Champ goes to a Show

Four year old Champ (alias Weltwunder since he goes by his competition name for this episode) is ready to try and qualify for the Young Horse championships at Dressage with the Stars…
Chris Hector and Roz Neave were there to capture the action.
It’s Werribee and one of those terrible Werribee days that look alright, that is until you get out of the car, and realise that the sun might be shining but there is a gale howling in from the south. Poor Champ is just a bit amazed by it all. There are lots of things he never knew existed, like midget pinto ponies – midget pinto ponies with CARTS is even freakier, but he is coping. He seems blissfully unaware of the wind…
When we started this series I mentioned to Sam, not to put any pressure on her of course, that is would be nice to finish off with a competition, preferably one of the Young Dressage Horse Qualifiers. Sam wasn’t making any promises. Her aim is to produce a competitive Grand Prix horse, not win baby beauty contests, and she certainly wasn’t going to rush the big chestnut colt to give me a cute finish to my series… but she did take him out. To Bendigo, where they won the class with a score of over 80%. We went to the next outing, to Werribee (another win) and the day later, Sam took Champ to another Young Horse qualifier, this time at Ayr Hill, to make it three wins in a row.
Still, in the first couple of moments after Sam got on him at Werribee, Champ was doing a fair imitation of a giraffe. As Sam explains, "One of the problems in a strange place is that he has this telescopic neck, and when he has it stuck up in the air, then you have no control."
But Sam being Sam is not sitting there frozen, waiting for it to happen, she is riding the horse, asking for little half circles in walk, keep him moving and keeping him thinking about her.

Here we are still in walk, but now I've got a bit better concentration from him,
he is starting to relax and accept the bit and go forward

"The more that I can supple him, and the softer I have him laterally, then the easier he is to ride, and I have more concentration from him. I started off keeping him in walk, doing little half transitions, little half circles. Loosening, suppling, walking, stopping, walking, stopping, now I’ve got his concentration, we can go trot. At home he is very quiet and it is very easy. Then when you go out to a competition, they find things that take their interest – whether it be the glass in the judges’ box or another horse, or the pinto ponies…"
I always find it interesting the way so many riders try very hard to make their horses even more difficult by walking them up to the scariest things and then dropping their reins and letting the horse get into a real state. It seems to me about the worst thing you can do in the circumstances. It would seem from the way she is working him, Sam agrees: "I would like to gain more attention and then try to go past the scary thing."
Do you just ignore the horses around you, or do you try to keep away from the most orang outang ones?
"The most orang outang ones, I avoid, but still as a young horse I think he needs to be able to cope as well – but I don’t put him up against the hardest issue right away."
Does wind make a difference?
"Not with my horses. My horses get ridden rain, hale, shine or wind, or 40 degrees. Things can flap in the wind, so it’s not necessarily the wind that is the problem, it might be the bunting around the arena – but most of the time, wind is not a problem."

He is thinking he might duck home through the little alley way and once again,
I am trying to get him to go quietly forward. If I am going to get into trouble
with this horse, it will be when I turn right not so much when I turn left. Here
we have gone to go right, and he says 'no. I don't want to go that way...'
I didn't get angry, just kept cool, continued trying to go right, just taking my
time but persisting in the direction I wanted to go.

This continues on from the previous shot, just going forward and to the right,
still keeping things quiet and making sure he is concentrating.

That was his second show, was he as cool at the first one?
"At the competition, he was, but I did arrive the day earlier, and that day he was a big overwhelmed and chatted a lot to the other horses. The first half hour I didn’t have a lot of concentration. I had steering and direction but not 100% concentration. Then on the Sunday morning of the competition, he was a lot better. That was his first day of competition. He’d been out once before for a look, not to compete."
Do you lunge them at the competition?
"I did the first two times, purely because that’s what I do at home, and I didn’t want to change the routine. But at Werribee, I just got on him."

I do a lot of work to begin with just down the long sides of the arena,
not at the short ends, because either end was where most of the action was
happening - plus at the C end there were the judge's boexes, so I took my
time, just quietly working him in along the long side, then eventually we were
able to go through and past the judge's boxes without making a bit issue of it.
I tried to keep him concentrated. Lots of stops and then going again, even a little rein
back every now and then, making sure he was still concentrating.

