What was to become a long adventure started with my arrival at Logan Airport to discover that my flight was delayed by three hours. I would later discover that it was because the plane had been struck by lightening leaving Frankfurt and was forced to turn around and fix computer systems etc. before making its way to Boston.

I had to get creative about contacting the Academy because at this point it was nearly midnight and therefore 6 AM on Sunday morning in Germany. My mom at Lendon’s, my Dad in Montana and myself all called various numbers in the hopes of reaching someone. Sadly, we were without much luck, even with Marissa’s good advice to e-mail various people at the Academy. So, I made it to Frankfurt around 2pm, made arrangements on a new flight, and continued to toy with payphones, etc., conferring all the time with fellow confused travelers.
The trip to Muenster was quite easy from there—only a one-hour flight, and the great thing about this airline is that they give out chocolate instead of pretzels or peanuts! : ) I made it to the airport and after wandering for a short time, wondering how I’d find where I was staying, I spotted a jacket with the IAES logo on the back. Fortunately, my call to Tanya Boyd’s cell phone (the coordinator in the US) late at night had proved to be successful, as she had informed Christiana that I had missed my connection.

It was a beautiful ride out to the academy and then a short trip to my hotel. I’ll have the Academy van for the week! It’s a great little hotel…the Biedendieck—nice big bed, storage space to arrange my things, and a nice little bathroom.

I met the two other students when I arrived-there will only be the three of us for the week and then a few others will join next week for the “seat clinic”. Both of them are from Maryland: Robin and Kelly, long time friends roughly thirty and forty-years old.

I had dinner in the hotel—chicken with tomato and cheese and salad. I can tell that this is going to be a very different eating experience for me over the two weeks. Everything has cheese on it!

I went for a short walk around the cute little town, listened to men singing from a small pub down the street, finally found an ATM so that I’d have a few Euros on me, and returned to my room to stay up as late as possible so that I’d sleep through the night.

Tomorrow is my first ride—an evaluation probably, though most of the school horses are away in Belgium for the World Championships for handicapped riding, so it may be a quiet day. I’m looking forward to it!

Monday, September 8th, 2003

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It was a quiet, but good first day. I arrived at the stable at 9:30 and spent time looking around and chatting with the horses. They all seem very content in this stable—it is incredibly airy and they each seem to feel as though they have a lot of individual space. I played also with the dogs—2 jack Russell terriers and a lab/Irish setter mix. Another great little animal on the property is a miniature horse, Sunshine, who is only a year-old and hangs out on the lawn all day and is a companion horse at night.

We sat down briefly with Christiane and shared our goals and riding experience before being sent off to get our horses ready. My first mount was, “Ashanti Akteur.” I was told that he is a nine-year-old who knows half-passes and has a single flying change if he’s in a really good spot.
My horse was quite tense in his back and a little short in his strides, so my warm-up consisted of a lot of bending lines and shoulder-in to try to get him to lengthen his strides and let go in his back. I did not do as much forward and back work as I should have at the beginning because he was fairly “goosy,” but I was told that I really should get a feel for his gaits by trying some lengthenings. I had no idea that his trot was as huge as it was in his lengthening. Once I felt this I understood much better what Christiane was saying about never half-halting anything that wasn’t in front of my leg. For the first time I felt his back come up for a moment. I continued with the trot mediums and extensions. I could barely sit them towards the middle of a line because he was bouncing me out of the saddle with his hind legs and catapulting me out of the saddle because my seat was so used to being on a plane instead of a saddle! Even so, he was a lot of fun and his shoulder-in to half-pass was much better--he was much more uphill in general. The strides were now definitely much longer and my next step would have been to get a little bit more reliable half-halt within that big trot. Overall, a lot more fun at the end!

In the afternoon, after lunch at a pizza place and a trip to the grocery store, we took a trip to the “state stud” and the German Riding School. This is where young students come in preparation for their Bereiter apprenticeship and then later come fro their two-week clinic and Bereiter exam. They generally ride the horses that have been retired from the stud (are no longer breeding). The barns were absolutely gorgeous. In the “stud” there are about 140 horses and the government owns all these stallions! They generally are distributed around the country when they are breeding and then all return here for the rest of the year. We visited the three indoor arenas and the outdoor space where they have the stallion approval, for example. It was fun to see the riders getting ready for their bereiter exam—it was chaos in the ring! There were about fifteen to twenty of them in the ring at the same time, primarily on stallions, most of them on the horses for the first time. There were some good riders, some struggling riders, and some horses that looked like a lot of fun, while there were others who were obviously very difficult. It was good to watch them make the most of the ride and nice to see that they were very normal riders, riders we can definitely emulate.

A short dinner back at the hotel and a nice little walk in town before going to bed early!

Tuesday, September 9th

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We started the day with a brief orientation with Linda who had returned from the World Championships. We then moved right on to riding as a group once again. It seems as though our morning session is always going to be a group lesson with all three of us. I was back on Ashanti, who was extra tense and tight. I started out really forward, but it turned out that we didn’t yet have the capabilities for long strides. So, because he was short and quick, I slowed things down n and moved to a little more stretched frame until he w as a bit more relaxed. I still had trouble with what Christiane wanted me to do with him because he felt very fast when I used as much leg as she asked me to. However, the half-passes were better today.

We went for a short trip to a nice tack shop to take a peek and then to a Chinese food restaurant for lunch. I felt a little funny eating Chinese in Germany, but I was going along for the ride. The tack shop was great-breeches here are about half the price they are at home!

Robin took a lunge lesson and worked on sitting and standing two strides at the trot and becoming suppler in her hips. While she did this, I tacked up Dr. Doulittle and warmed him up a little. He was incredibly tight in his poll and definitely downhill, so I worked to get him more on my seat and moving towards the bridle with his hind legs. I had the most trouble with his canter because he strongly pulled me out of the saddle. This caused me to sit on my thigh instead of my seat and so I had to work very hard to get him active and then find my seat so that he didn’t get fast on me or fall more on his forehand. I was able to get a little suspension in his trot once I had my seat swinging through and he was off of my hand. This was one of the sweetest horses I have ever had the pleasure of tacking up. He was giving me kisses and licking my jacket, etc., wrapping his neck around me…very funny! He won the silver medal for the Australian handicapped rider who rode him last week and will be going there in a few weeks to be ridden by the team. He will be perfect for that—he works very hard and doesn’t make a wrong step. It’s amazing that he does as much as he does, especially because he is not really built in a way that gives him any help for Dressage with a hind leg that is quite out behind.

Now, there was quite an adventure that evening for sure! The towns in the area surrounding my hotel were going to have a fire drill and Kelly in our group was going to be a “victim” of the fire. Somehow I managed to get out of being one! At 7pm, about five fire trucks, three police vehicles, and four ambulances arrived. The hotel decided that they wanted an American victim to throw off the trainees, so Kelly was taken down from her window in the bucket on the large ladder of one of the trucks. She was then put on a stretcher with an oxygen mask and driven around for a block in the ambulance. We have a lot of pictures—it was very funny! They took it very seriously and then we had a picnic in the back with tons of bratwurst and a lot of firemen and rescue workers! It was nothing I had ever envisioned!

