Clemens Dierks talks about Warming In

What are the general principals of warming in a horse at a competition? Basically I feel the horse should have at least fifteen to twenty minutes walk, this is not tiring for the horse, and it is very beneficial in loosening the joints, lubricating the joints and getting them moving. Walk, on a loose rein, then it is time to pick up the reins, and depending on the horse, continue to walk on the bit - provided the walk remains pure. With some horses it is better to move into trot or canter when you put them on the bit, some horses will get nervous and fidgety in the walk when you take up the contact. To put the horse on the bit, it must be active from behind, and that is more difficult to do in the walk.

One thing I have observed is that if you have to start training your horse at the competition, and practising the movements of the test, then you shouldn't be at the competition. The warm up shouldn't be the test - that's where our Australian riders should learn to work on their basic qualities of suppleness, impulsion, submission, activity and connection. The warm up is not the time to start training the tricks, the movements should all be there, the horse should only be warmed up to warm up; warmed up to stay on the aids, to become loose and supple.

Once again we come back to transitions to make the horse responsive and sharp, obedient, alert, submissive. Do that successfully, and the horse will perform all the movements well in the test.

In the past unfortunately, I had riders still trying to get the fifteen ones times changes in the warm up arena, because the horse was not reliable to get the changes in the test. Then you are in a no-win situation, the horse should not be competing at that level.

How long should the horse be warmed in after that 20 minute walk? There is no rule. Every horse is different, some horses even need to be worked twice a day. Some horses need only twenty minutes, some half an hour - some have more temperament problems, some have more lack of obedience, there is no rule, every horse is an individual.

Do the riders need someone to work them in?

I don't think a rider can do it by himself, there has to be someone there to keep an eye on the work, to control it. Some riders are nervous themselves, they need guidance - some riders don't do enough, some do too much. I have never ever seen, in Europe, a rider warming up without a trainer, I cannot remember one. Warming up is one of the most important moments when the rider needs a trainer.

But in Australia, say your riders in Victoria, often have to go to a competition without your help because you are over the other side of the country doing another clinic. What can they do? Should they get their mother to warm them in?

My experience with mothers is that it very seldom works. Some partners can help, Rob Hanna is very good with his wife Mary because he is very supportive, but from a training point of view, there can still be problems. Mothers usually end up in an argument, husbands are always nice because they like to keep the marriage going... I don't know what the boyfriends want!

 

Is it better to have someone who is not a qualified trainer, than no-one at all?

It is better to have no-one than someone not qualified, that can do a lot of damage. Fortunately, I am at the major shows on behalf of the EFA to look after the talent squad riders. To be at your maximum performance you need a trainer and that is the case all over the world.

But that is an Australian problem, we just don't have enough good trainers... There are not enough good trainers in Australia. At a big competition in Europe there are always ten trainers, if one is missing, then another takes over, and they have no hesitation in pointing out something they see, to the rider.

That is a different attitude in Europe, the trainers will all watch each others pupils, and discuss with each other what should be done... I find it very good in Europe. When I am working in my horses, there could be Klaus Balkenhol, or Bimbo Peilicke, or Herbert Rehbein when he was alive, and they will say, 'Clemens this should be made a bit different'. I am lucky to work with all those trainers and they have no hesitation in talking with me. It is different in Australia.

With the riders, how much are you working as a psychologist as a horse trainer?

On competition days, I am just about more a psychologist, and I think you have to be. Some riders get really nervous and scared and need some motivational help to get them through - I have been told I am very good at that. Mary Hanna gets a little tense before a competition, and she is kind enough to say that I help in that situation. I think that it is very important in the warming up time not to create any negative thoughts because that can harm the performance.

In a warmup do you concentrate on the things you know the rider can do well - or the problems?

Things they do well, I don't do, because there is no reason to do it. Things that are not good I try to make better, and try to make the riders feel more positive about them, to improve what is less good. I don't like to see what is good because that doesn't help the horse improve. I have riders like that, who only want to show me the good things, and I tell them always, I am not interested. You have to work to improve what is not so good, and get it better on the day.

Our scores are too much influenced by basic problems. Australians can do every trick - flying changes, half passes, shoulder in - but our scores are influenced by our ability to ride the basics: the correct pace, the correct tempo, beat, rhythm, to have the correct impulsion. The riders can do all the movements but they can't do them well enough. If you get a five in trot, you get a five in half pass: if you have submission problems, not going on the bit, then you get a tilted head, and no matter how well you do the tricks, you cannot get a good score with that tilt. The half pass may be perfect but if the trot is not good enough, with enough expression, with enough collection or forwardness, then you cannot score. We are very good at training the exercises but the riders in Australia lack the ability to produce the basics: collection, impulsion, tempo. That's why we are still sitting on 6, 6, 5, 7, 6, 5, 7, because of basic faults.

