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<\/a><\/p>\nHelen and Damon Hill demonstrate<\/i><\/p>\n First horse in the arena was Yarramee Poetry, a four-year-old mare by Royal Hit, owned and ridden by Sharyn McCombe.<\/p>\n \u201cTake your time, don\u2019t worry about her being too high in the neck. You want to feel the connection. From the tail to the neck we want the same flexion and bend. Although she is hot, you ask her to work from behind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAsk her to stay with you, keep the contact until she is ready to stay at your pace. When you feel that she starts to stretch, give the reins a little bit, but only so much that she will follow. Talk to her, she has to learn to be trustful to the rider. Then she will relax, because she knows that her rider will take care of her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you can feel the contact, keep on cantering for one or two rounds, so the horse can experience this feeling in its body as well. If you change something, for example you ask for bending and shorten the rein on one side, you keep the bend for a moment, to give your horse a chance to feel what the rider wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Next is Reventon (by Regazzo), a former eventer, and Georgia Connolly.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no right or wrong way to start the working session, it depends on the horse”.<\/p>\n “If your horse loves to canter, start with the canter work. With this horse we decided to start with trot work, he is already warmed up, so with little transitions we will try to improve his trot work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo less with your hand, sit quietly, use your leg to collect him. Just normal working trot, sit, close the leg, keep the contact, and out of this closing leg aid you ask the horse to close itself, move more under the centre of gravity and carry more weight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOut of this we can start lateral work, first the shoulder-in. With the flexion and bending from the corner, you move into the shoulder-in and ride forward to the outside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n Helen on her way to a win at the Bundeschampionships with F\u00fcrst Khevenh\u00fcille, a Florestan son\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOut of the corner I would like to see three legs if I am looking from the front: the outside front leg should cover the inside hindleg, ride a small circle in the corner first to establish the flexion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t always ride on the long side, you can look to a point at the end of the arena, and ride to this point, so that you both learn to balance on a free\u00a0line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen teaching half pass, firstly we train leg yielding and the crossing of the horses\u2019 legs, then we train the bending. Then we put this puzzle together. We are not starting the half pass like \u2018I want to go there, I need flexion here\u2019, the horse may move sideways but he will have a big question mark in his eyes and says \u2018what should I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRide across the diagonal in haunches in, that\u2019s how you can play with the horse and make it easy for him to learn the half pass. Choose your line and then step by step, make a half pass out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Boronia and Elliott focussing on changes<\/em><\/p>\n With the recently imported Boronia (Breitling)\u00a0 ridden by Elliott Patterson, the focus is on training flying changes.<\/p>\n Helen and Damon Hill demonstrate<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPractise the changes from the circle, through the circle, from the counter canter, do it at different positions, so your horse is not anticipating the movement. Use the short sides, the corners, that\u2019s your time to prepare something. Always work between the changes, try to improve the canter between the\u00a0changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Helen emphasizes that it is important to have a plan of what you want to work on before every ride. \u201cThink about what you want to do, and if your horse was good, don\u2019t continue with the next exercise or movement. Keep the horse fresh and motivated to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Damon Hill and Helen show us a change<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rocaille and Sara start with haunches-in<\/em><\/p>\n We see this principle applied to Rocaille, an eight-year-old Oldenburger mare by Rubinero who is competing at medium\/advanced level with Sara McDonald. Rocaille tires quickly and so Helen has decided to begin with the movements she finds difficult \u2013 pirouette work.<\/p>\n \u201cStart with haunches-in. Ask for less collection,\u00a0 make it less difficult, explain to her how to use her body. The inside hind leg is jumping a little sidewards now, but later on, for the pirouette, it can jump easily under the centre of gravity. We don\u2019t want the horse to lean to one side as they jump sideways. We want our horses to be round and around our inside leg, in an active collected, or even a working\u00a0canter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t try to make the the first attempt perfect, it\u2019s about explaining the movement to the horse. Stay soft and give the inside rein, but remain in the flexion and bend and give the aid until the horse is ready to do the movement and has understood what the rider wants. It might not be perfect, but you have to feel that the horse\u00a0tries.