Horse&Rider Magazine - December 2013

Horse

world

Unseen pictures from iconic equine artist Anne Bullen are expected to draw equestrian enthusiasts to London A prolific pony book illustrator and founder of the world-famous Catherston Stud, the late Anne Bullen is well-known in equestrian

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circles. Many of us grew up with her drawings giving life to childhood fiction.

Anne’s eldest daughter, the equally famous dressage

rider, trainer and breeder Jennie Loriston-Clarke, found some of her mother’s drawings hidden in a forgotten cupboard and the family decided to share them with a wider audience. This resulted in a hugely popular exhibition in 2012 of her unseen work.

This year,

the Bullens have decided to share her charming artwork for a second time at the Osborne Studio Gallery, Belgravia, London. The exhibition will run from 20 November to 15 December and ranges from Olympic pencil drawings to oil paintings of horses on their way to market. osg.uk.com

Anne Bullen’s daughter, Jane Holderness-Roddam, explains how versatile Anne was as an artist

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She was comfortable using pencil, pen and ink, crayon, charcoal, gouache, as well as watercolour and oils

Main: ‘Bill Roycroft on Solo’ – Rome Olympics 1960.

Below: ‘Startled in the Snow’ – Exmoor, watercolour.

Bottom: ‘Frosted Dawn on Dartmoor’, watercolour

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NEW SERIES In this feature...

Photos: Steve Bardens. Thank you to NAF for their help with this feature. For more information on NAF products, call ☎ 0800 373 106 or visit naf-equine.eu

Our trainer International dressage rider Michael Eilberg joined the BEF World Class Development programme in 2009 and competed in his first season of Grand Prix in 2010. He has had high-profile successes with his horses Half Moon Delphi, Woodlander Farouche, Marakov and Monet. Michael was second reserve for the 2012 London Olympics and won a team bronze medal at the 2013 European Championships.

Our model Zoe Sleigh has been a member of the BEF World Class Development programme since 2012. She has had a fantastic 2013, winning the NAF Winter Championships Inter I Music Freestyle title and the Inter I Supreme Champion title at the British Dressage National Championships. She rides her four-year-old gelding, Cedric, whom she backed last year.

H&R training online To see videos of Michael Eilberg training, as well as other practical tips, visit horseandrideruk.com

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➤

Are you doing too much?

In the saddle

➤ Building up his skills ➤ Transition timing ➤ The big picture

A

natural feel for flatwork Get the best out of your horse by focusing on the basics and paying attention to the feedback he’s giving you, says dressage star Michael Eilberg Flatwork foundations ➤ Balance ➤ Co-ordination ➤ Responsiveness ➤ Self-carriage ➤ Fitness

Y

ou sometimes hear people credit a rider with having ‘a lot of natural feel’. What this really means is that the rider in question is good at interpreting subtle signals from their horse while in the saddle and responding to them appropriately. A rider’s ability to feel and decode what’s going on underneath them and at the end of the reins is something that varies hugely between individuals. Some people are just inherently more sensitive to their horse than others, but feel is also a skill that improves with experience and practice.

Your sense of feel in the saddle is something that you can and should work on. Just by being very aware of your horse’s every movement and the way he carries himself, you’ll be surprised by the extra information he’ll give you and how much it will improve the instinctive aspect of your riding.

When you’re at the very beginning of your horse’s flatwork training or if you’re retraining your horse, your ability to feel how well he is coping with his education is the key to its overall success.

Feel the foundations

When you’re in the saddle, you should be continually feeling for the integrity and stability of your horse’s flatwork foundations – his balance, co-ordination, responsiveness, self-carriage and fitness. When you’re training an inexperienced horse, these are the first things he must learn. As he progresses with his education, it’s then your job as the rider to always be aware, through feel, of how well those foundations are holding up. This way you will know if and when he’s ready for the next step.

For example, our equine model, Cedric, is young, weak and inexperienced, so his foundations aren’t fully established yet.

Improved physical fitness has helped his general rhythm and co-ordination, but he’s now at the point where Zoe needs to ask a little more from him during basic training in order to truly establish his balance, responses and self-carriage before she ccan an m ove o n.

Main image: Zoe Sleigh and Cedric Left: Michael Eilberg

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PART THREE In this feature...

➤

Who’s in charge? ➤ Polework

Our trainer Yogi Breisner is the Performance Manager, World Class Programme Coach and chef d’equipe who came in and revitalised British Eventing in 1999. He has since coached our international eventing team to 25 major championship medals over the last 13 years. Yogi represented his native Sweden in an Olympic Games and is an incredibly experienced trainer.

William Fox-Pitt describes him as “a genius” when it comes to training horses and their riders.