Wednesday, September 10th, 2003

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It’s still pretty cold today. We started at the barn at 9:00 with a theory session with Stephan after watching him ride one of the younger horses. She is a very cute mare, five-years-old and very focused. I really liked one of his exercises as he rode a shoulder-in at the trot with a lot of bend, cantered the short-side as a break for her, and then went back to his trot shoulder-in on the next long-side. Another interesting thing that he did was to trot in a medium trot for quite a while-a few rounds, until she found her own rhythm that was much better than the one that she started in. Stephan rides with his hands a little higher than I’m used to seeing, but the movement in his seat was interesting as he gently goes back and forth between seat bones.

The theory session revolved around the basics of the German training system and the scale of education or the training pyramid as many of us call it. I will re-cap the most important points of the session in note form:

In the German system, no matter what sport one is riding (jumping, dressage, eventing, vaulting)—everyone uses the pyramid. Riders specialize late so that they are much more well-rounded. This allows every riding sport to have the focus of making the most of the horse—riding it to its full potential.

Within this, the Dressage seat is the “mother” of all seats and all other seats i.e. half-seat, evolve from this.

Up through third level, riders have to compete in both dressage and jumping with the same horse at that same level. So, if you ride a third level dressage test, you ride a third level jumping test as well.

Riders have to qualify with scores from each level in both jumping and dressage in order to move up.

Benefits: The rider is well-rounded and learns a natural balance and feel: one needs to experience the extremes before one will have a good working trot, for example. The goal is to go for a good athlete. This is good for the horse too—a horse should be ridden on a number of different terrains doing a number of different things. For example, using a racetrack to teach changes allows the space necessary to make them relaxed and a horse can be trotted around the track also to find out what they can do with their body. This is true for jumping too.
Stephan says that if you ride a young horse on the same ground or always on the flat, it is believed that they have trouble earlier with navicular and tendon problems.

Germans—discipline and obedience that is in their history is what helps to make them good riders—they “shut up and do what they are told” and think later.

The “Scale of Education” follows the physical prerequisites of a horse’s body—builds up ability and strength. The following is Stephan’s take on the scale, which is a review, but he puts things in slightly different words at times:

Overall goal: Throughness; Letting the aids through
He reminded us that all of this has to be worked through daily, but there are three phases that correspond to different points in a horse’s training:
Rhythm, Relaxation, and Contact fit into the “Phase of Familiarization” in which you develop the horse’s confidence and are re-finding the natural balance of the horse and the natural gaits under the rider’s weight.
Contact, Impulsion, and Straightness fall under the “Development of the forward thrust” phase. Here one develops strength, power, and energy in the horse, educated gaits, and ridden lateral balance. This last one is described as learning to more towards the rider’s weight as in a half-pass when the rider sits to the inside, rather than falling away from the weight. This comes from a narrowing base of support in the horse.
Impulsion, Straightness, and Collection are within the “Development of the carrying capacity” phase. A horse is ridden in longitudinal balance where the front and hind legs are closer together and the surface of support is minimized even further. Within this if you sit a little forward, the horse goes forward and sit a little back, the horse sits down and comes back.

I thought that these phases were quite interesting. I was familiar with the first, but the others were worded slightly differently than I had heard before.I tacked up Ashanti once again. Christiane decided that she should warm-up my horse for me and so she got on for about 30 minutes. It was interesting to watch because I definitely saw a lot of what I had felt the day before. When I got on, I was sad to feel that he still felt tight in the back and the tempo was much too fast, even though that was what she wanted from me. I really feel as though he’s still too tight to ride with that much leg and up in front of me. I wanted to find a falling down neck in a slow rhythm the Schumacher way, but I had to ride him as they were asking me too. Even though I don’t agree with how he is being ridden, I am learning a lot about keeping the horses in front of my leg when I half-halt. It was a very frustrating ride for me because he felt much too fast for me to feel in control and he got me very defensive in my position in my seat. I was glad that I would have an afternoon ride on a different horse.

My afternoon did prove to be much better. I rode Dr. Doulittle again and he warmed up much better this time-very much in front of my leg and seat. Christiane still felt that I was not using enough leg and that my seat was not in the right position, so she shortened my stirrups by two holes and was tough on me to use my leg all the time to push him up in front of my seat as I half-halted him on my outside rein. They are very big here on controlling the outside hind leg as well so that there is more bend through the body. She even had me think about shoulder-in with my inside leg and haunches-in with my outside leg. The shorter stirrups helped me to put a little bit more weight in my seat and I was able to bring my pelvis more forward as she wanted. I think that I must have been hollowing my lower back a bit or bringing my body back from my waist up when she asked me to, rather than my whole seat back and under. I did 15-meter circles at the canter in haunches-in, which was tough with him because he’s hard to get between both legs, but it helped me to zero-in on the different places that he was escaping. I then went to the walk and thought of half-steps before moving into the trot. I was able to get a nice trot that had a little bit of suspension and worked on lengthening and collecting the trot with a lot of leg and a short half-halt the outside rein. She wanted me to develop the lengthening and develop the collection, each within a few strides rather than in one stride. This was a tough ride on my abdominal muscles and back because I had to work for every stride of uphill collection, but he was a good teacher because he made it totally black and white as to when you had him in the right spot and yet he was very willing to go around on his forehand and patiently await my seat and legs in the right combination again.

I finished with a dinner of more cheese and sauce than was possible to eat…I’m not sure how they do it here!…and watched a movie in German in my room. It’s amazing what you can come up with for a story when you are only interpreting body language! Now off to sleep before what I’m sure will be physical rides again tomorrow.

Thursday, September 11th, 2003

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Well, today was only one ride and then some sightseeing and resting in the afternoon. I rode Dr. Doulittle again this morning,
I think that “Dr. D” was a little tired today, but he did spend more time up in his shoulders with his poll up than the first two days. I was getting the same comments of needing more leg, especially in my corners and in the turns going to the half-pass. I’m getting a better feel for riding him up and forward in the half-pass with my inside leg and she really wants me to be leading with the horse’s shoulder in the half-pass, even more to an extreme than I’ve been told in the past. I think that by doing this, they are able to start horses in the half-pass at a younger age as well, as I’ve seen a lot of young horses here doing baby half-passes. I did some tempi-changes with him and they were good practice for me because he loves to dive down. The four-tempis have always been my weakness because I have so much time in between the changes and so it was very rewarding when I was able to keep him up in front of my leg and collected between the changes. Something I find quite interesting about the vocabulary I have been hearing is the idea of maintaining “long strides” in the collection. I have often thought of shorter strides with more activity, but thinking of long strides really helps to give a mental picture of riding the hind legs towards the bit in collection.