\u201d<\/p>\n Helen and and a young Silberaster demonstrate a stretch<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I like as well, keeping the contact and working the horse like a young horse in between, let her stretch forward, keep it easy for her, she has an active break in canter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow bring her uphill again, always ask the horse to react on one aid and then keep it sensitive. Say once \u2018here I am\u2019, a horse that reacts immediately, has been given a clear aid. Otherwise the horse will question \u2018what does my rider want to do\u2019, it will start to become the boss and that\u2019s when problems start. Clear aids, clear leadership, the horse knows what to do and then they like to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sara canters with haunches-in on a small circle around Helen. \u201cFirst you start with flexion and bending. When you feel that your horse is going against the bit, keep the bending, but don\u2019t pull backwards. In that moment you also ask for more activity from behind, so the horse can jump into the bend. The more you collect the more you want to feel the jump in the canter stride, the three-beat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you make the transition from canter to walk, you come through a three-beat, don\u2019t stop by making a hard transition and all legs are hitting the ground hard. Ride a smooth transition; you want to feel the three-beat. Feel that the last canter stride is a proper canter stride, and then you have the four-beat in the walk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow give her the reins completely so that she can find a neck position in which she can relax. When you return to trot work and the mare is getting tired, you can allow her not to be in this perfect uphill position, but still work if you want to improve her condition and make her more powerful. Allow her to search for a contact where she feels well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlways give them free days, don\u2019t practise dressage movements seven days a week. You can do a little bit of jumping, hacking, give them different ideas of using their body. Keep it interesting.”<\/p>\n Next Helen discusses passage with Anthony Bartlett:<\/p>\n \u201cVery important, don\u2019t always go straight on the track, you go on a circle or on big lines through the arena so that you always bend him and ask for more flexion and activity. Take this with you into the collection. Come towards the passage work now, hands together in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlay with the passage, collect the passage and go out of the passage. Step by step you can improve it, work from behind and make him swing into the passage to improve the two-beat.\u201d<\/p>\n Helen and Damon Hill demonstrate a winning passage at Neum\u00fcnster<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOut of this we can commence the piaffe work. What I always like to do in the beginning is doing it out the trot. Trot\u2013piaffe\u2013trot\u2013piaffe. Use the energy of the trot to ride into the piaffe and do some quick transitions after each other. Make him quick with your seat, think of extension in the piaffe.\u201d<\/p>\n The final centre line at the London Games…<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf the horse turns a little in piaffe, allow it, he\u2019s learning. You ask for something and you give them something. Play with the piaffe and passage work, make a game out of it. Make him active through quick transitions, not by pushing him all the time. It will make him react softer, be more sensitive. The transitions are the important part, not the piaffe on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n Shanon and Ambassi competing Grand Prix<\/em><\/p>\n The final pair we see are the combination of KWPN gelding Ambassi\u00a0 (Samba Hit) and Shanon McKimmie, competing Grand Prix.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom easy to difficult, start with a long half pass in canter through the diagonal, the same to the right, jump towards the inside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you train these zig-zag half passes, you want to have the feeling that they belong together. It has to be a fluent transition from the right to the left, from the left to the right. When you are cantering to the right, you can start bending to the left, but still canter to the right until you feel the point of balance: go straight and at that moment do the flying change. You already have the flexion and bending for the new direction, you can fluently move into the new direction with the forehand leading and a new inside leg supporting the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Grand Prix test requires five half passes to either side of the centre line with a flying change at each change of direction, the first and the last half pass are three strides, the others are six strides. You have to count the canter strides, the change is the first canter stride into the new\u00a0direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Next some pirouette work\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough you collect, you still want to feel the canter jump, the inside leg should jump far under the centre of gravity, not become short, you want to feel the same rhythm. In the working pirouette you jump around the inside hindleg. However small you get, you should always have the feeling of cantering around something, even if you imagine a very small plate. Keep the forward tendency, if he comes behind the leg, go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChange your routine, always do the pirouette in a different way. Go on the centreline and start with the idea of a working pirouette, after starting big, you get very small. You can change the horse during the pirouette, this exercise is really good as it gives you safety for the test.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I like about this horse, he\u2019s trying. If you see him just walking on a long rein, he doesn\u2019t have the perfect body. He\u2019s tall, he\u2019s short in the body, his neck is too deep and not as round as you would like. But when Shanon takes the reins up, he has no weakness. He can work perfectly with his body and is able to carry weight. A good conformation helps, but it really depends on the horse itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI like to bring my horses back to the stable when they are still fresh. They can sweat, but the muscles should not be tired, they should not feel like \u2018not again\u2019, rather like \u2018oh we could do something else\u2019. I prefer them to be keen on the next day, to come out looking forward to their work.\u201d<\/p>\n The current star, another D line representative, Damsey<\/em><\/p>\n Want to breed a D line dressage horse? How about the best producer of them all –\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>De Niro – find out how, go to<\/strong><\/em><\/span> www.ihb.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n“You want to feel the connection. From the tail to the neck we want the same flexion and bend”. Helen and Damon Hill at the European Championships<\/h1>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nHelen talks about her star, Damsey<\/h1>\n
“I think Damsey is the king of pirouettes. I always feel once I am in, I could do 50 pirouettes. He doesn\u2019t care, he\u2019s just doing it…”<\/h1>\n
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