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<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nThere was one Australian rider who was particularly over-joyed when news came through that Ulla Salzgeber had agreed to help the Australian team in the lead up to the WEG in Aachen in 2006, and that was Kelly Layne \u2013 because Kelly had already spent almost a year working with Ulla in Germany and she knew what a super instructor the World Cup champion was\u2026<\/p>\n
I guess it is some measure how far down the track Australia has come that our visiting superstar instructor should spend the first ten minutes getting rid of passage steps, and that is what Ulla is doing with Kelly and her imported Hanoverian, Amoucheur. The dark brown gelding can get awfully passagey in his normal trot (remember when we were so ignorant that we thought this pissage was smart?) and Ulla is having none of it:<\/p>\n
\u201cTrot more normal, ask for no more or he makes a quick passage. Let him a little more alone, don\u2019t try to help him. Keep going forward, but you are pushing him too much. Open your legs, let him trot a normal trot. No passagey steps, open your upper legs and let him relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have got extended trot, passage and collected trot, but you have lost the normal trot.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/KellyPort.jpg\")
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Time to work on the half pass, and once again, we see Ulla\u2019s insistence on working in a competition frame and focus:<\/p>\n
\u201cShorten the outside rein, shorten the neck but don\u2019t lower the neck, keep the rhythm in the half pass, don\u2019t push at the end. Open your legs and take them a little further back and leave them there, get more bend for the half pass, and keep the outside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we end up with a lovely flowing half pass\u2026<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/HP.jpg\")
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Time to work on the all important square halt to start the test. And this time Kelly has a messy stop and Ulla\u2019s voice goes up a few decibels: \u201cNO, this was not a nice halt. Higher in the neck, higher in the neck, now halt. That was better until he stepped back!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo it again, shorten the neck, make him slower, open your legs, half half. Stop. YA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKelly remember slower, everything slower\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Having spent all that time getting rid of the passage steps and establishing working trot, guess what we want? Yep (or to be really Ulla-ish, Ya) we want passage.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/TUPass.jpg\")
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\u201cCollect only with the reins, and go to passage. Open his poll and shake him loose in the transition from trot to passage. BORING, I want this passage to be boring \u2013 keep this boring passage, in everything I want it boring boring and relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Know what? It isn\u2019t boring at all, it is beautiful passage! Bravo.<\/p>\n
more on Ulla’s teaching follows<\/em><\/p>\n Ring Saddle-Up and arrange to discuss your new saddle at the Australian Dressage Championships at Boneo Park 03 9727 4000 or 1800 247 737<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It is interesting the riders\u2019 reaction to Ulla. Now there is no doubt that she is an absolutely brilliant teacher with an amazing eye for detail, but many of the things she is asking the riders to do, things they hail as amazing revelations, are exercises that countless Australian instructors have tried to get them to do, many times before. Anyone who has had a lesson with Malcolm Barns, should well know the \u2018canter your circle like a square\u2019 exercise\u2026 I guess what is really operating here is that Ulla\u2019s presence and her undoubted standing, makes the riders react differently and old recipes suddenly have new effects.<\/p>\n Certainly Kelly is getting a great result when she turns her circle into a square.<\/p>\n \u201cNo flexion, just a straight horse, I don\u2019t want him flexed. I want him on the outside rein. Don\u2019t flex him all the time, he is always curved like a banana. Keep him straight, ride him forward, ride him slower\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n How lucky we are to have a trainer of Ulla Salzgeber\u2019s brilliance take an interest in dressage in our country? How lucky are we that she comes at a time, when we have horses and riders, ready to take the next step. How sophisticated a dressage nation have we become when daughters follow their mothers into the ranks of Grand Prix dressage\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually very fortunate, because I am a second generation Grand Prix dressage rider. My mum rode Grand Prix, and I\u2019ve ridden Grand Prix,\u201d Kelly proudly tells me as we take time out to gather her story.