Show Jumping Clinic with Phillip Dutton

First off, let's give a big round of applause to Charlie haha. After a summer of busted clinic plans with one random ding after another, finally Charlie was healthy and happy right on cue to attend a clinic with Phillip Dutton at the lovely Trevi Manor Farm. Way to go, big guy lol...

#sorrynotsorry for the photo spam today. Austen braved extreme elements to capture these (and so so so SO many more) lovely photos - it would be a crime not to honor her service and post a crap load of  them <3 pc Austen Gage

The clinic hosts and PD himself also deserve some recognition, as do all the other riders and esp the auditors - including Austen and former barn mate Rachael. Seriously, y'all are troopers! The weather was the closest it could literally be to an actual cold wet towel. The dampening effect was.... persistent and pervasive. Nobody was safe dry.

pictured: damp and getting damper. pc Austen Gage

Nationally, we're hearing all about the insane rainfall in Florida and other southern states. But it's been pretty darn wet here in Maryland too, and the ground is completely saturated. This Sunday was no exception: Chilly 40*F temps with a relentless drizzle that left everyone, including the horses, feeling raw and chilled to the bone.

So. Not ideal, right? But we're eventers and we're tough, I guess, so we carried on with the clinic anyway. It helped that at least the footing at Trevi Manor was very good and held up nicely against the onslaught.

three of us, trying to soak up PD's words along with all the rain haha. pc Austen Gage

Our Training group was the largest of the day, with 5 riders. In terms of experience and years in the field, Charlie was undoubtedly the greenest of the group on paper.

handsome charlie <3 sodden emma. pc Austen Gage

The group included one horse with extensive T mileage prior to being sidelined by injury for a year; one who went P before injury; another who has been going N for ~3 years and was finally pushing for T; and a fourth who moved up to T this past summer. Plus Charlie, who has done.... uh, 4 Ns, completing 3 of them (those numbers go up +1 if you include the Twilight tho!).

getting started!! i was honestly just happy to be here haha. pc Austen Gage

Realistically, tho, I'm pleased to say Charlie held his own in the group and didn't stick out as "green." The group seemed more or less matched, which was nice considering there were so many of us. Plus all the jumps stayed very small anyway (tbh, most were not adjusted after the BN group before us...) so it hardly seemed to matter.

The flat work was probably the only real distinction between the T group and others I watched (tho I fully admit I didn't watch the warm ups of any other groups, so I could be wrong here).

champion walker. pc Austen Gage

PD put us through a rigorous session. You can sorta see in the course diagram (not to scale but close enough) that the ring was not very big. The course had an open rectangle at one end of the ring, and PD had the 5 of us stick to that small rectangle for warm up, explicitly coaching us to make square turns in every corner. It was a lot of horses in a small space, but it was ok.

trit-trotting around. PD: "shorten your reins!" pc Austen Gage

PD said it was important to prepare the horses in our training, that it's not enough for them to be "brave" or to just sorta "survive" a level. But that, instead, it was our jobs to teach them everything they would need to know so nothing came as a surprise. He also emphasized that our schooling should not rely on our hands to make changes in the horse's shape.

cantering without stirrups, god save us all. pc Austen Gage

I can't remember the exact order of everything bc it was very rapid-fire, but once in trot we started immediately with those square turns in every corner. Then started integrating shoulder fore, then straight, then shoulders out in counter bend, then straight. Then turning down the center line and leg yielding out, all of us in a row. Then up the center line to change directions (wherein I got dinged for riding more rounded turns instead of square turns, tho in my defense I was just trying to get more space between me and the horse in front haha).

Then repeat the same shoulder in - straight - shoulder out - straight - leg yield process. Then some lengthening and collecting of the trot - bigger steps down the long side, collecting in the corners. This was obviously challenging in the crowded space but doable. Then sitting trot (atrocious haha!) and two point, without losing connection, and then canter from two point.

kinda exhausted before we even got started haha! charlie lookin good tho <3 pc Austen Gage

In canter, we also did the leg yield exercises, and the lengthening and collecting. And then dropped our stirrups, continued on in canter, then transitioned to trot and then two point in trot and more sitting trot (still without stirrups), before finally coming back to walk.

