Wellington, Fla.—Jan. 6

Forward! Forward! Forward!

That word will be ringing in the ears of the participants of the 2016 Robert Dover Horsemastership clinic for days to come.

Whether those words were uttered by Dover, Pan American Games medalist Laura Graves, or George Williams, the USDF Youth Coach and president of the USDF, the theme rang throughout all of the days rides.

While the exercises were dependent on horse and rider experience, the concept was the same. You can fix a lot of problems by going forward, and forward is the first step towards collection.

All three instructors encouraged the riders to test responsiveness to the aids throughout their rides. Riders need to insist on prompt reactions out of their mounts. If they put their leg on to no response, a swift leg needed to be applied.

For several riders, particularly shorter riders with larger horses, Dover reminded them to not lean back against their horses, but to continue with the motion.

Lindsey Holleger made significant progress with Friedensfurst, on whom she schools Grand Prix. Dover emphasized respect of the riders’ leg and letting the horse make mistakes.

“Let him fail!” he implored. “Don’t be afraid of failure!”

Dover reminded Holleger to keep riding forward no matter what, particularly when asking for a pirouette. He wanted her to keep the gelding thinking about an extended canter through her seat, while producing the turn with her rein aids and body while letting her legs do less work, so that when she puts it on, he’s more responsive to her aids. When the horse slowed, Holleger gave him two swift kicks with her outside leg before allowing her leg to hang once again.

“There’s again the commitment to the connection and starting to be selective to get more and more. Self-motivation. Electricity. All this really is electricity. What’s another word for electricity? Energy,” he said. “That’s what it all is. Electricity is energy; energy is everything, that’s what we are.

“What’s really interesting, when electricity is happening, that is, making the light glow, which is his brain, it means it’s happening in a circuit. The idea being that the energy forms then the circuit and then that is what makes the light bulb—the brain—glow. That’s what allows everything to keep going through with the rider doing the least amount to get the grandest possible result.”

Lindsey Holleger practiced thinking about riding an extended canter in her pirouettes as Robert Dover taught her. 

Nicholas Hansen tacked up his Young Rider mount Ritter Benno, but Dover was focused on getting the pair to the next step, particularly in solidifying the one- and two-tempis and then introducing the piaffe.

“You want to feel him bubbling over and desiring to say, “Dad, can I trot forward for a sec?’ ” explained Dover. “ ‘No, let’s collect more,’ ‘Can I please jig forward?’ ‘Nope, let’s collect more,’ ‘I’ve got this feeling that I want to passage forward’ and you say ‘Nope, I want to collect more’ and he says, ‘OK, I’m going to keep collecting, but then I’m going to bubble over’ and suddenly you’re in this little jig, and how fun is that, “Good boy, good boy!’ and he’s in a piaffe, and he doesn’t even know he’s doing it, but he feels all happy about it.”

Dover then spent several minutes with Hansen’s mount, encouraging the horse to step underneath himself as Hansen controlled the energy in collection.

When Julia Barton rode in on her borrowed mount, Dolce Vita, the mare seemed tense, so Graves encouraged her to post the trot, saying it was never the wrong decision to post in such cases. To relax the mare, Graves had them work on a lower frame.

“Make sure you pet her so that she knows that you’re not just getting after her, that she knows when she’s done it right. In that moment she’s wanting to dodge forward, that’s the moment to pet—the second she goes.

“I don’t mind that she’s resisting, that’s how she learns,” she said.

Julia Barton borrowed Dolce Vita for the clinic and worked on praising the tense mare at the right moments. 

Allison Nemeth has been practicing for her FEI Junior tests with Dafoe, so she and Graves gave extra attention to his flying changes. Graves wanted Nemeth to wait for the moment when the gelding was so soft on the inside rein that she wanted to give to him to ask for the change.

“You want to free up his shoulder so he can jump through,” said Graves. “I really want you to feel that you can push him with your legs from one rein to the other and that you have a choice to make as to which moment you make the change in. That for you is more important than counting right now.

“Because we could stress about fours, threes, no he made a mistake, but I think really what is most beneficial to you is being able to put him in the right canter—in the right way of going—where all you have to worry about is counting. You don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh he came high or oh he was late behind or oh he’s not straight.The best training makes you not have to think about very much when show time comes.”

Anna Weniger took a lesson with Williams on her third level mount Izeffia, and Williams spent much of his time giving her exercises to increase suppleness, roundness and an active hind leg. As Weniger spiraled in and out on a circle, Williams reminded her to not let the mare get behind when asked to circle smaller.

“Use the counter-canter to get the hind leg jumping up and under her body,” he encouraged, before moving onto a trot exercise. Williams had her trot in a shoulder in up the long side, before transitioning to the walk, followed by a walk pirouette into a renvers at the trot.

Anna Weniger used a series of shoulder-in and renvers exercises to keep her third-level mount Izeffia supple and round.

Tomorrow the horses get the day off with the 18 participants starting the day with a fitness regimine with Mike Barthelemy before a series of lectures with industry professionals.

RIDERS

Julia Barton

Kristin Counterman

Allison Cyprus

Alexander Dawson

Mickayla Frederick

Cassidy Gallman

Kerrigan Gluch

Nick Hansen

Lindsey Holleger

Allison Hopkins

Tillie Jones

Clair McNulty

Allison Nemeth

Molly Paris

Asia Rupert

Lilly Simons

Anna Weniger

AUDITORS

Jessican Fan

Kylie Heitman

Emily Karls

Jordan Lockwood

Kylee McKereghan