milliepops
Wears headscarf aggressively
Thought i'd make a start with today's notes, I know there were a good few HHOers there today so please add or correct where necessary 
The day today started with "Building blocks - Novice to Small Tour"
Emile Faurie took the Novice to Medium section with some rather lovely horses.
Emile with the Novice 5 year old, Nikki Barker riding Iwan... lots of transitions between trot and canter to help the horse come over the back. The horse must stay forward in the trot and then in the canter transition he has to willingly jump forward from the hindleg. If he doesn't go forward, be prepared to adopt a slightly forward position immediately in the second canter stride and ask him to be more forward thinking.
Starting lengthened strides: some horses need more support in the beginning so you might not be able to achieve a lengthened frame at the same time. This will come in time.
Vet Rachel Murray was a good complement to all the presenters and with the young horses she added to an interesting discussion about when to end a training session. When the horse is tired it shows in the walk in the hindlimbs as the hocks and fetlocks "wobble" when the stabilising muscles are tired.
If you carry on the hard work at that point you risk injury, that is when you do your worst training.
Emile again with the elementary horse, Tom Goode riding Sakira
With the elementary horse, an easy exercise to develop collection. In working canter alternating between a big circle and smaller circle in working canter. It's tempting to ride towards collection using too much hand but this means you maintain the forward attitude but the hind leg naturally steps underneath more.
Lots of emphasis on being logical, consistent and giving the horse routine that it understands to help you get the most out of its natural willingness.
on leg yield
There's a big difference between a horse going sideways in trot, and one that is trotting sideways. Never allow the quality of the basic pace to deteriorate.
Emile with the medium horse, Tom again this time riding Langley (swoon.. what a horse!)
on half pass: your thumbs should point to the ears which point to the marker.
The leading foreleg should reach forward to the marker, not sideways to it, then you have correct bend.
Riding extensions on the long side rather than diagonals gives you a better opportunity to check the straightness. Ride on the quarter line if you want to be off the wall.
Gareth Hughes then took the section from AM to PSG.
Gareth was riding a lovely horse competing at advanced medium... (it wasn't the horse in the programme so if anyone noted the name please add it!)
"this horse is working somewhere between advanced medium and grand prix" 😂
Rebecca Hughes joined him riding Tantoni Dallaglio.
Warming up is not just about stretching. It's also about preparing their body for the work that is required.
Vet Rachel Murray elaborated. 3 stages of a warm up. Passive : With a rug or exercise sheet. General: literally warming up the soft tissue of the horse, trotting or cantering . Specific: switching on the muscle groups you are going to use.
Where to put the neck? 1. Put the neck where you are going to be safe. 2. Put the neck where the horse can be in balance. Stretching is important but it might come at a different point of the session.
Movements we have to practice on both reins, because we show both in the test. Exercises can be applied to only one side. The horse Gareth is riding leans over his left leg when it's nervous so he rides exercises to improve the horses awareness of the left leg.
There are 3 canter movements at small tour, piris, half passes and changes.
Piris: A canter exercise alternating between travers and straight on a circle. There are 3 components : the shape, the pace and the body position. Each should not change or influence the other. The horse shouldn't slow down because he's in travers, for example. If you allow little things to change without your instructions them you can end up with a problem in the pirouettes.
The more the horse is willing to stay in front of the leg the smaller the working piri can get.
Regular breaks are good for the horse physically but also teach them mentally to snap back to work when you pick them up.
Towards the zigzag:
Start with just half pass to change, assess quality of each component. Don't let the change get downhill.
For the psg zigzag come off the wall a few strides of HP then set up in shoulderfore for the next change...wait for the correct canter before riding the change. When the horse comes back to you, only then go forward to the change. Teaches the horse how to prepare for the next half pass.
Peter Storr chimes in, preferring to see this preparation in the psg test than someone going on a wing and a prayer.
Gareth... Don't forget that your horse gets good at what you do. If you get excited and let the horse change leg simply from a change in body position that's what it learns. But it doesn't really give you control over the timing.
You have what's good for now, and what's good for later. The 2nd or third year at psg or inter1 Will have a different definition of "good" to the first year.
You can't do everything in every session at this level. This horse is fit enough, but not strong enough. So it's time to ride exercises in trot now rather than lines from the test.
