The Danish Princess Nathalie soon realized she was not in Europe when the temperature reached forty degrees in the indoor arena. It was a far cry from the minus thirty-five at home! Despite the ambient temperature that surrounded the horses and riders, the Princess was extremely cool (or is that kewl) with her explanations. It was obvious that to her, teaching and riding dressage are not for monetary gain, but for the excitement of seeing horse and rider start to blend as one. To see improvement in the riders so they can then learn new feelings that will make them better. The Princess did not hesitate to climb on board and feel any horse at any moment and there was no messing around. There was only one way and the clear simple basics were back again. Yes another brilliant international competitor and coach, yet again harping on about: Forward, Straightness, Reaction, Rider Position and Contact.
There is no magic cure. It’s simply understanding the basics and building an athlete through this consistent training. Her coaching reeks of Kyra Kyrkland: clear, concise and understandable. Her riding showed balance and structure with a hint of Germanic discipline. It was a pleasure to watch Princess Nathalie compose each and every lesson.
The first was with Christine Crawford and the young six-yea- old by Regardez Moi, Kaludah Renoir. He was a little unsettled to start and not so willing to give over the back and stretch into the contact, but rather wanted to hollow and brace his neck upwards. Christine was encouraged to make him more straight with the outside rein and when the shoulders were brought in front of the hindquarters, to again supple to the inside and encourage his neck to stretch downward and into the bridle, always maintaining a good forward desire and without losing the tempo and rhythm.
“Do not let his shoulder fall out. Keep him straight and feel his shoulders between both your reins. Keep your weight back and don’t let him push you off your seat and into that hole. You must keep him on the hind leg.”
You may well ask what “that hole” is, well it’s that position a rider takes when they no longer stay on their seat bones, but get in front of the horse and lose the feeling that they have the hind leg under their seat. When you are sitting on the hind leg, then you feel that you have the horse in front of you, and you are able to keep the horse’s shoulders straight; you have energy there to put the front end wherever you want. If you fall into “that hole”, then you no longer have the chance to have the shoulders up and in front of you and the hind leg under your seat. The horse comes on the forehand and is not responsive.
Princess Nathalie chose to ride Renoir and what a wonderful demonstration of all of the above. It was not by any means an easy breakthrough, but then again, not tough either. It was simply clear and determined and Renoir had to stay on the hind leg and straighten to the outside rein and let go, stretch over the back and through the neck to the contact, but always staying forward to the leg and responsive. His shape changed, and with this, so did his attitude. It became easy and comfortable and he started to really impress. Princess Nathalie was always quick to reward, letting him relax with a kind word and a good pat on the neck, but never until she had a reaction along the correct way. If it did not happen in a few minutes it did not worry her - she continued chewing through the issues until there was a good result.
Christine had another ride at the end to feel what the Princess was getting at, and I am sure Christine was pleased, and through Renoir getting the feel from Princess Nathalie, the feeling was transferred to Christine.
Once felt, never forgotten is the lesson here; that a straight horse is of the utmost importance.
Next were Jive Magic and Rozzie Ryan. I know Rozzie was looking forward to the lesson and she started his warm up in a stretching and easy way, then with transitions to half steps and forwards and back again to create activity and sitting. The stallion looked impressive especially in the piaffe steps. The words from the Princess were loud and clear:
“Do Less! Don’t hold him! Light leg and then use it!! Get to collection quicker, and half halts, step forwards into collection with more reaction.”
The half pass trot work was easy and sweeping and Rozzie was encouraged to keep Jive a little quicker.
“Half pass more like travers and open the inside rein. Take him from the outside leg to it and his front leg must stay in front of his hind leg. Quick, quick and don’t let him push you forward into that hole!”
The canter work was uphill and on the hind leg, but Rozzie was again asked to keep him quick and sharper to the leg. “Don’t let him get lazy, and keep the shoulders free with a feeling of having him up and the energy coming through the straightness and the lightness of the shoulders. Keep his front end between your reins.”
The Princess could not resist the temptation to have a feel and politely asked if she may have a ride and - of course - was welcomed aboard.
Again Princess Nathalie did not mess about, and exactly as she had said, she did. “He must not rely on you all the time to help him. He must do it himself, get him to react sharper to the aids.”
It was a very interesting ride and I am sure Princess Nathalie appreciated the ways of this impressive stallion. There were no grandiose pats on the back for the rider - it was trainer to rider encouragement. There was still more in the tank for Jive and the way to utilize it was to get him sharper and get him to do the work. There were many pats for Jive.
