{"id":23598,"date":"2024-06-05T13:20:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T03:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=23598"},"modified":"2024-07-05T23:22:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T13:22:45","slug":"eventing-with-william-fox-pitt-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2024\/06\/eventing-with-william-fox-pitt-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Eventing with William Fox-Pitt: Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n

Story \u2013 Shannan Makauskas and\u00a0Photos \u2013 Roz Neave<\/em><\/h3>\n

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

William Fox-Pitt talks about what your event horse needs to know
\n– and it’s not just jumping the fences…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s vital the rider has a pattern in their mind for a working session, to have a warm up, to have a rest, to have a work period, interspersed with a good rest period as well, and then a warm down period. If you\u2019ve got that basic structure you can then ride your horse in a systematic way, your horses have confidence, because they have a general idea of what you\u2019re going to be doing every day.\u201d<\/h4>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in a young horse knowing how to do a flying change, just simply to go from one way to the other, no more complicated than that. Some horses immediately do it very easily, and some will make a real meal out of it, so it\u2019s important for young horses that it becomes an everyday normality.\u201d<\/h4>\n

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

Counter canter at Mondial Du Lyon with young horse, Top Blats<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe warm up is so important, there\u2019s a lot of muscle bulk in a horse, they need to be warmed and stretched before you start to put the hard work in. Start to do a bit of counter canter, a few lateral movements, and I always start with the young horses, once he\u2019s trotting around nicely, a leg yield. It\u2019s very simple, quite rewarding, and a very productive exercise that doesn\u2019t require a lot of training<\/p>\n

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

At the clinic at Equitana, William explained what he was looking for – and what he was not happy to see…While Georgia Connolly and her two-star horse, Maserati, began their warm up, William analysed her choice of tack: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know in one session whether I think it\u2019s good or not. A very simple kit is nice to see on a young horse, this chaps got a bit of a combination. He\u2019s got a hackamore, quite a gentle hackamore, and a Waterford snaffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

William asked Georgia, \u201cHe\u2019s quite strong is he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can be quite strong, but also very sensitive. I like to have the option of two different reins so I can pick and choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat can be a good combination, some horses do like a hackamore contact. Combined with a bit, hackamores sometimes teach the horse to be rounder, they make the contact better. I think with all the people here, it\u2019s better Georgia\u2019s got more control rather than less control, although it\u2019s less interesting for us perhaps,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

They got back on to the subject of warm ups, starting with a leg yield: \u201cJust keep it simple to begin with and stay in rising trot. I want it to be very regular, very smooth, I want the horse\u2019s bend to be equal throughout the movement, and I want the horse\u2019s cross-over to be straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Leg yield leads to half pass, William and Cool Morning demonstrate<\/em><\/p>\n

Accuracy is important right from the beginning: \u201cCome around, get your target and prepare for it. Look where you\u2019re going, even though it\u2019s warm up you could pay more attention to the details. That way, when you turn that into a travers or a half pass, you\u2019ve got the precision you want, you\u2019ve got a horse that is staying on his line every stride. It\u2019s quite easy when you\u2019re doing the warm up to think, oh well it doesn\u2019t really matter<\/i>. As far as the horse is concerned if he\u2019s always used to doing the same thing \u2013 keeping that stride, keeping that rhythm, when you change it to a more demanding movement, the habit is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

After a few leg yields, Georgia had Maserati showing lovely swing and rhythm in the trot: \u201cHe\u2019s relaxing very nicely. Straight away he\u2019s quite pleasing on the eye, he\u2019s a bit of a Warmblood, but he can\u2019t help that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

William and Top Blats at Mondial Du Lyon over the last fence<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear where William\u2019s allegiance lies when it comes to breed: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better in my mind than a really good Thoroughbred, but in the event horse there is often some Warmblood in there now. It helps with the jumping and the dressage, and provided you\u2019ve got a Warmblood that\u2019s got enough stamina and quality about it, I think they can cope pretty well cross-country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways be brave, ride for a quality walk, even though we\u2019re not necessarily doing a test. It\u2019s really important in training that you ride the horse as much as you can, exactly as you\u2019re going to in the competition arena.”<\/h2>\n

“I think that\u2019s something we all find, you ride a certain way at home, and then you go to a competition and you suddenly don\u2019t. The horses are bound to get confused. It\u2019s why they jog in the walk, it\u2019s why they break in the canter, and it\u2019s why things go wrong, because suddenly they\u2019re confused. Be very clear – training at home I ride like this, in the arena I\u2019m still riding like this. Then he will join you, he will learn there\u2019s no difference. If we\u2019re always riding a different way in the competition arena, they learn the arena is a stressful place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s jogging at home, he\u2019s suddenly going to be jogging in an arena at a competition. I\u2019d be focussing on that and getting him to be very confident, keeping the leg on, and riding out that walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Communicating with your horse, William keeps it black and white:<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as he\u2019s concerned there\u2019s a collected, there\u2019s a medium, and there\u2019s an extended walk, and that\u2019s it. There doesn\u2019t need to be a fast or slow one, half long rein, half short rein, make it as clear as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

