Trudy Tatum

2010 Region 4 Gifted Scholarship Recipient, for Training in 2011

Trudy on Beau, with trainer Jami Kment

I want to thank The Dressage Foundation, Selection Committee, and Carol Lavell for this wonderful experience and opportunity.  It was the first time that I have ever been able to concentrate on my horses and dressage for a whole week, rarely thinking of anything else but what I was doing at the moment.  I also want to thank my trainer Jami Kment and her family for inviting me into their lives for a week, and Jami’s parents, Mike and Linda Smith, for their excellent hospitality, taking me in and telling me to make myself at home. 

In April I had the wonderful opportunity to head to Nebraska and work with trainer Jami Kment for a week.   I met Jami in 2004 at an adult camp that the Iowa Dressage and Combined Training Association put on.  I really enjoyed working with Jami, and felt a connection with her and her training style.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2008 when we reconnected as Jami started coming to Iowa to give monthly clinics.  I have been a dedicated student of hers since then, as she is a wonderful teacher and trainer.   Jami is a bronze, silver, and gold medalist who owns and operates Providence Farm in Palmyra, Nebraska. She has taken horses from Training Level all the way through Grand Prix, and currently has two horses that are ranked in the top 10 at Third Level.  Jami continues her own education and trains with Conrad Schumacher and Kathy Connelly during the winters in Florida.  I feel very fortunate to have found a trainer that I not only enjoy working with, but one that pushes us to be the best that we can be.
 
I own two horses, and decided to take both of them to Jami’s for my scholarship week.  Pulsar (Beau) is a 15-year-old Half Arabian/ Half Friesian cross, and Vahini (Lola) is a 6 year old Holsteiner mare.  I have owned both of them since they were weanlings and have been fortunate to be able to keep them at home.  Beau is currently showing at Prix St Georges, and Lola is currently schooling Training Level.  As an adult amateur rider with a family and a full time job, riding time is limited.  Although I am able to keep my horses at home, I don’t have an arena and trailer to one of the local barns that so graciously allows me to do so.  Thanks Dana and CEC!!  Otherwise, I ride in my pasture or on the gravel roads when the footing is soft enough.  With this situation it is really hard to keep two horses going consistently, and during the winter it’s impossible.  Therefore, Beau has become my priority, and Lola has had more down time than she should. 

I left Ames, Iowa, to head to Palmyra, Nebraska, early Monday morning the day after Easter.  I arrived around 10 a.m. and immediately started to enjoy a most memorable week.  After settling the horses into their stalls, I watched Jami work a couple of her horses, and give a lesson.  There was only time for Jami to give me a lesson on Beau Monday, and I would have to work Lola on my own.   Jami told me that this would be our lesson that would set up the rest of the week's work, and it was.   Since I clinic with Jami monthly, she is aware of what we need to work on, and knows that I am committed to learn as much as I can about dressage.   My goals for my training with Beau were to work on my position and effectiveness of aids, preparation for movements, and to improve our quality of work.   Beau has a wonderful mind and an unbelievable desire to please. Unfortunately his physical attributes aren’t his strong point, as he is not naturally uphill and his gaits are average.  As for me, I tend to over aid, hold too much and can get crooked, especially in the lateral work and changes.  We started out our warmup on Monday in a long and low frame.  In the past we have struggled with Beau holding himself and not really giving over the back.  It can be deceiving as he looks like he is really stretching down and in actuality he is posing.  Jami had me push him out with my inside leg while maintaining inside bend, not letting him run out the outside shoulder.  Once he was where he should be then I let him stretch down and out. Once we established a good connection we were ready to start our work.  Right away it was evident that I needed more forward, and a much more active hind leg.  I needed to use more lower leg to really engage the hind leg, and a lot of transitions to make him quick off the aids.  It took a little bit of time to get this worked out, but before long I had Beau nicely forward, with an active hind leg while maintaining a soft neck.   As we went into some lateral work, there seemed to be a recurring theme to my ride- I heard the word “more” constantly.  It had started in the warmup, and it seemed like every sentence Jami spoke had this word in it.  I needed more forward, more active, more bend, more angle, more collected.  It became clear to me that I needed to raise my expectations for both myself and my horse. 

After my lesson with Beau on Monday, I had time to school Lola by myself.  Lola is a completely different horse than Beau.  Where Beau would do anything to please you, Lola can be stubborn and complicated.  I have learned a lot from her including patience, more awareness, and the realization that every horse is different. Prior to riding on Monday I let her check out the indoor arena, and then lunged her in side reins.  She seemed happy with her surroundings and I was pleased how she did, both in lunging and riding.

For the rest of the week I arrived at the barn around 8 a.m. and watched Jami school her own horse and those that she had in training.  While Jami was riding we would discuss her ride and she would answer any questions I had about what she was doing and why.  It was a great learning opportunity for me, as I realized how every moment is a training moment. It was exciting to watch her school her young mare Zania, whom this last year has gone from a really nice horse to absolutely amazing.  Jami explained how she worked her to achieve her wonderful expression and self carriage that she has developed over the last year.   She pointed out that for Beau to be successful at the FEI level, we needed to try and create expression through more self carriage.   I also watched Jami teach her students every day throughout the week.  Jami has a great group of students who are committed to dressage, and every lesson was interactive and filled with valuable information.  On Thursday during the lessons, they rode through their tests as there was a show the following weekend.    It was really insightful for me to sit with Jami and listen to her go through each movement in detail.

