USDF Region 3
Dividing and Conquering (Softly!)
Wonderful as my Gifted Fund training week was, what I am most grateful for is the fact
that I was able to do it at all. When my original plans to work with an instructor in my area fell
through, I feared I would have to forfeit the grant altogether. I considered several options, but
had not found a situation that felt right until I met Francois Lemaire de Ruffieu. After auditing a
clinic he offered in Nashville and speaking with him about my plans for the grant, I felt certain
that he was someone from whom I could learn a great deal. Francois is an alumnus of the Cadre
Noir in Saumur, France, and since coming to the U.S. in the late 1970s he has trained horses and
riders across the country. I had read one of his books, The Handbook of Riding Essentials, and
had always wanted to learn more about classical French dressage. So I was thrilled when
Francois agreed to let me train with him and grateful when The Dressage Foundation approved
the change.
Although my original training plan had included working with both my horses, the
additional expense of a trip to Kentucky forced me to make a choice. Peregrine, my off-the-track
thoroughbred, won out in large part because I knew that Francois was accustomed to working
with “hotter” breeds at Saumur. Since my experience has been that many dressage trainers work
less well with thoroughbreds than with warmbloods, I was particularly interested in trying
Francois’ methods with my sensitive boy.
My goal for our training week was to begin work with Peregrine that will enable us to
move up to First Level. In the two years I’ve worked with Per, my main goal has been
accustoming him to life beyond the racetrack. So I was gratified by Peregrine’s easy acceptance
of his temporary home at Stone Place Stables in Prospect, Kentucky. His turnout schedule was
different, the indoor arena was often crowded, and he had to get used to mirrors and strange
horses, not to mention new methods and much harder work. He handled it all like a champ.
Francois focused, during our first lessons together, on Peregrine’s suppleness and activity
(or lack thereof). He stressed that, in the early work, one must address only one of these at a
time, since when the horse is first asked to increase suppleness he loses activity in the
hindquarters, and vice versa. Francois’ mantra, by way of Julius Caesar, is “divide and
conquer.” Too often, he says, riders try to fix every aspect of what is wrong with a horse at once,
resulting in a pushing and pulling contest that is as unpleasant for both parties as it is
unproductive. One of Peregrine’s issues is that he tends to hollow his back and put his head up
when he is under stress. When asked to go forward in this posture, he simply runs. Rather than
riding him forward into the bit, which can cause Peregrine to brace against the hand, Francois
broke down the problems we were having into several smaller, more workable solutions.
To begin with, Francois put us on a 20 meter circle at a very slow sitting trot (not
worrying about impulsion). I was to trot ¼ circle, transition to the walk, and make a small
using the direct rein aid, requiring that Peregrine bend throughout his body. Upon returning to
the track, we trotted another ¼ circle. By repeating this process for several minutes, I was able
to achieve some degree of relaxation and suppleness in Peregrine’s poll, jaw, neck, and back.
Then Francois had me pick up the rising trot and work on achieving more activity within the gait.
For ½ circle, I asked Per to really trot on, and then for ½ circle I was to trot as slowly as possible
without walking (which is really quite difficult!). At first I had trouble keeping the issues
separate: when we were working on activity, I had to ignore Per’s nose being up in the air, and
when we addressed suppleness, it was hard not to ask for more trot! But after some work on the
separate pieces, each began to blend into the other until the entire horse became increasingly
correct.
On my first full day in Kentucky, Francois introduced me to a series of rein techniques
that were new to me. He had me rotate my hand at the wrist so the fingernails pointed up,
leading the nose gently in the direction of the turn for the direct rein (this for a green horse; the
aid is progressively refined as training increases). Then he introduced the indirect rein. Again,
he had me rotate my wrist so that the fingernails pointed up, with my pinky finger towards the
opposite elbow, and with almost no pressure in my hand, move the hand towards the opposite
shoulder while stepping into my outside stirrup. Done correctly, the horse almost pivots in a turn
on the haunches, with some forward movement. I was amazed by how effortlessly I was able to
move Peregrine’s shoulders around his haunches! What had previously seemed complicated and
labored became a dance. Later in the week, we were even able to do this at the trot.