In this lesson I was still having a hard time completely understanding what it is that I was doing wrong in my position and how to remedy it. So, at the end of the ride I did clarify what it was that she really wanted when she kept saying more leg, more leg. She said that she just wanted me to mimic the rhythm of the gait on his sides, which would come more from my ankle. So, thankfully I can now take some pressure out of my leg and tomorrow I will have a new plan.
Kelly, Robin, and I all left for Muenster to spend the afternoon. We went to a cute restaurant in the town, Italian again, and then walked around through the streets past a number of cute little stores, bakeries, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. It is fun walking through town if only to see all of the bikes and all of the different cars, many of them teeny-tiny! Sadly, nearly every store closes from 12:00-2:30 for lunch and so we did much more window-shopping than actual shopping. We then drove on to a tack store called, “Leo Nosthoff’s,” in a small town not far away. Even though we didn’t cover a ton of the countryside, it was a lot of fun to see all of the different farms and open fields as we drove along. Leo’s was very funny. It was chaos inside! The bridles looked like a jungle on the wall, and I’m not sure you could have found anything inside without asking for it. However, the people were very nice and the prices were fabulous! I bought some wonderful spurs that were about one-forth the price they are in the United States, and I managed to rummage through a huge box to find a new helmet for myself. Anyone who has to be associated with me for any reason and has seen my old, huge helmet will be very excited about the new helmet. I don’t look nearly as goofy : )
My night was filled with a lot of catching up on e-mails, another movie in German, and an early bedtime again.

Friday, September 12, 2003

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I think that I am finally catching on! My ride this morning was SO much better on Dr. Doulittle and I think that even Christiane was pleased. There were four of us in the lesson this time because another woman, Susan, has joined us for the rest of the time that I will be here. She is very nice—a trainer from northern California who works primarily with morgans and does both dressage and jumping. Dr. D was very motivated. He started out with a huge walk and I had him on my seat in just a few minutes. The new leg, resting on his sides and just following his rhythm, worked very well. It was nice to feel like I was riding like myself again with the added benefit of a slightly deeper seat and more useful stomach muscles. I still had the shorter stirrups, one hole longer than the day before, and I think that this has helped me to feel when my seat gets tense when I use my leg or back. I did a lot of half-passes both in trot and in canter and some extensions as well as some changes again. I thought a lot about almost doing half steps in the walk before my trot or canter transitions and this was quite useful as well. We finished the ride with a nice trip out to the field. I managed to do what was similar to an emergency dismount as my guy wanted to lose me and I landed pretty much on my feet in slow motion. So, the walk outside was a bit longer than anticipated because we had to go back out again. If only you could have seen him kick up his heels on the way back to the barn before stopping to eat grass. He looked up upon my arrival as if to say, where did you go?

We watched Christiane ride Ashanti again before we went into Warendorf for lunch. She had a tough ride on him because he was quite tense again, but she was determined to get him in front of her leg. Something that she is very good at is keeping her leg on, even when a horse is jumping around so that the horse’s hind legs are going toward the bridle again when the little fit is over. She also showed us how much she wanted the shoulder leading in the half-pass. She was quite good at letting go of anything that happens in the ride and then moving onto the next movement so that the horse can refocus and forget. Again, I felt as though he was too tight in his back to be ridden as fast and up as he was, but there were still these good things to take away from the ride. We also watched Marcel lunge a few horses. He did it completely off the halter on a big circle and it was clear that these horses knew they were going to get to move because they didn’t waste any time!

After lunch and before the afternoon’s lessons we made a quick trip to the tack store in Warendorf. These women sure like to shop! It is hard not to want to here because the prices are so unbelievable when compared to what we are used to. We then returned to the stable to tack up Pablo for a lunge lesson. Poor Pablo was going to have to be the lunge horse for Robin, myself, and Susan. It is a good thing that he is very good at what he does.

I found my lunge lesson very helpful. It has been a long time since I have had the chance just to sit and think about my position. We started with posting trot and I had to sit two strides, stand two strides, and then sit three strides, stand three strides. I was reminded that when I came down from standing to sitting I should remember to keep my leg/foot more under me. I then moved onto sitting trot without stirrups. Christiane did not use many exercises, but instead described what she wanted me to do with my different body parts. With my abdominal muscles she wanted me to pull my seat more under, more towards the front of the saddle, while my seat and back stayed relaxed. She often had me go back to just feeling the trot, going back and forth between my two seat bones. I discovered that I was holding in my ankles and therefore pointing my toes up. When I let my toes go, I felt like my boots wanted to slide, so maybe I was trying to keep them on?!? She had me bend my knee a lot more than I was used to until I felt my calf on my horse’s side, but she was tough on me only to use the back of my thigh to do this and not my quad, which would make the rest of my seat tense and possibly make me lean forward. I then sat with a relaxed seat and took both legs away a bunch of times, remembering to keep my knee bent a little bit. All of a sudden I found my two seat bones again and was much deeper in my seat. A very worthwhile 20 minutes.

Dinner was a small one in my room while I worked on things for school. Tomorrow is one lesson in the morning and then either a trip to the horse museum in Muenster or to the CDI that is an hour and a half away. Sunday will definitely include a trip to the CDI, which I am looking forward to. It is definitely hard to believe that it is almost the end of the first week!

Saturday, September 13th, 2003

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Today was the last day of riding with Christiane before she goes on vacation. It was very sad for Christiane because it was her last lesson for the Academy—she will be away when it closes next weekend. There is definitely a sad tone here as people think about what a wonderful concept the academy is and what a loss it will be.

Poor Dr. Doulittle was quite tired today after what has been a very focused week of work. I could tell from the first step he took that it would be a bit of a struggle to get engagement, but rides like the one I had today often teach me the most. I discovered that I still need to reshape the instincts that I use for my body when I get into trouble. When I am working the hardest is when I am least relaxed in my seat and leg and therefore I work against myself. Yesterday, when I had more impulsion, I was able to let my leg rest on his sides and bounce with his gait, but today I was trying a bit too hard to keep him engaged with my leg and seat. I think that my seat position was much better after my lunge lesson yesterday, which I was pleased about and it helped me to use my back more effectively. Overall, I still need to remember to let my body stay relaxed in the half-halts especially. At the end of the ride, Christiane had me focus on shoulder-in on a circle at the trot in which I had to be very definitive with my leg and quick to half-halt with my outside rein, but careful not to use both reins in the half-halt so that I still had an inside rein for flexion. I thought a lot about my outside leg and getting the bend through his whole body by controlling the outside hind. As I put all of these pieces together, struggling not to get tight in my seat while he was trying to dive down on me and get behind my leg, I managed to get a very engaged trot that was headed towards the collection I would have wanted for passage, and there were moments that his trot was completely on my seat. This was a great accomplishment for the day--believe me! I finished feeling as though I had made the most of what was a bit of a tough ride “body-wise” for him and I got off knowing that I had worked hard in a deeper seat because my hips felt very stretched!

We sat with Linda, the barn manager, for a while and talked about the academy in general and heard some funny stories as well as interesting ones about the evolution of the academy. She is a wonderful person to talk to for a perspective on what it takes to become a part of the culture here as an American. She has been here for five years and has done a wonderful job integrating herself so that now Germans no longer seem to think of her as any different from themselves, even though she said it was very tough for the first year or two. I think that she may stay here after the academy closes to be a liaison between Americans and Germans, a job for which I think she is very well suited.

The afternoon was spent sight-seeing a bit around the area again. I really do just enjoy driving by all of the brick buildings and old houses and stables. It was sunny today—very nice just to be outside. Tomorrow will be the trip to the CDI. I can’t wait—I know that I will learn a lot by watching!

