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"Only way that horses will win is to sit there and spend time with them. Show 'em that you're trying to help 'em. Love 'em. Talk to 'em. Get to know 'em. Now that's what you gotta do. You love 'em and they'll love you, too. People might call me crazy, but that's the way it is." -Eddie Sweat, groom for Riva Ridge and Secretariat
Articles by Camie Now into my 4th week of kickboxing, I see clearly that learning to kickbox is simply dressage for people. It's all about building strength and flexibility, but this time it is my job, not my horse's, to do the physical work. The trainer hasn't yet uttered the term "gymnasticising" but I have a suspicion she is thinking it. Today I am a Kickboxing Dressage Horse. I should have seen this epiphany coming. On Day One, I was smugly confident that I, a former intercollegiate athlete afterall, would pick up this sissy-pants kickboxing in a snap. Alas, pride goeth before a fall. Five minutes into the class I was reduced to giggling at my coltish attempts to keep in step. Occasionally off the beat, often with legs entangled, I began the journey as a goofy young horse--no balance, no muscle tone, but happy to go. During this time, I relied heavily on my trainer. The manner in which I looked to her is just as young horses look to us: "Um, a little help?" What elevated my favorite trainers was their gift for simply preparing me to succeed. Perhaps as we were doing a side kick she'd say, "Forward kick in 3, 2, 1", so that I could be thinking about how to change to the forward kick before I was asked to do it. Transitions presented in this manner were simple and fun to perform. If trainers did not give this "verbal half halt", the transition would be disorganized and rushed. Worse yet, repeated muffed attempts would leave me vaguely frustrated, and perceiving myself as incompetent. I realize, with more than a little sadness, that I have felt horses experience this frustration with me. The kickboxing horsie in me, and the grass-munching ones in my pasture, appreciate having a little "heads up". My inner horsie learns best with occasional praise. As my legs flopped about, while my neighbors' kicks snapped vividly, I was acutely aware that I was not competent. From my viewpoint as I struggled, the best trainers responded by encouraging improvement rather then by highlighting shortcomings. Good trainers trust that people and horses would prefer to be competent, and therefore generously acknowledge improvement. This tactic encouraged my inner horsie to strive more cheerfully and probably more effectively. With some effort, I'm about a 2nd Level Kickboxing Dressage Horse these days. Mostly balanced, and I have to admit, a little overconfident at times. "Ah, yes, next comes the boxer's hop and then a side kick," says my presuming inner horsie. When a front kick comes in where the side kick should have been, uppity inner horsie morphs to attentive inner horsie in a hoofbeat. There's nothing like a little variety to keep that inner horsie tuned in. Timely half halts, honest praise and creative work. Today I was a kickboxing dressage horse, and for me, that has made all the difference. Camie Stockhausen trains foxhunters and eventers at her Field Day Farm in Cambridge Iowa, where her entire barn enjoys the benefits of Purina Ultium. Her daily training logs can be read at www.camstock.net. Copyright 2008 Camie J. Stockhausen Anytime is a good time to read the USEA rulebook*. Knowing the rules is excellent, however, the real genius lies in knowing what to do in light of both the rules and what actually happens when riding in public competition, being timed, while jumping solid objects. Following are real life tales from the tack involving common XC situations that get a little sticky unless you have thought them through ahead of time. Hold on Course It is important to remember, especially at smaller events, that the people who may stop you on course may not know eventing rules well. XC volunteers, bless them, are often parents or friends who are very kind to help and are doing the best they can. Their alacrity is to be applauded. I mention this because of the experience of a friend who was stopped on course at Hidden Hollow Horse Trial. The volunteers started her after the hold, from a stop at the point that they had flagged her down. It was just like starting out of the start box again, but with a shorter distance to the obstacle. As a result the horse did not get a good rhythm before the next fence and had a refusal at the drop that should have been simple for both of them. Had my friend been dead sure of the rules, she could have politely thanked and gently enlightened the volunteers of her right to go back a reasonable distance and get a flying start to the point where she was flagged down. Not really knowing the rules cost her 20 penalties and a high final placing. Jay and I saw Denny Emerson get held on course at Wayne DuPage Horse Trial in Chicago. Denny simply stopped his watch, glided his horse efficiently to a walk, went back about 200 yards and waited. He walked circles and did some basic dressage to wile away the time. When told he could start, he did one canter circle, ramped up to about 560 mpm, started his watch on the fly at the point where he had been stopped and smoked over a monster chevron jump. Real life XC rule learned: When held on course, remember the rules, use the down time to your advantage and keep your cool.