At first Francois had to keep reminding me to “Be light! Be soft!” because I did not
realize that merely altering the angle of my hand was enough. By the second lesson, Peregrine
was moving his shoulders around his haunches with a soft indirect rein and leg-yielding down
the long side with little more from me than that light indirect rein and my leg back to keep the
haunches stepping along. Best of all, Peregrine was, for him, quite relaxed about this work. In
the past, when I was able to get lateral work on him, it was with considerable gnashing of teeth
(his and mine!). Francois showed me that less truly can be more.
The “divide and conquer” theme continued throughout the week. Francois had me work
on a variety of exercises addressing either suppleness or activity. For increasing the activity of
the hindquarters, we schooled transitions within the walk and trot. It soon became evident that
what I had thought was an active walk was nowhere near what Francois considered “active”! As
we alternated between a very forward walk and a walk so slow it was within a hair of becoming
a halt, Peregrine’s walk improved and his back relaxed and began to swing.
For suppleness, we progressed from the initial circle exercises to shallow serpentines on
the circle. These were performed first using direct rein in and direct rein out, then direct rein in
and indirect rein out, and finally, indirect rein going both ways. As our lessons progressed,
Francois introduced a spiraling exercise using the direct/indirect rein aids. At the walk, and then
at the trot, I spiraled in on the circle using the direct rein, and moved out on the circle using the
indirect rein. Unlike the first indirect rein exercise, however, this time I was also to keep my
inside leg on, in order to keep the hindquarters moving and Peregrine in a leg yield rather than a
turn on the haunches. Once we were doing this exercise with some degree of proficiency,
Francois added the canter transition Peregrine’s right lead transition had been good for some time, but his left lead was sticky
and he often ran into the canter. Francois explained why in a way I had never heard before.
According to the French school, it is important to understand that the hand controls the front end
and the legs control the hindquarters. By leg yielding out on the circle using the inside indirect
rein and inside leg, the horse’s hindquarters (and particularly the outside hind) are taking the
weight and the forehand is lightened. The danger comes when we get too much into the hand
(particularly the outside rein) in the canter transition, because this causes the horse’s weight to
fall onto his forehand and makes it difficult for him to use the outside hind leg for the depart.
Francois had me place my outside leg back as we reached the track only to guard the
hindquarters and keep them from swinging out. My inside leg moved slightly forward and it
gave the canter aid. I kept Peregrine suppled to the inside with my inside indirect rein and
straightened his head at the last second before the depart with light support of my outside rein.
FranHois emphasized that it is important to place the legs and then ask (rather than rushing into
the depart). Although using the inside lateral aids for the depart was new to both of us, Per
understood it immediately. I was able to achieve several clear left lead departs and gained
confidence in my ability to work on this in the future.
After several days of lessons, Peregrine reverted to behavior I had not seen in many
months—the giraffe-neck boy with whom any OTTB owner will be more than familiar. At the
time, I attributed this behavior to soreness from the new, more difficult work, but it was
frustrating and I was unsure how to fix it. That morning, Francois rode Peregrine for about 30
minutes. It was interesting to watch him and Per figure each other out. After he had ridden,
Francois had me get back on and we worked on reducing Peregrine’s resistance to the hand.
First at the halt, and then at the walk and the trot, Francois had me flex Peregrine laterally
by rotating my hand at the wrist, fingernails up. As long as my reins remained at the proper
length (not too long), this gentle rotation was often all that was necessary. At no time was I to
pull backwards: if Peregrine did not mobilize his jaw, I gradually and slowly raised my hand
until he did. Francois was disparaging of the trend we often see of riders pressing their hands
down in order to bring the horse’s head down. Not only is this front-to-back riding, but it is
counterproductive as well. If the horse puts his head up, the (soft) hand should follow, so that
the hand is always slightly higher than the bit. In this way, the horse simply learns that it is
useless to raise the head in an attempt to evade the bit, because the hand goes where he goes.
Francois emphasized that fussing and fiddling with the head is absolutely not correct, and
that it is the position of the hand, rather than pressure on the rein, that communicates to the
horse. As Peregrine raised his head above my hand, I raised my hand above the bit, following
him wherever he went. As soon as he dropped his head and flexed laterally, I was to
immediately release. Francois’ constant refrains to me were “Softer! Lighter!” and “RELEASE!
You were too late already!” This is an issue with which most of us struggle as riders: as creatures
who rely on our hands to an extreme degree, we tend to find it easier to do something than to
simply let it be. But in release lies the key to success. As Francois reminded me, this is what
Baucher told General L’Hotte on his deathbed when he took L'Hotte’s hand and said, “the
greatest secret of riding is to do ‘this’ and not ‘that’” (while making the General give and not
take with his hand). Certainly, learning to give rather than take was the greatest message of the
week for me.
