Clinic with Ulla

Day 1
During the first day of the clinic there were very few auditors. Mainly just the other riders and their grooms were in attendance. It was a nice atmosphere for the first day of the clinic. I met Ulla and told her a little about Chopin and me. She asked what I wanted to work on and what I had trouble with. I explained how I want to move up to Young Riders next year, and the only thing we were struggling with was canter pirouettes. She then asked that I warm up how I usually do and that she would watch. She was very specific not to change my warm up just because I was at a clinic.

Ulla wanted me to flex his Chopin’s neck in all corners, and even more on circles, always remembering to half halt before the corner. When flexing his neck I had to make sure not to give with my outside rein. She also wanted Chopin to be in a deeper and lower frame. This was when we began to struggle. Chopin put his tongue over the bit. Ulla then raised both the snaffle and the curb and tightened his noseband A LOT. This made Chopin a little bit mad but she just had me continue with what we were doing and push him forward. She commented that my position was good; the only thing I could work on was keeping my elbows farther back.

We continued with some trot shoulder in and half pass, but her main goal was having total control of his neck. There was definitely some struggle, and we certainly did not master it the first day. In the half passes I had to make sure that the haunches did not lead. She had me flex him both to the inside and the outside in the half passes to get him completely stepping under himself. The flexing in both directions also helped with his neck.

Ulla then had me show her a pirouette. She told me I was doing it wrong, so we went back to walk. She had me tell her exactly what I was doing in each step of the walk pirouette, and she said I was telling it to her and demonstrating it to her correctly. We then rode a big walk pirouette, and she wanted me to have the feeling of haunches in. We started this on a big circle and then got it down to about eight meters. We then tried it in canter and it did not go so well. Chopin got behind my leg and felt very stuck. We ended with walk pirouettes and decided that there were other issues to deal with before we went to canter pirouettes.

DAY 2
The second day we did a lot of the same as the first. She wanted his neck down and short with him continuing to go forward. We spent a lot of time on half-passes. I have a habit of letting Chopin’s haunches lead in the first few steps of the half pass. I need to position him in shoulder fore before I start to go sideways. We started with them in the trot, but I struggled to keep him going forward and stepping over enough. We went back to the walk, and did the half-passes while flexing his neck both to the right and to the left. We then went back to the trot and attempted them like we did them in the walk. There was improvement but it still wasn’t as good as Ulla wanted. He was behind my leg, which also made it hard for me to get him to move sideways. She had me do an exercise on a circle. On the two open halves of the circle we did leg yield, and then on the other to sides we went forward. This was very hard for me to do. Chopin was being very naughty. He was threatening to rear and was flying backwards. He sometimes gets into a mood where the more I get after him the worse he gets, so I backed off of him a little. I think Ulla interpreted this as me being scared of him. She then said that we could go no farther with him acting like this. I either needed to get after him and not let him get away with anything and go very forward, or we could end. I then did what she said and didn’t let him get away with anything. I blasted him forward at the first sign of his naughtiness, and I think she was impressed that I could get through it.

DAY 3:
On the last day of the clinic I was determined to show Ulla that I could ride the way she wanted me to. I had been able to watch all of Saturday and it helped me to see what she was asking. Right from the beginning Chopin was in front of my leg and I had complete control of his neck. We did our half passes exactly how she wanted them, and were also able to do them in the canter. We then went back to the canter pirouettes. We rode haunches in on the long side and then continued it onto a circle. We made the circle smaller and smaller. It was very difficult but we were able to do it both directions. It was great to be able to accomplish it after struggling so much the previous days.

I learned a great deal from the clinic with Ulla. I thought Ulla was a wonderful teacher. It was very important how she went back to the basics. You cannot accomplish anything without them. Her main issue she presented was thoroughness, and when I rode Chopin correctly through I could feel a tremendous difference. Many of the exercises I learned from her will be helpful with both Chopin and other horses in the present and future. The whole clinic was a wonderful experience and I am greatly appreciative that I was able to have the opportunity to ride with such a renowned rider and trainer like Ulla.

