The Gifted Fund

Sandie Winrich

USDF Region 4

Off to 'Camp'

When I found out I was the Region 4 winner of the Gifted Fund Scholarship, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.I was going to camp! Every year Jana Wagner holds an adult camp at her farm, Wally Woo Farms in La Cryne KS. Jana is Region 4's only USDF Certified Instructor and kindly makes the long trip to Sioux Falls SD about once a month to teach weekend clinics. Adult Camp is 3 ½ action pack days that consisted of one private lesson in the morning, a quadrille ride in the afternoon and various other activities through out the long weekend. Below is my journal from the time:

Thursday July 1st
We're off! Sarah Patrick and I are off to Adult Camp at Jana Wagner's. My gelding, Airborne and Sarah's mare Freyja loaded well. Jana's is farm a long 8-hour drive from home. The trip was wonderfully uneventful, we missed rush hour in both Omaha and Kansas City. We arrived at Wally Woo at about 8:30 pm and the horses settled in well. We called it an early night so we would be prepared whatever the next day would bring.

Friday July 2nd
We arrived at the barn early this morning so we don't miss any of the other lessons. My lesson was wonderful. We worked on keeping Airborne between my inside leg and outside rein. To accomplish this we had to be able to go into turn on the forehand at any time, at any gait. Jana challenged us to be able to canter, do a downward transition to walk and with in the 1st step of walk start a half turn on the fore hand and immediately go to canter as soon as the turn was complete. We also discussed how I had recently attempted to start changes had a somewhat.airborne out come. Jana had us ride shoulder-in, in canter, down the long side and then at E do a short diagonal with a change before the wall. While they were still not perfect, there was much improvement. In the afternoon we had our Quadrille ride. What a BLAST!!! I've never had the opportunity to try this before and I had a ball! I think Airborne also enjoyed the change of pace, too. During the afternoon I got to watch Jana's daughter, Emily ride the 5 year old stallion Deutschmark (who has a median score of 77.9% in the 5 Year Old FEI Class with a 16 year old rider!). It was amazing! The two seemed to dance across the ground as arena. At one point the stallion got in trouble for paying too much attention to a passing mare and his reaction was to do several of the straightest, cleanest, most expressive one tempi's I have ever seen! I can only hope to someday be half an elegant as this pair.

Saturday July 3rd
Today in our lesson we worked on being able to move Airborne's shoulders. The fist exercise was to do small (6 m) voltes, constantly changing directions. Jana's goal for me was to be able to move his shoulders with just the use of my inside leg, lessening the need for the inside rein. It was a success! I was able to ride a shoulder in down the entire long side without having to keep adjusting him with my inside rein. I was thrilled. Once we got the shoulder moving from side to side we worked on lifting them up. Airborne is the master of just cruising around with his neck up and poll low - giving you a soft feel. To him really come through, Jana had us start by doing exaggerated half halts: I would start in the trot and ask for a downward transition to walk and as soon as I felt his hind end step under and his poll lift I would push him forward and give on my inside rein. By the end of my ride I was able to get him to sit down by just a sitting just a little deeper and adding my leg into a soft hand. We finished the ride with the same exercise for the changes. After my lesson Jana let me ride on of her young horses. What a change! Airborne is more of the older type of Warmblood: tall, stocky and a powerful mover; Jana's gelding, on the other hand, is of more modern type: elegant, sensitive and seems to float across the ground. It took me about 20 minutes to be able to canter around the arena with out him bucking and kicking out at my leg and seat. With Airborne, I can push him around a little with out much protest but on this little guy, if I made him even a little unbalance with my seat, he let me know. Talk about a seat lesson! In the end it made me realize that I need to strive to have Airborne more sensitive to my seat and weight, not just accepting my mistakes and going on. After lunch we worked on our quad again and followed that up by an hour trail ride through the rolling hills of Kansas. After all the activities of the day were finished and everyone was sitting around discussing the events of the day Lisa Rush and I snuck down to the ring and was excited to find Jana working her stallion, Wagnis. It was a truly magical experience. The huge stallion and the small woman were working effortlessly as one. The two of them were so involved in the unspoken conversation between them I don't think they even notice us sitting, silent, in the corner of the arena. The only sound that could be heard was the soft thud of footfalls and an occasional murmur of "good ". The oneness exhibited was truly inspiring.this is what dressage is all about.

Sunday July 4th
Man I have never been so sore!!! I normally ride my gelding 4-5 times a week but yesterdays' riding 4 times in one day was a little too much for me! I started my private lesson but because of large saddle sores (I'll leave the location to your imagination) I could only do about the first 15 minutes of my lesson with out utter pain. Jana got on and schooled Airborne and, let me tell you, watching her ride him was about as educational as actually riding him myself. With extensive padding and riding in post trot the entire time I was able to ride in the quad. We put the finishing touches on from the work earlier in the weekend and rode the test to music. We finished the night by all heading over to Rodney Wagner where we enjoyed a wonderful meal on the porch while watching Jana's kids set off fire works!

Monday July 5th
The final day! Since we are looking at 8 hours of driving we only have a private lesson. Today we work on putting it all together. Airborne feels like a totally different horse then when we arrived 4 days ago. The transformation was incredible. We did about 20 minutes of work on getting him soft and in a true connection. We then moved on to changes. All weekend we had worked on the same exercise to get a little anticipation to work for us. Today we changed it up a little and are able to get a few good changes on a change through the circle and quite early with that. The high temperatures (85-90+ degrees) and the high humidity have taken a lot out of Airborne and he is tired.

What an incredible experience this was! I learn so much from watching the other 7 riders, especially Deb and her mare Finesse, who worked on many of the issues that Airborne and I have. It was good to see, from the ground, the reaction to the same exercises we also worked on. We also got to watch Jana help pick out a young (3-4 year old) prospect for a fellow camper and show 2 foals that are stallion prospects to a client. She took the time to help explain what she would look for in each age group and to explain both the good and weak points of each horse.

I just want to say thank The Dressage Foundation, and Carol Lavell who started the Gifted Fund for this incredible weekend possible!

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