THERE was plenty of excitement and anticipation at JAG Equestrian, in Kildare, last Friday evening as over 100 spectators filed into their seats ahead of the first ever masterclass presented by Irish Olympic dressage rider, Judy Reynolds. It was nice to see another Irish Olympian in the crowd, Ada Matheson who represented Ireland in show jumping at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
This event was the brainchild of Sarah Mellor and was widely supported by Dressage Ireland’s Leinster Region Dressage Committee. It was a fantastic initiative which brought together equestrian enthusiasts from a range of different disciplines to learn from one of Ireland’s most successful international riders.
The aim of the event was to present horses, competing at different levels, which show the common training issues faced by riders every day.
By watching Judy work through some of the issues that these horses and riders experience during their training , spectators were treated to a fantastic and unique educational opportunity.
TRAINING YOUNG HORSEs
First into the arena was, Joanne Logue and her five-year-old Dutch-bred mare Cashmir’s Hadena. This horse has been beautifully produced by Logue and this year they won the coveted five-year-old Young Horse Championship.
Judy’s opening statement to the crowd of spectators was that: “The first thing we want to establish when working with a young horse is for them to be safe, i.e. that they stop and go – that is most important. Leg on should have a forward reaction and a restrictive hand should see the horse slowing down.”
It was evident from watching Logue and Cashmir’s Hadena (aka Hattie) warming up that they had a wonderful partnership and that Hattie was well established in her early training, therefore they now had to work on improving the horse’s reaction to the rider’s aids, as Reynolds put it: “Reactions are what make a dressage horse.”
And how do we improve a horse’s reactions to the rider’s aids, you might ask. See Judy Reynolds’ fourth golden rule of training – transitions, transitions and more transitions. When it comes to the young horse, Reynolds advised riders to “focus on simple transitions”, from one gait to another, i.e. from halt to walk, walk to trot, trot to canter and vice versa, but also within a gait. “You want to be able to go up and down the gears within a gait so that the horse gets used to having to adjust themselves at a young age.
“At this stage you are not asking the horse to go too far out of their comfort zone – it’s all about building positive experiences. The horse is just learning and should come away from the experience and be happy to do it again.”
Reynolds also highlighted that riders need to bear in mind that a young horse may not always give the perfect response. “If you ask the horse a question you have to get an answer – but it doesn’t matter if you get the wrong answer. You as a rider will have to decide if the answer was good enough and, if not, you will have to correct it.
“If you don’t correct the horse they will think that they have given you the right answer. Don’t allow bad transitions to become habit, you have to be tough on yourself as a rider and ask ‘was that a good enough response?’ By working on the horse’s reactions daily, that’s how you build a horse up through the levels.”
RIDE FORWARD
Next Reynolds explained what riders should be looking for in their transitions and how they can work to improve them.
“Always, regardless of the horse’s level, look for the horse to be balanced, supple and going forward in their transitions. Think starting and going forward into a new pace rather than stopping and going backward from the current pace.”
Reynolds described Hattie as “quite a laid-back horse” and cautioned Logue to be careful of how much she is using her leg. “As a general rule, with a lazy horse you want to do less and let the horse learn to take on more. The rider’s job is to give the aid and set the pace which the horse has to then maintain – the rider should sit quietly and just be prepared to correct the horse if necessary.
“With a hot horse you want to have the leg on and get them used to it – to give them confidence. So it’s the opposite of what you might think.”
Commenting on the accuracy of transitions, Reynolds said: “In training I always take a good transition over having it happen at a certain point because once the transitions improve and get to a point where they are really good, then they will just happen when you ask for them at a specific marker.
“Especially with the downward transition, you can allow it to take a little longer to happen – as long as it is forward. Often we do need to work on keeping the horse a little rounder in the downward transition so that the horse is engaging behind.
“Don’t give too much with the hand in a downward transition or you will encourage the horse to lift the head and become hollow.”
In summary, Reynolds said: “Whatever the horse does – ride forward.”