<\/p>\n And you paid your dues in the Show Ring before that?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOh god, do we have to go there. It was a fun thing to do when I was younger but always I had dressage lessons. When I was 11, I won my first Australian Pony Club Dressage Championship, then won it again the following year, so I was pretty much hooked on dressage. I still did a bit of showing, but always in the show ring I got told I rode too much like a dressage rider, and always in the dressage, I got told I rode too much like a show rider!\u201d<\/p>\n But you see the riders who\u2019ve done some show riding and they do generally sit a bit nicer than the ones that have come straight through dressage? And they show that bit better even in a dressage test, some of it is quite useful?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely. I really enjoyed my time showing, I got a chance to ride lots of different horses. I got to spend some time with Vince Corvi, and he really trains his horses in the dressage way, and that\u2019s why I think they are successful in the show ring, you can actually make them do the transitions, you can ride walk, trot and canter.\u201d<\/p>\n But at eleven you decided you wanted to be a dressage rider?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPretty much. I was lucky, my mum bought me a very good horse from New Zealand, Abbey Hill, who carried me to many Champion Girl Rider titles at Royal Shows, but she was trained to Prix St Georges. I competed Prix St Georges with her when I was sixteen, and when I was seventeen, we like came 10th in Prix St Georges at the Dressage Nationals, that was a pretty big deal. The following year, I rode my mum\u2019s horse, Adonis, in Grand Prix, when I was eighteen. You just get more hooked as you go along.\u201d<\/p>\n And who was the instructor then?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cClemens Dierks, absolutely. He was the one that pushed us all through, he kept bringing everyone back in line and gave us direction.\u201d<\/p>\n And kept saying that the main game was Grand Prix?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes, Grand Prix is the game. He got me started and it wasn\u2019t until I went to Ulla\u2019s that it all changed again. Before Ulla it was the \u2018oh it doesn\u2019t really matter about the competition, it is more about the training\u2019 attitude. I found that I rode dressage tests, but I was more schooling the horse through the dressage test and I wasn\u2019t riding competition dressage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I went to Ulla\u2019s, she changed everything. There the emphasis was on being a competition rider, and having your head around competition dressage \u2013 which is a bit different from classical just training dressage.\u201d<\/p>\n So what made you take off to Germany and Ulla\u2019s \u2013 that\u2019s a big investment of time, money, effort\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYep. I think certain events took place that all made the puzzle fit together. First of all I somehow managed to acquire my horse, Amoucheur. That was step one. Within no time at all, Ulla was coming to Australia, and she was going to do Equitana in Brisbane, this is just months after I got this horse. I had the chance to do the clinic, and all the pieces started to fit in together. I very cheekily said to her one day, \u2018is there any chance of someone like me, coming to train at your stable?\u2019. She said \u2018Oh yeah, it\u2019s possible.\u2019 I said, \u2018what if I wanted to bring my horse?\u2019 Well she said, \u2018that we can do\u2019 \u2013 it was like she decided if I was going to make that big a commitment, then she will make the same commitment. Financially it\u2019s a huge commitment, and psychologically, it is a big commitment, you have a family, you have a business, and you have to put everything on hold!\u201d<\/p>\n How long were you with Ulla?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNine months, it was the biggest nine months of my life. We did lots of competitions, which I wasn\u2019t prepared for. It wasn\u2019t in my mind when I was thinking of going over there. I was thinking of going to train and learn more, but we learnt on the road. We learnt through the competitions and what went right and what went wrong, and the de-briefing after every competition. It was so much more sport than I had ever realised. It was real sport, and I had never been involved with the idea of dressage as real sport.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think a lot of people realise that Ulla before she discovered Rusty, was primarily a rider coach, and the mentor of young riders, that was her profession?<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely, and she is a phenomenal teacher. She has an excellent grasp of English, all those things have made a difference. For me the pieces all started to fit together and they still keep fitting together.\u201d<\/p>\n Was it a hard time?