windurra camp: dressage

The last major focal area for the camp was certainly not the least — in fact there was probably more dressage action than anything else. 

Each clinic participant had two dressage lessons, one with Silva Martin and one with Australian Olympian Brett Parbery. Plus US Olympian Laura Graves did a demo with Silva, and also taught lessons for a small contingent of pure dressage clinic participants — most of whom were working on the FEI levels.

nbd just Silva Martin and Laura Graves doin’ a dressage demo!

It was kinda funny too, bc at one point they actually had the pure dressage FEI horses riding with Laura in the same ring as the BN eventers riding with Brett… And obvi it’s natural to be drawn into watching the big fancy impressive moving warmbloods doing fancy upper level stuff vs the scrawny TB learning a leg yield lol… 

But realistically there are always more direct and tactical takeaways from auditing the lessons working at my own level, right? Real talk, tho, I kept trying to find a horse among the various groups that went most like Doozy, so that I could try to follow them around and see how the clinicians handled them… Except, joke’s on me — none of the horses went like Doozy, bc maybe most people are smart enough not to take that kind of hot mess out in public, LOL!

Laura on one of Silva’s horses

Ahem, cough cough, Moving On! Let’s start with the demo, wherein Silva and Laura shared high level thoughts on their approach and training philosophies — while simultaneously floating and flitting hither and yon on extremely fancy creatures, as one does.

They both emphasized the importance of intentional careful practice, of confronting the details right away, every day. Whether that be in developing our strength in our position, or the quality of a gait, or execution of a movement.

Laura in particular noted that she often sees people “get desperate” — a similar theme that Peter brought up in his show jumping lessons too. She said you’re always better off just taking a break, a circle, a breather, regrouping to try again, rather than getting desperate and maybe teaching the horse the wrong thing, or sacrificing positioning etc.

Silva demonstrating a variation of the exercise she coached in many of the lessons

She advised riders to “get out of a movement before failure, even as you work on pushing the boundary.”

Which is when Silva chimed in with the note I shared in an earlier post, that you have to let the horse do things he’s good at too, to help them like it and give you a reason to praise them.

The example she used was teaching eventing horses the changes — she’ll often halt straight and do a rein back after a bad change, NOT because the rein back is punishment for the bad change, but rather bc the horse can easily and correctly answer that question and then she can praise it right away for that, then go back and try the change again. Her point was that the horse can’t be scared of doing the wrong thing.

A lot of hotness in the horses comes from that insecurity (Editor’s note: Uh, **noted**); and while Laura pointed out that some positive tension is required in order to go forward and have energy, we want to avoid it bubbling over, avoid the desperation.

clinic riders did two dressage lessons — one with Silva

The warm up for the eventing groups was remarkably similar to the xc warm up, which was itself remarkably similar to the show jumping warm up. Are you sensing a theme here??

Silva started her groups moving immediately into trot / canter transitions, with changes of direction, to get everyone moving forward right away. From the more forward gait, she then asked riders to zero in on shoulder control, and particularly straightening on the outside rein. 

After a couple transitions between gaits, next came transitions within gaits — first in trot: forward and back in trot, almost walking then trotting forward, with changes of direction. Then in canter — lengthen first, then come back. Riders could use the ring geometry to help, like lengthening down the long side, closing into the corner. 

In one large circle, she wanted to see riders able to execute quiet smooth transitions every quarter — bring back, then normal, bring back, then normal. Again and again and again.

and another lesson with Australian Olympic dressage rider Brett Parbery

Laura kept a similar theme even in her lessons with the pure dressage horses. She noted in particular that riders and horses alike can make mistakes in these exercises — but that by finding that edge, that boundary, then you know where it is and can work on it. The key is being fair when there’s a mistake. 

Tho she noted, we can’t have greater expectations of the horse than the structure we provide. Our aids are only correct when the horse gives the right response (in other words, the horse hasn’t read the textbook, right?). The point of a correction to a mistake is to help the horse understand the original aid, not to have the correction itself become the aid.

Laura also taught lessons for the pure dressage participants

Especially when it came to quality of gaits, adjustability and transitions within the gaits, Laura was constantly asking her students: do you like this walk? Is this the trot you wanted? If not, does the horse know that? In her words, riders need to “make up your mind and act” bc the horse will only know what we tell them.

Possibly the most interesting thing Laura did with each lesson related to that overarching theme of finding forward first and always: Many of her clinic participants would come in wanting to work on a specific movement, two examples were pirouette and half pass zig-zag. Almost invariably, after they’d do the movement once (and thus demonstrate why it was an issue for them), Laura would break it down in the same way. 

She’d have the rider focus solely on establishing the pace and positioning for the movement — be that piro canter or half pass bend — but then just ride forward down the quarter line instead of turning into the movement itself. And it quite literally broke a few brains — even as it made her point crystal clear: so often, our tendency is to get wrapped up in the desperation of the full movement, that we sacrifice the fundamental components (ie, forward). But if you can’t hold the preliminary positioning on a straight line, maybe that’s actually the underlying issue?

nbd just super fancy and inspiring!

Anyway, tho, as fascinating as that was, it’s maybe a little less directly or tangibly applicable to me lol. Well. Except for the mantra of remembering the “forward and straight first” part!

Brett’s lessons with the eventing groups, however, continued to bring those same concepts to life in more relatable ways — particularly with some exercises I hope to repeat at home as Doozy continues in her rehab. 

He had riders working on the same transitions between and within gaits — that’s clearly just something that maybe everybody in the whole wide world is doing all day, every day, and I just forget to even think about it…? But he also introduced more complicated transitions too. 

it was amazing how many threads carried through all three clinician’s sessions

For one of the BN/N groups that had three very different horses, he had them all do the exact same exercise of a small-ish (think ~5m) figure-8 at walk, then after a circuit or two, as you change the bend do a walk-canter transition. Carry on in canter on a circle for as long as you can hold the organization and control the shoulder, then back to walk, regroup, repeat. 

The objective of this exercise is to help the horse arrive in a smaller canter right away, to help set the horse up for the organization, not try to impose organization after the fact. And it was interesting to see how well it worked for each of the horses — the behind-the-leg horse got more prompt, the overly-forward rushing horse got less strung out. Definitely something to try!

every individual horse and rider pair was so different, but they all benefited from the same simple classic exercises 

Tho Brett advised that it’s really all about slowing down the placement of aids — getting acceptance of each component, one step at a time. Prompting each moment of action without panic or desperation, without sacrificing correct posture and positioning. 

Something that will be important for me to remember with Doozy: It’s not just one big movement, it’s actually several smaller aids and steps and moments that each need their own breathing room. And that is what becomes the schooling, becomes the acceptance of independent aids.

Overall, lots to chew on, lots of food for thought, and a LOT of ideas I’m eager to start weaving into our daily practice — especially since a lot of this seems fairly rehab-friendly, too. 

Hopefully there are some good ideas or thoughts or takeaways in there for you all too, and the notes actually make some semblance to sense beyond just a massive download from hours and hours of auditing and lecture LOL! Or maybe some of this is already a major feature of your regular work?