The riders who took part in the Judy Reynolds Masterclass (l-r) Simone Hession riding Beezies Big Brother, Victoria O'Caroll, Judy Reynolds, Sarah Mellor, Joanne Logue and Kate Dwyer riding Snowdon Faberge (Photo: Bernie Webb)
QUICK REACTIONS
Next into the arena were aspiring dressage judge Victoria O’Carroll and seven-year-old Furst Romanoff (aka Romy). Romy is by the world-renowned sire Furst Romancier and was sourced by O’Carroll from The Netherlands where Romy had done quite a lot as a youngster. The duo have had much success in Ireland at elementary level and just recently moved up to medium level where they have won on their last three outings.
“This horse is exactly where we would expect him to be for his age,” Reynolds began. With this horse Reynolds was looking for quick reactions and for the horse to demonstrate an ability to carry his weight on the hindquarters and therefore lighten the forehand (collection).
In order to have collection, you must first have impulsion (energy created by the hind legs). But, as Reynolds expertly pointed out, “collection refers to the weight on the horse’s hind legs – it has nothing to do with speed.” Transitions, pole work and lengthening and shortening the stride are all great exercises to help improve impulsion – they encourage the horse to get their hocks underneath themselves.
Often riders might find that the horse gets a little heavy in their hand. Reynolds explained that: “If the horse gets heavy in the hand he is trying to take weight off the hind legs so you need to encourage the horse to move the hind legs a little quicker.
“You need to have an active leg that asks and then gives the horse a chance to respond. Don’t be afraid to risk your horse breaking into canter, they need to learn and they can’t be allowed to get slow. The horse has to carry their own head and riders should expect that of a horse at this level.”
Having worked a little on shoulder-in and travers, Reynolds asked O’Carroll to demonstrate half pass. This is where the horse moves sideways, while looking in the direction of the movement. The forehand should be slightly ahead of the quarters and the horse should be equally bent through the body from poll to tail.
Half pass should not be attempted until the horse is established in both shoulder-in and travers.
Before they began, Reynolds asked for the horse to be “sitting on his hind legs and up in front”, i.e. collected. She told O’Carroll to half halt before beginning the half pass as this would help the horse rebalance and engage the hindquarters.
Without the hindquarters engaged and the hind legs moving short and fast you lose expression. If the quality of the half-pass begins to deteriorate, Reynolds advises breaking up the exercise with shoulder-in or another similar exercise to ensure the horse is continuously listening and waiting for the next aid.
Reynolds also emphasised the importance of giving rest breaks to the horse. This is where the horse is allowed to stretch and ride in a way that they are not under so much pressure.
A warning to riders though – rest breaks are not an opportunity to drop the contact and have a little chat.
“When you give the horse a break, ride the free-walk like you would in a test. Train the horse to walk forward and stretch – maintain the horse’s concentration. The horse has 23 other hours in the day to switch off. When I’m riding I expect the horse to concentrate,” said Reynolds.
DEALING WITH TENSION
Event organiser Sarah Mellor’s homebred mare Hotshot (aka Holly) definitely lived up to the name. She had a real presence about her and entered the arena full of energy. Just a seven-year-old, this mare has ability to burn and has demonstrated this by her rapid progression up the levels in dressage, from preliminary level to advanced medium.
At the beginning of the session Holly had a tendency to become a little bit tense. Reynolds pointed out that she was “holding tension just in front of the withers” and that this was carrying through into her back.
Mellor had the difficult task of encouraging the horse to lower her frame and relax through the back and this involved getting to a point where she could ride with her leg on, with the horse accepting the leg.
Reynolds worked with Mellor and Holly on a relatively small circle (12m approx.) asking them to leg yield out, making the circle larger with each round. This is a helpful exercise for horses who don’t want to let the rider put the leg on.
Once the horse had relaxed and Mellor was able to ride her forward from her leg, Reynolds reverted to the all-important transition work, stating that: “The horse is very willing to learn and be brought along, we have to be careful to still maintain and improve the basics.”
After some simple shoulder-in, Mellor and Holly then worked on half pass before moving on to establishing the foundation work of a canter pirouette.
Reynolds asked Mellor to pick up canter and ride a circle. On the circle, Mellor was then to ask Holly to bring her quarters in for a few strides – this is one of the initial steps to teaching a canter pirouette. A canter pirouette is where the horse’s front end moves around a point located directly under the horse’s inside hind foot.
