What an Opportunity! My experience at the Sabine Schut-Kery Clinic

By, Paige Zimmerman

Ducati and I were selected to participate in a clinic with Sabine SchutKery at Dunmovin Farm. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I learned a ton from my own rides, as well as from watching others. It was also nice to meet friends old and new. Sabine was very complimentary of Ducati, which was gratifying to say the least. Hearing that she loved him made me so happy— Ducati tries his hardest and is an extremely good boy. She even said that she’d take him home if she could!

In my lessons, we primarily worked on increasing the effectiveness of my aids. We increased his bend and engagement, and improved the connection over his back in combination with power from behind. I tend to get complacent and he tends to ignore me, so Sabine helped to break that cycle. She said: “You don’t have to do the job for him, but you need to give him the job description.”

She had me ask for more with my inside leg and keep my legs “on” his sides, hugging him with the legs, so that my aids were clearer and he responded more quickly. Leg yielding in the canter helped with this, since I could get better timing with my leg and feel him give me a good reaction. She also had me increase the power without making him speed up. She said that it is important to remember that in every extension is the ability to collect, and in collection you must feel the ability to extend from it. This is something that is hard to balance with Ducati, since he tends to feel like he is either running away or he is behind the leg and I can’t ask for more reach and power. The leg yield improved this since my aids became more effective and when I asked for power he actually gave a better response. He also began responding to a tap with the whip much better.

Similar to my lessons with Felicitas, we worked on having him fill out the contact and stretch his topline more, while maintaining his balance. In my warmup she said that I should shoot to have his neck a bit longer and stretchier, but to prevent his poll from dipping too low, so that he maintains his balance. She also said that working on smaller turns and asking for more power in those turns will help to keep his back moving and loosened. He recently turned 14, so a mindful warmup that keeps his muscles healthy will only serve to keep him going strong as he ages.

We also worked on walk shoulder-in to get him to truly fill out the outside rein. Sometimes he stiffens his neck and bobs his head a bit, then just crosses his legs instead of maintaining a soft topline in the lateral work. If he stiffened, I was to patiently ask for more bend, so that I reassured him that the answer to my aid is to push to the contact rather than get anxious. Sabine also did a bit of groundwork with him, moving him sideways and maintaining more flexion. She said that using tactful aids and not asking for too much at once is important to avoid overwhelming him. She was very considerate of this. In doing walk lateral work such as halfpass, I wasn’t using enough inside bending leg, so she said that as we start to teach him a better response to the inside leg, we should pair it with the outside aids so that he does not get confused about what I am asking for. Then eventually, the inside leg can become a more tactful aid that he knows how to respond to.

Thank you to Doreen and the Dunmovin crew for your organization and hospitality in setting up and welcoming the clinic to your wonderful farm, and also for accommodating us with overnight sta- bling. It was also fabulous to see Marissa of The Distinguished Rider who brought all her boots and her support and encouragement! Thank you to Olivia Steidle for being the best trainer and supporter, and to Brenda Curnin for generously sharing Ducati with me! I’m forever grateful for my team. Lastly, of course, thank you to Sabine Schut-Kery for the educational experience and for spending the weekend teaching all of us, riders and auditors alike!

This opportunity wouldn’t have been possible without support from ESDCTA. I applied for an education grant to receive funding to participate in this clinic, and I am very grateful to have been provided the grant. If anyone has any questions about the grants that ESDCTA offers, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I am working on compiling information about the grants to advertise on social media, so keep an eye out for more information, but you can always go on the ESDCTA website (https://www.esdcta.org/).