The
Centerline Vol. 16, Issue 9
www.azdressage.org
SEPTEMBER 2016
Invisible Arizona Dressage Association
by Susan Downs Parrish, Ph.D.
The first time I watched Jonas Irbinskas ride, I was twelve or thirteen, and knew nothing about his background. I had never seen anyone look like he did in the saddle. I wanted to ride like that. What I wanted was to have Jonas’ seat. All the things he accomplished with horses came from his strong seat. I spent three or four years watching him and trying to be like him. He wore boots from an Army surplus store. They had two buckles on the side and anyone wearing them didn’t have to worry about blowing over in a strong wind—real clodhoppers. I wanted boots like his. He told me where he got them. Then he tilted his head as though listening to an internal voice, stared at me with unflinching blue eyes, and said, “These boots wouldn’t be good for you.” Maybe it occurred to him that he was talking to a girl, and girls shouldn’t wear Army surplus boots. I wanted those damn boots. Basically, I’m the same person who tagged Jonas around, in search of knowledge of riding. In March of 2001, I persuaded Ron to fly with me to California, to watch Conrad Schumacher instruct a group of young riders. The exact location escapes me. Before the clinic, I introduced myself, then told him of my desire to know more about the Training Scale Pyramid and my plan to write an article about the clinic. We hit it off. Seated next to him, as he instructed each talented rider who entered the ring, I transcribed as much as possible of his explanations of what he was doing and why. In June of 2016, the notes from Schumacher’s clinic popped up, and I took time to read them. What a find! For the last year or so, I’ve studied durchlassigkeit—throughness. Thank you, Universe. The Universe likes to mess with me because New Age gobbledygook doesn’t persuade me. Here is Schumacher’s summary of the fundamental element in training a horse: You must get transitions through the neck. It has to be one-hundred percent through the neck. The neck has priority. Even if you do everything right, it doesn’t count, if it’s not through the neck. Neck control is horse control. If you don’t have the neck, you don’t have the horse. It takes courage to advocate control of the horse through control of the neck. Some may interpret these words as license to have an active hand. The last thing Schumacher was advocating was an active hand. Continued on Page 10