Sunday, September 14th, 2003

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So! I have a plan for myself. I am going to investigate Neuroscience graduate programs in Germany, claim that I have to come here early to learn the language before I go to school, and then just get caught up in riding so that I become one of the riders I saw today. : ) It was so much fun to be at the “Internationales Dressurfestival” in Lingen.

We left early and drove the one and a half hours to Lingen for the start of the show. Robin was a little nervous driving on the highway because they are known here for going 200 km on the Audubon! We made it there alive with no problem, however, and were ready for the show. It was fun to look through the program because they have the three top placed riders for each class from last year listed and so we saw a lot of pictures of some of my favorite riders including Lars Peterson, whom I’ve worked with a little bit recently. There were bios in the front of the program of many of the top riders. These people really are celebrities here! I only wish that I convey how amazing it is to be in a crowd that is genuinely thrilled to be watching these horses and riders, clapping and cheering through the awards, etc. The grounds themselves were like a mini fairground with a small ferris wheel and crafts vendors, cotton candy, etc. We bought our tickets and made our way into what were very good seats, very close to the arena.

The morning began with the German Handicapped Riding Championships. This was truly incredible. These horses were truly fabulous horses with big movement and amazing focus. I cannot come even close to describing these riders to a point that will do them justice. Many of these riders go from a wheel chair into the saddle with their feet strapped in and ride a 4th level/Prix St. Georges freestyle. Others have only one arm and do half-passes at the trot and canter that I would be thrilled to ride. One of the winners today, in the “Grade 2” disability championship (the 2nd severest) had no arms and therefore rode with the reins in her teeth and brought one of her legs over to the other side to receive her award. She received a 76% in her Kur. These people were truly unbelievable. The way they used their legs to bend their horses in their circles and their seats in the extensions would make anyone work a little harder in their next lesson. I had a tear in my eye more than once as I watched these fabulous pairs.

We moved from the freestyles for these riders into an open Grand Prix class with horses that looked as though they were still gaining experience in the ring at this level. The winning ride was on a mare named, Inara, who was ridden by Martina Hannover-Sternberg from Germany, with a 67.50%. She was a very nice rider-definitely my favorite of the group next to the second place rider, Martin Stamkotter from Germany. The other riders were also both from Germany: Peter Koch and Gina Capellmann-Lutkemeier (Nadine Capellman’s sister). It was good to watch their seats and hands and legs, especially after a week of working on my own position.

Next in the arena was the junior equitation championship. They were fabulous little riders on very motivated ponies. The winning rider had a fabulous position, much more refined than the other seven juniors in the class, but all were very quiet and soft riders. I have been incredibly impressed here in general by the wonderfully soft and subtle hands that the riders have, especially the juniors. The winning rider was probably about 10 or 11 years old.

While much of this was going on I went to the warm-up ring to watch a bit before the Grand Prix Kur. Lisa Wilcox was schooling what I think is one of her younger stallions who was gorgeous. I have never seen her ride and I was incredibly impressed by how effective her seat was, especially in the trot extension. I wish that I could be that useful every stride! Her horse was very soft and had a nice “falling down” neck when she lengthened his frame a bit. I was also very impressed by how forward her horse was. I always felt like she was really going somewhere and the power was incredible, even in more of a stretching trot. The next rider that I saw warming up for the class was a Danish rider working with Klaus. She had a very different style of warming up than I was used to. She came out and walked for about 10-15 minutes and then picked him up and did a nice slow trot and then walked again. Then picked him up for a short canter (maybe 1-2 min at the most) and then walked again. This was the tactic for most of the warm-up as the horse became more and more collected and she’d throw in a movement here, or a movement there, and then give him a walk break in a long frame. Sadly, I did not get to see her test, but she was about 10th out of 12 riders. She was not as tenacious of a rider, but very soft and obviously let the horse be a horse in her ride and many of the movements were very good. In general, most of the warm-up trots were nice and slow in a long frame, but not particularly deep for the most part. It was really fun to be able to walk around the warm-up and back area and see Klaus and Anky and so many of the people that I read about all of the time, but rarely see in their own environment!

The Grand Prix Kurs were a lot of fun. The stands were very full! I definitely took away some thoughts about music ideas and choreography for next year. Some of these included piaffe on the quarterline to a passage half-pass to piaffe on the other quarterline, etc. A variation on this was a diagonal line across the centerline from quarterline to quarterline in passage and a quarter pirouette in piaffe to get the new diagonal line. Canter pirouettes to two’s or one-tempis were popular. Nearly everyone did some version of a canter extension from the beginning of a diagonal to the centerline and did a pirouette or two on the centerline at A. One good one followed this up with changes down the centerline after the pirouette. Isabelle Werth on Antony FRH had some very creative choreography. She did the beginning of a piaffe pirouette to a canter pirouette left to a halt and the music said, “uh-oh” and then she did an immediate canter pirouette right from that spot. It was very funny and definitely grabbed everyone’s attention. She then did a canter extension immediately into a piaffe pirouette! Her final movement was a one-handed trot extension down the centerline to a halt at G. I was incredibly impressed with the extension, not because it was one-handed, but because she really let the neck grow in the extension and the nose was slightly in front of the vertical, unlike many of the other riders whom I felt had their horse’s neck a little tight in the extension. Lendon has told me so many times to let the neck lengthen and for the first time today I really saw why. The song “Celebrate” for the passage was cute for one horse and “Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (not quite sure if this is really the name) was great as well. All of the music was quite well done and suited to the horse. A background beat or whistles, etc. helped to accentuate the gaits in many cases. A few more wonderful movements included an incredible trot extension from the centerline to E and back to the centerline. Many of us do it from the wall to the centerline and back to the wall, but doing it the other way was much more powerful. One person did a nice line from the wall to the centerline in 2 tempis and immediately changed to one tempis when he turned from the centerline back towards the wall.
My very favorite horse of the Kur was Gestion Lingh, ridden by Edward Gal, from the Netherlands. I believe that he rides in Anky’s barn. There were a few small mistakes in the test and he received fourth place for the Kur with a 76.30%. He was a very uphill horse with a good hind leg that was very engaged. Edward Gal was a very nice rider with soft hands that were very still, but useful, and a nice quiet leg. First place in the Kur went to Lisa Wilcox on Relevant 5 with a 79.92. It was great to see how well received she is here as a rider-she is very popular with the crowd! She did a good job riding him forward with her seat in the half-passes, for example, and he sits quite well in the piaffe. Second place went to FBW Kennedy with Lone Jorgensen. This horse was the most consistent of all of them in the piaffe and passage, even though it didn’t have the same brilliance or flash, necessarily. She finished her ride with a 78.55%. Third place went to Isabelle on Antony with the very creative choreography. To watch these riders’ positions was such a treat for me. I am learning a lot about the leg, something that I don’t think that I have thought enough about. Also, these horses are very much in front of their riders, something I also need to remember always. It was fun to see that these horses really do seem to do this because they love it and the riders were all very “thinking” riders from what I could tell. I saw a few of them throw a movement in to make up for one that didn’t go quite as well, and they all seemed to know their horses incredibly well so that the corrections they made were very individual to the horse so that the problem was remedied without making a big deal out of it. Almost every horse improved as the test went on-something I really hope to strive for next year in the competition ring.

