Major Anders Lindgren Scholarship Recipient for 2003

2003 Major Anders Lindgren Scholarship Recipient: The 2003 Recipient is Christopher Hickey (MA). He received his scholarship from Major Anders Lindgren and Lazelle Knocke during the 2003 Dressage Foundation Reception in Dallas, December 28, 2003.

Lindgren Report

By Christopher Hickey

I feel very honored to have been awarded this Scholarship. I had the opportunity to ride in a USDF Symposium some years ago where Major Lindgren was one of the presenters. The second time I met Major Lindgren was at the '04 USDF Annual meeting in Dallas, TX where he was there to personally present me with this Scholarship Award. This was very meaningful to me since this man has been so helpful in bettering dressage in this country. I wish to thank the Dressage Foundation for making it possible for this and other Scholarships to be able to be awarded annually.

I chose to use my '04 Lindgren Scholarship to train in Germany with Ulla Salzgeber. It was a GREAT choice! Five of my training horses and I, spent 4 months, April through July, in Bavaria Germany, near Munich. This was the best European Training trip I have had to date. I also had the opportunity to show while I was there as well and that was great to be able to do. I learned so much there, it was great to be able to submerge myself into my riding, without the distractions of normal life. I had 5 lessons a day with Ulla. She put a lot of time and effort into my lessons. This really took me "out of my comfort zone" from where I was coming from in my riding and that is why I went there!

Here's a list of 10 of the most important things that I learned while I was away last summer.