Jami only had time to work with my young mare Lola on Tuesday and Wednesday.  First Jami helped me with my lunging technique, as in side reins Lola was too low and would hang on the bit, totally on the forehand.  After adjusting the side reins to help her stay more uphill, she asked me to slow her down at the trot, which helped engage her hind leg.  Once that was established we could add a little more forward. We did this both days prior to the lesson, and I think it really helped me understand what we were trying to accomplish. On Tuesday, Jami asked me to ride her like I do at home so she could assess our progress.  Other than not being consistently forward, Lola also prefers to be on the forehand in a long and low frame, just like in the lunging.  So after a few minutes of watching Jami insisted I bring her neck up and make her engage her hind leg.  This was not well received by Lola, who immediately put on the brakes and refused to budge.  She was not happy with this new more uphill frame, and she was going to make sure her opinion was clear.   It was a mentally and physically exhausting ride as I had to maintain my patience, have a lot of persistence and ride through all the evasions to finally get where I needed to be to finish things up.  Eventually she accepted the work and we had a productive ride with good trot and canter work.  I had no idea what to expect from Lola on Wednesday, but was happy to find a much more willing horse than the previous day.  Our plan was to work on the same things as on Tuesday, with Jami really stressing how I need to engage her hind end for her to develop strength.  We also added in more transitions and bending lines.  It was time for me to expect more from Lola and not just be content with getting her to walk, trot, and canter.   On Thursday and Friday, I rode her alone as Jami did not have time to school us.  I tried to maintain the work that we had done the previous days, and Lola really stepped up and tried hard.  At the end of the week I was very excited to get home and get Lola into a more consistent regular training schedule. 

Beau’s rides continued on with the work that we had established on Monday.  The warm ups were much more organized and efficient and we were able to get to work so much sooner than on the first day.  We worked on lateral suppleness utilizing a lot of shoulder in to renvers at the trot emphasizing the correct bend and angle.   Once we had good bending in shoulder in, travers, and renvers, the half pass work at both the trot and canter was much improved.  We worked on my issue of just trying to get through the movement in half pass.  By riding every stride with little half halts and an outside opening rein to help keep the shoulders up, the quality of our half passes were much improved by the end of the week.   I also needed to take the forward we established and increase the air time with more lower leg and little outside rein half halts, which helped with self carriage.  This made a huge difference and I could definitely feel it as I had so much more loft in both the trot and canter. 

In the canter work during the week we focused primarily on the pirouettes and the tempis.  One of my favorite exercises that really helped us with the pirouette was cantering down the long side in travers to a half circle in travers to the quarter line and then renvers on the quarter line back down the long side.  Initially it was a challenge to maintain the bend for that long, and also to control the half circle.   Jami also helped me a lot with the mechanics of the pirouette.  Since Beau and I are learning together, I really need to ride it correctly and there were parts of the pirouette where I was doing the incorrect thing.  I did not have enough haunches, and I was also slightly bending him to the outside by holding the outside rein too much.  At other times,  I would have the tendency to come into the pirouette good, and then lose him the second half.  I was riding the first half of the movement and then just letting him take over the second half due to once again, not riding every stride and just trying to get through it.  By the end of the week, with lots of constant reminders, the pirouettes were so much better. 

Working on the tempis during the week was one of the things that was important for me to do.  Previously we had struggled with our changes as we had issues with a late change from left to right.  Thanks to Jami, this issue had been resolved, but mentally I still think about it and need to realize that the changes will be fine as long as we have a good canter and I am doing my part in riding them correctly.  There are so many components to riding a good line of tempis.  They need to be forward, clean, straight (no swinging), accurate in the count and uphill.  All this for one score!  I really worked hard that week on sitting back and remaining more still in my upper body and just riding, instead of my tendency to over ride them.  When I rode correctly, and concentrated on riding every stride they were much straighter, forward, uphill, and accurate in both the count and the placement across the diagonal.  Once I fixed my position and my over aiding, many of the issues that I had disappeared.  The big challenge is for me to be able to be consistent in the quality of my riding of the tempis when I am on my own.

On Friday afternoon Jenny Johnson from The Dressage Foundation came from Lincoln to Providence Farm to watch my lesson on Beau.  It was really nice to meet her, and thank her for such an opportunity.  My plan was to leave Nebraska late Friday afternoon, but the Nebraska  winds were blowing dangerously all day Friday, so I opted to wait until Saturday morning to head home.  

Over the course of this fabulous week, I realized how nice it would be to have help on a regular basis.   To have consistent eyes on the ground for the big issues, and the little things that can make a big difference would be great.  The reality is that this is not an option, and I need to be thankful for the help I do get, and the ability to work at it when I’m alone.  Both of my horses have taught me very different but valuable lessons, and to them I owe a huge amount of gratitude.   My goals for Lola are to maintain correct, consistent work this year and just see where it takes us.  Beau and I have qualified for the Region 4 Championships at Prix St. Georges and plan on competing at them in September. We have learned so much together over the years, creating a true partnership, and Beau has proven that an average horse can be successful at dressage.

Once again I want to thank Carol Lavell, The Dressage Foundation and the Selection Committee for this amazing experience.  To be able to get up in the morning, walk out to a beautiful barn and be totally immersed in dressage all day, every day for a week was truly incredible.

Trudy and Beau		Trudy and Lola