For horses with a really normal trot, teaching cadence and athleticism: Alternating between collected trot and trotting slower but *keeping going*. so he learns to trot slower in almost a nothingy trot but keep going. He has to learn to swing from leg to leg. When he can do that, then you can add Impulsion, and then you have passage.
Change the location of the exercise to deal with problems that have occurred. Riding hp out of the corner, the horse anticipated and lost his balance. So move it down a marker to give time to prepare the positioning.
Afternoon session.
Firstly was Sophie Wells with the para riders - I'm afraid I didn't take any notes so please fill the gaps.
Next up
Inter Inspiration with Gareth again
on developing the piris from psg to gp with Classic Briolinca. Same exercise as the psg horse but with advanced collection. A few repetitions until he has control over every step. And then a full piri.
Tip for a green PSG horse for the PSG piri lines. Canter to the outside of x rather than strictly on the diahonal line , then keep the quality so piri is a little bigger. That way you finish on your line 💡
Peter adds that the form of the way the horse does the piri should always take priority over the size.
With the inter1 horse, don't get so excited about doing the piri that you fall out of it! You need to exit in balance in order to pull off the change.
Developing the zigzag exercise from the psg horse. Start by waiting for a set number of strides between each change. 4 strides half pass, 4 strides waiting, so it takes 8 strides in total. Then reduce to 3 strides waiting/ 7 stride total and so on to 6 strides total with no waiting which is the GP 🙃
Video on facebook:
Developing the trotwork is all through balance and rhythm (and 200 million half halts). You want to feel her lift up in the back with each half halt.
Finally Emile returned for "GP Goals" with Cafe's Caletta.
developing Gp piris on an ex SJ horse that sits without carrying and wants to spin round... collect the canter then slightly leg yield out until she is in the right carrying canter and waiting. Then leave her alone around the piri.
Developing tempis, at this stage with a green horse it's important to build confidence, so he always works down from 4s 3s and 2s rather than going straight for the 1s.
The horse is struggling to maintain the connection in the passage as she lacks a bit of strength so he combines it with some medium trot to help.
As this is a horse that has changed career, Rachel Murray adds the suggestion of using raised poles in walk to teach her to reach forward with the hind leg without the need for repeated harder work.
The day today started with "Building blocks - Novice to Small Tour"
Emile Faurie took the Novice to Medium section with some rather lovely horses.
Emile with the Novice 5 year old, Nikki Barker riding Iwan... lots of transitions between trot and canter to help the horse come over the back. The horse must stay forward in the trot and then in the canter transition he has to willingly jump forward from the hindleg. If he doesn't go forward, be prepared to adopt a slightly forward position immediately in the second canter stride and ask him to be more forward thinking.
Starting lengthened strides: some horses need more support in the beginning so you might not be able to achieve a lengthened frame at the same time. This will come in time.
Vet Rachel Murray was a good complement to all the presenters and with the young horses she added to an interesting discussion about when to end a training session. When the horse is tired it shows in the walk in the hindlimbs as the hocks and fetlocks "wobble" when the stabilising muscles are tired.
If you carry on the hard work at that point you risk injury, that is when you do your worst training.
Emile again with the elementary horse, Tom Goode riding Sakira
With the elementary horse, an easy exercise to develop collection. In working canter alternating between a big circle and smaller circle in working canter. It's tempting to ride towards collection using too much hand but this means you maintain the forward attitude but the hind leg naturally steps underneath more.
Lots of emphasis on being logical, consistent and giving the horse routine that it understands to help you get the most out of its natural willingness.
on leg yield
There's a big difference between a horse going sideways in trot, and one that is trotting sideways. Never allow the quality of the basic pace to deteriorate.
Emile with the medium horse, Tom again this time riding Langley (swoon.. what a horse!)
on half pass: your thumbs should point to the ears which point to the marker.
The leading foreleg should reach forward to the marker, not sideways to it, then you have correct bend.
Riding extensions on the long side rather than diagonals gives you a better opportunity to check the straightness. Ride on the quarter line if you want to be off the wall.
Gareth Hughes then took the section from AM to PSG.
Gareth was riding a lovely horse competing at advanced medium... (it wasn't the horse in the programme so if anyone noted the name please add it!)
"this horse is working somewhere between advanced medium and grand prix" 😂
Rebecca Hughes joined him riding Tantoni Dallaglio.