Honestly I am sure I'm messing up the order in there, and there were more changes of direction, and rapid transitions between different movements and rider positions. I do remember there were different times we cantered, including a few walk-canter transitions. It felt a little bit more of a test of rider and horse skill sets rather than an actual "this is how you should warm up your horse" type approach haha. Intense!

full set of exercises, all oxers are square and everything is ridden in both directions

Charlie was a good boy, tho, and stayed with me. It was a little more rapid-fire than I typically ride him, but he adjusted well enough and handled it fine. For his part, PD's running commentary aside from telling us where to go, was along the lines of "heels down," "shorter reins," "that was a bad turn," and "transition has to happen faster, he has to listen."

this little blue and white grid of offset fences started off innocently enough. pc Austen Gage

After that, it was time to jump! There were four main lines we worked over during the lesson: the grid line (three offset fences), the diagonal of oxers, the bending line with liverpool, and the outside in and out. Plus a corner as the end jump. There were two other jumps set in the ring, but we never did anything with them, so I left them out of my diagram. Also included were markers in every corner that PD insisted: stay outside the markers!

holy moly tho it did not *stay* innocent tho! Charlie's side eye says it all haha... pc Austen Gage

We started with the grid: first going directly in 3 strides over the first and last of the three, both directions. Then tracking right, catching the middle inside element to the final outside element in 1 stride. Then changing directions and putting all three together in 1-to-1.

First thing to realize in a PD lesson is that every exercise is done twice, once from each direction. Second thing to learn is: his instruction is focuses almost exclusively on outcomes. For example, "Ride this line in 4 even strides." He's not saying how to do it, rather he's saying what he wants you to do. And either you do that thing, or you repeat the exercise. With the way his lines were set (open), the answer to basically any problem was "forward."

not sure we ever quite executed this grid particularly well lol. also i hope you are enjoying how well all these hq photos capture my and charlie's WIDE array of expressions... pc Austen Gage

And so, you could expect to hear PD say (and will hear him saying in the video): "Forward," "Good," "Kick kick kick!!," and "Next horse." And occasionally, "Less hand."

Anyway. Back to the exercises: That grid was way more challenging than I expected it to be. Even with the jumps being very very small. It wasn't super clear to me if we should be aiming to jump the center of each fence (something that's been a focus in recent lessons with Trainer P) and thus create a bend in the grid line; or if we were supposed to find a straight line by jumping the ends of each fence.

small diagonal line was easy peasy after that grid! pc Austen Gage

With Charlie, I aimed for something sorta in between. And yea, it was a lot harder than I expected, possibly bc the jumps were set on an open stride. I've worked very hard on Charlie's flat work, but have done almost everything on a compressed stride.

Charlie felt like he was landing a little too strong too, which made me want to collect him even more, but in retrospect he was landing strong bc he had to make big moves to make up the distance when we jumped in too quiet.

jumping in for the add stride back down the line. pc Austen Gage

PD, for his part, didn't seem to care how this grid was accomplished so long as it was done in an even 1-to-1 strides. Most of the horses made very ugly shapes through the grid - esp the middle element, all the horses had at least one effort where they were very hollow and inverted. Considering I typically use grids to improve a horse's shape, this was interesting to me.

I suppose the intention was to demonstrate that the horse's salvation was forward, and that the riders needed to stay committed and go with the horse, and not rely on hand to do so. Easier said than done!

charlie don't care about no liverpool! please to note the strategically placed blocks all over the place. pc Austen Gage

After that, we worked on the diagonal line of oxers - first in 4 strides, then turning around and coming the other direction in 5. This I *did* expect to be challenging considering what I perceived to be Charlie landing a little strongly from the fences, but actually he was mostly pretty good. Swapped leads and was a little braced coming down in 5, but did the thing. Good boy.

Next was the bending line. The line had a block parked in the middle as a land mark. First trip (off left lead) we were to go outside the block, which rode in a nice 5. Then coming back on the right lead we were to go inside the block (so a straighter line) which worked nicely in 4.

aww lookie charlie being so fierce about those jumps that don't even reach his knees lol. pc Austen Gage

Next we came back down on the right lead from liverpool to oxer, but this time outside the block (so more of a bend), and Charlie and I chopped in a 6th stride. That was interesting to me, and mirrored the issue I had with the grid of three offset fences. When we're tracking right on the right lead, but have to bend left, Charlie and I struggle to maintain stride length.