Additional exercises Peregrine and I worked on throughout the week included moving the
shoulders around the haunches (and vice versa) on a small square at the walk and the trot,
serpentines using the outside indirect rein to move the shoulders in a counter bent attitude around
the turn, and a leg yield exercise down the long side. Francois again emphasized that the leg aid
should be placed and then activated (for instance, in the turn on the haunches on the square, I
was to place my leg back, wait, and then activate it). This seemed to relax Peregrine and keep
him from anticipating the turn. Although these exercises were not new to me in and of
themselves, FranHois’ emphasis on correct execution and the careful positioning of light hands
was new. He was very precise with his explanations, and had me repeat each exercise until I
understood not only how to perform it, but why. Francois expects hard work and demands a
great deal of his students, but does so with good humor and kindness. His excellent timing made
learning from him easy: his “Good!” or even “Perfect!” was always said at the precise moment I
was feeling something go right. Likewise, because he would say, “Sit up!” at the first inkling of
my leaning forward (a bad habit I have during lateral work), as the week went on I began to
catch myself doing it sooner and sooner. Just as timing is exquisitely important in riding and
training, so is it in teaching.
During my final lesson with Francois, I was turned loose to fend for myself. The lesson
lasted more than 2 hours (with several breaks), and after working with me to recap our work of
the week, Francois sent me off on my own to figure out for myself what I needed to do while he
videotaped my schooling session. This was invaluable. After all, I’d be on my own at home,
and unless I could determine for myself what I needed to do in a given situation, I would be
unable to use what I had learned. I was very pleased that, for the most part, I worked Peregrine
through the resistances that he offered using a combination of the rein effects I had been taught,
the moving of the shoulders or the haunches, and the “more activity/less activity” exercises on
which we had worked. When I later viewed the video, it was great to see myself actively
thinking through the problems as Peregrine presented them and coming up with solutions (and
also annoying to see myself still tending to lean forward during the lateral work!).
Regarding Peregrine’s unexpected resistance that week, it was not until my last day in
Kentucky that I realized Peregrine had injured himself in turnout. I’m still unsure exactly what
happened, but a bent buckle on his turnout sheet suggests that he might have gotten hung up on
the fence and had to struggle to free himself. Per’s nose had been tender for the latter part of the
week, causing him to flip his head under saddle, and by the time we returned home it was
infected. Looking back, although I feel guilty about making Peregrine work while in pain, the
incident had a positive side effect. Obviously I have no intention of riding him through pain
again (and if Francois and I had known he was really hurt, we obviously wouldn’t have done so),
but there will certainly be far worse distractions in our future and I’m glad I had to work through
this one with Francois’ assistance. Peregrine is just fine now, by the way, after a course of
antibiotics.
Since Per and I started back to work, we have had the best rides of our life together, and I
have been amazed by how effectively the simple exercises Francois gave me have reduced Per’s
resistance and improved his gaits. For the first time I am consistently getting the feeling of more
horse in front of me than behind, and Peregrine is more relaxed and more willing to stretch
forward, down, and out over his back. Because he is so much more willing to hold and chew the bit, he is foaming consistently for the first time ever, and a few weeks after we returned, Per gave
me, spontaneously, the first real trot lengthening I’ve ever experienced on him. Dividing
problems into smaller, conquerable solutions was the answer.
During my week in Kentucky I was also able to take several longe lessons with Francois’
very talented working student, Jessica Edson. Only 22, she has worked with Francois off and on
since she was 14 and she has absorbed his methods and teaching style thoroughly. Just as
Francois only asks the horse to do one thing at a time, alternating between exercises until they
just naturally begin to work together, Jessica worked my body in stages. First she gave me
exercises to adjust my seat, stretch my legs down, and open my hips so that I could sit down
around the horse more effectively. Then she sent me out on the longe to trot, sans stirrups, to
work on the use of the pelvis in the sitting trot. Then back to exercises. I had taken a lesson
from Jessica some months ago and found it so effective that I have been practicing several times
a week since then, trading off with my roommate so that one of us longes and gives instruction
and feedback while the other rides. My mare Destiny’s trot is easier to sit than that of the horse I
rode in my longe lessons in Kentucky, but Jessica said she could see improvement since she had
last seen me ride. I was gratified to hear that and worked hard to learn as much as possible so
that I can continue to progress at home.
