Horse magazine july 2014

JULY 2014 $7.50

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JULY 2014Transitions

Tekna Leaderboard

Horsetalk

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Luhmühlen: Photo Gallery

2014 Vet Directory

Hanoverians in the brave new world

A showjumping lesson with Michelle Strapp

Breathe... with Rebecca Ashton

Breeding at Werribee

Judges Debrief with Rebecca Ashton

Riders of the Month:Australian Young Rider Champs

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Eventing Leaderboard

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CONTENTS

42 Shane wins Melbourne 3 Day

Meet Nicole Bruggemann

SPECIAL FEATURE: Frozen Breeders 20 Germany's new star: Jessica Werndl

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Editor: Chris Hector CEO: Roz NeaveAssistant Editor: Ute RaabeDesign: Alexandra Meyer Accounts: Peter BosnakisPhone: (+61) 3 9421 3320 Fax: (+61) 3 9421 3375E-mail: [email protected] Address: PO Box 2316 Richmond South 3121

Printed by Print Graphics (Mt. Waverley). Distributed by Gordon and Gotch. All material appearing in The Horse Magazine is copyright. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is not permitted. Produced by Sporthorse International.

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On the Cover: Gabrielle Pither and Max Almighty Photo: Roz Neave

Maree and Diamantina in Germany with trainer, Christoph Koschel

Page 38WEG Countdown:

Maree, 'Burto', Alison, and Shane

www.horsemagazine.com VOLUME 31 No. 7ISSN 0817-7686.

ABN 33 007 410 960

PLUS:

Special report Para-equestrian

training camp

Page 41

Benjamin Winter

1988-2014

A photo tribute from Julia Rau...


on the move

All of a sudden there’s the 80%... Jessica von Bredow-Werndl is the shooting star of the European indoor season.

Words by Jan Tönjes, & translated by Ute Raabe Photos by Jacques Toffi

JessiDRESSAGE

Her winning smile has to be her trademark. It’s genuine, not like a fake American cheesy

grin, Jessica glows from the inside. Then there’s Jessica’s approach to training her horse – hill climbing and race track instead of the dressage arena. Time to pay Jessica a visit and meet the person behind that smile.

The blonde German rider lives in Aubenhausen with her husband Max and her brother Benjamin and his girlfriend. The alpine panorama beyond the stable buildings reminds us of how close we are to Salzburg and the Austrian border. Mum Micaela and Benjamin greet us at the entrance, we have the living proof that the famous smile runs in the family. The only time Jessica’s smile is said to have disappeared momentarily is when Monica Theodorescu likened her zig-zag halfpass to a combined slalom. Oops.

Father Klaus completes the Werndl-team. He is full of ideas, his business portfolio includes property restoration, a gym and gastronomy. His wife Micaela, once a member of the Junior skiing team, has just completed a yoga instructors' course. She discovered her passion for horses as an adult, abandoned her skis and began training dressage up to advanced level. These days she is very involved in riding for the disabled. The Werndl’s retired dressage

horse, 24-year-old Nocturne is used for the therapeutic riding lessons twice a week.

The Werndl family has a stable and training centre that leaves nothing to be desired. What was once a small homestead and a muddy compound now features two dressage arenas, paddocks, a racetrack and an indoor arena with alpine view. Let’s not forget the crystal chandeliers in the indoor and the candelabras in the stables. “That was Mum’s idea,” Jessica admits. Her Grand Prix horse Unee BB is the star of the stables and resides in a generously sized stall. The son of Gribaldi was bred in Holland and licensed in Munich, Germany.

“He is very clean,” Jessica says, “when he gets back to the stable he first goes to the left corner, that’s his toilet. We even have to moisten the sawdust, he doesn’t like it too dusty.” Unee is stabled on sawdust because he is a very good eater. He also spends time in his paddock, a must for any horse at Aubenhausen.

Unee BB is owned by Swiss dressage judge Beatrice Bürchler-Keller, who has stopped judging since Unee’s international success. Beatrice first gave the stallion to fellow countrywoman Jasmin Sanche-Burger for his initial education. By the time Unee had progressed to advanced level, Beatrice decided it was time for

a change of rider. She met the Werndl family in 2012 when she bought a horse from them and she had liked the way the gelding had been trained and handled. A decision was made and Unee moved to Aubenhausen.

