancy, flashy or trendy--just quiet repetition of well-worn exercises. In a week, my little horse was a Wow! and I was quiet and focused on the job of getting him there.

The Gifted Fund allowed me a week of intensive German training right in my own backyard. Thank you very much!