{"id":14769,"date":"2014-12-03T11:10:17","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T00:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=14769"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:14:02","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:14:02","slug":"martina-hannover-old-friends-new-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2014\/12\/martina-hannover-old-friends-new-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Martina Hann\u00f6ver – Old friends, new friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Martina first visited Australia back in 2001, she and her husband, Jorn, became first friends not just with Jim and Emmie Schmul but also with the riders who enjoyed her full-on enthusiasm in their riding sessions.<\/p>\n

This visit Martina caught up with two old friends\u2013 Monica Bird and her cute little mare, Argentille Gabriella. On her last trip, and Martina found Monica and her mare, willing, enthusiastic and talented pupils \u2013 with just one problem, every time the mare goes to do a flying change, she is late behind.<\/p>\n

So here they are, giving it one last try \u2013 the mare may not realise it but her options are to get quicker behind, or motherhood!<\/p>\n

And at the end of the day, it seems like a career as a brood mare beckons\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSome horses just don\u2019t get flying changes. Not all of us become professors; some of us have to teach riding. So there are just some things you can\u2019t teach horses \u2013 some won\u2019t do piaffe, some won\u2019t do flying changes\u2026”<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. Actually when they learn it in the wrong way it is worse. The rider was really trying every way to get a change and it was still not right. Maybe with another two years in a professional stable, maybe she would be right \u2013 maybe, but not for sure. It\u2019s a little bit sad because it is a super super horse, and the canter is good enough to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy with the trot work at the end, and the pirouette work, Monica felt the difference. I get the feeling when she is riding by herself that she is not active enough, she is trying really hard to do the home work from the clinic two years ago, and the horse is getting much much better in this, but for the flying change she would need help every second day, to make the horse more and more through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI rode her the last time I was in Australia, and I couldn\u2019t get the change. This time she looks better and more through in her canter but the problem is in her mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh Monica who will you breed the mare to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some semen from Don Schufro.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Let’s leave\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the changes until later. We\u2019ll do some pirouette \u2013 on a circle in travers, make the circle smaller, smaller, then go out. RHYTHM, RHYTHM, RHYTHM! Just get a few half strides, then out, then back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep her in front of the inside leg, on the outside rein half halt. You just have to ride, not sit and wait \u2013 no-one is coming to help you!\u201d<\/p>\n

And there the pirouette comes beautifully, and the session is ended, and Monica still wondering how far her mare could have gone if only she could do the changes!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"1FelicityStart\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next customers are Sam Hodges and the just started three year old, Felicity. Martina keeps it ever so simple for the babies\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJust nice simple work. Trot, walk, canter, both sides, circle, and the whole arena. To give them the security that they can trust your hands and they can follow your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here, Martina who is a stickler for rider correctness, has identified a problem:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rider is coming a little bit too much backwards with the hands and she was changing the reins in very short ways, and so couldn\u2019t really get her correct in front. It was that the horse didn\u2019t understand \u2013 the leg is pushing and oh, the rein is coming, so the horse can\u2019t understand what to do. So we changed the way she rode her, she changed reins \u2013 and went slower and bigger. Otherwise you are pushing her forward then you come on the rein to make a small serpentine or something, and that is not very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing we found was that the horse was having it easy on the right hand, so we tried to get her more round and in front of the rider\u2019s legs on the right hand, then we went to the left rein and tried to work her a little bit in front and worked on the left side so long as she was round and they weren\u2019t getting into a fight. Then change again to the right, make both of them comfortable and then change again. At least that way she will learn that both sides work the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should remember that this horse has only been ridden ten times and so we should be happy with the work she is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"felicity2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“When you start with young horses, the most important thing is that they go forward \u2013 but every horse goes forward in his own rhythm. That\u2019s the biggest problem, if the horse is not listening to your leg and going forward, then they start to back off, coming too much backwards on your legs, and if you let that keep happening, then there is an explosion, and you get bucked off or the horse goes up in front. So the first natural thing is for the horse to learn to go forward with the rider. It doesn\u2019t matter if they go in canter or disunited, at least forward. It\u2019s best if they stay round because then at least they don\u2019t hurt themselves in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Boyd Martin was breaking in a few horses at my place, he just let them go forward, and didn\u2019t help them to balance, he let them work it out themselves. He stayed away from the wall. The only thing we taught him was to keep them a little bit more round and over the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the lady riders who are scared to send their horses forward in case they buck, should just send for Boyd?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOften the riders are scared that the horse will buck them off, but the problem is that if they don\u2019t really get the horse going forward when it is young, and they ride it for a few more years, then they really get bucked off because the horses are stronger, and when they know this, then you have something really hard to fix. Better to get Boyd in the first place\u2026 or there must be a few other young guys in Australia who can ride like him!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"felicity4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWith a young horse like this, it is as if you are doing something you are not used to doing \u2013 suppose I ride a bike for three hours, then I\u2019ll feel my muscles the next day, and the horse is the same \u2013 he just can\u2019t tell us. To build up the muscles we must keep on going with the work, but maybe with a lunging day, or lunge the horse before the working session without the rider, just to get the horse going forward. That can help a lot, send them forward on the lunge line so that they have the power to open up, and go forward under saddle. Some of the horses are not just tense on the leg; they are already tense on the girth. You can see it when a horse without a saddle or a girth is trotting much nicer, then you put the girth on, and maybe it still trots, but then comes the saddle, and you can see the difference \u2013 and then you add the weight of the rider as well and you have lost the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