Reynolds stressed that: “This is a high-energy exercise. A young horse, especially, should only be asked to bring the quarters in for a short period and this exercise should not be attempted if the horse has not yet got a collected and balanced canter.
“If you push for a movement when the horse is not ready, that’s what leads to fights and disagreements.” Holly demonstrated plenty of ability during the exercise which led Reynolds to make the comment that: “This horse has all the ability to pick up the advanced work.”
To help develop this movement further, when the horse has become stronger and more familiar with the aforementioned exercise, Reynolds recommends taking a cone or some sort of marker into the arena and riding a smaller circle (10m approx.) around it with the quarters to the inside.
If the quarters get too close to the marker the rider will be made aware that the horse is getting lazy and falling behind the leg. Once you can maintain the size of the circle then you can begin to ride a smaller circle and really start to develop the pirouette.
(L-r) Chairperson of Leinster Dressage Marguerite McSweeney, Patrick Hester, Judy Reynolds and event organise Sarah Mellor (Photo: Bernie Webb)
DRAUGHTS CAN DO DRESSAGE
Beezies Big Brother and Simone Hession, coach and owner of Woodlands Equestrian Centre, burst into the arena like a breath of fresh air. It was wonderful to see an atypical dressage horse amid the typical German and Dutch-breds that tend to dominate the dressage scene.
Beezies Big Brother (aka Duke) is a 12-year-old homebred Irish Draught gelding and he is a credit to Hession, having won numerous championship classes and having won the National Irish Draught Horse Society Trophy in 2016 and 2017.
As Reynolds put it: “Simone is able to show that through correct training and good riding, any breed, even an Irish Draught, can be brought up through the levels and show good work. There is no reason why this pair couldn’t continue on to Grand Prix.”
After a quick assessment Reynolds said: “This horse knows what he is doing. What we need to look at now is what can be improved, so that when it comes to a test situation they can gain extra marks.”
Reynolds first assessed Hession and Duke riding half pass. To help them improve she reminded Hession and those in the audience to: “Finish riding the corner before beginning your movement. A good corner is the start of a good movement,” Reynolds stated.
She also reminded spectators that: “Collection is important at this level, but don’t forget to ride forward.”
Starting half pass with the quarters leading is a common mistake and Reynolds pointed out that this is the first impression the judge gets of the movement so therefore it needs to be corrected. Reynolds suggested riding an exaggerated shoulder-fore (very similar to sholder-in) to help counteract this problem.
Hession and Duke next worked on some tempi changes. These are very difficult movements, as the horse is required to perform multiple flying changes in a row. In a test, tempi changes may be requested every stride (one-time changes), every two strides (two-time changes), three strides, or four strides.
Reynolds began by stating that an Irish Draught will not have the same movement as Valegro or Totilas but it is important to make the most of their ability and often horses with less-expressive changes find the movement easier than big-moving horses. “You have to be able to train the horse to do small, contained changes,” Reynolds stated.
To gain more marks on this movement, Reynolds advised riders to “split the number of changes equally, i.e. show an equal number of changes before and after ‘X’.”
GRAND PRIX GOALS
Last but not least, international Grand Prix dressage rider Kate Dwyer took to the arena with her Grand Prix mount Snowdon Faberge, an 11-year-old gelding by Foxcourt Fabelhaft. It was wonderful to see Dwyer in action, especially since she is only just back in the saddle after recovering from an injury.
Snowdon Faberge, or Fabio as he is affectionately known, made his international debut last year and was the Grand Prix National Winter Champion in both 2016 and 2017.
Dwyer and Fabio treated the audience to an expertly delivered demonstration of some Grand Prix movements, including collected trot, one-time changes, passage and canter pirouettes.
Reynolds explained that it takes a horse at least a year to get to grips with Grand Prix, that it is a big change and requires time for the horse to understand what is being asked and expected of him. Vancouver K (JP) only started Grand Prix at age 11, he is now 15, and Reynolds said that he is still improving and that they will continue to work toward improving their scores.
In conclusion, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative event. It was great to see one of Ireland’s top international riders sharing their knowledge and expertise with the home crowd.