The awards ceremony was also a little different than I have seen in the past. The first place rider stands just in front of the rest of the line-up for the entire ceremony. Every rider gets their ribbon before they come in and the winner gets a cooler that they put on the horse before the ceremony. The announcer asked each of the top three riders something very specific and asked them to answer to the audience in the microphone. One of the people with us spoke German and so afterwards she described the gist of the questions, which were definitely straightforward and a little blunt! I still can’t believe how excited the crowd was and how packed the stands were! It was fun also to have the national anthem played for Lisa while we were there because it was my sense that we were some of the only Americans there. We then head out for the two-hour ride home during which I managed to fall asleep and have the seat belt hold me up for the whole ride as I bobbed in and out of sleep!

Tonight at dinner we met another of our riders for the week. She is a slightly older woman who owns a bed and breakfast in Maryland and also knows Robin and Kelly, the two women who have been here with me. We chatted a lot about what she could expect tomorrow and spoke especially about how the system here is really set up so that the horses are your teachers. You are expected to do your own schooling and take each comment and work on it so that a new comment can be given. I like that because it really teaches you to be a trainer as well, and if you are away from a trainer most of the year, as I am up at Dartmouth, it is a good way to become independent. Thankfully, Lendon has prepared me well for this. However, I have to say, they do say less here than anywhere I have ever ridden.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week. I am excited to see how it goes! The seat clinic with Mr. Meyners on Tuesday sounds like it will be wonderful…

Monday, September 15th, 2003

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I am learning so much, it is hard to write fast enough! Today began with a leisurely breakfast and then a theory session at the academy with Stephan. He began with a brief review of the Pyramid of Training, which I previously referred to as the Scale of Education. This was especially for the two new students, Stacey and Louise, who have joined us for the week. It was good to hear him repeat many of the concepts and he elaborated as well. When we spoke about straightness, we discussed a Grand Prix horse and the fact that so many of them are well trained in “natural crookedness.” He suggested using half-pass and trot and canter extensions to assess the horse’s straightness. This can especially be done in the transition back to collection. Often when horses are not straight, their hind legs will become wide in the transition back to collection. We also talked about the fact that the lower levels of the pyramid should improve through the development of the more advanced levels of the pyramid. Nothing should be lost. I was also reminded of the progression from the young horse to the educated horse and the shift in the surface of support that influences the way one’s weight aids affect the horse. Stephan stressed that for this reason and many more, a young horse needs an experienced rider and an experienced horse is good for an inexperienced rider.

The next portion of the theory session was based on videos. The first horse was of Stephan riding a 4-year-old gelding that had only been under saddle for 11 weeks. He showed us this video to give us a place to start in assessing the progression of the horse through the stages of the pyramid. This horse was incredibly well balanced already and had three good gaits that had rhythm and relaxation already. He wanted us to notice that the horse did not yet have impulsion and that he could have easily asked for a fancy trot because this horse was very talented and naturally athletic, but he did not do so because the other components were not yet there. He called the fancy trot the “expensive trot” because it makes the price of the horse go up and then there is great cost in retraining the horse afterwards. Stephan showed soft riding that was balanced with a slightly lighter seat than I see him ride in on the horses that are already well trained at the academy. The contact was not yet completely established, but again, the relaxation was there.
The second horse on the video was a 9-year-old mare at 3rd level. They ride up to third level tests in a small arena in Germany! He used this video to show us that this horse was talented and well trained, but he could not yet show her in the FEI classes because she too often lost the “educated gaits” and collapsed into her natural trot, for example. She did not have the strength or experience to be in the trot that he would need for his Prix St. Georges, for example. This was easily demonstrated in the transition back from the trot extension when there was still a slight bobble at the end of the diagonal as he half-halted to collected trot.
We then watched a young Grand Prix horse that Anky rode at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez so that we could see how he too bobbled a few times as he got tired, for example, or between the piaffe and passage because he did not yet have the consistent educated gaits. This is a really good horse that she was riding and it was fun to see also what she did with her music in the kur to accentuate his strengths and diminish his weaknesses. His tempi changes were not as strong as they will be soon and so she had lighter music for these, which made the weakness less apparent. She used very dynamic music for the movements in which he could shine.

Next was Rusty with Ulla Salzgeber and this freestyle was absolutely phenomenal. I loved watching it immensely, first because I enjoyed my lessons with Ulla so much last fall, and secondly because the quality of the work was really fabulous. By this point, my eye was very tuned to watching the hind legs and the ability to maintain the good rhythm. Stephan pointed out that they missed a step only about 4 times in the entire freestyle. His work was so much more confirmed than all of the previous horses and it was clear that he truly did maintain all of the components of the scale of education.

After a short break, we watched a video on balance and I learned a number of new exercises on the lunge to improve balance and feel. These are hard to describe in writing and so I will have to keep a list and use my students as guinea pigs. : )

I was assigned to a new horse, Iron Side, for my evaluation lesson with Stephan. Robin, Louise, and I all rode together and I had an absolutely fabulous lesson. Stephan was a lot of fun to work with and the harder I worked, the more he got into the lesson. I started by riding Iron Side a little low and deep with powering hind legs because he likes to drop the contact and come behind the leg or stiffen his neck up and against the rider. I had to focus on being forward without being fast at the trot. I had to change to asking for a very quick hind leg with his frame a little higher when I went to canter. Soon Stephan asked me to go for more collection in the canter and he got tough on me to really challenge him to collect for 2 to 3 strides and then go forward and then really sit him down again on the spot. This is a great exercise for me because of the huge focus on the hind leg and asking the collection to come quickly, but still from a jumping hind leg and the reins last. It was not long before my stirrups were taken away to get me off of my thigh!

At the trot I then focused on really getting his ribcage to bend on a 15-meter circle. He had me put my outside hand down so that my pinky was on the side of his withers, and my inside rein slightly open. I had to use my inside leg until I thought it might fall off to really get him to step through his body, but I had to be careful not to allow him to run away from me by keeping tabs with the outside rein and my seat. Stephan was very clear that I should not rush him, but that I needed him to really step sideways from my inside leg and wrap around it. I was then able to go forward a little, putting my inside hand slightly forward, and then I went right into half-pass and it was very easy. I felt as though I could almost just “point and shoot” because the shoulder was already leading and it was much easier to get my inside leg on and have it remain useful. I did the same exercises at the canter using shoulder-fore at the canter, a few circles getting his ribcage more, and half-pass.