• Determination: I knew when I decided to go to Ulla's last summer, that it was a very important year for her- Athens approaching, and she was the biggest "power to be" on the German Team- and the World! She was determined to be one of the best Dressage riders in the World and to come home with an Individual medal. How did she do this, by training hard, working on the basics everyday and believing in herself and her horse. They would be ready for the task at hand! I really believe that when we surround ourselves with a good example of things, it is so much easier to rise to the occasion and learn to come to that new level in our own riding.
• Dedication: Ulla was a great example of a person who loves Dressage. She speaks highly of the classical trainers she has worked with. Ulla's employees are all very dedicated to her as well. They are all part of the "team". Her barn runs smoothly because of this.
• Communication: Of course we all know how important it is to have good communication skills. We teach it in the USDF Cert. Instructor program. But with Ulla, I see it also clearly in the way she rides as well. It is so clear the way she aids her horses or when she is training us. We are to be quiet and let the horse carry us when we are not talking (aiding) to the horse, so when we talk the horse hears it. Ulla is one of the most beautiful riders partly because of this. She gives an invisible aid and if the horse does not react to it, she makes a correction. The correction is not the aid and it should not become the aid, there is a difference. This is what makes Dressage harmonious to watch, to be able to appreciate the subtleties of the aids.
• Position: OK, this is where I got the most reminders!! One of the big reasons I chose Ulla to train with is that her position is exceptional! She had taught me in clinics and was quite helpful about my position and this proved to be worth it. She was quite tough on me about it. The way I sit, to get me more down in the seat, upper body taller and to open my chest and slightly arch my back a bit without being braced against the horse's movement. This is very helpful in making the collected trot more expressive for the ½ passes and extensions, the passage being bigger and having more lift. In the canter it really helped me to get the tempi changes bigger and more uphill, the zigzags to be more controlled, the pirouettes to be more sitting and also again here to have more controlled between the riders legs and seat. Overall this whole picture of my riding has been able to become more elegant.
• Forwardness AND in front of the Aids: Now we worked very hard on the horses being so in front of the aids to make the exercises easier, guess how? Transitions, transitions, transitions! Every day this is done, transitions between the gaits and within the gaits as well. We did a lot of quick transitions, there is no point to train long diagonals or long sides to just fly around! It is more about being able to go forward with a very quick response from the horse, off an easy light aid from the rider, and come right back with the same light aid from the rider back into the lower gear, again with an easy response from the horse. Ready to go forward and ready to come back! If you can do that in quick repetition, then you can do the longer distances.
• Straightness: When the horse is more in front of the leg, then we have a chance to work on straightness. This is very important to get the priorities in order. Her indoor has mirrors all the way across the short side, so I could really see how straight- or not- we were. Also we as riders get used to a certain feeling under us, sometimes we get used to a feeling that isn't right. It was so helpful to have eyes on the ground everyday, on all my horses, that is the only way to CHANGE the feeling under us into the correct feeling. Sometimes the correct feeling doesn't feel right and we need to be told "its ok that that doesn't feel good, but in time it will get easier, stick to it, it is right".
• Gymnasticizing: Ulla is very good at gymnastacizing her horses, she uses many exercises to do so. We used a lot of variations to leg yielding to get the horses more supple through their bodies. We did a complicated trot leg yield on the circle line that is very difficult and that should not be done too much since it is so hard for the horses. When this is done properly it really helps get the horses looser on their own, through an exercise rather than from the rider. These leg yields also help the horse accept in a better way, the outside rein, bending rein, to stay under the rider's seat and leg and to take a better ½ halt. We also did leg yields in canter, to also supple them. This also needs to be done carefully, so not to disrupt the balance or the quality of the gait. The transitions I spoke about above are also very helpful for the horse to become more gymnastic.
• Truly Through: Ulla would use this term every day! I can still hear her in the back of my head! A horse must be truly through to be able to excel in the Grand Prix, especially in piaffe and canter pirouettes. A horse has to be on the aids in such a good way in order to be truly through. To have the horse be "truly through" it must be relaxed and have clear rhythm, accept the contact in a good way (to stay on an outside rein and be bendable to the inside at the same time), be in front of the leg, be able to be straightened, and be collectable for the level the horse is schooling. Look, it's the Training Scale! To be able to be adjustable in the outline is also important. This means that the rider can put the neck up, down, left or right during a movement and be able to adjust the forwardness, more or less, also within a movement. This is not so easy. This is why the things in the list above, must to be worked on DAILY!!
• Competitions: This trip I had the opportunity to show. That was a great experience for me. It is an amazing process. You have to get written permission to compete from your own National Federation. In addition to that Ulla also obtained numbers for both the horses and myself from the German Federation in Warendorf. The entries for the shows are so much easier there. The entry form itself is very simple, you just put on a few stickers that you get from Warendorf for the Numbers. Then you check off what class numbers you want to be in. Also the small shows are so much more casual than here. I'm sure the Europeans think we are nuts for all the rules and such that we have. One small show I did I had to canter down the centerline into this indoor from outside in a cow pasture. The footing outside was terribly uneven to get from the warm up ring to the show ring. Then you had to go between a pile of pallets and an old rusty flatbed trailer-at a canter! That was a trip, some horses (not mine) had a real fit and never even got in! I was very pleased with the results from my shows. I showed two horses at M Level (our 4 th level) and the S Level (like the PSG) and PSG. They use the S class to qualify you for the PSG at the bigger shows, so if you don't do well in the S- you can't do the PSG. The two younger horses placed a lot and I won one class at a medium size show. My Grand Prix horse also showed some in the Intermediare 2 and Grand Prix. That was a great experience for me! In the beginning I was making mistakes on what I never miss at home but the harder movements for us were getting better. Then by the end of my trip I was making less mistakes and the movements that were harder for us before we came to Germany were better as well. So the results at the shows were better as well!
• Focus when showing: One of the things I learned from Ulla is that while she was showing she has great ability to focus. She tells me I get distracted too easily. It was so nice to show over there. One of the reasons is that I didn't have 4 students and 5 more horses to ride in that day! That for me makes a big difference being able to concentrate so intensely as needed. I also enjoy taking care of my horses myself, so at the shows it was a good time to do that. To hand walk them, to groom them well, and to just enjoy them. I think it makes a difference in their performance as well.

So all in all these things I have listed are mostly about the basics. Bringing the basics to a higher level. The basics for a Second level horse are not as refined as the basics for the horse doing PSG. Then there is another big jump in the quality of basics for the PSG horse to go on to do the Grand Prix. That is why I made this trip to Germany, to get good solid help in developing better Grand Prix horses, for myself and for my customers. I really feel I achieved this goal and am looking forward to returning to Ulla's in a few years. In my new "comfort zone"!

Again many thanks to the Dressage Foundation for all their help in my journey to bettering my own riding, training, and teaching. This has proven to be a very positive trickle down effect when people like me are awarded scholarships to train abroad.

Sincerely,
Christopher Hickey