Jumping fences not on your course Recently, there was a controversy about an upper level rider riding a green horse at preliminary level. That he had come down from the lofty heights of Advanced wasn’t the problem in question. It seems that, instead of directly taking the prelim route through the water, he took first the easier training route, made a half circle and smoked on through the preliminary line. Horse and rider finished the course with only time penalties. The jump judges were confused, some people were up-in-arms because he “schooled the water,” and some were snidely saying that he “paid for it with time penalties”. What he did was pure horse-empathic genius. The rider knew full well that it would cost him time penalties and probably a few placings, but still made a conscious decision in favor of educating the horse. He chose building the horse’s confidence over winning a piece of satin. Good on him. A friend of mine errantly jumped the prelim bounce banks at Trott Brook Horse Trial a few years back. His training course had indicated the line up the one stride banks, but alas, he rode the line to the right of that one. He got to the top of the prelim bank and thought “Gee, that one stride bank went quickly. Wait a second! I rode the wrong line!” He did a half circle, re-presented to the training line, popped up it and carried on. It was perfectly legal and incurred no jump penalties since he hadn’t jumped the next jump on his course before jumping the correct bank. The key to jumping fences not marked for your level is to jump them safely and at the correct speed. If you do not, you risk penalties for reckless riding. If you plan to purposefully jump a fence that is not marked for your course, it is wise to ask the Technical Delegate before riding it if that action would likely result in penalties. There is some room for interpretation in the “reckless riding” rule, and it is good to know what those doing the interpreting are thinking. Real life XC rule learned: You can jump obstacles not on your course for many different reasons, if you do it in a safe manner.
* A complete copy of the USEF Rules for Eventing can be found at http://www.useventing.com/resources/files/docs/USEF_2006_EventingRulebook_optimized.pdf
Camie Stockhausen trains and coaches for Field Day near Ames, IA. She specializes in eventing and foxhunting, using dressage principles and will travel for clinics. Information: www.camstock.net Copyright 2007 Camie Stockhausen, All Rights Reserved What I learned about dressage from a cowboy I had finally hit the wall. My husband, Jay, was working around the barn and was witness to the 45 minute struggle I had entered into when I tried to get Sauvage, the 17h2” Belgian warmblood to go 200 yards out in a field alone. Jay calmly witnessed bucking, rearing, spinning, mini-bolting and general horse hysterics as he carried limbs to the burn pile. This was really nothing unusual for Sauvage, just more pronounced than normal. This horse had made some public displays of world-class naughtiness that had sent mothers scrambling after their children. Clearly no progress was being made. I had tried every skill I had over the months I had been working with Sauvage. Coaxing, encouraging, being monumentally patient, going to the crop, and having another horse lead, all to no lasting good. I had to admit on this day that my toolbox clearly contained no tools that worked for Sauvage. My friend Dr. Lyse Strnad had mentioned in an email to the Moingona Hunt’s list that she had worked with Kip Fladland, a “cowboy trainer” in western Iowa. Kip had worked with Ray Hunt and Buck Branaman and was now a respected trainer himself. He had started her young horse and she was delighted with the results. I went to his website (http://www.lariataranch.com/) and learned that he specialized not only in starting young horses, but in “working with problem horses”. We were in. I called him up and explained the problem, bucking, rearing, spinning and all. There was a pause. “Well, Ma’am, I don’t see where that is going to be much of a problem.” When I heard that, the sun came out and angels sang. I arrived at the farm a few weeks later, offloaded the horses and tied them to the trailer. Sauvage is a playful sort, always lipping everything, and, as Kip and I were talking, Kip nonchalantly started walking past me to where Sauvage was beginning to walk down the driveway, having successfully lipped the leadrope knot into submission. Kip caught the horse and brought him back and re-tied him. I was off to an impressive start. Kip asked me to ride the horse for him. I tacked Sauvage up, took him to the indoor, mounted up and