Anyway, from that bending line we went to the corner. It was relatively small - set around <= N, but wide. Charlie didn't care tho, jumped it easily.

oooh there we go big guy!! pc Austen Gage

Then the next piece felt like we were building toward some course work. We came back down the grid on left lead, wherein Charlie and I almost died and I totally slipped the reins. PD was hollering to keep going and ride forward and "C'mon!!!!" to the corner, which Charlie thankfully did, and jumped it great, then turned immediately (but outside the corner blocks!!!) back to the bending line, taking the inside route in a forward 4.

#obsessed with this sweet horse tho. he's so game! pc Austen Gage

That was.... not a very pretty sequence for me and Charlie. Felt like we really kinda had to fight for it, and I sorta expected to repeat it. But I guess since we ended up getting the "forward" answer well enough, we left it at that.

atta boy, chuck! pc Austen Gage

Next was the final line of the lesson: an in and out that PD cautioned was set on a very open stride and that I'd need to get to the canter where I felt like "This is good," and then... add more haha.

This was the first jump that went up a little bit, and we rode it first from vertical to oxer. Then it went up again to actual proper T size, and we rode oxer to vertical. Charlie knocked it the first time, so we repeated and he really jumped the snot out of it. Good boy!

finally starting to look more forward- PD's intention all along. pc Austen Gage

I thought from there we might put everything together into a course, since that's often how trainer P operates. Jump each individual exercise, then put it all together. But nope, that was it, class was dismissed!

game face: engaged (lol....)!! pc Austen Gage

Slightly abrupt, but not a moment too soon if you asked the horses haha. Charlie was a very VERY good boy for the entire lesson. He got a little sulky at moments, but nothing actually perceptible to anyone else. Mostly just kinda felt like, "It's raining and it's miserable and I'm cold but I'm being a good boy so why do you keep torturing me so?!?" Poor suffering Charlie!

yesssss go Charlie!! this was probably one of the only T fences we jumped all day, but he made it count. pc Austen Gage

The organizer told us when we pulled in to park that PD was sacrificing a lot of the normal "chat" in order to keep things moving, considering the wet miserable weather. So while I did get some commentary from him, mostly I've had to reflect a bit on my impressions of the experience and the videos to better understand my takeaways.

landing locked and loaded. pc Austen Gage

First up: The Forward! issue. This is entirely of my own creation, an artifact of the years spent teaching Charlie to compress and collect and carry his own self. Charlie's defining characteristic is his extreme length. And his six years on the track left him plenty capable of flattening into an extremely ground-covering gallop. So we've taught him to shorten.

final vertical of the stone wall in-and-out line

The issue is: I need to make the next step in Charlie's training. We need to maintain the feeling we can achieve on the flat: round, uphill, in front of my leg, and soft to the bridle; but carry a more forward pace and increase the activity and reach of his hind end.

yup, he's a champ. a very patient, and very wet, champ. pc Austen Gage

My job here, however, will be to not throw the baby out with the bath water. Rather than changing our entire approach to training Charlie (which seems to be working pretty darn well for the horse, let's be real), this clinic serves as a reminder that we need balance. And that ultimately, as we look toward more technically challenging levels, I *need* to get a better feel for riding Charlie on a longer stride.

congrats for making your way through this beast of a post. your reward is a quick video lol

Second big takeaway: This lesson was basically all about turning. Partly due to the realities of a small-but-functional arena. And partly bc of the exercises themselves. And? Charlie did a helluva lot better than I would have thought.

thoroughly soaked haha. pc Austen Gage

But that left bend in particular caught us out a couple times unexpectedly. Luckily that's easy enough to practice! Considering each of these exercises routinely show up in lessons with Trainer P (albeit usually at shorter distances), we can start targeting that apparent asymmetry.

aw what a good boy tho <3 pc Austen Gage

So overall, two very useful and actionable takeaways. And all in all, a good experience for Charlie. Both as a test of his current skill set and an addition to his education in decidedly sub-optimal conditions. Hopefully we'll be able to translate this into perfect off-season fodder lol!