Stephan said something very interesting to me during the lesson, which made a lot of sense after I rode for a while. He said that I had to turn my toes out more when riding because by keeping my toes pointed straight ahead, I was blocking in my hips and I couldn’t really get my calf on the horse, so I was driving in the wrong way. This made much more sense to me than last week’s “more leg” idea. This was just a different leg and in fact, I didn’t need as much leg to accomplish the task.
It was a really great lesson overall because Stephan was definitely with me in the moments that we were working together…he yelled in the moments that I really needed to go FORWARD! Or to COLLECT! He gave me exercises to do so that I would feel how I needed to use my body differently. He didn’t tell me what not to do, but instead set me up so that I would have to change things in order to accomplish the task. This always makes me much more determined and it allowed me to feel things for myself rather than trying to adjust my riding to commands.
In general, the week will be focused on my leg and seat and Stephan made it very clear in his comments after the lesson that I will need to stop thinking in my lessons…he said that he can see the wheels turning in my head before everything I do and THEN I do it…in the moment that it is too late. So, I’ll have to think about everything tonight and then shut off my brain a bit so that I can just FEEL things!

The evening involved a trip to the pharmacy, the grocery store, and the gas station. I was so proud of myself that I asked a few questions in the stores and even accomplished getting a receipt for the gas…all in German. I am not sure that I have really acquired much of the language, but I am definitely more comfortable feeling my way through things…

Tuesday, September 16th, 2003

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Today was a blast! Eckart Meyners is a wonderful man and he made a huge difference for everyone. I definitely will not be able to relay everything that I learned today, but hopefully pieces of it will become a permanent part of my riding and teaching. One of the reasons that the day was so wonderful is that he had a huge focus on how to be a good instructor, which I found incredibly useful. In addition, I think that my position improved because I was able to use my body in a much more effective way when we were finished.

The morning was filled with lectures and mini-exercises to help us understand his philosophy of riding and teaching and to begin to realize how our body and brain work together or against one another. One of the major points that we were to take away from the day is that his work revolves around re-educating our body and retraining our brain. Many of his theories include ideas from Alexander and from Feldenchrist. He spent much of the lecture talking about the ways in which we do not yet use our pelvis and how this affects the whole body. All adjustments that we made throughout the day were done with a very soft approach. At the very beginning he had us do exercises with our feet that improved the amount of motion that we had in our neck! Essentially, our brain remembers habits and pain and new movements make our brain forget. Every exercise that we did had a huge effect…we even got to the point that I could nearly turn my head around like an owl…and I started with a very limited range of motion! It was a very methodical approach and he helped us to unlock so many different parts of our body just by sitting in a chair. He also used walking and one such exercise required us to feel how tilting the nose down three inches allows you to follow in your back in a simulated medium trot, while if you do the same thing when you look straight ahead at the wall you completely tighten in your back.
We talked a lot about the seat and he wanted us to realize that every rider and every horse are different and that there isn’t one correct seat, so everyone needs to be approached slightly differently. Also, he really emphasized that body parts like one’s eyes are much more influential than we often realize. He really stressed “task-learning” over “command-learning” which is similar to what I described about my lesson yesterday. Task learning allows the rider to feel something and to find a way to accomplish a task. The instructor’s job then, according to Mr. Meyners, is to discover where there is a problem in the rider’s plan. Even with a new student, Mr. Meyners suggested that the trainer should give the rider a framework and then allow them to explore things for themselves so that they may realize what they are doing.

We talked about coming to terms with the two sides of the brain and understanding that both thinking and feeling must come into play. Concentration, he said, is often a bad thing because it causes a lot of tension and blockage in different body parts. Commands often cause this same tension as well, because we don’t find the way to get to the motion that is wanted and we often are made worse. One example is by stretching our left leg down and finding ourselves then more on the right seat bone rather than starting in our pelvis for the same motion. Cross movements are especially important for the rider and must be trained. I have a ton of exercise for figuring out ways to move your body, which I hope to share with people soon. We really learned that riders learn by contrasts and finding opposite positions and that the same movement must be done in many different positions and one movement may be done in many different ways. This allows new structures and ways of moving to be discovered. Finally, according to Mr. Meyner’s, a rider’s levels of progression begin with a friendship with a horse and friendship with the trainer (have to really like the trainer in order to learn). Second step is looseness; third is balance combined with rhythm; fourth: feeling for movements; and finally: the ability to use the reins, legs, etc.
We had pizza with Mr. Meyners as a group and then began the riding session. Each rider warmed up her horse for about 20 minutes and then went on a 20m circle in front of the group at the sitting trot. He really seemed to only need a few circles to evaluate things, but he had all of us watch and pick out parts of each rider’s position that needed to improve. The three most common changes he made were very simple: shortening the stirrups one hole (almost EVERY rider), placing the stirrups exactly on the ball of the foot, and turning the toes out so that the hamstrings/back of the thigh were used to drive. Then, he had us dismount, do an exercise, mount to see if it improved things, and then get off again, do an exercise, mount, etc. I saw a difference in EVERY rider.

My session was an interesting one because he really couldn’t figure out at first where my problems were coming from. Nearly everyone else was fixed in a matter of seconds, but it took four different exercises that didn’t work before we figured out where I was stuck in my body. In general he thought that my position was good, but that I sometimes went against the motion of the horse for a stride or two and that I was too tall…it looked as though I was using my head to make myself tall. I did a wacky exercise that seemed to open up my shoulders and my core and my shoulders started to drop when I rode again and my hands were softer. I then was asked to roll from side to side with my knees to my chest and then rock up and down until I finally had no pain in my lower back/hip area. When I got back on I was able to use my leg and my hips kept swinging with the horse’s motion. All of a sudden I felt as though I was sitting on top of a nice back instead of using my pelvis to move with the horse and I had many more vertebrae with which to move with the horse. I am very anxious to ride again tomorrow and see if I can keep the feelings! I’ll have to do a few exercises when I wake up : )

This is really only touching the surface of what I learned, but I really think that much of what I learned has to be felt or observed. I definitely have more tools with which to teach and to become more aware of my own body. I really hope that I will work with Mr. Meyners again at some point in the United States and I definitely think that the USDF Instructor Certification Program should consider inviting him to do a “further education” program for instructors or a clinic for candidates. He is quite talented at what he does!

Wednesday, September 17th, 2003

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We started off our morning with a quick discussion with Stephan about what we had learned with Mr. Meyners. He wanted especially to know that we had not just focused on the wonderful exercises, but also the overall philosophy of his work. Most of our impressions revolved around the task-based approach to the teaching as well as the whole-body approach to finding the correct seat. We then departed for a morning/early afternoon at Lisa Wilcox's stable. It took about one-and-a-half-hours to drive to her stable and we arrived as she was warming up Relevant.

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to watch her school him at home after watching her ride Relevant at the show at Lingen. She rode him fairly deep and lower than in her test as I would have expected and she suppled his neck left and right throughout much of her work. The most impressive movement that we watched her do was her piaffe with him because he was absolutely rhythmic all the time and he doesn't move off of the spot. He sits very well behind--it was quite wonderful to watch. When I spoke to her briefly afterwards, I mentioned that I thought that Relevant had a really wonderful piaffe. She agreed, but said that because he is so sensitive, it can actually be a lot to try to put all of the pieces together. She spoke of having to get his confidence back slowly, as she feels she is still doing, after her ride at Hickstead where he was very nervous. It was nice to see that Relevant was a very "normal" horse to be around. Lisa schooled him as I would imagine she would school many horses-it wasn't fancy, it was just a well-planned ride and she obviously had a goal for her ride. She went through a good warm-up to schooling a few movements and then stretched again. Relevant was quite sweet in the crossties-even in a grooming stall next to another stallion, Roadster. We walked through the barn where both Relevant and Roadster live with all of the stallions such as Rodiamont, Royal Diamond, Don Gregory, etc. They were all very mellow and busy eating an entire feed-tub full of carrots and muesli for lunch. Lisa then offered to give us a tour of the facility and took over half-an-hour to give us the tour herself.