Warming up is not just about stretching. It's also about preparing their body for the work that is required.
Vet Rachel Murray elaborated. 3 stages of a warm up. Passive : With a rug or exercise sheet. General: literally warming up the soft tissue of the horse, trotting or cantering . Specific: switching on the muscle groups you are going to use.
Where to put the neck? 1. Put the neck where you are going to be safe. 2. Put the neck where the horse can be in balance. Stretching is important but it might come at a different point of the session.
Movements we have to practice on both reins, because we show both in the test. Exercises can be applied to only one side. The horse Gareth is riding leans over his left leg when it's nervous so he rides exercises to improve the horses awareness of the left leg.
There are 3 canter movements at small tour, piris, half passes and changes.
Piris: A canter exercise alternating between travers and straight on a circle. There are 3 components : the shape, the pace and the body position. Each should not change or influence the other. The horse shouldn't slow down because he's in travers, for example. If you allow little things to change without your instructions them you can end up with a problem in the pirouettes.
The more the horse is willing to stay in front of the leg the smaller the working piri can get.
Regular breaks are good for the horse physically but also teach them mentally to snap back to work when you pick them up.
Towards the zigzag:
Start with just half pass to change, assess quality of each component. Don't let the change get downhill.
For the psg zigzag come off the wall a few strides of HP then set up in shoulderfore for the next change...wait for the correct canter before riding the change. When the horse comes back to you, only then go forward to the change. Teaches the horse how to prepare for the next half pass.
Peter Storr chimes in, preferring to see this preparation in the psg test than someone going on a wing and a prayer.
Gareth... Don't forget that your horse gets good at what you do. If you get excited and let the horse change leg simply from a change in body position that's what it learns. But it doesn't really give you control over the timing.
You have what's good for now, and what's good for later. The 2nd or third year at psg or inter1 Will have a different definition of "good" to the first year.
You can't do everything in every session at this level. This horse is fit enough, but not strong enough. So it's time to ride exercises in trot now rather than lines from the test.
For horses with a really normal trot, teaching cadence and athleticism: Alternating between collected trot and trotting slower but *keeping going*. so he learns to trot slower in almost a nothingy trot but keep going. He has to learn to swing from leg to leg. When he can do that, then you can add Impulsion, and then you have passage.
Change the location of the exercise to deal with problems that have occurred. Riding hp out of the corner, the horse anticipated and lost his balance. So move it down a marker to give time to prepare the positioning.
Afternoon session.
Firstly was Sophie Wells with the para riders - I'm afraid I didn't take any notes so please fill the gaps.
Next up
Inter Inspiration with Gareth again
on developing the piris from psg to gp with Classic Briolinca. Same exercise as the psg horse but with advanced collection. A few repetitions until he has control over every step. And then a full piri.
Tip for a green PSG horse for the PSG piri lines. Canter to the outside of x rather than strictly on the diahonal line , then keep the quality so piri is a little bigger. That way you finish on your line 💡
Peter adds that the form of the way the horse does the piri should always take priority over the size.
With the inter1 horse, don't get so excited about doing the piri that you fall out of it! You need to exit in balance in order to pull off the change.
Developing the zigzag exercise from the psg horse. Start by waiting for a set number of strides between each change. 4 strides half pass, 4 strides waiting, so it takes 8 strides in total. Then reduce to 3 strides waiting/ 7 stride total and so on to 6 strides total with no waiting which is the GP 🙃
Video on facebook:
Developing the trotwork is all through balance and rhythm (and 200 million half halts). You want to feel her lift up in the back with each half halt.
Finally Emile returned for "GP Goals" with Cafe's Caletta.
developing Gp piris on an ex SJ horse that sits without carrying and wants to spin round... collect the canter then slightly leg yield out until she is in the right carrying canter and waiting. Then leave her alone around the piri.
Developing tempis, at this stage with a green horse it's important to build confidence, so he always works down from 4s 3s and 2s rather than going straight for the 1s.
The horse is struggling to maintain the connection in the passage as she lacks a bit of strength so he combines it with some medium trot to help.
As this is a horse that has changed career, Rachel Murray adds the suggestion of using raised poles in walk to teach her to reach forward with the hind leg without the need for repeated harder work.
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I usually start a separate thread so I can search for it in the future 