They moved on to the trot, varying the pace and putting in the work to pick-up a collected frame: \u201cYou can see here he\u2019s got a tendency to get short in the neck. Therefore it\u2019s very important to get this horse taking the rein forward. We do that with plenty of half halts to shorten him behind, then plenty of releasing and taking the reins forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this stuff on the flat in the trot is vital when it comes to jumping. A horse that will shorten its neck when he\u2019s doing flatwork will also do that when he\u2019s coming into a fence, when you want him to go down. He\u2019s got to learn that when the rider wants him to come back, he comes back from his hind end. Relax him forward, you could ride him a little less on the hackamore, let the hackamore rein go a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

William worked on Georgia\u2019s half halts: \u201cWhen you\u2019re there in the trot, in the downward transitions, you could just flex him, keep more softness, then drop your hand again. You\u2019ll find in the long run that the half halt and the engagement will bring his head up, not your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cPlay with the canter, shorten him, move him on, have him come back on your weight and your leg, then lengthen the rein.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgia spoke-up about an issue she was having – the horse becomes tight in the canter and then changes behind, becoming disunited. William had a solution: \u201cI always find what helps is to keep sitting very soft, he\u2019s not totally around your inside leg from what I can see here. So if I ask for an exercise that asks him to bend in his body, your inside leg is coming into play, which is transferring the weight onto the wrong leg behind (the outside hind leg) and making him change. Don\u2019t let your inside leg come back because then you\u2019re going to push the quarters over and he\u2019ll change behind. You\u2019ve got to bend him in the middle, without encouraging him to change with his back end.\u201d<\/p>\n

William wanted the horse more supple through the body, in order to fix the issue: \u201cSometimes I use outside flexion, just to soften him, stretching through the inside of his body. When you bend to the left, release the rein so he takes it forward, he\u2019s just got to come through his body more. I\u2019d say in the trot and the canter, you\u2019ve got to have him curved around the inside leg more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

William still had a few tips: \u201cThe position of the rider is good, the only thing I focus on slightly when I\u2019m watching is the hands, and I can see why that happens. The horse is sometimes on and off the rein, he\u2019s not always bending the way she wants. So the hands tend to come into play, focus goes on the mouth, and then you get tension in<\/strong> the back end.<\/strong> But the rider\u2019s position through the body is very pleasing, very neutral, very comfortable. If the rider sits like that, life is easier for the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

more follows the\u00a0advertisement\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Breeding your champion event horse in Australia? Go to www.ihb.com.au<\/a> for the best bloodlines in the world – stallions like Britannia Royal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cLet\u2019s give him a jump\u201d, said William gesturing to the cross bar: \u201cI nearly always start in trot. There\u2019s the odd horse I have, that at the end of the day is so useless in trot, they\u2019re better off staying in canter. But generally I like to start in trot.\u201d<\/p>\n

William\u2019s prediction, that the horse\u2019s tendency to shorten the neck in the flatwork would affect the jumping, proved true: \u201cBe careful his nose isn\u2019t behind the vertical coming into a fence. I want the nose to be drawn towards the fence on the last few strides so he can come through his back. You can see it\u2019s the same as in the flatwork, when she pulls the reins the nose comes in and if that happens with jumping, the focus doesn\u2019t stay on the fence, and the back end can become tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Heeding this advice, Georgia made a second attempt: \u201cThat was better. When the horse comes in on a good stride, Georgia can leave him alone, and the nose stays forward. But you can literally see, every time Georgia makes a half halt on the horse, he does that (nose comes in). When you make your half halt, he\u2019s got to stay up in his frame and looking at the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBe careful you don\u2019t try to change the frame with your hands all the time. You can say wake up, but then put your hands down. Come down the grid here in trot but slacken off your hackamore. See if he\u2019ll draw his nose towards the jump, hands down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NarrowGood-Mar11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it came to the narrow fences, Georgia had Maserati\u2019s mind on the job: \u201cHe\u2019s very confident with that, he\u2019s looking at what he\u2019s got to do and taking you to the fence. Just keep your hands wider, forward and soft, he found that very easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

William demonstrates postition with Australian Thoroughbred, Top of the Line<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got an event horse as relaxed as this, your life is so much easier. You\u2019re not then having to work on keeping him straight, you haven\u2019t got the horse worried about what he\u2019s doing. The best thing you can do is get things familiar to them in training, so on cross country they become confident and everything is easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"William6-Mar11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the March 2011 issue of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Fox Pitt is one of the all time great eventing riders – sit back and enjoy words of wisdom from this thoughtful horseman….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68015,"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":[81,5],"tags":[1244,413],"class_list":["post-23598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-eventing","tag-eventing","tag-william-fox-pitt"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598","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=23598"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68101,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598\/revisions\/68101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}