xc clinic with Martin Douzant

Every year, Loch Moy Farm hosts a series of clinics dubbed the "Week with the Pros." The series is wedged between their final recognized HT with BN3DE and the penultimate starter trial of the season, and boasts a different clinician on each day of the week.

Making it more of an occasion, the lessons are held out on the competition cross country course -- which is generally not open for schooling most of the year. Considering the course is still set from the recognized show it makes for a special opportunity.

to glory!!! or something!!!! it's probably over there!!!

Over the years nearly all the Loch Moy schooling vouchers I've earned from volunteering have expired unused. Mostly bc.... Damn, it's a rough drive. My horse lives north east of Baltimore City and Loch Moy is out toward western Maryland, so it's a lot of highways across a lot of traffic. As such, I strongly prefer having two horses on board so they have company on the journey.

I really wanted to do the "Week with the Pros" this year, tho, so I asked around the barn until I found someone who wanted and was able to come with. Based on a combination of scheduling nirvana and personal recommendations, we decided on registering for the Thursday session: semi private xc lessons with Martin Douzant.

starting small. so we can demonstrate our deficiencies as ironically as possible

Charlie somehow managed to keep himself in one piece leading up to the clinic, but our traveling buddy was not so lucky and had to bow out at the last minute. I was super bummed she couldn't come and more than a little reluctant to make Charlie do the drive alone, lest he end up weaving the entire way...

But we pushed forward anyway and actually he ended up completely fine. Better than fine -- he was GREAT. And actually, so was the lesson.

we spent most of the warm up hitting < 2'3 fences at embarrassingly awkward distances

Martin Douzant may be a familiar name in that he's extremely well known as a producer of young horses -- including in the Young and Future Event Horse programs. He's got a quiet steady way about him that seems to really help young horses thrive and flourish.

Overall, I wasn't really totally sure what to expect from a private lesson (since, again, my lesson mate had to cancel last minute). But my plan going in was: Have Fun.

BN table looked exciting after all that

After telling Martin a bit about ourselves, he had us begin with going back and forth over... some extremely tiny jumps lol. Which, obviously, Charlie totally aced as the most perfect horse in the world. And I felt all nice and smug in having explained that we'd been doing N for ages and schooling T for nearly as long.

But then... Martin sent us out on a mini course of another 5 or so tiny jumps (the largest of which was the BN table above) and.... Well. We proceeded to miss just about every single distance. Oops.

martin trying to tell me to be less... uh, me-ish.
M: "that thing you do.... don't."

Y'all have totally seen us do this before too -- when Charlie gets to the slightly gung-ho long spot and I sorta sit back, slip the reins, and clutch my pearls while he flings himself across the fence.

So. Um. Martin did not like this. At all. He was adamant that, in that moment right before, during, and right after the jump itself, the rider *must* be in balance with the horse.

charles feels likewise

So this would be the focus of the lesson -- making me go with the horse. Which, I gotta be honest, was in a way weirdly refreshing. For years now I've sorta cringed at all these photos and videos of me riding horses in my *me* sorta way. But yet, none of my regular coaches have made much of a point of changing that habit, so I guess I sorta figured it was ok.

And like, tons of professional riders routinely maintain fairly upright positions (Phillip Dutton comes to mind), so perhaps I'd convinced myself that maybe it wasn't really a bad thing. Considering I've managed to stick some shit in that position, maybe it was even a good thing?

pleading with me to please try holding mane.
M: "it's right here, srsly tho"

But Martin's point wasn't actually about my upper body -- rather, he cared about where my hands were going. Which was perhaps something I was willfully overlooking haha. All those pros who have upright positions still have independent and following hands lol...

So yea. In this lesson, the crazy pearl clutching I do with my hands when we hit a funky distance would be a primary focus. In no uncertain terms, Martin wanted me holding mane over the fence. Actually he would have preferred I was riding with a neck strap, but the mane would do too.

trying to not get left behind at BN

He actually described me as having "fragile balance," something that surprised me bc again I feel like I've been able to more or less sit some shit. My own impression is that... these positional flaws have more to do with muscle memory stemming from lack of commitment to the forward ride.

Honestly tho, I'm not sure the "why" really matters here. Bc the prescription is the same either way: I need to stay in a more forward balance with the horse no matter what. Long spot, close spot, no spot. My hands need to stay in the appropriate zip code.

oooh we graduated to N!!

Obviously it won't surprise you even a little bit to hear that when I made it my business to grab mane and keep my hands in the right spot, suddenly everything felt wayyyy better. Which is a lesson I apparently will continue to relearn again and again: that when you maintain a more forward positional balance, it's easier to keep a forward pace that gives you more options to the fence.

heck yes, progression yo

After Martin got us consistently holding this forward position, he sent us back out for more course work. Actually -- this was probably the biggest distinction of this lesson compared to most other xc lessons I've taken (with the exception of Dan's xc lessons): it was almost ALL course work.

is a skinny!! just ignore the slightly crooked line to it!!!

And I REALLY liked that approach. It definitely suits Charlie more than the start / stop of just doing one or two fences at a time. The horse did really really well with just being set loose to cover some ground and jump 5-6 things at a time.

and another skinny!!!

Another aspect of the lesson that kinda surprised me a bit was what sort of fences Martin would include. On any given course we'd have jumps ranging in size from 12" to T, often one right after the next.