It took a little time for the stallion to settle in his surroundings, but now he owns the place. “He is so arrogant,“ Jessica laughs, “but he loves to compete.”

It was a different story back in 2013 during the German National Championships. Unee didn’t cope with the heat, he wasn’t forward enough in the test; many riders had the same problem with their horses. Then Ingrid Klimke entered the warm up arena with Dresden Mann and effortlessly cantered around in a forward seat for 20 minutes. An eye-opener as Jessica describes it: “I asked Ingrid what she does differently.” Ingrid was only too happy to share her tips and tricks: varying the daily training routine and cantering uphill. It was to be the catalyst for Unee’s transformation, which led to the pair’s personal best scores in the World Cup Freestyle in Neumünster (84,425 % and third place) and Gothenburg (81,35% and first place). The dressage world saw a ‘new’ Unee, forward, active and bright.

Jessica explains: “For weeks I didn’t practice any movements, I just went to the race track – gallop, gallop and

www.horsemagazine.com 21

DRESSAGE

more gallop. And I bought cavalettis!” The gallop training achieved the major breakthrough; Unee is fitter and more athletic. He shows his new power in a very difficult sequence in his freestyle: double pirouette, then extended canter down the centreline towards the judges, followed by a piaffe pirouette. “It only works because Unee is with me, he is expecting another gallop with each pirouette!” Jessica beams.

Jessica’s husband, Max von Bredow is only too happy to share the newly acquired training methods with his wife. He rides eventing up to advanced level, and whenever time allows, they train together. Max is working in real estate and usually rides before work. “Jessica is still in bed then,” Max says and is promptly corrected by a protesting Jessica, “I am already out running in the morning.” Perhaps extra fitness is required since Unee has already put on more weight in his break after the indoor season.

There’s always room for improvement and recently Jessica has called Michael Jung for some tips. The Olympic gold medallist recommended trotting uphill for further strength training. And this is what the pair does now; the Dutch horse becomes a mountaineer happily trotting up the hills, always accompanied by the family’s rescue dog, Chica.


JUDGES DEBRIEF… With Rebecca AshtonThe Sunday after the Sydney CDI, with their judging duties complete, international judges Peter Holler from Germany and Lilo Fore from the USA held a judges’ clinic. Movements were broken down, analysed and explanations on how to improve offered.

I arrived when Tor Van Den Berge on Lauries As were focusing on piaffe and passage work. The

discussion was whether the piaffe should be taught from the trot or walk and like a lot of things with horses, it depends. Tor told us:

“I’ve always been taught to teach piaffe from trot, but that was never going to happen with this horse because he’s so extravagant.”

“It depends on the horse.” Lilo agreed, “With all my flamboyant movers, I always teach it from the walk. This rider has super feel and he knows exactly where the hindleg is, the feel for the diagonal pair, and this means he can teach the piaffe well.”

Tor then talked about passage: “Passage I teach from the trot always. Refresh, back; refresh, back.” The judges gave the audience a warning that the passage has to be dealt with carefully. “Lots of horses like to do passage because they don’t need to

go so much over their back so a lot of horses will offer it. We saw this a little bit with this horse at the beginning,” Peter warned, and Lilo added, “As soon as the horse offers me passage, I stay away from it until I really want it. This horse is very talented but he has to still learn the rotation of the hindleg. He sometimes crouches and the hindlegs don’t lift the middle part enough. He has to learn them bring them under a little more.”

The focus was then on to the ever-important transitions from piaffe to passage: “Very well done. The transitions are more important than doing 10,000 steps of piaffe,” enthused Peter and Lilo was just as happy, “The horse’s forward inclination was never left out. He is always in front of the aids. You never want the rider doing more piaffe than the horse!”

Lauries As’ canter was also praised when Tor played with the transitions within the pace. Peter Holler

explained why these exercises are just so important:

“This is what we ask the riders for. This is the gymnastics for the horse. The basic work is very decisive for success. You saw the horse did a flying change because it didn’t want to carry the weight anymore. He wanted to change his balance. This is why we have to keep making transitions within a pace, to get the hindlegs stronger. Also, if the rider moves his balance, the horse also has to change his balance.”

