The Gifted Fund
Marsha Allen
USDF Region 3| Thank you very much Dressage Foundation, and Carol Laval for providing me and the other amateurs awarded a Gifted scholarship the opportunity of a lifetime to take a whole week off to train and ride dressage and not have distractions of work, family or pressing obligations. My scholarship was used to train with Greta Wrigley, a Florida-based dressage trainer who specializes in Arabians and has won many regional and national titles showing Arabians in dressage. She appeared on the cover of the July 2007 issue of USDF Connection with her half-Arabian, Aabracadabra. |  Marsha Allen
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My anticipated goal for the Gifted scholarship week with Greta was to improve my effectiveness as a rider, coordination of aids, and overall harmony with my horse. I also wanted skills to improve lateral suppleness and throughness. Having moved into second level last year, I found my scores did not reflect the effort I was making toward fulfilling the training scale requirements for that level.
My partner in the Gifted program is my half-Arabian, Ferdelance who is a gray 10-year old Hanoverian cross by Walk On Top. I brought him up to first level and then turned him over to Lisa Hyslop to learn second and third level movements. Since getting him back, Ferdelance won his Legion of Merit with the Arabian Horse Association, was Reserve Champion at First Level with Lisa at the 2006 Region 12 Arabian Horse Show and recently named 2007 USEF Region 12 Amateur Second Level through Fourth Level Reserve Champion.
Day 1 with Greta - The weather turned cooler and Ferdelance was quite energetic. I warmed him up on the longe line each direction for about 15 minutes prior to the lesson with Greta. Beginning our mounted work, we worked on obedience, suppleness and attentiveness to the aids, accurate circles and corners, and getting used to the arena as Ferdelance can be “looky” and spooky in a new place. To obtain more focus, Greta had us to trot circles in shoulder-in each direction. Circles started out at 20 meters and spiraled in to 15 meters in shoulder-in. This movement, when ridden properly, gets Ferdelance to carry more weight on the inside hind leg and gets him to reach deeper beneath his center of gravity. After about 5 minutes and switching sides, he became much more focused and started snorting as if to say, “Okay, let’s go to work”. We proceeded to work on rubber band exercises, i.e. lengthening and shortening strides in walk, trot, and canter.
Day 2 - Only a minimal amount of longe work needed today. Mounted warm-up consisted of using shoulder-in and haunches-in to get Ferdelance to carry more weight behind. We began the lateral work using leg yields at first and then progressed to half pass across the long diagonal. I was having trouble getting the proper bend in the half-pass, so Greta had me start out as if to go straight across the diagonal and then change to a haunches-in after the track was established. This gave me a better feel for the bend needed for the half-pass. I rode the half-pass in the trot and the canter using this exercise.
Day 3 - No longe work needed today. Warmed up mounted using caveletti and low cross rails. Greta started us on some elementary passage work today using walk/trot transitions to get Ferdelance to passage and gradually slow to elementary piaffe. We had some trouble with rhythm and she suggested I post to slow the trot and also to set the rhythm I wanted to establish. This exercise was effective and Ferdelance showed several nice steps behind. I was really encouraged and wanted to do more, but she said that the steps were good and we did not want to fatigue the horse. This type of work is very demanding and is like weight lifting for the horse. We proceeded to cool down while working on obedience. From the halt, we moved slowly left 4 steps using the right leg aid; halt, moved slowly right 4 steps using the left leg aid and back left again. Then from the halt, asked for four steps backwards, then four steps forward, then left and right again. This exercise created more obedience to the leg aid in preparation for the work to come.
Day 4 - Warmed up again with caveletti. We began the work using the canter to warm up and progressed to counter canter serpentines and short diagonals. Greta started us on flying changes and explained the timing of the aid to the moment in the canter when the change could occur. After several exercises and unsuccessful attempts, we found that making a short diagonal (change rein) in the true canter and then when arriving at the long side to ask for the change was effective. I have not learned the flying change, so most of the problems we were having were because of my uncoordinated aids. We also mixed up the exercise with staying in the counter canter on the long side. This was to teach obedience and to wait for my aid to switch. We cooled down afterward using long low stretches both ways of the arena.
Day 5 - Summarized skills learned. Worked on the passage exercise again. The steps were a bit more regular (I was thrilled). I was actually able to feel the extra spring. Worked on the flying change again and cooled down using canter through crossrails to loosen back
This week was such an exhilarating experience for me and I feel I exceeded the goals I had set for myself and Ferdelance. The flying changes will take much more practice to become smoother. However, I felt more swing in the back on the last day and the half steps in preparation for passage had become much more regular. The work in half pass had greatly improved by the end of the week. I could hardly wait to get home and practice what I had learned!
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