NEDA was very nice and included information about dressage4kids in my biography in the program. I am enclosing a copy of that.

I am also enclosing a copy of some of the comments that were made about the clinic on a bulletin board. I thought it might give you a different perspective of the clinic and Ulla’s work with me and others.

I would like to thank dressage4kids for the generous scholarship that you awarded me. I appreciate it very, very much. This was an incredible opportunity for me and an experience I will never forget. I had my rides videotaped and I have already gotten even more out of the clinic by reviewing the tape. At times during the clinic, there was so much to take in, I am finding the video tape to be a great resource. Thank you so much.

COMMENTS FROM A BULLETIN BOARD –ULLA’s CLINIC

“I'm not sure I got anything "new", but she certainly made me understand things a lot better! My trainer had had me doing some of the exercises that she did, but had never said what he was trying to accomplish or why we did them. I never do them on my own because I didn't know their purpose. She cleared up a couple things for me. I'm always flexing my horse, but I give the outside rein when I do. You keep the outside rein when you flex the inside one (or vice versa). She wasn't trying to get the neck loose (as I understood her) but the jaw/poll area lose. She worked on getting all the horses *really* in front of the leg and getting "true throughness". The horses and riders were all excellent. Chris Hickey pointed out that the work was already maybe 7's, but she was pushing for 8,9 and even 10 movements. I was so glad she didn't have a thick German accent that was hard to understand - I was a bit worried about that. She spoke better than many Americans! She was also very patient and quite funny, even when one of the auitors was telling HER what "she'd like to see" from the rider! Two of the riders where young girls, 15 and 18, and I was so impressed! The 15 year old had trouble the first day getting her horse in front of the leg, he kept balking and flying backwards. The girl wasn't really strong enough (mentally) to send him forward when he got nasty. Ulla said that would be a job for her trainer. The next day the girl came in with a different attitude and didn't let him get away with anything! Ulla asked her what she did last night and she replied she was just VERY determined that he wasn't going to do that again. She had such a nice ride the second day.

Although all of the riders did a very good job, I was also particularly impressed with the fifteen year old. She was taking a lot of pressure from Ulla but maintained her composure and got the job done. I've seen her at shows before, when she was riding her pony, and have always been very impressed with her and her riding. I'm sure she's well on her way to working through the issues that presented themselves during the clinic.

I was so thrilled (and I believe Ulla was too) to see the 15 year old come back that second day with her mind set to keep that horse forward - and she did.

One thing that I personally find so wonderful about dressage that Ulla demonstrated so incredibly well, is that even at the very top level of the sport, the basics can always be improved upon. A horse can never be too through, or too supple. (I think that would be up there with having too much money!) Ulla showed throughout the program how the way to improve the upper level movements is to improve the basics. And true, some riders needed more time working just the basics, especially those riders who had slightly tenser horses, or maybe were somewhat tense themselves. (It's not always easy riding your horse in front of 300 spectators with the number one rider in the world telling you what to do and expecting you to do it!) But with all riders she showed how valuable the basic concept of "true throughness" was!

I have tremendous respect for Jocelyn. She improved a huge amount over the course of the weekend. Very difficult when your horse can be scary. I do think the message of true throughness and forward were very well put across - and very important! I think that Ulla was able to help riders improve the quality of "the tricks," half pass, pirouettes, etc.

Ulla said 99% of horses are not truly through, she kept mentioning that 99%. Her goal was not to pick riders apart, but to give them exercises to try which would allow them to find the lack of throughness themselves.

What she really wanted us all to take away from this is that although we may think our horses are through, and we can go to competitions and get awesome scores, the fact is, they really aren't 100% through. We haven't felt true throughness (again 99% aren't she said, so its not like she was picking anyone apart).

And even though these were upper level riders/horse combos, the exercises she chose to help them see their lack of throughness was not to prove the riders had necessarily done things wrong up to this point in the training of these horses. Chris Hickey pointed out that much of it is just where they are in their training, and to be expected at that point.