“Why did this horse get better marks when he made more mistakes than another? Because of the quality of the work, which comes from the boring basic work. It’s no big thing to do a shoulder in. Even a schooling horse can do it. It’s HOW it is done. Everyone can see mistakes, but it is important to see the harmony, a horse eager to work and move over the back. We must help the horse like the work and not experience fights.”

Lilo expanded on the subject: “The basic work is the hardest. You see people make a bad half pass, so they do another half pass, and another and another, but this will not help. You have to go back and look at the horse’s balance. When my students are not doing so well, I make them do ‘Lilo’s jail cell’; smaller squares, so we make the arena shorter so there is turn, then straight and collection and then turn again. This is really creating the training and collection rather than just doing the patterns. The patterns come from this precision work.”

Grand Prix work next - Mark Arthur on Kooinda Saint and Alicia Fleimich on BMC Ojay showed us how to go about the steep half passes. Peter continued, “In half pass, we want the trot as regular, cadenced and expressive as when going straight

DRESSAGE

Tor & Lauries As


ahead. The most important thing in the half pass is the flow. It must be easy and go easily sideways. The horse has to be free in the shoulders if we want it to really cross. Alicia’s horse is a little high in the poll and therefore pulls away his back.”

Lilo confirmed this, “Self carriage is not just about the poll being the highest point, it’s about the shoulders coming up as well. Otherwise the horse gets stuck in the back and the hindlegs can’t step under.”

Next the canter zig-zag. Although Kooinda Saint isn’t the most extravagant horse out there, Mark brings out the best in the little bay. He maintained good rhythm, but Peter wanted more collection and activity; more expression. Alicia was on to the one tempis but Peter was still not happy with the horse’s head position, “The changes were all ok, but the longer it took, the higher the poll came and you couldn’t keep him round anymore. He needs to sit more and keep him more engaged behind.”

At this point, Alicia decided that after such a big weekend, Ojay was too tired to continue and retired from the rest of the session. Mark was left to continue on with the one-tempis.

Lilo could sense there was more that Mark wasn’t showing us: “You are a very careful rider. But to get an 8, you must take risks and sometimes it may not work. You have to take a bit of a risk in your training as well so you know how to react in the test.” Peter

agreed, “I think with this horse you need to take a risk because you don’t come into the arena and we say ‘wow’. You have to show more.”

So, in response, Mark rode the ones on a circle, which impressed Lilo no end, “Why didn’t you do this in the freestyle? Very well done. People would say ‘wow’ if you do those ones on a circle!”

The horse was doing this little, trot-like piaffe with very little activity and just from the legs. She wanted the horse’s whole body to get involved and be working. Lilo helped with ideas, “The piaffe is still a little bit baby for

the Grand Prix. The horse must not learn to do it like this, just using the legs like he is stomping grapes. Lots of forward and back so he uses his body better.”

After a break it was time for the national tests. The riders rode a test at a particular level and then the judges explained what happened, what was good or bad and how it could be improved.

Amanda Shoobridge and her very cute imported palomino pony stallion Noble Dancer were first off the rank and ran through a correct novice test. Lilo liked the little stallion’s expression but wanted him more balanced. The quality needed a little improvement. “In the canter he needs to be a little more in his own support. He can perform the movements, and you are heading in the right direction. Amanda is a lovely rider with a good position but she could get him to do more and be more in balance. So, let’s look at the canter,” said the American judge before using transitions to improve the quality.

It was all about forward and back without pulling the front end backwards, but instead having the pony sit more under himself and Amanda making her seat action smaller. “Don’t move your seat over the saddle. Think of your outside hand to keep the tempo. You have to educate the gaits. He must never think that speed is your goal. Rebalance him,” helped Lilo.

DRESSAGE

Amanda & Noble Dancer

Mark & Kooinda Saint


MELBOURNE IHT

T he first couple of days were sunny, warm even, and the dressage

arena looked great bathed in sunshine. There were some really classy tests on the Friday in the two star CCI, with the added dimension of a class within a class – the Trans Tasman, oops, Oceania Young Rider Championship, and the Aussie side cruised to the lead thanks to the mega-talented duo who fought out the two-star at Sydney a month or so ago, Teegan Ashby riding Rockingham No Reason, and Gabrielle Pither and Max Almighty.