The test itself was to my eyes a strange one for a four year old. I understand that the original tests came from my friend Christoph Hess, and presumably are based on the 3 and 4 year old Young riding horse classes held at the Bundeschampionate. They cannot presumably be FEI tests, since there are no FEI Young Horse competitions for horses under five. The problem is that the arena at Warendorf is about three to four times the size of the traditional 60 by 20 competition arena that is being used at Werribee. I understand that the judges (organizers?) could have run the class in a larger space (the outdoor jumping arena just a hundred metres away was empty at the time, and entirely suitable). I would also like to see the horses stripped down and given a mark for their general appearance in the 4 year old classes. One of the things that is so impressive about the German system is the way that they grab every opportunity to educate their public, and always take the opportunity to make a detailed critique of the horses under consideration. It’s the way to creating a more involved, aware audience – and also a way of helping the breeders improve the type. Then again, I guess you have to find judges who know what they are talking about, and there are not too many of them in Australia.
Still Champ, handled the restricted place pretty well, and even managed to ignore his partner in the ring who spooked at every corner.

Here I have him bowling forward, but I have his attention much better
and now I am able to push him that much more. I am using that big canter
down the long side, going forward and back within the pace, working
on the submission. It is important that yhou are able to go forward, but
if necessary take that little extra bit of time to begin with. If you are riding
a horse that feels a little tense and as if it is going to explode, then the
last thing you want to do is push it too forward at the beginning because
then you create and explosion.

"I train in a 60 x 20 at home. I suppose those that train on bigger areas, or no areas at all, would find it more difficult to begin with in the smaller arena. For young horses though the more room you can give them the better it is because they can show their paces more truly…."
Even with another win on the board, Sam is thinking long term, not just about the DWTS final in a month or so, but long term long term…
"Werribee was really just a test to get him out and get through the test. I didn’t want to produce anything absolutely super and put pressure on him at that point – I just wanted to go through the motions, and have a nice day. Hopefully at the next couple of outings I can put a little more pressure on and create a little more."
Three wins in a row is not bad for ‘no pressure’…
"He is a lovely horse."
What’s program between now and DWTS?
"I think I’ll take him to Peter Horobin’s event and do the two preliminary classes with him – then we’ll go to Dressage with the Stars."
What do you have to work on between now and DWTS?
"Probably just building muscle and strengthening. Getting to the point where I can risk a little more, rather than having to play it cool and keep things safe."
How will he take it if he gets to the stage where someone strange has to get on his back?
"He’ll be fine. He’s had someone strange on his back already. That was deliberate. My brother rode him, and also Bianna sat on him once. He doesn’t care."
How much more movement is there to come?
"I feel there is still plenty more, once he builds the muscles to do it properly. He is showing very good paces at the moment and he is handling everything but there is a lot of horse there to ride that hasn’t quite grown into itself yet."
So what are you doing to put on muscle?
"Taking my time."

The first movement that actually comes up in the young horse test is the siting trot 20 metre circle. Once he is soft, I probably find Champ easier to ride in sitting trot
than rising trot because he is so easier to sit on.

This lengthening across the diagonal is probably one of the hardest movements to ride on the young horses. Champ is showing all the right things, and is still able to lengthen very well but at this stage he is still not quite strong enough to be able to push from behind.
He is still going down the right track.

Right from the start this horse had a big canter but didn’t know quite what to do with it. Think back to that first article, his canter was a bit wobbly and not strong enough, whereas now it is 100% better than then, he is getting to the point where he thinks he is quite clever being able to shorten, and probably shorten too much before the downward transition.
In the past he used to just fall on his forehand and drop into trot.
He is really easy to sit on in the canter, he doesn’t find any particular pace too hard,
and now he is starting to carry himself nicely.

A new bit and noseband
I’ve changed his bit and noseband since the Clemens Dierks lesson simply because he had quite big bumps under his chin when he was changing his baby teeth, so the pressure from the cavasson part of the Hanoverian was making him quite sore, so I changed that. I also moved into a full check piece French snaffle, that just helps with my turning left and right, and keeping it soft. I did feel that the loose ring snaffle tended to pinch him,
that’s why I changed it.

 

Go to Champ Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4