Riding in a clinic is an honor and a huge learning opportunity. Last weekend, I was so excited to ride with Steffen Peters on Harvey and Kensington, my FEI horses! As a five-time Olympian and medalist, Steffen is an incredible horseman, rider, and trainer. I learned so much from him and I appreciate his commitment to a happy, healthy, and enthusiastic horse. One thing that I always do after a lesson is jot down notes about what we worked on. That helps me remember and implement the ideas into my training. I highly recommend that you take notes after your lessons.
Today I thought that I would share my notes from the clinic with you! I hope that you enjoy these notes and that they inspire you to continue learning and improving. I LOVE that even though I have ridden and trained more than 50,000 hours in my career, I am still learning and improving!
Every single horse is a little different. We have to find what works for them and help them understand. I love learning, I love riding, and being around Steffen always leaves me inspired!
Do less and let them make the mistake. Push your heels down, ask from a smaller and more subtle aid, allow your horse to make the mistake and quit. Then, fix it. Do not over-aid or over support your horse. Even when lengthening, take your legs off as a reward for your horse and test the true self-carriage.
Think logically and stay calm. Don’t get upset or emotional over a mistake that your horse makes. Return to the basics, explain the aids, and start again. You will get it!
Focus on the walk. Always consider the quality of the walk and practice frequent transitions between extended walk and the collected walk. It is also great to practice riding half-passes and halts in your walk warm-up to test the responsiveness to the aids. Make sure not to nag with your legs in the walk. If you feel that your horse is behind the leg, cluck and then push them up to the trot for a few steps. Frequent walk breaks are very important, especially when working on the collection to give your horse’s muscles a chance to recover.
The timing of the correction is very important. You can’t wait to fix it. Fixing a mistake sooner allows you to make a more subtle and effective correction than if you are a few strides later. I was working with Kensington on getting him to respond to a more subtle flying change aid. Rather than asking bigger for the flying change, allow him to make a mistake, then correct it. My corrections were slow, so that is something that I need to work on!
In front of the leg. Especially for the piaffe and the pirouettes, it is important that the horse stays in front of your leg. Steffen had me work on schooling the pirouettes and the piaffe to create a forward thinking mindset in the horse. Even in the piaffe and the pirouettes, let them make the mistake, then fix it.
These are just a few of my notes from an incredible clinic. It is so much fun learning and improving. Thank you all for being here and for your dedication to your riding and your horse. I love that I can be a part of your riding journey!
Happy Riding,
Amelia