Gabrielle ended up leading the field with 46.11 penalties, but in truth, she should have scored better - only Barry Roycroft, sitting at H, was prepared to

reward some exceptionally fine work, with TEN scores of 8, while Christina Klingspor at C, obviously needed the morning cup of coffee she missed out on and like Helen Christie at B, could manage only two.

It was a bit embarrassing that the judges were later told that if they

wanted a coffee they could purchase it, at their own expense, at the nearby Avenue de Italians stand – although the coffee was worth every cent! While we are on the subject of whoopsies, I am not entirely sure that they meant to load the dressage scores on the MIHT website with movement by movement, judge by judge, break downs, but it was appreciated. By the three star, this refreshing new level of

transparency, had disappeared… but then 24 hours later, re-appeared.

Gabrielle is just such a correct, beautifully balanced young rider, and the horse is superstar material. Max Almighty has been on the market, but now thankfully, Gabrielle and her family, have decided to do all they

Story by Chris Hector and Photos by Roz Neave & Ute Raabe

So what was it like, the new super-duper free enterprise version of Werribee Three Day Event… oops, Melbourne International Horse Trials. Given Werribee’s capacity to produce foul weather even when it is perfectly civilized just a few ks away in Melbourne, the decision to take everything out of the indoor and on to the polo fields, was a brave one. The decision to take the event indoors had also been a fairly risky gamble that relied on no one telling the FEI that Melbourne was, er, breaking the rules.

Winning all the way in the Two-

Star, Gabi Pither and Max Almighty

old stars, new stars...

Shine at Werribee


MELBOURNE IHT

can to keep the horse. I don’t know which Almighty we need to thank for that near miss for Australia’s future prospects, because Gabrielle looks to me like the most exciting new talent to emerge since Christopher Burton and like Burto, she has a flashy chestnut with the talent to take her to the top.

Having said that, Teegan Ashby and Rockingham No Reason are another mega-talented pair, and suddenly Australian eventing ranks are looking a little less bleak.

Local hero, Will Enzinger slipped into second place on Wenlock Aquifer, on 46.49, just in front of Teegan on 47.04.

The best of the New Zealand team, Sarah Young, is a tactful rider on the Thoroughbred Regal Romar, (by Grosvenor no less) but perhaps the Kiwi judge, Helen Christie got just a teensy bit patriotic with thirteen scores of 8. Big bad Baz at H could manage not a single 8, indeed, he came up with 5 for one of Helen’s 8’s – the first of the two half circles, while Christina could manage only two times 8 – so Sarah’s percentages ranged from 61.11% which was probably too mean, to 74.81 which was probably a bit generous, with the C judge’s 67.78 more or less on the money.

The Australian team ended the first phase with 217.04 penalties, a handy lead over the Kiwis with 230.38.

In the three-star, the three wise persons took it in turns to have brain fades. Christina got a bit carried away with Shane Rose and Shanghai Joe, posting a 174, against 156 from Barry Roycroft and 158 from Helen Christie. The pair ended on 52.4 for a nice

neat test from a very athletic gelding by Shane’s Thoroughbred stallion, Another Warrior. They would finish the day in 6th place.

The judges were actually in agreement on Charlotte Price with another wonderful Thoroughbred horse, Dustman, and they finished in 5th on 50.6.

The consensus started to fall apart on the 4th ranked, Robert Palm and Visual Laughter (no prizes for guessing he’s by Copabella Visage). It was a really fine test, great outline and balance, just one little whoops on one change, and the score was much closer to Barry’s 172, than Helen’s 159. Again, ‘Kiki’ probably nailed it with 167.

It was Barry’s turn to go a bit ga ga on the 3rd placed pair of Amanda Ross and William Wordsworth. He was right up there on 181 for a test that was more accurately observed by

Helen and Christina with 169 and 168. The divergence of views on Stuart

Tinney and Pluto Mio was just plain embarrassing, and there really was no reason for it. It was in truth a very stylish, accurate and balanced test. Christina scored it 181, Helen paid, 178, and Barry…. 161 – that’s a spread from 64.4% to 72.4%! Stuart finished the day in second place on 46.01.