Is that a result of bad training?

It's from lack of instruction. The riders spend too long by themselves. Most of them are helped by instructors who are not competent to train to the level the riders want to achieve. None of them ever go to Europe to see what is going on. Unless you go to Europe and know how it should look, then you shouldn't train it. There are some lovely people training, but they have never ever had an opportunity to learn what it should be like. In my experience, unless you are coming to Europe every year or two, you are just not with it. The trouble is in Australia, you start to think what you are seeing is correct, that the winner is good - but it is not good.

Should the rider be training at home, a level above the level they are competing at?

I think if you get the horse to go perfectly in the three paces, on the bit, the level automatically comes with that. For most people to train the movements of Grand Prix, you can do that in eighteen months, then you spend the next five years building the horse up, keeping him supple, making him comfortable and confident and responsive. If you can ride a perfect circle of six metres then you can ride shoulder in, it is the same lateral bend. If your horse is obedient to your leg and doesn't go against you, then you can ride a half pass, because the horse is supple. The movements are a by-product of good training in the basic paces. The good riders are always a level above, and the ones who can't ride, fall apart.

How are we going to solve the problem in Australia of there not being enough trainers for the number of riders?

The problem will be solved by itself, our riders will eventually give up competition, and become trainers, and those experienced riders will eventually be even more influential than they are now.

It's really the first time in Australia that we have a number of experienced Grand Prix riders.... And they will bring up a new, better younger generation of riders.

Do we need a better system of instruction for those young trainers - something more like the German trainer education system?

The system in Australia does not allow trainers to be produced properly. In Germany you have an apprenticeship system and it takes you a minimum of five years to become an instructor. In Australia, it takes six months if you pay enough money, and I don't think that will ever create a trainer. A trainer is like a rider, the talent emerges itself. A trainer has to have been able to ride well, because you cannot feel unless you have ridden and you cannot translate that. It's like judges - I don't think you can become a very good judge unless you have ridden at the level you are judging. The good judges, they can ride. With trainers it is the same, you must have that competition experience behind you, unless you have done that, I don't think you will ever be a successful trainer. If a trainer tries to train a level above what they have ridden - and we have too many people doing this in Australia - it does not work. They are just having themselves on, they maybe saw someone working and think, just kick him in the ribs and you will get passage, it doesn't work. You must have basic proper training and experience or you will never become a successful trainer at the highest level.

But where can trainers get this background in Australia?

There is no facility in Australia to do this. We haven't got a riding school system where people can learn to ride, to sit, to feel, to experience before they ever own a horse. In Australia, the horse is most likely unbroken when it is bought, and before the rider has had his first lesson! They yahoo about with their backyard trainer. The EFA in Australia should pick some talented individuals who want to be good trainers, and put them on a three year scholarship to join the German apprenticeship scheme, then we would end up with the best trainers. There would also be no pressure, there is too much pressure in Australia for riders to stay in competition, too much pressure on the trainers.

But still we haven't got over the problem we have now , of not enough trainers.....

I give riders homework, guidelines but these are competitors that I train, and most of them are also acting as trainers - trainers are also pressured by riders. Instead of organizing for our riders to compete in Europe, if the EFA could sponsor a number of trainers each year, it would be money better spent than sponsoring a rider to Europe to ride three competitions. Much better to send trainers to Germany, making sure they go to a proven establishment - because you can find a lot of bad things in Germany too - to learn the basic training and working with the horses. Especially as we now have more and more European horses in Australia. The more people we train like that, then the greater the opportunity for us to go on to an Australian apprenticeship system. I tried that once when I had my big stables in Dural, and employed six people - there were some successful trainers that came out of that - but the EFA would not give me the permission to give them a instructor status. Then the NCAS system came in, and even though it was introduced by a Swedish trainer, it is basically the British BHSI system where you purchase your ticket without any background. The system is run in Australia just to make money; it is a money scheme, not an educational scheme.

It would be of much more benefit to concentrate on producing better trainers who will in turn, produce better riders, and it would cost so little to come to an agreement with the German FN, the apprentices actually get paid to learn - it just takes a few connections and effort, and recognition from the EFA that this is the path we should take.

Instead of our young riders wasting their time winning competitions against nothing, thinking they are learning something, they would be better coming to Europe and really learning how to train. That would really help Australia .