You were talking about setting up to go across the diagonal, that the horse had to be on both reins, both hands turning, hind feet into front feet?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I noticed was that on the diagonal, the horse was actually doing serpentines. The neck was bent to one side and the hindlegs to the other; we must still work on having the horse straight and in front of our legs, so we give them security with both reins and both legs. What some of the riders like to do is pull on the inside rein coming out of the corner, instead of giving the horse the security to turn with both reins, that\u2019s what I tried to explain. She has to work a bit more on the short side to get the horse in front of her leg, especially on the left rein.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"champ1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day Sam came with another young horse, but one that has had over a year\u2019s riding, and considerable success in young horse classes \u2013 Weltwunder E (Felicity\u2019s three-quarter brother aka Champ) but Martina\u2019s message was much the same.<\/p>\n

Ride the horse forward \u2013 but on your terms! Champ had decided that he was free to yank the reins out of Sam\u2019s hands:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf he is rude to you, you be rude back to him. He must listen to you \u2013 he\u2019s old enough now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even \u2018being rude\u2019 involves keeping the correct position:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do Australian hands go up all the time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some wit on the sidelines points out that Sam studied under Heath Ryan \u2013 perhaps that\u2019s a cause?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI told Heath too \u2013 he must keep his hands down. In every book it says the same thing, keep your hands down but don\u2019t let him hang on the reins \u2013 if he\u2019s hanging, and you are hanging, he just gets stronger. More half halts. If he is a good boy, tell him \u2013 if he\u2019s bad, tell him. But we don\u2019t have to make them tired of what we are doing. We have to make it interesting for them, we should be flexible in the exercises we do.”<\/p>\n

You must learn to have the horse more on your seat and less on the reins.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it went, always bouncing between the two vital factors \u2013 how the horse was going, how the rider was sitting, and the way in which, one influenced the other.<\/p>\n

With Sam there was the additional element of riding a stallion \u2013 is it more difficult for women to ride stallions?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"champ\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“You really have to be strong in what you are doing, you must know when you are doing the right thing \u2013 it\u2019s like educating a child, you must find a way they like to do it. With stallions it is always a bit more difficult because they have their own ideas and you always have to discuss it a few times with them, but they have to listen to you \u2013 especially if they are outside and there is another horse in the paddock, or they are at a competition. It is always a little bit more difficult to work with stallions, easier with a gelding or a mare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy stallion, Ratino likes to show off a lot, and I don\u2019t like that so much, it is better nowadays in that when we come into a warmup arena, he is quiet and listening to me. Young stallions often get so excited in the warmup that they don\u2019t have any energy left when they come inside the competition arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRubinstein was not like that. He was so quiet and so well behaved. I think it was also that he was breeding from the beginning, so he was tired of mares! But I would not try that with Ratino \u2013 he can try breeding later.\u201d
\nAnd at the end of her Australian lessons, it was back to Europe, and back to the Grand Prix classes with the young stallion, Ratino and the rest of her large barn of dressage horses. We are fortunate indeed that Martina and her husband Jorn have developed a taste for the Australian sunshine\u2026 hopefully they will be back before too long!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSome horses just don\u2019t get flying changes. Not all of us become professors; some of us have to teach riding. So there are just some things you can\u2019t teach horses \u2013 some won\u2019t do piaffe, some won\u2019t do flying changes\u2026”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,88],"class_list":["post-14769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-dressage-training","tag-martina-hannover"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14769"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19218,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14769\/revisions\/19218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}