Booboos
Well-Known Member
I had a fantastic weekend at the BD Convention this year with Adelinde Cornelissen. I usually do a horse/rider by horse/rider account but Adelinde had a very clear and very well thought out system that she applied to all the riders so I think Ill do the report that way.
So, firstly, she is a very good public speaker. She is articulate, clear, engaging, intelligent and very passionate about teaching and she clearly had a goal to teach not only the rider/horse pairings but the audience as well. There were some changes to the usual format. First there was a mini interview of Adelinde, which got slightly odd at times with the compere asking her very personal questions like what she does in her free time and when she plans on having children! I think he had a real soft spot for her and when he said she was really fit, it sounded like he was saying she was attractive rather than sporty (which of course she is, but a bit odd drawing attention to this!)!
Then Adelinde did a session with her body coach and her mind coach. This is a big part of her training and there were interesting elements there, but more so when she applied these ideas to the actual training of the rider/horse combinations than in the introductory session. To be fair I think the majority of the audience really liked this part of the convention and it was very unusual, with whole audience participation, people on their feet, talking to each other, etc. I found it a bit boring, it went on for far too long (it was an hour and ten minutes before we saw a horse on the Saturday) and it was rather evident self-help stuff call me a grump if you like but Id rather see the horses sooner and some of the horse sessions were curtailed because of the motivational session and the endless audience questions which was a shame.
Anyway, the system: The system has both mental and physical components. The rider is encouraged to think positive (I am a winner), to get over mistakes by not dwelling on them and moving on (if you drop the ball dont think about it, you will only drop the next ball), to be ready to vary everything and respond with new ideas, and to visualise everything in detail and positively (visualise the perfect halt and you will get the perfect halt as your body will react in ways to bring about the perfect halt). The physical components for the rider were fitness, flexibility and good reaction times through a variety of training methods. Adelinde boxes, runs, and she also does a lot of exercises to become aware of her body knowing which bits are tense and which bits are loose as well as a lot of balance exercises, all of which translate to her ridden work.
For the horse the emphasis is on basic training. Get the basics right and the complicated movements will follow; equally if you have problems with the advanced movements, dont work on them but go back to basics (a lot of what she had to say on all this was very similar to Ankys system and Jan Bemelmans unsurprisingly). She also works on her basics on hacks and on the canter track, not just in the arena, in fact she prefers to work outside than in the arena.
So on horses she always does:
- speed control. The rider must always think forwards, even in collected work, even in the halt. A backward thinking halt results in a poor upwards transition, the rider must think forwards in the horse to have the energy to move on afterwards (Matt Frost did a nice demonstration of this on AMD Don Rosso. The first halt to trot transitions were slow and unresponsive because the halts had been backward thinking with the horse becoming heavy in the hand and the rider having to pull. Thinking forward resulted in a very engaged, easy halt with a quick take off in trot). So for speed control the horse is asked for a very rhythmical trot (or canter but rhythm is crucial) and then asked for a more forwards version from one leg aid to which the horse must respond immediately and a smaller version from one hand aid to which the horse must again respond to immediately. The forward and smaller trots must maintain the same rhythm. The forward trot mustnt become unbalanced, throwing the legs about, the horse must still listen to the rider and the smaller trot comes from the legs taking smaller steps. So the rider still thinks forwards but the horses legs do a small, pony trot that must never resemble half-steps. She used this with all the horses, e.g. Damian Hallams Serupgaards Salut showed very clear transitions within the pace with really good reactions to the aids, but would then throw a quirky response spooking, spinning, etc. Adelinde told Damian to ignore the problems and continue as before dont dwell on the mistake, focus on your goal and continue pursuing it. Speed control should not become routine but should itself be varied, so sometimes the rider should ask for forwards, more forwards, yet more forwards, before going for the smaller trot. Speed control should also be adjusted for individual horse requirements, e.g. Goodmans Supernova is a rather hot horse so Spencer Wilton was praised for keeping him in the small trot to aid relaxation, as asking for more at the beginning could result in the horse taking over and throwing himself into a big trot with no control or balance. However, Dan Greenwoods Lennox is sensitive in another way, closing off into himself when worried, so Dan was encourage to ride him forwards for much longer to open him up.
