The Gifted Fund

Christian Hawley

USDF Region 5

Miracles do happen -- My Gifted Scholarship

My tale is most probably a bit different from the rest of the scholarship winners. When I originally applied for the Gifted scholarship I was riding and showing a friend's horse. Such as in life, things change, and I quit riding for awhile in the fall and early winter. I was in a reverse situation of the typical horse-poor amateur; I now had money to spend on lessons, but no horse. I had other options, but one of the important things that I have learned over the years is that I am a relationship based rider, so just hopping on a horse for that I wasn't in love with wasn't going to be a solution or meet my needs. I also felt it was unfair to the grant process. I was almost afraid that I was going to have to return the money, when Gail and Zach Kolasa allowed me to ride Zach's former young rider mount, Charboneu for nine months.

 

Charboneu, is a 17 h. bay Holsteiner gelding out of Columbus and was shown successfully at Prix St. George several years ago. The obstacles that faced me were numerous. Where would I go with him to train? Notwithstanding the fact that that this enormous (to me) animal had spent the last two years on pasture. We were both tragically out of shape. Plus, when I saw his trot for the first time I thought I should just go ahead and sign up for physical therapy and put my chiropractor on retainer.

In May I was able to move him to Table Mountain Ranch in Golden, Colo. and with the Gifted money I was able to train with Janet "Dolly" Hannon, certified instructor, gold medalist and "R" judge (currently working on her "S"), and gold medalist and S judge, Debbie Riehl-Rodriguez. Luckily, these two well-known instructors and judges are not only at the same barn, but they and their training philosophies mesh well together.

Just a brief history of me -- I have always had a passion for horses and still resent my parents for not buying a pony when I was five. My interest in dressage started in 1996 and in 1998 I moved from the mountains of Colorado, (i.e., no facilities, bad weather, etc.) to work with Dolly Hannon. I first started to work with Dolly as a training level rider in 1998, since that time she has taught me on four other horses. I have had the opportunity to ride many fabulous horses (this is my third C-line Holsteiner), and in fact was blessed to ride Suzanne Zimmer's horse, Firmus, a previous Pan- Am Gold medal winner who taught me immense amounts. Since that time, I have showed to second level. This would be a big jump this year.

In May, Dolly welcomed me back into her crowded tack room and it truly was like a homecoming and a reunion. I don't know if I was happier to see the mountain ranges behind the Coors factory or the outdoor dressage arenas with rubber footing!

Our main goals for Charboneu: To get him in better shape (weight gain and muscle gain, at the same time not stressing him too much.) Obtaining and understand connection, and working with him to stretch downward and forward into the contact Doing more gymnastics, starting with leg yields and moving to the shoulder-in and haunches and other level movements to strengthen and engage his hindquarters. Working to improve his suppleness, through bending and figure eights, change of direction, lots of posting trot!

Our goal for me as a Rider: Working on my hands to get a better hand and seat separation, and a more following and forgiving hand position. To help me overcome my nemesis -- the dreaded half pass at the trot and the canter Expose me as a rider to the tempi changes and canter pirouettes (at some point) Working to improve the suppleness of my seat to sit the big, fancy trot– (and I thought lunge lessons were long past me?) To ride and understand the mechanics of the third level tests

My personal goal: Get my Bronze medal

To say that this lesson was pretty, well that would be a lie. I spent most of the lesson in leg yields, on the diagonal, on the straight line, followed by turns on the haunches to activate the left hind. It was the first day in the indoor arena, and he was highly over stimulated. Dolly's focus was to get him relaxed and moving forward. When Charboneu gets nervous or worried he slows down behind my leg and starts to passage. Most of the canter work was done in a medium canter frame with lots of pushing from behind (no collected work at all.) Dolly reminds me to constantly pat him and praise him verbally, he responds positively to this sort of feedback.

Continued with the relaxation work, and the leg yields, and started adding more angles to the gymnastic exercises. Started working on the simple changes (very easy for him) and added the counter-canter serpentines to the workload. He is a very balanced horse, so these movements aren't too challenging. Also, Dolly introduced the single changes on the diagonal. He changes off the leg and his owner is over 6 ft. tall, so the placement of my leg is new to him. I am a little intimated by the changes and have some anxiety around them. His changes are good but not automatic. We worked on collecting the canter and ensuring the straightness is there before asking for the change.

This is my first lesson with Debbie. She wants him to be super-round in the warm up with a really forward trot and canter to get the push from behind. We work a lot on haunches in, and start working on my beloved half pass at the walk and canter. There are still some strength issues for him, so getting him to really wrap around and keep the impulsion in the movement is both challenging and frustrating,. She adds a lot of counter canter work for my homework. I am having trouble with clean right to left changes; she has me leg yield him off the left leg and then ask for the change. This appears to be the miracle solution. Voila! Clean changes abound!

Dolly continues to work on the supple-ing exercises. We do a lot of shoulder in on the quarter line as well as haunches in. I am getting mostly clean changes, so she lets me play with the fours. I get three sets of fours across the diagonal. I am just learning to count the changes and it's pretty intimidating. He's getting much stronger and I am starting to sit the trot and get a better quality trot on a more consistent basis. I am also now able to get more jump in his canter and get him to actually hold himself without bracing in the contact.

Lesson with Debbie. He is much stronger and fitter and I am able to ask for the collection in the gaits. His canter is truly lovely and I am able to get him to collect and sit more while maintaining the uphill balance. The collected trot now has gotten gorgeous and I am able to stay with him and keep the impulsion through most of the movements. We are now schooling a lot of smaller circles. I have now started working on the canter half pass and Debbie works hard on correcting my position. My exercise is to canter to C half pass to I and then travel to A and half pass right. I am starting to get him much more consistently through the aid and he maintains elastic and swinging gaits.

I would like sincerely thank Carol Lavell for creating the "Gifted Fund" for adult amateur dressage riders and the Dressage Foundation for selecting me. If it were not for this scholarship, I would not have had the means to ride this horse and enjoy the experiences that came along with it. Without this scholarship I probably would have not searched to find this lovely horse and begin this wonderful journey that was educational, challenging, but extremely rewarding. At my first show and after many years, I earned my Bronze medal. I even broke the mid-60's! Miracles do happen.

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