Volume 14, Issue 12
www.azdressage.org
December, 2014
How I Used my ADA Scholarship By Jenny Cohn First of all, let me express my gratitude to the ADA for the opportunity to ride in this clinic. Without the support of the ADA, I would not have been able to ride with David Wightman, which is something I would love to be able to do again. The ADA scholarship gave me the opportunity to try some new things with my 12 year old KWPN gelding Valentino, who can be an emotional chicken when faced with new situations. He had not been off my property for a few years, but I signed up to ride with David Wightman at Nicki Soich’s last April. Even though I lunged him in the round pen beforehand, he was still tense when we went into the ring, so I was very quiet as I started to work him at the walk. He was still excited, so David lunged him in the ring before I got back on. David wanted us to go straight to the trot work on a 20 meter circle, patiently waiting for Valentino to relax. When he began to roll over his back, David pointed out to me to let him out in the neck a bit and drive forward, which helped him relax, and we were able to work the entire arena in the canter. I appreciated the way David read the situation well and appropriately worked me and the horse, getting back to basics as needed, with no preconceived agenda except to work on what the horse presented to us on that given day. On the second day, Valentino came out more relaxed, and David lunged him again in the arena, and then got on to ride him. He commented on how big a stride he has in the canter! When I got on, I went right away to trot work, doing leg yields, and a lot of forward and back to keep the horse’s attention. When we worked at the canter, I rode it very forward, doing 12 strides down the long side. In order to work on developing some collection, we worked on counter canter. I had hoped to return to get another ride with David, but the scheduling did not work out, So my last ride was with Tracey Lert, who addresses our challenges more through my position and how it influences the horse. Valentino is a very different animal at home, so relaxation was not an issue for this ride. For warm up, we worked on serpentines and a few transitions, but the emphasis was on me and my position: getting my legs in a correct position in order to be more effective, and not getting my body behind the vertical, especially in the canter. With such a big canter, I tend to get too far behind the motion sometimes. We did a lot of work on my hand position, maintaining sufficient contact without stiffening. As we worked on these details in my riding, I could feel the horse becoming more supple, more responsive, and able to make the most of his gaits. Two very good clinicians, two different approaches to working with a horse, but both heading to the same result.
Arizona Dressage Association Mission Statement The Arizona Dressage Association is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to promote the advancement of classical dressage through educational opportunities and programs, and the rigorous evaluations received at recognized and schooling dressage shows.