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough, very tough, but it only stayed in the arena, what we did in the arena, stayed in the arena. There was such a nice balance, and I see that in Ulla\u2019s life. She has such an excellent balance in her life. Family comes first, then dressage, then her business, and everything is balanced. It\u2019s not extreme, okay it is extreme in its area. When she rides dressage it is extreme. When she is with family it is extreme, sit down, big lunches, silver service, everybody together. It is extreme but one thing doesn\u2019t overwhelm the other, that is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the lessons were hard. It was the steepest learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n In what way hard?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPhysically very hard, she wants you to be able to do things without her being able to see them. In your mind, she doesn\u2019t want you riding with the horse, she wants you riding six strides ahead of the horse, you are making adjustments before they happen, and you are planning for them. Mentally, I could handle it quite well, but the physical side of how she wanted you to sit\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n And that was different from how you were taught to sit in Australia \u2013 in what way?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cShe saw little weaknesses. Like your elbows sticking out, and a tiny change like that and you have pain somewhere else. Especially the hands, she is so strict about your hands. She tied my hands to the saddle, and said \u2018now ride the Grand Prix\u2019. Tied my feet to the girth, and said \u2018now ride the Grand Prix\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n I would have thought that as Australian riders went, you were fairly styley?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was\u2026 but she sees so much, and now I really understand it. For example, pushing forward, I might not have given in my hands, but if you give with your elbows, or give with your stomach, you don\u2019t get the same reaction. It was so important that you sat exactly how she wanted you to sit, otherwise, what she said, didn\u2019t work. It\u2019s hard with a lot of trainers. Unless you are doing it exactly how they want you to do it, it may not work, and people go home and try it, but they have something wrong, like their elbows out, or their toes wrong, or their leg too far back or too far forward, and they try to do what they\u2019ve watched her do in a lesson, and it doesn\u2019t work. The sitting position is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n Tell me about your horse, Amoucheur?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a funny one. He\u2019s different from what most people think. Everybody thinks he is really hot and he is not a hot horse, he\u2019s a spooky horse, and I think that is very different. I can put as much leg on him as I want, and he doesn\u2019t get hot to my leg, but he might react to something sitting in the corner of the arena and want to spook away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first went to Ulla\u2019s I said \u2018oh he is so sensitive, I can\u2019t kick him\u2019. She would say, kick him, more leg, and I\u2019d say I can\u2019t, he is so sensitive. She said, your horse is not sensitive at all. A sensitive horse, when you use your leg, reacts the right way and quickly \u2013 you horse doesn\u2019t react, he just runs away! That was very different, her idea of sensitive, and mine. He really accepts the leg very well.\u201d<\/p>\n But it must be heart-breaking at times because he can do some sensational work, and you must think whacko, here we go, and suddenly he snaps on you?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all a big learning curve with that. He is very linked to me. Right from the beginning Ulla said to me \u2018you\u2019re nervous\u2019 and I never believed her, \u2018no I\u2019m not\u2019. Now I am starting to learn that I do get nervous, and it is something I have to learn to control myself. The concentration is what makes it all work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the Sydney CDI, I had done a really good test, and I came across the final diagonal in extended trot and he was just sailing, came through the corner, and I remember thinking \u2018I\u2019m home and hosed, I\u2019ve done it\u2019 \u2013 it was the best lesson for me, because I\u2019ll never do it again, I\u2019ll ride all the way to the final halt and I will never let that happen again. But I relaxed, turned, came up the final centre line and he leapt to the side, spun a circle \u2013 okay I kicked him a couple of times, got him back on the centre line, did a piaffe for three 8s and two 7s, passaged and halted and finished the test \u2013 but I stopped thinking for one second in the test\u2026 I\u2019m noticing it more often, I think, wow that was good, and bang \u2013 he shies!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/SaddleUpAustChamps.jpg\")
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