did WTC, legyield, shoulder in and halfpass in trot and canter. Kip was unimpressed. I asked him what he thought and he said, “I’d have had a serious discussion with him for walking off before you picked up your stirrups after you mounted.” I handed the horse over to Kip, he took off the dressage saddle and replaced it with a HUGE stock saddle, silver fenders and all. I have to admit I got a chuckle out of the sight of a big-moving imported warmblood under western tack. He worked Sauvage in hand on a rope halter, with a lot of bending and “disengaging” the hind leg, all the while explaining what he was doing. After an hour of listening, I asked what he meant by disengaging the hind leg, because it looked like engaging to me. He elaborated that he was intending the horse to step under and through with his inside hind. Ok, that is engaging in dressage world, so now the problem is only semantics. He spent another half an hour on that. The most force he used was swatting Sauvage on the butt once with the half inch lead rope with the leather popper. He also did a fair amount of leading Sauvage around the arena. The horse had to follow behind him on a slack leadrope and stop when Kip stopped, the horse was to go when he went, at the pace he went and in the direction he went without any pulling by the handler. I asked him about having the horse walk with his handler, as I’d been taught as a kid. Before I got the question out of my mouth, I realized that the point of leading a horse as he was doing was so that the horse had to learn to watch his handler and react appropriately, and to learn to keep his attention focused on his handler. Then he got on and repeated the same exercises he had done on the ground, from his back. He smoothly pulled Sauvage’s head to the side and simply held the rein until the horse softened, all the while sending forward with his leg, and when that happened, Kip smoothly released the rein. Many times when he would do this, the horse would take an audible relaxed breath. Technique is everything. I have seen a lot of people bend a horse’s neck around to the side, hold them there, and then bend him all the way around to the other side. I haven’t seen much success with that method. What Kip was doing was showing a horse a way to relax mentally and in the poll. When the horse softened in the poll, he got an immediate smooth release. The horse learned how to relax in his poll. On Day three I tacked Sauvage up and we went out on a trail ride. This was going to be the real test. Kip was riding another training horse with a similar problem, so I had an amusing time thinking of how the day would unfold. I rode Sauvauge out of the arena into the sunshine. When he got past the end of the barn, he went into his usual hysterics of bucking, rearing and spinning. Kip directed me to ask the horse to flex, which I did. As soon as the horse let go in his poll, I smoothly released, gave him a pat and sent him forward. It worked beautifully and without force. Then we went out in the outdoor and worked on my technique. Shortening the flexing rein and keeping an active leg are the keys, along with the mother of all keys, the release. We went out on a trail ride over hill and dale. Sauvage and Kip’s horse each threw a few minor fits, but now I had tools to deal with it. Sauvage was as light in the bridle and soft in the poll as any horse I’d ever ridden and I was able to maintain it by showing him how to let go in the poll and releasing the pressure when he did. By the end of the day we were cantering separately wherever we wanted, with happy, relaxed horses. What I learned then and since then: *Groundwork matters. Horses should be polite in all areas of their life, including leading, loading, tying and mounting. *The release is the important thing. A horse wants a release more than praise, though he wants that too. *Good horsemanship is universal. The week after I was with Kip I was reading Walter Zettl’s Dressage in Harmony and ran across this statement: “To be stiff in the poll, the horse uses the muscles in his neck as one against the other in a strong tension. The rider's job is to encourage him to release this tension and relax these muscles. They are not like stiff leather that can be softened by flexing them back and forth until they "break down." There must be a willing "letting go" of this tension that can only come through relaxation. To release the tension in the poll and get the horse even on both reins is one of the most important goals in all riding. This is the only way to achieve a straight, supple, balanced horse whose back swings.”
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