I was very impressed by the set-up of the place. It was very well thought-out with the property well divided so that mares and foals, stallions, and young colts each had their own isolated areas. This assured that breeding breaking and riding would all run smoothly. They have an incredibly professional set-up there for breeding that seems to be very efficient. It is a very old facility and quite pretty. Most of all, I enjoyed Lisa. She was very charming, very funny, and incredibly welcoming. She made us feel as though she had all the time in the world to share with us and was more than happy to answer all of our questions. At the end of the tour, she went back to the barn and mounted Roadster so that we would have the opportunity to watch her school him as well.

Roadster is a younger stallion, about 6, and was the perfect horse for us to watch her school because he is obviously not as easy to ride at this point in time, but he is definitely talented. Lisa road him with two long whips, which definitely came in handy because she changed direction often and his outside hind leg needed a little reminder quite often. He was very fancy, but tough to ride through at first because he wanted to take over in the bridle. She did a lot of suppling again and did half-pass at the rising trot early, in addition to a lot of smaller circles, shoulder-in, etc. She also added in some medium and extended trot. It was clear that he can get a little strong in much of his work, but she always kept him in front of her leg. She is currently working on the flying changes with him, which she mentioned are still a struggle. It was good to see her set-up the changes with some lateral work and collecting work at the canter before going to each change and she used our eyes to be sure that the change was always clean. It was sad to have to say goodbye to her, as I could have watched all day, but we had to get back to the academy.

We returned in time to tack-up quickly for a lesson with Stephan. Iron Side started out much rounder for me today and I felt that my position still had some of the good qualities that it did the day before in the seat clinic. I worked again today on my quick lower leg with toe pointed out-something that I am sure I will still be working on a few weeks from now, but it gets much better every day. I started with some shoulder-in to ranvers work because I was having a little trouble with tilting in his head and so I tried to get his ribcage really supple back and forth. I also spent some time in the canter to the left and did some counter-bending while still really pushing him through on the left lead. Stephan had me then go back to trot and do an exercise that really got him on my seat. I have done it with other horses, but it had not occurred to me to do it with this horse. I did half-pass from the $F0 line with a lot of bend in his body to the left for a few strides and then made a 10-meter circle to the right. At the end of the circle I began re-establishing the left-bend in his body, making sure I could almost move him to the right again with my left leg, and then continued with the half-pass left to another 10-meter circle right. I was able to really ride him up in his shoulders and he was very much on my seat by the end.

Next was the canter work again and Stephan really had me going all out. We did canter extensions to walk transitions at the end of the long side. Iron Side is a great horse for me to ride to make me think a lot about my driving aids in the downward transition because that is the only thing that keeps him round and jumping. I then worked on canter pirouettes. I had to really think about keeping my seat and not leaning forward at all, while also having him really in front of my leg. I was only focused on the canter strides and not on the turning. We had the tendency to spin a bit and so I had to think about going forward and then into it and forward and then into the pirouette again. Then, Stephan had me gallop out of the pirouette down to the other end back into a pirouette. Again, great for me because often I start to enjoy the collection so much that it is no longer collection and rather it is canter without any ability to really go forward.

This horse is a really super horse because he tries very hard, but makes me work for everything. I feel like I got a lot of good feelings throughout the ride. We worked fairly consistently, but did have two longer walk breaks. Stephan said that he likes to give a long break near the beginning of the ride to get their breathing back, during which he keeps them on a long contact so that he maintains their back and he often practices collected to medium walk and back again. This is a point on which I have heard many opinions. For example, I know that many trainers do not want riders to ride walk on a contact because it can be ruined so easily.

Thursday, September 18th, 2003

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This morning was another lesson with Iron Side and Stephan and it was a great lesson. There was not as much tilting in Iron Side's neck and head today and so I think that I accomplished straightness yesterday so that I only had to make small adjustments today. My seat is feeling better and my leg seemed to be more useful today. Stephan had me stop by him and I asked him about exactly how he wanted me to use my leg because I am still trying to get the feeling of using it when my toe is pointed out. He had me swing my lower leg from my knee a little bit more so that my ankle was much more loose it was before. After I felt him move my leg around for me, I had a much better idea of how to keep it in rhythm with Iron Side's gait.

Within a few minutes of starting my warm-up I went right to the exercise from yesterday of the half-pass right to 10-meter circle in the counter direction to half-pass right and vice-versa. Again, this was a great exercise for putting him on my seat and getting better bend through his body. I then started to work for longer strides in the trot. Essentially, he wanted more airtime in the trot and so I had to think a lot about my outside rein as a half-halting rein with my fingers closed as I added more energy to his hind end. I had to remember that I wanted him to be stronger in the bridle before he would become soft again in my hand. I started to get much more swing through his back and trot strides that really went through his whole body.

After a break at the walk on a long rein I went right to the canter with the plan to come back to the trot. I did a few lengthenings and then went to a 15-meter circle to work on my pirouette canter again. Today was pirouette canter instead of pirouettes so that I could get a better canter in front of my seat and leg without the spinning that he had the tendency to do. I was much improved from yesterday because I finally really stayed on my seat bones without leaning forward and I thought of allowing him to stretch a little bit within the pirouette canter so that my hands were much softer. We then moved to tempi changes and I worked through the 4's, 3's, and 2's. Iron Side is much trickier than my own horse in the changes because he likes to swing his butt in the changes and then the next change can't happen. Stephan highlighted that when I do a change I often let my leg that has just asked for a change come too far forward as my other leg begins the next change. This exaggerates the crookedness because I allow him a place to swing away from me. So, I was asked to bring both legs a little bit back and give my change aids from there, keeping my legs close all the time. This helped a lot! I also did some haunches-in just before the diagonal to really feel where all of his body parts were before starting my changes so that I could keep tabs on his hind-end. Iron Side likes to back off of the leg a little bit, but he also really needs a half-halt before each change and so it was good practice for half-halting with my seat with my legs supporting the half-halt.

I had a really good time in the lesson again and feel like I am starting to ride with more of an awareness of my whole body.
Before lunch, we had a mini-conference with Stephan and had to say goodbye to him because he was headed to New Jersey for a clinic. He seemed sad that we were the last group and thanked us for coming and making the environment such a positive one. He is planning to continue doing a lot of clinics in the United States and also said that if we ever came back to Germany, he would work something out so that we could come back to his place for a time.