- step two is flexibility. In a straight line riders were asked to flex the horses head a bit inwards, making sure the front legs stayed on a straight line and the flexion came evenly from the poll. Asking the horses to do this simple exercise showed up a lot of problem with crookedness. For more advanced horses speed control and flexibility were combined in the half-pass (which was also ridden more forwards and smaller, or on shallower or wider angles always varying what was being asked). A horse that is crooked cannot go properly forwards because all the energy escapes to the side, so straightness is crucial.
The approach seemed to benefit both horses at the start of their dressage career like the wonderful Gypsy Cob stallion Tiger Tim and advanced horses like AMD Don Rosso where Matt Frost used the flexibility and the idea of forwardness even in collection to improve the canter pirouettes. Through-out Adelinde emphasised the importance of thinking forward and of thinking of the horses body as coming up in front of the rider at the withers while the neck was still out in front of the rider.
Adelinde was particularly good with the more difficult horses. Becky Moody came in with Carinsio, a very talented 6 year old, she has been struggling with. Apparently the horse is very good in trot and canter where she can keep him interested but loses the plot in walk and halt to the point of being dangerous as he has no self-preservation. Moodys only solution so far had been to really flex the horse to one side in the walk to prevent him from exploding however after working through speed control and flexibility she did some great halts with no tension. She was particularly encouraged to think about the rhythm and the forwardness, rather than letting him do a huge trot but with his legs all over the place, and to visualise the perfect movement as part of her preparation.
Quite a few riders worked on the flying changes where Adelinde advised that, for example in left canter, the rider should move the hands to the left (to free the right shoulder so the horse is able to change), then flex the head to the right and ask for the change. Adelinde said the hands control the front legs and by placing them to the right the front legs move to the right and vice verse and she demonstrated this repeatedly. For her the legs are the forward aid and the hands control the shoulders/front legs/straightness (unlike the German/BHS inside leg to outside hand). So if a horse was leaning to the inside she would not use the inside leg but rather move both hands to the outside this worked very well with Tiger Tim and his corners.
Sooo, to finish, favourite horse of the weekend for yours truly Zoe Sleighs Bequia! Matt Hicks rode very nicely and looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself and his lovely horse (Don Carissimo). Least favourite Goodmans Supernova which didnt impress me this time. He was stretching nicely in his neck in his warm-up work so his head was BTV, which Adelinde said was fine (it was fine by me too for what its worth!) but when he did start his proper work, for me, he remained constantly BTV which at this point I think is a problem which should have been addressed.
So, firstly, she is a very good public speaker. She is articulate, clear, engaging, intelligent and very passionate about teaching and she clearly had a goal to teach not only the rider/horse pairings but the audience as well. There were some changes to the usual format. First there was a mini interview of Adelinde, which got slightly odd at times with the compere asking her very personal questions like what she does in her free time and when she plans on having children! I think he had a real soft spot for her and when he said she was really fit, it sounded like he was saying she was attractive rather than sporty (which of course she is, but a bit odd drawing attention to this!)!
Then Adelinde did a session with her body coach and her mind coach. This is a big part of her training and there were interesting elements there, but more so when she applied these ideas to the actual training of the rider/horse combinations than in the introductory session. To be fair I think the majority of the audience really liked this part of the convention and it was very unusual, with whole audience participation, people on their feet, talking to each other, etc. I found it a bit boring, it went on for far too long (it was an hour and ten minutes before we saw a horse on the Saturday) and it was rather evident self-help stuff call me a grump if you like but Id rather see the horses sooner and some of the horse sessions were curtailed because of the motivational session and the endless audience questions which was a shame.
Anyway, the system: The system has both mental and physical components. The rider is encouraged to think positive (I am a winner), to get over mistakes by not dwelling on them and moving on (if you drop the ball dont think about it, you will only drop the next ball), to be ready to vary everything and respond with new ideas, and to visualise everything in detail and positively (visualise the perfect halt and you will get the perfect halt as your body will react in ways to bring about the perfect halt). The physical components for the rider were fitness, flexibility and good reaction times through a variety of training methods. Adelinde boxes, runs, and she also does a lot of exercises to become aware of her body knowing which bits are tense and which bits are loose as well as a lot of balance exercises, all of which translate to her ridden work.
For the horse the emphasis is on basic training. Get the basics right and the complicated movements will follow; equally if you have problems with the advanced movements, dont work on them but go back to basics (a lot of what she had to say on all this was very similar to Ankys system and Jan Bemelmans unsurprisingly). She also works on her basics on hacks and on the canter track, not just in the arena, in fact she prefers to work outside than in the arena.