Photos: Bob Atkins

Our model Charlotte Agnew, 25, is one of the country’s most promising young event riders, having represented Great Britain on both Junior and Young Rider teams – winning team gold and finishing fourth individually on Little Beau in 2007.

Charlotte is a member of the British Eventing World Class Development Programme and has set her sights on the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Charlotte rides Dumble, an experienced, 11-year-old exracehorse. Charlotte blogs for our website, horseandrideruk.com

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H&R training online

Charlotte Agnew and Dumble Right: Yogi Breisner

To see videos of the exercises used in this feature, as well as other practical tips, visit horseandrideruk.com.

Either scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit tinyurl.com/ YogiBreisner to access the page.

In the saddle

➤ Progressive trot jumping ➤ Related distances ➤ Seeing a stride

Yogi Breisner – the future of coaching To successfully jump around a course of jumps, your horse needs to be responsive and obedient, says BE Coach Yogi Breisner

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eing a coach, I have to be aware of developments and fashions in equestrian sports that will affect my riders and adapt accordingly. For example, there is currently a distinct trend in course designing that has influenced my coaching sessions. Both in showjumping and cross-country competitions, course designers are including a lot of fences that are a test of accuracy and control – skinnies, corners and tricky distances, which test a horse’s training and his rider’s judgement.

A popular combination on a cross-country course is a big, wide fence on a curving line to a skinny fence. In this situation, if the rider approaches the first part too fast, they are not going to make the turn, but if they go too slow, their horse might stop at the wide fence – a decision needs to be made. Once the rider has planned their approach, their horse has to listen and respond in order to successfully negotiate the obstacles.

In showjumping, designers used to include related distances of three to five strides, but now they use longer distances of seven, eight or nine strides because the rider has to make an adjustment in the middle rather than just for the first part. Course designers won’t build a distance that is two-and-a-half strides as it’s unfair on the horse, but they could build something that’s five-and-a-half or six-and-a-half strides to test the horse and rider’s reactions and response.

Who’s in charge?

Awkward lines and distances are simple if your horse is responsive at all times, like our horse model, Dumble. Your horse should listen to the controlling aids and the forward aids, and accept taking your leg into the contact without rushing or ignoring you – if you can develop that, then you are halfway there. The following exercises combine all of these required skills into a simple routine that you can build on and develop.

Building up the same exercise gradually from poles on the ground to include a jump will keep your horse feeling confident in himself and in you.

When a horse trusts his rider, he is more likely to listen and wait for the rider’s instruction. It’s when a horse doubts his rider that he may start to rush or be reluctant in front of the fence.

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➤

PART ONE In this feature. . . ➤ Why use a simulator? ➤ What’s a

RIDER

BIO

Secure

in the saddle The rider ec

Katherine Walter is an accredited ‘Ride With Your Mind’ biomechanics coach, BHSII and NLP practitioner.

Frustrated at not being able to convey what she could feel when teaching, Katherine started to explore a biomechanical approach to instruction. After reading ‘Centred Riding’ by biomechanics coach Sally Swift, she trained with Mary Wanless, gaining her ‘Ride With Your Mind’ qualification. katherinewalter.co.uk

h a nics

Our trainer

m

Photos: Bob Atkins

Our models Anna McCarthy has recently returned to riding after a break and is focusing on position. She is committed to improving her core strength, doing work in and out of the saddle to build up her core.

Steady Eddy is the horse simulator based at Playbarn Riding Centre, Norfolk. He has five speeds – walk; a slow, almost piaffe-like trot (although it is not intended to be piaffe); a faster trot; a slow canter and a fast canter.

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Riding with a hollow back is a common problem, but with a few tweaks – and the help of ‘Steady Eddy’ – it’s easily corrected, says biomechanics coach Katherine Walter

Mind matters

hollow rider? ➤ Correct your position ➤ Reaching the top of the rise

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hen you are riding, you should feel like you are fitting together with your horse like a plug into a socket. The connection between you shouldn’t be too strong (so you are pushing down too tightly onto your horse’s back) or too loose (like searching for that plug socket in the dark).

Many of us find this difficult to achieve in practice and as every horse is different, your position is also required to adjust to different stride lengths, variable power behind paces and different terrains, too.

However, by working on achieving a secure position in the saddle, you are giving yourself the best chance to stay safe and be more comfortable. You are giving your horse a better chance of achieving his full potential, too.

Every rider will have some asymmetry going on in their riding and this will impact the horse you are riding. When taking lessons on your own horse, you will often find you are working on many things at once, including steering, combating spooking, encouraging him to move forwards and much more. It can be difficult to fully concentrate on your position. That’s where Steady Eddy comes in.

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