Next to enter the arena was Christine Crawford again on the well performed Jazz Song (Jazz/Wenzel). It was again about not allowing the horse to get you out of position and Christine was hounded about staying back and over the hind leg.
“Always get him to react to a small aid, you want him to stretch down, so the back can come up, and he must then step into the hand. He must be straight and outside leg near the girth and counter flex him to get the straightness and then supple him back to the inside. He must be straight. He must go as low as he can go and be loose to the outside and then straight.”
Christine comes back to the walk and asks: “How do I make him quicker?” There was a longish pause, “He has to respond,” was the reply! “You must always praise him when he is good with a pat and an encouraging word. If you are training a dog when they fetch if you don’t reward then the next time they won’t be back!”
It was interesting that the Princess encouraged Christine to bring him back to a jog trot to get him quicker. “Don’t push as in passage, just make transitions back to a jog, and then forward this will make him quicker. Don’t cross your hands over, JOG and now sharp forward, it’s up to you! After jog, sharp forward, remember just as you ride back you must ride forward and don’t let him put you out of position and he must be STRAIGHT.”
Next came Ashlea Day and the elegant favorite of Princess Nathalie, C.P. Perolus. In the warm up it was up to Ashlea to make him loose and soft over the back and through the neck and insist he wait to be ridden forward. He was not allowed to stretch and run away as he stretched his frame, he must remain balanced over his hind legs, and again it was time to correct Ashlea’s position:
“You must use your core stability, push your stomach forward and get your shoulders back behind your hips. Don’t fall in ‘that hole’, don’t let him fall on the forehand and run off when you yield the contact, it’s up to your position to help him stay in balance.”
It was evident in the warm up that Perolus had something amiss as he was continually coughing. After a walk break he continued to cough, so it was decided a trip to the vet was necessary.
Lizzie Wilson-Fellows and Larapinta Freespirit were next, and again the emphasis was on getting this kind stallion to sit more on the hind leg by bringing him back into collection and loosening the neck at the same time. Again much emphasis on reactions and the quickness and not letting him be slow in any reaction to any aid.
Princess Nathalie was soon on board sorting out the contact and the balance, staying on her seat and keeping the horse under her. You could see she wanted quicker reactions, and was not going to hold and help him in position. Again it was to a deeper and rounder frame, and with this through feeling with the half halts came engagement. With this new frame the horse looked easy and loose and the stride began to develop some swing and ground cover in such a good way.
At the end of the ride Princess Nathalie explained that Lizzie should try to ride him with his neck a little lower to get the back up, and then ride him forward, in that order.
Again, Christine and Krak A Jack C. This time it was some work on the canter pirouettes and Princess Nathalie explained, as you ride the canter pirouettes smaller, you must keep the neck rounder and more down, to keep the horse over the back and the hind leg quicker. Princess Nathalie helped Christine and Krack A Jack a lot with the whip to encourage him to sit and stay under with a quicker tempo. Christine then rode him in trot and the Princess helped with the whip on his chest to get him to bring the front leg up more. Then it was time for some changes with a huge focus here on the straightness. In summing up the Princess advised:
“He must go round loose and down in the neck first and he must stay like a wheel in that as the wheel goes around with no lumps, and so must this horse’s paces.” Again it was only the basics that were not consolidated enough. There needed to be more controls!
The final horse was Wallmeyer for Gina Beck. Gina has been extremely successful with this horse gaining an equal first percentage in the medium class at the Nationals and has had several scores over 70%. Talented horses tend to come with some attitude and Christoph, as he is known, has a strong mind. He is very powerful and has movement to burn, but you must be able to collect this through a good elastic connection and at times he disputes this issue.
“He must firstly be in front of the leg. You must not keep the leg clamped on, use it and get a response and then leave alone. Do not allow your position to compromise and don’t let him push you up off his back. Stay in behind him and get him more through to the left rein and don’t let his shoulder bulge out. Straighten him with an outside flexion and then with an outside leg, not too far back, bring the forehand in line with the quarters and then supple him back to the inside. If he resists this, you must keep him forward so the rhythm and the tempo stay the same.”
Gina was making a great frame and keeping him through and it was starting to look mighty impressive. Again Princess Nathalie’s great riding urge came to the fore and it was time for her to get on. There were no surprises here either and the same-old-same-old, no magic, no hocus pocus, no imagining, no beating around the bush:
He must be forward and react to the leg.