So on horses she always does:
- speed control. The rider must always think forwards, even in collected work, even in the halt. A backward thinking halt results in a poor upwards transition, the rider must think forwards in the horse to have the energy to move on afterwards (Matt Frost did a nice demonstration of this on AMD Don Rosso. The first halt to trot transitions were slow and unresponsive because the halts had been backward thinking with the horse becoming heavy in the hand and the rider having to pull. Thinking forward resulted in a very engaged, easy halt with a quick take off in trot). So for speed control the horse is asked for a very rhythmical trot (or canter but rhythm is crucial) and then asked for a more forwards version from one leg aid to which the horse must respond immediately and a smaller version from one hand aid to which the horse must again respond to immediately. The forward and smaller trots must maintain the same rhythm. The forward trot mustnt become unbalanced, throwing the legs about, the horse must still listen to the rider and the smaller trot comes from the legs taking smaller steps. So the rider still thinks forwards but the horses legs do a small, pony trot that must never resemble half-steps. She used this with all the horses, e.g. Damian Hallams Serupgaards Salut showed very clear transitions within the pace with really good reactions to the aids, but would then throw a quirky response spooking, spinning, etc. Adelinde told Damian to ignore the problems and continue as before dont dwell on the mistake, focus on your goal and continue pursuing it. Speed control should not become routine but should itself be varied, so sometimes the rider should ask for forwards, more forwards, yet more forwards, before going for the smaller trot. Speed control should also be adjusted for individual horse requirements, e.g. Goodmans Supernova is a rather hot horse so Spencer Wilton was praised for keeping him in the small trot to aid relaxation, as asking for more at the beginning could result in the horse taking over and throwing himself into a big trot with no control or balance. However, Dan Greenwoods Lennox is sensitive in another way, closing off into himself when worried, so Dan was encourage to ride him forwards for much longer to open him up.
- step two is flexibility. In a straight line riders were asked to flex the horses head a bit inwards, making sure the front legs stayed on a straight line and the flexion came evenly from the poll. Asking the horses to do this simple exercise showed up a lot of problem with crookedness. For more advanced horses speed control and flexibility were combined in the half-pass (which was also ridden more forwards and smaller, or on shallower or wider angles always varying what was being asked). A horse that is crooked cannot go properly forwards because all the energy escapes to the side, so straightness is crucial.
The approach seemed to benefit both horses at the start of their dressage career like the wonderful Gypsy Cob stallion Tiger Tim and advanced horses like AMD Don Rosso where Matt Frost used the flexibility and the idea of forwardness even in collection to improve the canter pirouettes. Through-out Adelinde emphasised the importance of thinking forward and of thinking of the horses body as coming up in front of the rider at the withers while the neck was still out in front of the rider.
Adelinde was particularly good with the more difficult horses. Becky Moody came in with Carinsio, a very talented 6 year old, she has been struggling with. Apparently the horse is very good in trot and canter where she can keep him interested but loses the plot in walk and halt to the point of being dangerous as he has no self-preservation. Moodys only solution so far had been to really flex the horse to one side in the walk to prevent him from exploding however after working through speed control and flexibility she did some great halts with no tension. She was particularly encouraged to think about the rhythm and the forwardness, rather than letting him do a huge trot but with his legs all over the place, and to visualise the perfect movement as part of her preparation.
Quite a few riders worked on the flying changes where Adelinde advised that, for example in left canter, the rider should move the hands to the left (to free the right shoulder so the horse is able to change), then flex the head to the right and ask for the change. Adelinde said the hands control the front legs and by placing them to the right the front legs move to the right and vice verse and she demonstrated this repeatedly. For her the legs are the forward aid and the hands control the shoulders/front legs/straightness (unlike the German/BHS inside leg to outside hand). So if a horse was leaning to the inside she would not use the inside leg but rather move both hands to the outside this worked very well with Tiger Tim and his corners.
Sooo, to finish, favourite horse of the weekend for yours truly Zoe Sleighs Bequia! Matt Hicks rode very nicely and looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself and his lovely horse (Don Carissimo). Least favourite Goodmans Supernova which didnt impress me this time. He was stretching nicely in his neck in his warm-up work so his head was BTV, which Adelinde said was fine (it was fine by me too for what its worth!) but when he did start his proper work, for me, he remained constantly BTV which at this point I think is a problem which should have been addressed.
