2014 Gifted Recipient

I applied for the Gifted Grant in 2014 and was thrilled to be selected as a recipient to use it in 2015 with Jim Koford. At the time, I had a very lovely, young Oldenburg mare that I had owned since she was a yearling. She was finally in training and ready for me to begin riding. My goal for this grant was to get off on the best foot with her and get very solid in our basics as we began our journey together. However, before I was able to go train with Jim, I took an unfortunate fall off of her (through no fault of hers), and suffered a bad break of my elbow that required two surgeries to repair. A timid rider by nature, I came to the realization that I would not be able to regain my confidence with this horse so I made the heartbreaking decision to sell her to someone that could bring out her true potential.

Due to my injury and now my lack of a horse, TDF was kind enough to grant me an extension to use my grant.

Enter Reuben. Reuben was a 5-year-old, 16H buckskin Friesian/QH cross that was already showing at Second Level and although he is young, he is very forgiving and the perfect confidence builder for me. I bought him in the fall of 2015, spent the winter getting to know him and rescheduled my training for May, 2016. And then of course he went lame. After a short time off to recuperate, we re-rescheduled our training for July. 

My horse had changed from when I originally applied for the grant, but my goals remained the same. It had been a while since I was able to ride consistently so I really just wanted to establish a good foundation and work on the basics, and that began with getting Reuben FORWARD. I had been struggling when working on my own to get Reuben to want to go forward. No matter what I did to get him going, it was like riding a sloth for about the first 20 minutes of every ride. And the more I got after him, the more he would suck back. I was getting very frustrated, so the timing of this training was perfect.

So the theme of the week was getting Reuben truly forward to the connection and finding that release point where he was through and pushing from behind. Once we found that, he carried himself freely forward with lots of energy.

In order to do this, I picked up the reins and immediately went to work at the beginning of each ride. Before, I would always walk around on a loose rein and just lollygag around the arena. Jim had me get him super round at the walk, bend him and ask him to go forward. If he didn’t go, I tapped him with the whip to get the hind leg firing. Then, once he went forward I left him alone. I repeated this exercise, constantly changing the direction, keeping the circles small and rewarding him when he went forward by being quiet and letting him go straight.

Jim explained that the natural tendency of the Friesian influence is to raise his head which makes him want to come above the bit in transitions. Neck control is everything with Reuben. So, when asking for the trot transition, we needed to keep him connected by keeping him a little over bent, ask for the transition and remember to give when he goes forward. Jim noticed I was giving too much with the right hand so I need to concentrate on not throwing that rein away.

Since we were working on basics, it doesn’t get much more basic than the walk. Jim stressed the importance of the walk, and that people don’t practice it enough. So once we had Reuben nicely forward, whenever we took walk breaks, I was to make him march forward and work on transitions from the free walk to the medium walk. 

Each day using the method above, the warm up times got shorter and shorter and I was not working nearly as hard. During one of the lessons Jim commented that he was happy to see Reuben was finally breathing harder than I was. 

Jim noticed I have a tendency to be a bit too nice when I ride and I need to be more assertive. When I ask Reuben to do something, he needs to say Yes Ma’am right away, not ten strides later after I have asked five more times. Jim directed me to ask nicely once, if he doesn’t do it, ask again and mean it - then leave him alone when he gives me the correct response. 

One major area I had been struggling with was the trot to canter transitions. I get anxious asking for this because that is how I fell and broke my elbow with my other horse. 

I know the problem is me, I send mixed signals, I don’t ask clearly and I have a bad habit of just throwing away my reins. When I do this, Reuben just trots really fast and throws his haunches to the inside. So, for the transition Jim had me push the haunches out (basically a steep leg yield), keep the contact and then ask. He reminded me to THINK about each aid I was giving and not just hope that I got the transition. This is where being more assertive came in handy. If I asked correctly and then didn’t get an immediate response, I needed to not be afraid to touch him with the whip and demand a response. If I take the time to think about my aids, have him forward and set him up correctly, the transitions are easy.

Then Jim pushed us to do things I didn’t think we were ready for and would never have dreamed of trying yet.

Once I got a handle on the trot/canter transitions, we began the walk to canter transitions, which were actually easier for me since I could ask more clearly. In the canter, we also did counter canter and simple changes through the trot. We worked on shoulder in and haunches in, and keeping him forward in these movements. Reuben is actually very supple and the haunches in is especially easy for him so we even got to work on a bit of half pass. To introduce the half pass, Jim had us leg yielding away from the wall to the quarter line and then ask for the half pass back to the wall.

By the last day, both Reuben and I were pretty exhausted. We definitely don’t work that hard on a daily basis when we are at home. Jim took it easy on us and just touched on the bullet points of the week and the homework we have to work on:

• Getting Reuben forward and finding his release point. This gets him carrying himself and makes all the other work easier.
• The canter transition which is more about me being clear with my aids when I ask, not throwing the contact away and keeping the haunches out.
• Transitions and adjustability within the gaits, free walk to medium walk and forward and back in both the trot and canter.
• Remember it is about neck control with Reuben! If I lose the neck, I lose whatever movement I am working on. This is especially true in transitions. Think a little shoulder in position.
• Be a more assertive and thoughtful rider – ask nicely once then insist on a response and think about each transition instead of just hoping for the best.

I think I not only met, but exceeded all my goals for the week. I feel like Reuben and I have bonded more as a team and that he was truly working for me instead of trying to find ways to avoid the work. I think I have developed the tools I need to finally progress rather than being stuck just trying to get through the warm up and doing 20M circles every ride. I am looking forward to the future and I have set a goal of earning my bronze medal. I am so grateful to The Dressage Foundation for this amazing opportunity and I encourage other Adult Amateurs to apply for this grant. I certainly never thought I would be chosen when I sent my application in but I am so happy I decided to send it anyway.