He must go through the rein.
He must stay straight and allow you to adjust him.
He simply must go through the rein and let his back go and then you really own him!
As we had come to expect, there was no compromise and Princess Nathalie rode through every step until he was truly in front of her and she was able to get him straight and supple, and at this time it was in a deeper frame where she suggested that he be ridden. Not excessive, but with a feeling of him being forward and giving to the contact, and as a consequence he was over the back with his hind legs connected.
Princess Nathalie thought he was a very good horse with a very big ego and a decisive mind. Gina took it all on board and agrees that is exactly what he needs. “He can do all the movements easily when he is through, it is the cold hard fact that for FEI you need this feeling ALL the time and it must be adjustable any time anywhere.”
Princess Nathalie never seemed to stop giving and after a day’s teaching, it was off to a winery for dinner and a talk to be given there as well. Princess Nathalie showed real enthusiasm for each and every horse and rider, yet there was a common theme that flowed through. The rider must sit with the hind leg under the seat and the horses must go through. Never let your position be compromised, nor the thoroughness and the ability to collect and expand the paces. And of course straightness goes without saying.
Princess Nathalie not only has a great eye from the ground, but was also willing to hop on and show what she was after. It was refreshing to have a rider of her talent also teach, combining the two attributes. It gelled well.
An interview with Chris Hector:
In the months since Princess Nathalie last visited Australia, there have been lots of exciting developments in the world of dressage. It was great to sit down – over an excellent lunch – and get her take on the way the great dressage controversy is developing…
As a rider what do you think about the dismissal of the FEI Dressage Committee?
“The way they were put off, I don’t agree with that at all – also the way the Dressage Riders Club reacted to it was not okay. There had to be a change in the dressage committee so that it wasn’t only judges – I fully agree with that, but not the way it was done. The President is not using her position in the way she should be using it. She is interfering too much in something that is not her business. There are other people who should be doing what the Princess is doing, hers is a representative job and not an active job like she is doing now, and I think she is really stepping on a lot of toes. There are a lot of people who are very frustrated and desperate because it is not the way they are used to working. They can’t work that way, it’s a democratic organization and she in my eyes, is just going over everybody’s head, anyone who doesn’t agree with her is just chucked away.”
For all we’ve had the change at the committee level, the same judges are judging at all the big shows, nothing has changed…
“Not at the moment, I think it is still too new. But you can’t be like Sjef Janssen and say that because he’s had a clash with some judges, they are not allowed to judge his wife. It doesn’t work this way, if we all decided we will only ride in front of the judges we like, then we don’t have to go to shows anymore! You have to take it the way that it is. There are judges that maybe don’t like you, or don’t like your horse, and there are others that do like you, but that is the way the world is.”
Do you agree with Isabell Werth that the problem at Hong Kong was Sjef?
“I think so. That’s what we heard. You can’t as an individual go up and stir everyone up like that because you lost the team gold medal, that’s how I see it, and I think I am not the only one seeing it this way.”
Do you think in the long term we are going to see a change in the judging? Are we going to get away from this artificial, spectacular movement and back more to honest and correct movement?
“I hope so, that should be the goal, that’s what dressage is all about, the regularity and the suppleness – that the horses are happy in the way that they are going. I hope that we are going to that, otherwise there is a big problem.”
Do you think that is already happening a little bit – you have been scoring extremely well recently, and your horse, Digby, is a correct, honest going horse – not a terrorized spectacular horse…
“I think you will find shows where they judge like that and then you will again find shows where the spectacular, tense horse is going to win. It won’t happen immediately, it has to happen gradually so that the judges realise how they really have to judge again. Judges have to go out and educate themselves again, go and see what suppleness is. I think the biggest advertisement for suppleness at the moment is the Dutch rider, Adelinde Cornelissen. That is what you are looking for – the horse is calm, cool and it does everything with power but without tension. You can give it an eight in everything, I think it is sensational – I really like her, and I like the horse, the way it goes, the way she trains it. It’s really nice to see.”
Reflections on your second trip to Australia?
“It was very good. I think most of the riders I worked with last time as well, and they have improved. Absolutely. They worked a lot on the areas I tried to help them with, and I could see a big difference in the horses.”
And when will we see you again?
“I have to look at my agenda, but hopefully not too long…”