{"id":24529,"date":"2015-09-14T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T06:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=24529"},"modified":"2017-02-09T16:45:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T05:45:13","slug":"hayley-beresford-takes-a-clinic-at-wallaby-hill-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/09\/hayley-beresford-takes-a-clinic-at-wallaby-hill-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Hayley Beresford takes a clinic at Wallaby Hill Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CAM_0199-2250935622-O\"<\/a>Story: Suzy Jarratt &\u00a0Photos: Cameron Grant<\/h3>\n

This quiet little hamlet in the NSW Southern Highlands boasts a very large potato in its main street \u2013 a 10 metre long Sebago to be precise. Robertson\u2019s other features include waterfalls, forests, a coterie of notable residents \u2013 and Wallaby Hill Farm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/b>Overlooking Kangaroo Valley this exceptional equestrian facility was the venue for a three day clinic conducted in November by Hayley Beresford.\u00a0 Permanently based in Germany at the Zucht und Sportpferde Schmidt in Lipppetal, Hayley took a break from the 20 horses she has there in training to conduct clinics along Australia\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n

Young, green horses, seasoned competitors and everything in between all benefited from her coaching.<\/p>\n

As stated in the Gerd Heuschmann feature in THM\u2019s December 2012 issue:\u00a0 \u201cA trainer\u2019s job is to reduce anxiety, establish a positive mood and execute a systematic training plan.\u201d \u00a0 Hayley did just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s improved every horse with her clear, concise explanations\u201d said Equisport\u2019s Camilla \u2018Bird\u2019 Palmer, one of Hayley\u2019s sponsors and clinic organiser.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s helped me to put my gelding into a really correct frame. As with all the horses here she works on the silhouette.\u201d\"CAM_1835-2250910401-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Glenquarry (Ilkay\/Stirling Lilac), Camilla\u2019s small tour horse, has had several riders over the years when Camilla took time off to have babies.<\/p>\n

One of his problems was curling up as if he was being deliberately rollkurred. And this was compounded after having time off with a virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d lost strength in his back and would continually put himself behind the vertical.\u00a0 And he had a tendency to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat running comes from a lack of balance,\u201d observed Hayley, who also reprimanded Camilla, and other riders, for making shoulder-in from her inside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camilla worked on getting the nose forward and within half-an-hour \u2018Lenny\u2019 was up and looking good.\"CAM_1864-2250915682-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo many clinics result in the riders saying \u2018O.K. but I can\u2019t do all that all on my own.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to make a complete and utter mess of it\u2019. Here you can walk away with something to work on \u2013 and no horse is unhappy after a session.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not yet four but Ribbleton Finesse, by Fishermen\u2019s Friend, was clearly a happy Hanoverian when working with Hayley.\u00a0 Her rider, Priscilla Blackadder, a Sydney-based copyright barrister, has had a long held dream to work with Hayley in Germany which she shortly hopes to realise.<\/p>\n

Priscilla is 31 and for at least 25 of those years she\u2019s good naturedly put up with people asking about her cunning plan and the whereabouts of Baldrick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have named a horse that,\u201d she mused, \u201cbut someone had already done so.\u00a0 I did have one called D\u2019Artagnan but that\u2019s another story altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found Hayley\u2019s message during her lessons to be very clear:<\/p>\n