The afternoon consisted of lunge lessons with Linda, the barn manager. She was great! She was able to pick out everyone's weaknesses and found exercises that seemed to improve nearly all of them. I was to lunge on Weltall, a very bouncy, but a little lazy, 6-year-old. She offered for me to have the time just to experiment myself, but I asked that she give me some exercises to loosen up my lower back and hips. It was a lot of fun-I had to think a lot about using my stomach muscles to tilt my pelvis up a little as I sat solidly on my two seat bones. We did the usual movement of bringing both knees up to find my seat bones before even going to the trot. One of my favorite exercises was riding without stirrups and taking one knee up at a time in the rhythm of his trot while keeping my hands in riding position. It was really hard to do on a bouncy horse without holding on and so I had to learn to keep the opposite leg really close to the saddle while lifting the other leg. This was incredibly helpful because afterwards my hips were suppler and my thighs were softly close to the saddle. We worked also on my breathing and she had me singing and humming as I took my arms out the side and turned and looked towards his tail in one direction and then to the other. This kept my shoulders from rising up, which had been causing me to tighten my seat. I was supposed to also imagine that I was a punching bag as I worked on my breathing. This helped tremendously-I all of a sudden remembered to feel my breaths down low near my seat.

I ended the day by feeding hay and grain to all of the horses to help Linda. Their system for feeding hay is a little different...they have huge bails of hay and I had to use a pitch fork to flake off some of it and then split that flake again and feel the weight of the amount I had on my fork to determine how much to give to every horse. I then swept with the brooms that I love...they look like you could fly on them. :)

 

Friday, September 19th, 2003

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Today was a lot of fun because it was a real change of pace. Marion, the head jumping instructor for the academy, came in for the morning to give us some exercises to do over fences. The horse that I rode was very funny. I was back on Weltall, the horse that I lunged on yesterday. I started with a few minutes of trot and then went right to canter to get him supple and forward. He was not so inclined to go forward, as indicated by the groans heard as soon as I put my leg on, even at the walk. And, he is only 6! So, canter we did and it was quite an effort, especially because Marion made me do it in two-point so that I would have to figure out how to get him really forward while my seat was out of the saddle.

Our first exercise was just to canter over two poles, about four strides apart, and stay in a good position and maintain straightness, staying in the middle of the poles, etc. This was quite easy. The next task was to canter over three fences on a circle: two small verticals and a cross-rail, but we first had to jump every other fence. Once we could do this, we jumped all of them, one after the other on the circle. The greatest challenge was managing a quick half-halt on the outside rein and being sure only to turn using outside aids so that the horse was set up quickly for the jump and was not leaning on the bit. The greatest challenge for the horse I was riding was getting over the fence without knocking it down. Let's just say that jumping wasn't quite his forte. :) I asked Marion if we could get extra points for knocking them all down...she just laughed and said that I had set him up really well and this is just the way he jumps-without remembering to pick up his back legs! Even so, he was a character to ride and really good practice for me because I had to make sure to keep my legs very close and ready!

After doing the exercise in both directions (the right lead was much harder...I can't turn that way as well!), we jumped a large cross-rail that had a pole two strides on either side of it. All in all it was a really fun morning. I can't remember the last time that I had the opportunity to jump and I was really pleased to do it again and to realize that I hadn't forgotten how to! Also, I think that it was great for my hips and seat-I had to use them in another way and I had to be quick and supple.

Next I was set on the task of cleaning up a horse that was going to be shown for sale in the evening. When I say a task, I mean a task. He was a completely different color when I started than when I finished! I have enjoyed the opportunity to help Linda a little bit because she has been out straight trying to manage the barn, take care of the horses, arrange flights for horses, arrange our schedule, give us lunge lessons, try to sell the other horses and tack, and the list goes on! She does an amazing job with all of it, but she definitely has too much to do. Closing the academy takes a lot more than one imagines at first.

After a short lunch with Susan, she and I each had lunge lessons on Pablo. My body was much better than the day before because I could still feel the effects of the lunging yesterday. I started at the walk doing scissors with my legs, bringing my knees up in alternating patterns and then I did some bicycling with my legs. I then hugged his neck and rolled up slowly, leaned all the way back and came up slowly, and then turned to the outside and brought my seat completely off the saddle, moving my way all the way down the saddle. I then took myself almost completely off the other side. She just wanted me to realize that I could move my body all around and still get back into the saddle. One of Linda's big things is realizing how much you have to move in your joints in order to really be quiet. One good exercise for this that she had me do again was at the trot in two-point, remembering to absorb the movement in all joints in my hips and legs so that my seat didn't move too much. Also, she had me keep my upper body slightly above his neck at the walk in two point, point my toes down, and push my body up without changing the level of my upper body so that I had to work my hips. At the trot I thought a lot about my pelvis coming forward and under while my stomach muscles kept me tall and my shoulders relaxed. We did the bicycles at the trot with my legs and this was super for me for getting my thigh close and soft. Also, letting my upper leg be quiet while moving my ankles a lot allowed me to get a better feeling for how my lower leg should be. A few exercises working to change the trot with my legs made me much more aware of keeping my seat relaxed and following while using my legs, something very useful for me.

I can't believe that today was my last day riding! I arrived and helped with a few of the barn chores like feeding hay again and then I tacked up Iron Side for my lesson with Marcel, Stephan's assistant. It was only myself and Robin in my lesson because Louise had already left and so Marcel was able to give me a lot of feedback throughout my ride. He was focused on letting Iron Side's nose out because Iron Side often likes to get his neck a little tight. He also had me focus much more on keeping my hands together and the contact really quiet. I was really appreciative to have this reminder.

After a lot of forward and back transitions within the canter, really getting him on the spot, we did a super exercise at the trot. He had me work in shoulder-fore and haunches-in on a circle, moving between the two. This is an exercise that I have done many times before, but he then had me change it up so that I did shoulder-in to haunches-in to straight on the circle, adding power, and then moving towards a trot that could become passage. Iron Side became much more supple through his body and all of a sudden I had a trot that I could really do something with. I worked from here to keep this trot with much more suspension and cadence within the half-pass zigzag at the trot. It was a lot of fun and I felt as though with the longer and bigger strides I was finally letting go in my thigh and really just enjoying the trot, while still working to get it bigger and more balanced.

We finished with canter half-pass and tempi changes through the 2's. After all of the exercises throughout the lesson, the 2's were easy today! I had him right between two legs and so we didn't miss a change.
It was quite sad to get off after what was my last ride, but I know that I have learned a lot and that my position is much improved. I have a much better sense of swinging with the horse and my legs are finally going to be really useful, I think! I learned a lot about bending the horses through their bodies and having the shoulder lead in the half-passes. I also learned a lot about half-halting horses when they are in front of my leg. I have new exercises and a new awareness of my body and a great appreciation for the Germany training system to take home with me....and I can't wait to try all of it on May Star and my students!

My final afternoon was filled with fun with Jessie, who came to visit me from where she is staying at Klaus Balkenhol's stable. We laughed and laughed and had a great time comparing stories and driving around in her baby blue mini! It was fun to hear about everything that she is learning in her training and about her experiences adjusting to living in Germany. It was a great end to a great two weeks as I began to prepare to go home.

I hope to make it back to Germany sometime in the very near future. For now, I have a lot to take with me to keep it in my mind! I am so very grateful to the people who made it possible for me to be here. I can't thank them enough for giving me this opportunity! It was truly an experience of a lifetime.