Conrad Schumacher: The opportunity of a lifetime!

First, a little about PRF Imperial Black Rex, 'Rex' and myself, 'Cassie Martin,' and how we came to be lucky enough to ride in the 2004 USDF Conrad Schumacher clinic. I remember the first time I laid eyes on a horse. It was before I could even open my eyes; through the eyes of my mother. My mom actually rode everyday when she was pregnant with me until the family doctor told her that she really needed to stop. My mom believes that's why horses are a passion of mine and why I seem to have been born to ride. The day I started walking was the day I started riding. My mom had horses, so every time she went riding I did too. Some kids cry when they get on a horse for the first time because they are scared. I cried when she took me off and wouldn't stop until I was back in the saddle where I belonged. This became only the start of my riding career. From then on I rode horses and ponies of many different sizes, breeds, colors, etc. Rex and I became partners about five years ago I received a phone call from Rose Mordasky, (Rex's owner & close friend of our family) asking us if we were interested in having one of her stallions. I remember thinking, 'O' my god! How awesome would that be?!' But also, I thought the stallion she was talking about was her 8 year old, 14.2 hand, black, Welch Cob driving stallion. As you could guess I was completely wrong! She was talking about Rex, at the time a 9 year old, 17.3 hand, black American Warmblood Stallion. A stallion I only thought I would get to ride in my dreams. Much to my dismay though she said, "Rex has been having lameness issues working the upper level movements, so we would like him to just be turned out to pasture, trail ridden and most of all happy. He's shown a little Third Level" (when there were no changes), "and was only competitive at Second Level." Much to my surprise, the Mordaskys and many others, Rex has proven us all wrong. In fact he finished the 2004 season successfully at Fourth Level. This was Rex's best show season, with both his highest scores and placing ever. Many steps got Rex to this point including lots of trail riding, light ring work, teaching him to go long and low; 'Seek Mushrooms,' as Mr. Schumacher would say. In the five years I have ridden him, Rex has not taken a lame step. Now to the clinic.

Day 1:
Day one started off well. I was scheduled to ride in the afternoon. This would find me at an advantage because it gave me a chance to watch the other Junior Young Riders and learn what exercises would be expected as well as get a feel for Mr. Schumacher's teaching style and ideas. It seemed as if 'my stars were in alignment'. This alignment was to be badly shaken, however, when the time came. It seemed that the afternoon riders were expected to already know how to do the exercises because we had seen them in the morning. Much to my dismay I couldn't seem to understand A WORD Mr. Schumacher said once I was on my horse. It sounded so easy on the ground, clear as glass, but definitely became a problem on the back of a horse. I became painfully aware of being an element of comic relief for the group as I would be trotting when he had asked for canter, leg yielding when he had said shoulder in. Other instructors had told me to tell him if I couldn't hear. But hearing was really not my problem. 'First impressions are always important' is a saying that I have always believed in. I was either deaf and/or unable to process the english language. The only 'first impression' here much have been, "What is this girl doing here? Hindsight is 20/20. I realize now that I had been so distracted by the 'drop dead gorgeous' European Warmbloods (5 Dutch Warmbloods, 1 Westfalen, 1 Danish Warmblood, and then Rex!?), all well schooled, most to Prix St. George or higher. I was able to finally clean up the lake at my feet from drooling so much over these horses. How could someone not drool? At this point I think the puddle at my feet wasn't just from drool any more, tears were definitely helping the puddle grow. Rex and I were barely Fourth level, we were novices at that! At 2:00 I walked into the ring on my big black home bred stallion. I was already in a sweat just from walking (remember its like 40 degrees out tops) my nerves were getting the best of me. Then I heard in the German Accent, 'What is he?' and not in a tone of 'What is he? WOW!' or even a tone of curiosity but o' my god you must be kidding me 'what is he?' I would have liked to have crawled into a hole at that point. I took a deep breath and replied with, "He's an American Warmblood." Not wanting to go into detail about what he really was. "Well what is that?" asked Mr. Schumacher. I thought man he really doesn't want to know. "Well he's half TB and half Percheron." " How does that work?" Mr. Schumacher replied. "Percherons are (he spreads his hands far apart) and Thoroughbreds are (he puts his hands back together)?" It seemed that Mr. Schumacher was not impressed at all. What didn't help Rex and I either is that Rex was the tallest horse (17'3") at the clinic and I was the shortest rider, (4'11"). I could only imagine what people where thinking. How DOES this work? Mr. Schumacher, being a gracious and patient person, then asked me to go to work. As I'm warming up, Rex is forging and being incredibly lethargic, like he always is when he warms up. Mr. Schumacher asks me to halt in front of him and the audience at the end of the ring. I learned fast how to halt quietly. Mr. Schumacher expected our horses to halt, stand quietly and together. You did not let your horse's head move or give him a long rein when he is standing. Mr. Schumacher then told me to warm up not such a long neck. "Put him together and ride him into the contact; into the bridle." He then asks, "Do you know the difference between warming a young horse up and an older schooled horse?" "No, I guess not," I replied. I knew you warmed horses up differently because all horses are different but I never thought it was dependent on the amount of schooling they have.

