Arianna Barzman-Grennan and Red Alert

Recipients of a grant from the Renee Isler Dressage Support Fund

Arianna and Red Alert at the 2011 USDF Symposium

I was very lucky to be invited by Jeremy Steinberg, the USEF Youth Coach, to participate in the symposium. I was doubly lucky because I was awarded two grants. A thank-you is very much in order to The Dressage Foundation for their help with the grants. I had never ridden at a venue so large or in front of so many people but I was eager to attend. Getting to ride at the symposium was an amazing opportunity and being able to work with Jeremy again was really nice because it allowed me another opportunity to work with him and learn even more.

In my rides with him, I worked on leaning back a little bit because I have a tendency to sit with my upper body too far forward. This makes sitting the trot difficult at times because the horse I ride, Red Alert, has a very springy trot and asking him to go even bigger makes his trot hard to sit; leaning back helps because it allows my hips to swing better and helps his back move more. At the canter, we worked on having Red Alert move with his shoulders and haunches in line: he likes to canter slightly haunches in. Jeremy told me that the misalignment at the canter is a sign of weakness, which is not a bad thing, it is a normal thing, and to correct it and strengthen Red Alert we should work on having him canter in a bit of a shoulder-fore position to make him straight.

When I was watching the other riders, I learned a lot about the young horses in particular. One of the things that I really enjoyed hearing from Scott Hassler, the USEF Young Horse Coach, was that even though the younger horses are competing and being trained, it is still important to just let them be horses and help them develop at an appropriate pace. When I first learned about the system of four-, five-, and six-year old tests I was a little surprised, mostly because I ride an eight-year old and we are working toward second level. Obviously, a horse being trained its whole life for dressage would be a little more advanced but I was surprised by the difficulty of the tests. Seeing the lesson with one of the young horses, a five year old I believe, I was very happy to hear Scott tell the audience how glad he was that the owner had put her horse out to pasture for two months following the young horse championships.

Watching the upper-level riders really inspired me to keep working hard. The exercises they were doing and advice they were getting oftentimes did not sound that different from things I had done or heard. A popular exercise was the shoulder-fore in the canter to straighten the horse.

Having the chance to go, and especially the chance to go as a rider, was amazing. Getting to meet other juniors at the junior breakfast opened my eyes to a whole host of other opportunities and information about the wonderful sport of dressage. Attending the banquet and awards ceremony on Saturday night was wonderful because I got to talk to someone else who does dressage with a Quarter Horse, and cheer for her when she received her bronze medal.

Sharing everything that I learned would very hard because I learned about riding and training up the levels but I also had time to reflect on my riding and learn more about myself and my horse.

Photos courtesy of the Barzman Family