Jean Bemelmans, master trainer, tells us:
“In the end the submission is the most important thing. It comes down to the stop and go, and if the stop and go is very good, then horses get supple. Some horses have a better balance, some horses you have to work on it, and with the transitions, you get the balance.
“If they are not in balance, they fall on the forehand, but when you see a really top Grand Prix horse, if you see a nice performance, this is in balance, and to get that balance you have to do a thousand transitions to get them soft, they have to wait, so you can decide – now I go, then you come back… and for this you need a very good balanced seat.”
“We always have to talk about finding the right balance, but at the end, contact is nothing more than the contact to the hind leg, the contact that the rider makes between the mouth and the hind leg. This is the duty of the rider, to put these two together. The moment the horse starts to move, and he moves behind, you have to feel it in your hand, then you have to let it out.”
Danish rider, Fie Skarsoe demonstrates on the Trakehners, the chestnut mare, Media Luna, and the stallion Münchausen.
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