{"id":22962,"date":"2015-05-18T16:08:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T06:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=22962"},"modified":"2019-02-16T15:35:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T04:35:25","slug":"george-morris-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/05\/george-morris-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"George Morris \u2013 Part Two – Showjumping Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIEW PART ONE HERE:
\n<\/strong>http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/03\/george-morris-hes-so-unfashionable\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IntroBenCavalletti\"<\/a>Story by Christopher Hector & Photos by Roz Neave<\/h3>\n

We were lucky enough to see George Morris working with two groups, the second group featured some exciting up and coming combinations: Dave Cameron and Yalambi Cavalier, Gabi Kuna and the imported Black Currency, Ben Blay and his French mare, Tetiorah des Plaines, Andrew Inglis and LicaViv, Sam Buchanan and Diamond B Carla and Steph McKillop and Yirrkala Exclusive (last time we featured her in THM, Vicki was giving her a lesson of her Welsh Section D pony).<\/p>\n

Once again, George was into his theme that the aim was not \u2018seat\u2019 riding:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ride with your seat, your calf should just cling and give straightness and impulsion, not a knee\/upper leg grip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDressage is seat riding, in jumping the stirrup is the basis of the building. Riders are forgetting what Caprilli taught us and going back to the old English hunting seat with the stirrups long, and the rider\u2019s body behind the vertical. We want short stirrups, drive the heel down, toes out and the ankle flexed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCaprilli studied the horse, the conformation, the structure of the horse; the riders today don\u2019t understand Caprilli because they don\u2019t understand the horse. Luckily the greats, like John Whitaker, feel what Caprilli felt, they understand forward riding. Look at Rodrigo Pessoa and Eric Lamaze, they have a very fast, racehorse-like, position.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Rodrigo Pessoa and Status on course in Normandy – \u00a0a very fast racehorse-like position coming to a fence<\/em><\/p>\n

And this group was reminded not to adopt the Aussie habit of riding leaning back with a round back: \u201cbe careful, if your stirrups are too long, they can give you that roach back. Have your back hollowed out with a straight line, elbow, hand, horse\u2019s mouth. Your upper body slightly forward, your centre of gravity slightly in front of the vertical. In the rising trot as you touch the saddle, keep your back hollow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEducate your horse to the reins, put a mouth on the horse. Circles and changes of rein, let him stretch and lengthen, but don\u2019t drop your hands, so the horse goes to the bit, leg to hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Steph and Yirrkala Exclusive, don\u2019t drop your hands<\/em><\/p>\n

No surprises, the cavallettis were in play:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mustn\u2019t rush the cavallettis, don\u2019t let the horse get quick. It\u2019s a preview of the horse\u2019s jumping, but slow and\u00a0relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncorporate the cavallettis into the schooling and let him stretch and look. It is good if he trips, he learns to pay attention to his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dave and Yalambi\u2019s Cavalier<\/em><\/p>\n

Back on the track, and it was time to practice canter departs. \u201cKeep the horse as straight as possible, just a hint of the horse flexed to the inside. You can\u2019t do enough canter departs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it started to get a bit more tricky. Volt\u00e9s, and volt\u00e9s that got progressively smaller: \u201cFirst volte, 8 metres, second, 7 metres, third, 6 metres, then forward and straight, always out of it, forward and straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Gabi and Black Currency, six metre voltes<\/em><\/p>\n

Simple changes are not just for hack classes:<\/p>\n

\u201cPractice simple changes, not always flying changes, and see how straight you can keep the horse in the simple change, no neck bending, that neck bending is so 1980\u2019s – just legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying changes are one of George\u2019s pet hates, horses that get croup high in the change, he has never quite forgiven Anky\u2019s Salinero for winning gold medals with a croup high change and he is no happier to see it with jumping horses:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing showjumpers do in a flying change is try to throw the rider out of the saddle. This is an exception to the forward rule, but when I am teaching flying changes, I lean behind the vertical. Push, because when they go light in the croup, they go backwards into your legs. If the horse is light in the croup, he is going backwards. This canter work reflects if the horse is leg ridden\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I used to ride Melanie Smith\u2019s horses, people used to ask me, why do you do tempi changes? To get the horse light to my leg and seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of George\u2019s major themes in this year\u2019s clinics was the horse\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who ride heavy don\u2019t have empathy for the horse\u2019s back, that is why your position is so important, and with the classic jumping position, the anchor is in your heels.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

First time over the Liverpool for Steph and Exclusive, get behind, be defensive<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are three possible ways to ride a horse. One, with the motion, and that\u2019s they way I like best. Two, ahead of the motion, and this is NEVER correct. Three, behind the motion, and this is sometimes correct. The Dutch and the Belgians tend to ride behind their cold horses, French, Americans and Australians ride with and behind but NEVER ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when you ride this Liverpool the first two times, get behind, sit on your buttock not your crotch, be defensive. Practice riding this way but it\u2019s not our goal to ride the horse this way because it is rude to the horse\u2019s back, but sometimes we have to get behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the same with the whip, another aid in a defensive situation, and again, the application has to be done correctly: \u201cWith a jumping whip you have to take your hand off the rein, or you will pull on the horse\u2019s mouth and clash the aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is not to carry the horse, our goal is to educate the horse to carry us. Not sit in their back so they have to have weighted boots behind to compensate for bad riding. I want to replace the body rider with a leg rider. Look at David Cameron, he is a very good effective ride, now we have to give him style.\u201d<\/p>\n

The riders had another line to ride: Vertical \u2013 Water \u2013 Vertical, but according to George, the most important part of the exercise came at the end of the line, the halt: \u201cThis is jumping incorporating dressage, we are getting the horse soft to the slowing aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sequence\"And when Dave Cameron\u2019s lower leg gets a little loose: \u201cDave \u2013 at least we should make you aware when you jump where your feet are, that swinging them is Australia in the 50\u2019s or 60\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDave is a great rider, he\u2019s got feel, feel, feel, strong and soft, horses jump for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow old are you Dave?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty-one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still time. Ian Millar is 67 and he is headed\u00a0to\u00a0Rio.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The bank and hedge at Aachen, no longer part of the course<\/em><\/p>\n

George is on to another of his themes, the pussifying of showjumping. He laments that some of the great natural obstacles, like the banks in Dublin, or the hedges in Aachen, have been taken out, as the sport is softened to take care of the modern rider\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t build oxer to oxer very often, or long to the vertical, the sport is being designed for pussies.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gabi has a little run out, George points out, \u201cthat was because you didn\u2019t angle the fence.\u201d Gabi gets through this time, but it is still not acceptable, \u201cdo it again, but in four strides not three, it has to be four to gymnasticize the horse. This is a big wonderful horse, but that horse has to be compressed so he gets more together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabi\u2019s horse Black Currency is one of the favoured ones that George rides, but he points out he is really doing it for selfish reasons\u2026<\/p>\n

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

Gabi tries Black Currency over a fence after George has ridden him\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLearning to ride a horse is a never ending quest. That\u2019s why I get on your horses; it\u2019s selfish, riding new horses teaches me every day. What we are after in riding is truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which lead to a final message on the principles of\u00a0equitation:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Principles of Equitation are absolute \u2013 fashion is fluid. No one follows the principles absolutely, but the classic stylists are close. Watch Patrice Delaveau, watch Isabell Werth, they are not absolute, but they are close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patrice Delaveau and Orient Express at 2014 WEG<\/em><\/p>\n

VIEW PART ONE HERE:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/03\/george-morris-hes-so-unfashionable\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Morris, George H<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n