Mr. Schumacher continued, "A young horse you warm up long and low. Let them "seek mushrooms." An older horse you ride them very forward up into the contact at the trot and canter around the whole ring with NO corners." Mr. Schumacher explains. Earlier I had told Mr. Schumacher that Rex is incredibly lazy and that's a big thing I would like to work on, along with flying changes. "Take your legs completely off him and give him a kick with everything you got," Mr. Schumacher explains. "Then do NOTHING, stay absolutely quiet with both your legs and hands." "Then the moment he slows down give him another couple kicks, but don't kick him within the movement." 'Within the movement?' I thought, 'What does that mean?!' I learned, for example, that when I'm walking and ask for the trot to get after him not within the transition, but to wait until he's actually trotting and then get after him. The difference I felt in Rex within minutes, was amazing.

As I applied all this new information, I couldn't believe the results; no more forging, no more lazy horse and we were now ready to go to work. After warming Rex up like this for only 15-25 minutes. I had a totally different horse. Forward is key to everything.

I now had forward, the next challenge would be flying changes. I was scared to death to do them for the sake of my pride because some were horrible and disturbing to watch, with both Rex's and my legs going everywhere. Most of the other riders had schooled the changes in their warm up. Me-no way. We can barely do them collected, doing them in the warm up would just be torture. (All the other horses had PERFECT changes too!!) "Lets see the changes," Mr. Schumacher announces to me. I'm thinking, GREAT. He's going to get a laugh now. Biting my tongue and gritting my teeth I made some scary attempts. Again Mr. Schumacher had me halt in front of him again. 'Ah, Oh!' I thought. He informed me that there's no reason that this horse can't or couldn't do changes. "He has no problem with changes. It's YOU!!!!"

I'm thinking I knew that!!!! Changes just get the better of me. Especially the changes left to right. Mr. Schumacher had me counter canter to the right. He told me to collect in the corners and on the short side, then extend on the long sides. After a few rounds of this we tried a few changes. They were better, but not a hundred percent. Then we went on to shoulder-in in the counter canter. Slowly but surely the changes improved but still weren't right. Mr. Schumacher then saw something no one else did, something ever so slight. He taught me how to do the changes, riding every movement, every stride with me. 'A little left leg, half halt, and boom, change,' I was shocked it was perfect!! A change from left to right an impossibility that became a possibility. Mr. Schumacher told me to say to myself, 'I will' while I did the changes. Without that, movements can't be done. Accomplishing both my goals in one lesson was a surprise to both Mr. Schumacher and me. As I was leaving the ring, Mr. Schumacher told the audience that Rex really was a talented horse with nice movement; that he really isn't lazy. He just needs to be warmed up for a while. He actually is very active behind. I was tickled pink when I heard that. "You are a well matched pair," Mr. Schumacher said before I left the ring. I really had a smile on my face now. He also commented that the the weird part about Rex and me was the longer and harder we work the better we got.

This clinic included dinner at Lendon's, the first night only the riders were allowed. No PARENTS! It was a great opportunity to bond with the other young equestrians, and to get to know them personally. That was the nice part because we probably were suppose to be talking about the clinic and horses but, we really didn't talk at all about either. Everything but! From politics, which indeed, I must say was interesting because there was a split between the riders and a heated friendly debate merged, (the election for President was only days away) to favorite movies and t.v shows and who could forget boys. We are girls-who wants to talk about horses when we can gossip and eat pizza!