This.... Is not something I've really ever done before in schooling sessions. Usually there might be some sort of progression in size as part of the warm up. And perhaps for more technically challenging combinations or questions you might downgrade the size of the fence. But generally I try to get up to size and then stay there.

N oxer!! -- for some reason i dislike these airy rails

But Martin's point was that... So much of how Charlie and I are meeting the fences has to do with my own reactions to them. I'm maybe not careful enough with the very small fences. And then maybe I'm a bit nervously excitable at the bigger fences. Either way, I'm not consistent.

And he wanted consistency. He wanted me jumping each fence exactly the same, whether it was 12" or 3'5.

this log is usually on the T course going into water. seems like an N configuration here tho. either way, finally jumped it one way or another!

Specifically, he wanted me holding a forward balance in my position (holding mane at the fence itself) but otherwise waiting for the fences.

As soon as the jumps started getting bigger he noted my tendency to want to "chase" Charlie a bit if I didn't see a distance. Which like... I fully admit it. At this point in my riding I feel like I have to "do something" or make a choice or go for it or something.

M tootsie roll.... kinda hate that these fences have false ground lines

Which led to quite a few bad distances at the line of tootsie roll fences we did (modified and training). Martin wanted me to... do less. Which, ya know, haha, is hard.

It was interesting tho, bc I felt like this was the sort of counterbalance I needed to really understand some of what Sally has been saying to me all summer. She's been wanting me to keep Charlie's hind end moving forward to the bridle, while also maintaining solid contact.

tho the T had some nice brush for a ground line and we still biffed it so... meh lol

I felt like in this lesson, I could keep Sally's words cycling through my head while also focusing hard on following Martin's real-time instruction. And that in doing so, I was ending up with a better ride and more complete understanding of what that "feel" is that each trainer is looking for.

Bc it's all the same stuff, right? They all want to see the same thing.

M explaining to me that my horse is better than me. lol, we know bro, we know

In a way I actually felt oddly reassured that Martin kinda wanted us to break it down. Rather than focusing on challenging combinations or questions, he simply wanted us to be consistent. And said that THIS was our biggest limiting factor in moving up.

Which is true. I've felt like, at our best, Charlie is invincible. But.... In those moments when Charlie isn't operating fully at 110%, I still can't reliably pick up the slack and fill that gap.

wedge back the other way!

For the record, tho, Charlie was an exceptionally good boy for this lesson. We'd had a spot of rain the day before so the ground was finally a bit softer. Plus it was gusting at up to 50mph haha. Like, really fucking windy. Which sure, might make some horses crawl right out of their own skin, but was just the ticket for helping Charlie feel his most forward lol.

next lesson showed up before M was done with us...

And I actually think Martin kinda liked Charlie. Like when I tried to defend my defensive upright position by saying how some shit had happened this summer and I wasn't always sure whether the horse would go at the long spots... Martin basically said, "Uh... Yea I think the horse is going to jump, tho. So just go with him."

Or when we finally started including more N and T fences in our course work, how he was like, "Oh, ok yea, this horse needs to jump bigger fences." He described the horse as plenty scopey, and said he liked how Charlie jumped the skinnies. I'm not entirely sure what, exactly, he liked about it (probably should have asked) but it was nice to hear all the same.

had to finish with some steps!! here be where charlie threw his shew

Honestly my overall impression was that Martin liked the horse and felt he was completely capable of doing the things I want to do. But that *I* need to be better. Which, ya know, we already knew.

I appreciated tho how it felt like he was able to communicate his own soft quiet style of riding through instruction in such a way that I could adopt it at least in part. The trick will be, as always, in seeing if I can hang on to the feeling without the constant instruction haha.

we went down too!! which, incidentally, produced the motivation for my new "oh shit" d-ring strap...

I also really liked the format of the lesson being predominantly course work, with just a few instances of sessioning individual elements (like the bank above, which proved to be another example of my bad hands at work...).

Especially considering his courses had less to do with the individual elements and more to do with the consistent steady rhythm, this gives me a lot of ideas for how to incorporate into my own schooling routine.

helmet cam video here!

The video is a bit longer than what I typically try to upload, and even so it still cut out most of our earliest warm up fences. But I really wanted to capture as much of the ride as possible, especially the parts of the course work where I was working on adopting the feel Martin was trying to impart.

Tho, lol, you can tell we didn't really do much in terms of addressing the left drift in this particular ride. The longer I watch the video, the more I end up leaning farther and farther to the right, trying to subconsciously straighten us out LOL. Ah well, there's always more to work on for another day!

he had a lot to say to us. all of which was extremely useful.

Obviously signing up for a private clinic lesson with an unknown trainer is always kind of a gamble. Especially if things haven't necessarily been going well in our training. In this case, tho, I felt like it really paid off.

The instruction felt like the perfect counter point to all the work I've been doing this summer. I've taken probably more cross country lessons this year than in the last couple years combined, and it really feels like this particular ride helped refine and hone some of those key concepts.

It's not clear if there will be future opportunities to ride with Martin bc he's based even farther away down in The Plains, Virginia, but 10/10 would do again given the chance lol.

In the meantime, tho, it was great to have Charlie feeling more like himself again! Here's hoping we may end up with a fun fall season after all!! :D