Mid-week, Francois watched me longe Peregrine (in side reins) prior to my lesson and
commented that while I wasn’t doing anything terribly wrong, he couldn’t see that I was
improving the horse, either. I had felt concerned about just this issue for some time, so I was
excited to learn techniques to make longeing truly productive, rather than merely an obedience
exercise or a way to burn off steam. Francois uses a longe line that tapers to a thin rope
(perhaps 10 feet long) with a clip on the end. He runs the line through the bit and clips it to the
girth buckle or longeing surcingle. With this single line (no side rein on the outside) he longes
the horse in relatively small circles (10m or so), asking for bend and suppleness, and when the
horse is relaxed in the neck and back, for more activity within the gait. This size circle may
sound small, but because Francois moves the horse out in a straight line after every circle, this
method is actually less likely to result in strain on the legs than longeing in a set 20m circle that
never straightens.
Once I got the hang of this technique, I was hooked! Peregrine has literally never worked
better on the longe. He was accepting the bridle and chewing softly, stretching down willingly,
and moving forward into the bridle better than I have ever seen him do. Because the circles were
small and he was being asked to maintain the bend, he had to balance himself up rather than
getting quick and rushy. And because he was being asked to move out straight after each
revolution, he did not become stressed by the size of the circles. Since returning home, I have
been using this longeing technique with excellent, often surprising, results with both my mare,
Destiny, and my boarder’s horse.
While I was with Francois I was also able to watch him and Jessica work a number of
horses, including a lovely mare who, at age ten, is just being started after years as a broodmare.
FranHois starts all horses first on the longe and then on the long reins so that by the time they are
ridden, they already have many of the skills most people only teach under saddle. The mare,
Grace, already had easy walk-canter transitions, lateral work, and a rein back before a rider ever
mounted her. When I was there, she was being ridden as well as long-reined. I have worked with the long reins myself with Peregrine and Destiny, and got many new ideas for exercises and
refinements from watching Grace being worked. I also was able to observe FranHois and Jessica
working the other horses they have in training and giving lessons to other students. It was lovely
to see how up and open their horses are ridden, as opposed to the “cranked in” (and often behindthe-
vertical) bearing we sometimes see. The lightness emphasized by the French method was
evident in every aspect of these horses’ training, with every effort being made to keep them in
front of the leg and soft in the hand.
Because Francois was kind enough to allow me to bunk in his spare bedroom while I was
in Kentucky, I spent most of my waking hours talking horses with him and Jessica. Learning
how the horses at Saumur are trained and watching videos of that training added a great deal to
my education. The opportunity to discuss the work we had done with Peregrine each day, and
ask questions about it over coffee, did much to cement the concepts and exercises in my brain.
Each day Francois asked me, “What did you like best about what we did today?” Answering that
question helped me organize my thoughts and opened the door to further discussion.
Accompanying Francois and Jessica during their daily routine was great, as were the afternoon
naps (an unheard of luxury for me!) and the long, enjoyable dinners. Francois’ adorable and
charming little dog, Marcel, was a wonderful added bonus. Marcel slept with me every night,
helping me feel less homesick for my own dogs, and supervised my lessons. Francois is very
lucky that I did not run off with le petit chien (as I threatened to do every day!).
I can say honestly that my Gifted Fund training week with Francois was, bar none, the
most significant riding experience of my life. I work full-time, have a 90-minute round-trip
commute, pinch pennies at every turn, and often find it difficult to ride my horses, care for my
farm, do my job, and have any time or money left for lessons and clinics, let alone the level of
intensive training I experienced in Kentucky. The opportunity to work with someone of
Francois’ caliber is more than I ever expected to have, and I am grateful beyond words to
Francois, to The Dressage Foundation, to Carol Lavell, and to Gifted himself for inspiring this
wonderful program. It is easy for those of us who are not well off to become discouraged in this
world of expensive warmbloods and Florida training vacations. Being awarded a Gifted Fund
grant has renewed both my faith in the dressage world and my desire to keep on keeping on, no
matter the barriers I may encounter. I plan to work with Francois again, as often as my finances
permit, and I have The Dressage Foundation and Carol to thank for giving me the opportunity to
learn and grow as a rider.