Day 2:
Today we did a lot of walk work for warm up; walk half-pass from the rail to the center line; then full walk pirouette then continue in walk half-pass. During the walk half-pass Mr. Schumacher told me to add "a little more left leg, a little more right leg, try more bend, less bend." He was teaching us what buttons do what. Which will make our horses step over more or less; be more balanced; have more self carriage. He wanted us to explore our horses capabilities. Mr. Schumacher expected me to know how to half-pass perfectly because the day before during lunch time discussion theory we had watched a video on the half-pass. After all the walk work I started to warm Rex up, just as I had been taught the day before. Its a miracle, I thought, every time I took my leg off at all Rex shot out from under me. It was great! The difference was unbelievable, I really didn't need any leg on Rex to get him to move. Since Rex was now coming forward, over the back, quietly into the bridle, active behind and pushing continuously we were ready to go to work. All of these things are key to Mr. Schumacher. He then had me do half-pass in the trot and I went right into it. "No, no, no, Prepare! Don't be a drill sergeant." I learned that the first step is, of course learning the basics but learning them with preparation, correct riding, and precision. Then horse and rider can move harmoniously as one into and out of movements. That seemed to be the goal for day two. Preparation meant doing shoulder-in and haunches-in and then start the half-pass. Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Schumacher told me to listen to him carefully. "Half-pass right, circle left, half-pass left, circle right, half-pass left, circle right, half-pass left"..... and so on. It seemed as if he was saying, now that we know you can do it. Don't think about the movements so much, just ride them. I learned another valuable lesson on day two about rewards. Removal of the aids became the reward for Rex going forward. Rewards are not just pats. There also working rewards. Another example is extended canter. This also becomes a reward. When we took a break our horses received all new rewards. Basics were a big part of day twos lessons, the building blocks of the training scale; the rhythm, relaxation, contact. Before the horse can perform with power and radiance he must be solidly trained in these basics. No basics-no movements. We ended the lesson with half steps. I learned a lot about neck control; supplying by flexing the horses neck to the inside and outside during shortening the trot for half steps. This was to keep his back coming into the contact.

" How are his canter pirouettes?" Mr. Schumacher asked before I left the ring. "Good," I responded." Tomorrow we will work them!!"

At the lunch time discussion theory time we learned how important voltes are. Mr. Schumacher said that volte solves all problems. He told us about a mare he had in his barn that is Grand Prix but couldn't put the test together she could only do the movements individually. He instructed the rider to do a volte before and after every movement, after that one session the mare successfully completed Grand Prix tests. 'Volte can fix anything,' Mr. Schumacher stated.

The second night we had dinner at Lendon's again, but unlike the previous night everybody was there; parents, riders, organizers, Mr. Schumacher and others. Everybody asked Mr. Schumacher many questions about the rides, individual horses and riders, other clinics he participates in, the USDF program and much more. A big thank you goes to Lendon because she let us all invade her house for a second night in a row and cooked the meal herself.

Day 3:
I had to make the most of my last day with Mr. Schumacher. Today was exciting because I knew we would be working canter Pirouettes something Rex is extremely good at. We started off by doing half pirouette in the walk in one corner, followed by extended trot down the long side with another walk half pirouette in the opposite corner, performed over and over until Rex was listening to my aids (half halts and legs). This also served to activate and engage his hind legs, along with making him more forward. Much to my surprise Rex is extremely active behind. Even though forward can be an issue for him staying engaged and pushing with his hind quarters is no problem. So the pirouettes became a little tricky. Rex sat down and kept moving in the canter pirouette, but it was all done in slow motion. Yet again Rex and I didn't work on pirouettes the same way as the other riders. Most of the other riders worked on a square asking their horses to collect more, while Rex and I worked on the diagonal. We would extend across the diagonal do a canter pirouette with very little collection before and then extend back across. This was performed over and over until Rex understood that he could stay more forward within the canter pirouette. We then performed the same exercise on the long side with flying changes. Mr. Schumacher ended my three day opportunity of a life time with a high five and a run down of everything we worked on. When he asked if I had any comments I made it a point to tell him "I'm happy now, all because of you." The running joke of the clinic was that Mr. Schumacher would ask everybody if they were happy before and after their rides. Mr. Schumacher asks me, "Do you ever smile?" Because while watching the morning rides, I got really cold, so of course not having a smile on my face from the lack of temperature. Along with the cold when I ride I'm very serious, not expressing many emotions. I commented back with, "No, I'm never happy," (Sarcastically). Through out the three days Mr. Schumacher was "to die for." He was extremely kind with a great sense of humor.

Overall, my ability to ride Rex improved as a result of Mr. Schumacher's instruction. Forwardness, less leg aids, basics and more. After getting Rex to the point were every basic was met I had a horse that moved with such rhythm, cadence, suppleness, suspension and so much more. I feel more confident now that Rex can and will continually go forward. That I wont only get this trot and canter when I'm under the eyes of Mr. Schumacher, but also when I'm schooling on my own. I went in an ugly duckling and came out a swan. I have to give a big thank you to Lendon Grey for urging me to apply to the USDF Advanced Young Rider Clinic. Because without her support I would have never thought in my wildest dreams of applying for this opportunity. I also want to thank Dressage4kids, for giving me a scholarship that made the clinic financially possible. Without them this 'Opportunity of a life time' would never have happened.