{"id":24154,"date":"2021-10-18T15:20:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T04:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=24154"},"modified":"2022-04-01T13:46:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T02:46:34","slug":"dressage-with-george-morris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2021\/10\/dressage-with-george-morris\/","title":{"rendered":"Dressage with George Morris…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GeorgePort\"<\/a>Story by Christopher Hector & Photos by Roslyn Neave<\/strong><\/h3>\n

George Morris contemplated a career in the movies, and he is a natural entertainer.\u00a0\u201cThe pussy cat arches its back and its hind leg comes under itself, once you get the horse\u2019s hind leg under its body and active, the croup lowers, and like a ripe plum falling off the tree, the horse\u2019s head assumes the right placement.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWait for the leg to bring the horse\u2019s head down, and especially the inside hind leg. The\u00a0 great Isabell Werth says the reason for shoulder in and half pass, is to get the control of the inside hind leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

more follows<\/em><\/p>\n

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George is also letting the figures work their own magic to deal with the natural one sidedness of the horse. \u201cEight out of ten horses are hollow to the right, and their left side is the hard convex side. Ride a figure eight, that will give you the feel of the soft side and the hard side. You have to make them both the same, both soft. If the horse is heavy on the right side, hard on his right side, he is not giving you his right hind leg<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"1JessCanter1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The work on the transitions continues, trot, halt, rein back. \u201cDon\u2019t rein back every time or they will anticipate, rein back every other time, ask for two, three, four steps and it is important that the horse goes directly forward out of the rein back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"sequence1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get fancy laterally: \u201cTen strides shoulder in, ten strides shoulder out, concentrating on the horse\u2019s hind leg. As Kyra Kyrklund says, shoulder in and shoulder out are leg exercises. What doesn\u2019t change in this exercise is the rhythm. Now lengthen ten, shorten ten, and remember when you shorten, it is way more difficult to keep the impulsion and the straightness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow let\u2019s try another great exercise. Simple changes of lead on the track. Start every eight strides, then every six, then every four strides. This is a great exercise to collect the canter. Watch how straight that Pinto is in the canter depart\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"4CanterBrooke\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Truly Brooke Campbell and Visage are the stars of this exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the counter canter, I want them to listen to the outside leg. Volt\u00e9 in counter canter, six or eight or ten metre volt\u00e9s.\u201d<\/p>\n

George has obviously liked the look of the coloured stallion; \u201cI\u2019m going to take that Pinto.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

But George has seen something that he feels he can improve in the way the horse goes, and that is the tendency to either get too deep and over flexed, or to grab the rein. When Visage does grab the rein, George very swiftly grabs the rein back:<\/p>\n

\u201cI resist in proportion to his resistance. He grabs my hand, I grab his mouth. Of the three, seat, legs and hands, hands are the hardest to\u00a0master.\u201d<\/p>\n

But again you can see the change, Visage\u2019s neck is lengthening, coming better out of the shoulder, with the poll at the highest point and his nose right on the vertical, it is time for Mr Morris to have some fun \u2013 forward seat dressage. He rides some three times changes, then some pirouette, all in light seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a super horse: submissive and relaxed, not a subservient slave. I\u2019d really like to stay on this horse\u2026\u201d Oh yeah, next comes, I would like to take him home with me, but really this time the visitor means it.<\/p>\n

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Watching this work you can see the effect, the horses start to move in a different way, their backs are supple and the quality of their movement, way better. Still I wonder if when they get home the riders will really find the time to practice this gentle ballet of transitions? I do know that when I had the chance to sit and watch Ludger Beerbaum and his team work at home, they found the time but I guess that is why Ludger is such a super star\u2026<\/p>\n

\"LogJumpTurn1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now it really is time to start jumping. Over that log, 54 feet \u2013 four or five strides \u2013 to an oxer, then circle right, flying change, back over the oxer and over the log. We might be jumping but the emphasis is still on how we ride:<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about the half halts, the half is up towards your stomach, even your change, NO bearing down on the horse\u2019s bars, they hate that. If your horse is heavy in the hand raise it. If it feels good, it is probably right, if it feels bad it is probably wrong.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Another pet aversion, croup high, gets a run:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the change, tail swishing is light in the croup \u2013 so leg him forward when he does that. The ultimate correction is always the leg. You should be obsessed with inside leg to outside rein, after the fence, think that \u2013 it is always the same, every horse, every situation, inside leg to outside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another gymnastic line, this time, vertical, eight or nine strides to the oxer, then a steady three or four to the log. Chris Chugg on his youngster is getting ten instead of nine: \u201cJust look where you are going and you will get there in nine. An easy nine sets up the four strides. I don\u2019t count, I just know how I want to ride it to see the count. Counting to yourself is distracting, know how you want to ride the fence \u2013 out or in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Once again, this might be a jumping exercise, but the change from right rein to left rein, is working on the horse\u2019s body: \u201cThis gets the horse super soft to your hands and legs, this supples the horse, and when the horse is supple, the jump gets better.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRide this exercise back and forth until the horse gets soft and is thinking about the fences. Brooke, that\u2019s precise, that\u2019s like dressage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four fences: triple bar, vertical, vertical, oxer. Riders are told, that the turn to the triple will set up the sequence: \u201cLet the horse go forward out of the turn and measure the fence. I always have a triple bar in every clinic, it is the easiest for the horse, psychologically difficult for the rider. You have to sit still and quiet and forward with your body and let the horse use himself. The greatest enemy to riding is called stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Swedish oxer, four strides to open water, four strides to a plank:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the plank hold the horse, use a little voice, not too much, just enough to help. The plank will back them up \u2013 I know it is a bit death defying, but give. Do as little as possible to help your horse. I don\u2019t care if they chest it, I don\u2019t care if the horse twists or hangs, they have to jump it, that\u2019s their problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the horse show you can help them but in my training I am very strict, less hand and let the horse learn self carriage.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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

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Kanndarco, combining two successful bloodlines and available in Australia from International Horse Breeders:<\/strong><\/em><\/span> http:\/\/www.ihb.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

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SOME MORE WORDS FROM GEORGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your riders here even seem quite comfortable with the lateral work?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSome jumper riders don\u2019t agree with lateral work. There is no principle of dressage that I don\u2019t relate to jumping. I can\u2019t discard any piece of dressage for jumping horses, and over the course of history, with the French and the Dutch and the Germans, even the Swiss, dressage as the basis has been successful over the decades, each person interprets it a little differently. Bill Steinkraus and I were talking it over last summer, he points out that I am still trying to combine the French and the German schools, and that now there is a great combination of the two schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what would you call Ludger Beerbaum?<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cExactly, and his pupils even more so \u2013 they ride very light. Look at Marco Kutscher, I\u2019d give him a horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This article first appeared in the May 2014 issue of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n

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