I guess there are a few riders who would actually be prepared to bake the birthday cake, and a few more who would queue to blow out the 70 candles that celebrate Barry Roycroft’s compulsory retirement from the judge’s chair… and I guess Stuart might be right up the top of the line, lips puckered, lungs inflated.

And the spread keeps coming, even on the dressage leader, Sonja Johnson’s Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison. A very clean, athletic test, and Christina paid 180, Barry a 184, and Helen, a… 163. They ended on a 44.6, and everyone probably ended up about where they ought to be, but it was perhaps more the-great-C-judge-in-the-sky who set things right than the all-to-human threesome in the judges’ boxes.

Well the sun was still shining, but it was pretty chilly for cross-country day. The Australian Oceania young riders were having a ball. First out was Michaela Martindale riding Kinnordy Gatow – clear no time, to go into the showjumping on their dressage score of 63.71, and team coach, Prue Barrett was full of praise for the young rider, and the way the trailblazer was able to analyse her run for the benefit of the rest of the team.

One-Star Junior winners, Naphatra Lerdsilpjaroen

and Tainui Lad representing Thailand added to the

international feel of the event

A very close second in the Three-Star, Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio


BREEDING

It’s been seven years since my last interview with the director of the Hanoverian

Verband, Werner Schade in 2007. In that time, so many dramatic changes have occurred in the world of Warmblood breeding, changes that neither of us could have predicted seven years ago. Who would have thought that the whole French National Stud system would disappear? That Flyinge, the jewel of Swedish breeding would disappear? That most of the great Oldenburg stallion stations would disappear? And that the numbers of mares being bred throughout Europe would have fallen so dramatically…

“I think the biggest changes have been structural,” said Werner, “The changes in the community of breeders. We see many breeders with a farming background have given up breeding in the last few years – with the change of generations, whole farms have disappeared. The number of mare coverings have gone down, so there are problems for all the breeding associations in Germany, we are losing members, losing revenue. Breeding horses is becoming more and more professional, and the quality of the horses in the market is still strong, but after the financial crisis and the economic problems, the market went down, and this pushed along the structural changes.”

“We also see that breeding becomes more and more international. The stallion owners are more and more involved in equestrian sport – and if the stallion owner is unable to combine breeding and sport, then it is very difficult for them to survive. The ones who do go well in the sport, then their stallions go well at stud. The internationalism has seen a much greater exchange between the European breeding associations, with the bloodlines flowing from

one country to another, from one association to the other.”If we look at the new emerging markets – for instance, the Arab and Asian markets, those buyers are not going to purchase foals, or three years olds, and raise and train them, they want horses that are already competing at the top…

“The Hanoverian Association started to work on the Asian market, especially the Chinese market, in 2012, entering into partnerships with training centres in China, to see what is happening there, and our experience is that it is an up-and-coming market. We think it will be a strong market, but it is disorganized, and there are not enough people with the knowledge of training and horse care, so that is a problem. That means if you want to be successful in this market, you have to deliver the whole package, not only the horse. Training is especially important, and we do that – we send trainers to China to train the horses we sell, or we sell the horses to China and keep them in Germany and train them there. Our early experiences have been good, it’s a very positive development.”

“Aside from Asia, for us the South American market is very interesting. That is one area we are looking at very carefully, they have had a horse culture, but now they are getting more interested in events like dressage or showjumping or eventing.”

“Our home market is still very important. Out of our auctions, we sell 50% to our home market in Germany, but it is still not enough. The number of competitors in equestrian sport in Germany shows a very good stability, and we expect our domestic market to continue to grow. With less horses in the future, because of the reduction in the number of coverings, the market in Europe could become more interesting because the numbers in competition are not so bad.”You have managed to soften the

blow by amalgamating with a number of smaller stud books, but the rumour that I keep hearing is that there is to be a merger of Holstein and Hanover, is that someone drinking too much schnapps?“I think so, but I cannot say what will happen in the future. In my view the associations in Germany have to talk together. We have a good relationship with the other associations…”Wouldn’t it be more logical just to have a German jumping horse studbook and a dressage horse book…“I don’t think so. I think we have to keep some brands in Germany. My idea is not to create a ‘German Riding Horse’, we have to keep our brands because we have a high identification between the breeders and those brands and the regions, but I think in the back office, we have to find a way for the associations to work together to reduce the costs.”

