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Carrie Chaffin (Region 9)

My 2001 Holsteiner teammate, Rijkens, and I had the opportunity through The Dressage Foundation’s Carol Lavell Gifted Memorial Fund to spend an entire week at Lyndon Rife’s dressage facility in the heart of north Texas’ beautiful horse country for an immersion period of extended training. The daily lessons enabled us to have quality time to focus on my goal of riding the Prix St. Georges dressage test this upcoming 2016 show season.

On the first day, Lyndon evaluated Rijkens (we call him “Ri” in the barn, pronounced like “Rye”) as we warmed up doing changes of bend, transitions, shoulder fore and leg yielding.  Early in the session, Lyndon got on Ri and schooled him in the walk with suppling exercises and flexions, walking turns on the forehand and walk half pass. In the trot, Lyndon worked on getting Ri up in the poll by keeping his hind legs active and quick, thereby improving engagement. In the canter, Lyndon established straightness and throughness by keeping Ri’s poll up in front and his hind legs active with Ri honestly in front of Lyndon’s leg. 

When I rode Ri again, we worked in the trot on the idea of an activating half halt to keep Ri on the outside rein, but then activating him to keep quick hind legs with my inside leg. My outside leg is there to maintain straightness and prevent the haunches from swinging out. To prevent him from going down into my hands, every once in a while I eased the reins and gave him a little bump with the leg so he stayed up in front of me. If I gave him a kick but then held on to the half halt, it made him think about putting his nose down instead of putting his butt down.

On the second day, I really had to find my outside leg aid in canter to keep Ri going forward and straight in corners and on circle lines. On the long side of the arena, we used haunches in then transitioned into shoulder fore, which enforced to me the idea that I must use my inside leg to activate the hind legs and my outside aids to control angle and guard the haunches. 

On day three, Lyndon worked on getting Ri up in front of his inside leg and keeping the haunches from swinging out with a guarding outside leg. Ri can sometimes “use his butt as a weapon” so it’s my job to keep him straight between my two legs and two reins. Rijkens was sometimes resistant to idea that he had to move freely forward with engagement and quick hind legs. Lyndon said not to let Ri talk me into giving in with my position or otherwise allowing Ri to get slow or on his forehand, but rather to push past the resistance to the better gaits with engagement and going toward collection.  

Ri and I worked on canter half pass with the idea of creating bend first with the inside leg, then only gradually asking him to go sideways without falling to the inside. We schooled shoulder in by first keeping his shoulder on the track and getting inside bend with my inside leg, and then only after the bend was established, leading the shoulders in with the outside aids. 

The final days we worked a lot in canter, and on canter transitions with bend. I learned to put Ri’s shoulders in front of my inside leg to strike off into canter. The outside rein allows you to turn the shoulders, not just the neck. 

We did a great canter exercise on the circle, taking the line of travel one step inwards, then I had to keep Ri from falling in with my inside leg. This establishes his weight coming back to his hind legs, but it keeps him more active in the canter.

You cannot collect without bend. It makes sense to bring him back with the outside rein at the canter because when the supporting phase of the canter is longer on the outside hind, he will go upward and forward. Otherwise, as you push him forward, he’ll get off of the outside hind too quickly and he just pushes instead of lifting.  I needed to use the outside rein to bring keep him lifted and the inside rein as a suppling rein or an “allowing him to go” rein.

Even when I used the outside rein to bring him back, Ri had to keep the bend to the inside. If he didn’t keep the bend, his ribcage and shoulder fell down on the inside. We had to have bend in the ribcage from my inside aids, and then bring him back with the outside rein to make the difference in canter. By maintaining the bend as we rode figures, he doesn’t drift to the inside because he knows he must listen to my inside leg.  Each corner became a good way to make sure he stayed quick behind.

In canter half pass, my inside leg kept Ri from coming off the wall too quickly. My outside rein told him to start the half pass. By keeping my weight to the inside and using my outside rein to start the half pass, the Ri could begin the lateral movement on my terms, not coming in too fast because he was obeying my inside leg. The outside rein helped to turn the shoulder and keep the collection.

On the right rein, Ri had to look right without falling into my right leg. Using right leg and left rein kept his shoulders on the rail. I must be able to point his ears right without him falling in or automatically starting the half pass. 

In schooling lines of tempis to the right rein, I had to keep Ri yielding from my right leg when turning onto the diagonal. Keeping Ri active in front of both of my legs helped him stay straight on the diagonal, and really put his chest towards the letter without falling in. Just before the change, my new inside leg slid forward, then the new outside leg went back along with the new outside rein at the same time as the new inside hip goes forward. I really had to keep him active off of both legs and keep them very clear for the change. Then, I just bounced him over the canter rhythm for the change. If he felt slow, I gave him a touch with the whip.

Lyndon had a valuable discussion with me during a quiet moment in the barn. Sometimes older horses have learned habits, and tend to give us negative feedback when we are reschooling those habits, but we have to keep training the horse correctly until we get to the point where the horse is giving positive feedback. For Rijkens, the habit is the tendency in canter to be behind my leg and not freely forward with engagement. I really need to school Ri with the idea that he keeps the energy in the canter. I need to slow the miles per hour but canter more by using activating half halts. 

At the end of the week, Rijkens had definitely gotten to that point of offering positive feedback.  We are continuing our work at home toward the increased degree of impulsion, suppleness, and engagement required to emerge as an FEI team. Because of this extended training afforded to me through The Dressage Foundation’s Carol Lavell Gifted Memorial Fund, I’ve entered to ride our very first Prix St Georges test at the upcoming local show.