“I think it is interesting to have different breeding programs and breeding philosophies. I am sure that the number of breeding associations in Germany will be reduced, but I expect it will be more an evolution, not part of a master plan.”Looking at the bloodlines being used in Hanover now, it seems to be floating without a clear direction – once there was strong direction, Weltmeyer, but he has not bred on, and from the outside it looks as if the breeders are looking for the next lead…

WERNER SCHADE HANOVERIANS IN THE BRAVE NEW WORLD…


BREEDING

“I think this is a logical development because of the use of artificial insemination, the semen is available everywhere, but still I think the anchor is the mare population, and in that mare population, Weltmeyer is very important, and we are very happy to have this bloodline.”But it is curious, because Weltmeyer looked like the sort of stallion who would produce stallion sons…“It didn’t happen, the sons didn’t come through like their father.”

Really only Donnerhall did…“Donnerhall did, Rubinstein did not, but no doubt Donnerhall did. Some stallions are more mare producers, some are both, some are stallion producers, but I think a successful breeding program depends on the quality and the selection of the mares and mare families. I think there is an over-estimation of the importance of the stallions, and it is really the mares we should be looking at. You need a good stallion, that is no doubt, but if

the average of the mare population is very high, the stallions are a little inter-changeable. This is why, especially in Hanover, we are in a good situation because we take care of the strong mare families, and they come through, every time.”What stallions do you have hopes for?“He is an older stallion, but we are very happy with De Niro. He is a world class producer, one of the best we have, and we are also happy with the sons, like Dancier and

Desperados, and we expect good offspring from this line, very often in combination with Weltmeyer blood, also Wolkenstein blood.”And the newly invigorated ‘B’ line?“I am sure that we have some very good Belissimo sons in the breed and they are also going in a good way in the sport, this renaissance of the B line will be successful. Breitling is a very good example of how sometimes old-fashioned types or old-fashioned bloodlines, can produce modern horses. We just licensed Burlington II, a full brother of Nürnberger Burgpokal champion, Burlington (Breitling / Rohdiamant), an outstanding horse. I am sure that the B line has a good future.”In jumping, we have had Stakkato, and now we are starting to see genuine world class Grand Prix jumpers by Stakkato, but you can’t just keep breeding to him…“Stakkato is now also coming up on the dam line, because we have some very good Stakkato mares, and they make a good combination with stallions like Diarado or Chacco Blue or Acorado – this combination with Holsteiner bloodlines matched with Hanoverian

Donnerhall

“I think the biggest changes have been structural, the changes in the community of breeders. We see many breeders with a farming background have given up breeding in the last few years – with the change of generations, whole farms have disappeared."

Burlington II


SHOWJUMPING

Caroline and Finn have a great training advantage, she has been his rider from the start and all the horse knows is Caroline’s consistent guidance…

Michelle tells us, “Leading up into the Young Horse Champs, when he first came into work, we hadn’t actually set the plan where he was going; it was all depending on his progress. When you take a horse from his level – he had just

been broken in – there are no major problems. So with Caroline’s consistent work, it’s habit-forming, he started to straighten up, and be a little bit quicker with his hind leg. We were starting to shorten him, so he progressed to where we could get to fences a lot better. The main difficulty with him was, when he went in the ring, he was so spooky. He really thought there were gremlins under the jumps. He would come to a jump and decide he didn’t want to go to the other side. It meant that we had to be more forceful with him to get over the jumps and as we started to be more forceful with

him, as often happens, we created other issues. He suddenly started to see a fence and grab the bit and run at it faster.”

Because you told him to…“Exactly. There can be a real confusion through that part

of the training. At that point we were thinking of not taking him to the young horse event because we had to solve the first problem, he had to understand that he had to jump the jump. But rather than fix the running-through-the-bridle-to-the-fence problem, we decided to work more on his half-halt. Caroline did try a bigger bit in the competition, but that was not going to work, because the horse doesn’t have enough revs per minute in activity to back up a stronger bit.

A showjumping lesson with Michelle Strapp

Remember Caroline Price and her lovely 5-year-old Finn MVNZ by Chin Chin, THM cover stars in February? Then, in our story Balancing the young horse, Michelle Strapp and Caroline were establishing the basics with a very green Finn. Caroline hadn’t expected Finn to be ready for DJWTS, they not only competed, but finished fourth in the 5-year-old class. Time to catch up again and see how Finn and Caroline are progressing with those elusive basics.

Story by Chris Hector and Photos by Roz Neave

MAGIC IN YOUR FINGERS


SHOWJUMPING

So that was only going to affect his mouth. I actually had a ride, Caroline got me on board, and we worked on his half-halt and his reception of that rev level that we created to be a better received in her hand.”

Before we create a lot of confusion out there, when you say a bit more forceful in front of the jump, are we talking stockwhips and heeler dogs?

Michelle laughs, “Not quite! We put slightly sharper spurs on, because he really did look and didn’t want to go to the jump. So we didn’t just work on it front of the fence. He needed more respect for Caroline, meaning he had to be more intimidated by Caroline’s leg than he was by the jump. But you have to try and find a blend; just enough so that he

started to think, ‘Well, if she touches me I am going to run’. Once you have that sort of response, obviously what you have to do is work on the receivership of that. So you can contain the adrenalin we have created.”

“He is very very willing. You think about it, he was quite quick to get to the competition. Once we got him to accept the hand better with his new amount of activity, then straightaway he was jumping, and you saw him at Jumping with the Stars, he was lovely.”

After the Young Horse Championships Finn had some time off. Caroline has only just started working him again. But how fit does a young horse like Finn need to be?

“I think he needs to be quite athletic and he needs some fitness work. Jumping does get them very fit – and canter work. And Caroline does canter a lot. That’s the pace we spend a lot of time in. A lot of people do too much trot work.”

“He’s not a hot horse as you can see. His natural way of going is a little bit more towards the idle state. And it’s easy for those horses to become doughy. That reflects in the bridle. My daughter Amy is riding a lot of big horses in Europe at the moment, she has a coach over there and they are talking of the blend. The horses are either over-bitted and someone doesn’t have a strong enough leg, you know, the stronger bit and the weaker leg creates a problem, or the horse is too far behind your hand, and too light to the bridle and not going forward. There is always that blend, what I call the sweet spot, that you are always working on and I think

that changes a little as they progress in their career.“Thoroughbreds just want to go. Or anything with blood

wants to go. I’m really noticing that now, trying to find horses for kids to teach them to jump. You think you've found a nice horse, it’s got a lovely mouth and it seems like it’s got enough blood. But you put a kid on who is a little insecure, so they ride off their hands and they tend to be legless because the horse feels a little bit active. And because the horse has a nice mouth they suddenly don’t want to jump anymore. You are finding that when you try to find horses for young riders, you are better off to get something that’s actually a little too strong in the bridle. Then young riders have something to sit against, because the diplomacy of their hand is not there.”

“I haven’t seen Finn now for a month. I suppose I have to look at the picture today and see what we are dealing with. Let’s see what the horse is up to today…”

Caroline begins with trot work and Michelle wants her to ensure that Finn feels even on both reins.

“Just keep the body really straight. Don’t over-flex him to the left. Keep his ears level, keep his neck straighter, because he is on two tracks all the time, okay?”

“Put your whip in your left hand and just as he falls to the left, think a very light touch of the left hand. And you’ll be the giving one, yes? If you take the feel on the corners of his mouth and he locks against you, you’ll be one to give and then take back, but very light gives. Give him nothing to hang on. And today, just think left touch. Don’t overdo it. Just think it, left leg, don’t over complicate it. That’s better, try and get him straighter. Use your line to find straightness. Use your eyes, ride lines, change lines a few times, change rein. He just looks like he sits a little bit behind the bridle. What I want you to do every now and again, is let your elbows relax forward and see if he takes the bridle out, without running. Then just take him back again. You’ve got to feel, that when you take the contact, that he is not shy of the contact. You want to feel like you can ride to the contact. Ride forward a little bit.”

“It was very good, now soften your hand forward. Start some half transitions, go to walk and then change your mind. Don’t walk, feel one-two… and out of it, out of it, quicker, just the thought. I’d like you to train this at home, doing the same


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Horse magazine july 2014