\u201cFocus on the basics and don\u2019t bring the tricks in too early.\u00a0 My mare has a natural ability to collect but I was told not to take anything for granted at this early stage.\u00a0 Anything that\u2019s given I\u2019m to take as a gift but don\u2019t ask and don\u2019t drill it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayley had ridden the young horse the previous day and had been very complimentary about the mare\u2019s conformation and attitude. Her instructions during the Sunday session were: \u201cjust go forward, straight and into the contact – don\u2019t worry about the roundness\u201d.\"CAM_1749-2235314525-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Priscilla added: \u201cThis clinic\u2019s been fantastic, a big learning curve for everyone.\u00a0 I\u2019m so looking forward to visiting Hayley when I\u2019ll be riding a schoolmaster, I hope to be away for several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayley, originally from Narrogin, WA, has always encouraged young Australians to work with her. Presently at Lippetal three are permanent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have a rotational position open for three months at a time where I give them one of my Prix St Georges horses, they have private lessons and come to the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her two senior riders are Bella Robson from WA and Ben Terry from Victoria, both training up to Grand Prix, and then there\u2019s Genevieve Kirk who commutes between Switzerland and Australia with her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019ll be coming on the international young riders\u2019 tour in 2013 with some very exciting horses and she\u2019ll travel with me to the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven-year-old Waitano has been to many shows and was one of the more advanced horses in the clinic. By Wolkentanz out of Wanderbursch \u2018Teddy\u2019 has been purchased by Carolyn Lieutenant, now living in Bowral. Ridden by Jayden Brown during the National Dressage Championships the handsome Hanoverian was originally imported from Germany by the Dowsett family for their daughter Danielle who no longer competes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving horses in competition is my interest.\u00a0 I like being an owner,\u201d declared Carolyn.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve been watching Mark Kiddle and decided he needed a good horse.\u00a0 He\u2019s a good rider and lives only 10 minutes from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark and partner Malcolm MacRae, run a yard that is part of Katharine Olsen\u2019s property in Mittagong.\"CAM_1921-2250946491-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s assessment of his lessons was a very positive one:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve ridden at clinics with many, many different trainers and she\u2019s the best I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teddy\u2019s suppleness was a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s blocked and needs a few months\u2019 work to get him unstuck,\u201d said Hayley. \u201cAnd he\u2019s too straight during the shoulder-in. Play with the gearbox. Show him how to use his body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHorses are flexible where the girth is so don\u2019t have your legs so far back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark had only had him for four weeks prior to the clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can get a bit strong and stiff,\u201d he said. \u201cHe needs to be a lot more supple through the neck but we knew that when we bought him.\u201d<\/p>\n

And is he a typical redhead? So many chestnuts have a reputation of being feisty, tending to behave like Ginger Rogers on crack\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cNot Teddy \u2013 he\u2019s amazing and forgiving. The work we\u2019ve done here has been simple and easy because much of it was along the same lines as Carolyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHayley emphasised the importance of looking after the outside hindleg; being more connected through the outside.\u00a0 It really worked with Teddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can get very fixed.\u00a0 On the first day of the clinic he was very much like he was when we took him out to an event.\u00a0 I think he came in and thought \u2018I\u2019m at a competition\u2019 and goes a little bit wooden.\u00a0 Today, the second session, he was much better.\u00a0 Yesterday I rode Katharine\u2019s Lusitano stallion, Venturoso, who\u2019s nearly ready to go out Prix St Georges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark feels many Australian dressage judges don\u2019t know how to assess this breed but he loves Iberian horses as does Mrs Olsen. Her husband, John, the legendary artist, has little to do with them and is busy painting. He recently told The Newcastle Herald<\/i> he had a large mural to complete:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the rest of Australia my enemy is the ATO but we\u2019re just about to start a huge commission for the foyer of Melbourne\u2019s new taxation office \u2013 it\u2019s called \u2018Reconciliation\u2019,\u201d he chuckled.<\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s knowledge of high finance is not considerable but he does know a lot about Iberian horses.\"CAM_1944-2255190408-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI rode them when I worked for Jose Mendez for quite a few years and also at El Caballo Blanco. They gave me a completely different perspective on dressage.\u00a0 Being on horses which could do pirouettes and one time changes was invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly all clinic participants received invaluable assistance from this tireless 34-year-old trainer who encouraged riders to watch each other\u2019s lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften I\u2019ve told them the same thing as the rider in the arena and it\u2019s beneficial they see what\u2019s required to fix the problem. They can observe the biomechanics \u2013 this is why I want you to use more outside rein because you can see that now the outside hindleg is more articulated, it\u2019s more under the centre of the horse and that the horse is more in self-carriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years Hayley has made regular visits to Australia except in 2011 when she was working towards the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concentrating on the Grand Prix horses, however the selectors didn\u2019t want me so I didn\u2019t go.\u201d\u00a0 She describes this time as \u2018lines in the sand\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway this is now and I\u2019m just finishing my sixth day of coaching – I did some in Melbourne prior to coming to Wallaby Hill.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has improved, everyone is still super enthusiastic but what I do see is that people are trying so hard to bend and flex and make their horses round they\u2019re tending to disrupt the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always believed you need to have the back and the middle of the horse really supple. A lot of riders are overflexing their horses without balancing them correctly behind.\u00a0 That\u2019s my biggest criticism but it\u2019s something which is really simple to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she watches the ears which most trainers say are to be kept level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go to the extreme and tell them \u2018keep the outside ear down\u2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean tilt the head but when I say keep control of the outside ear riders keep a better connection on the outside rein.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing I say is \u2018sit floppy\u2019. They shouldn\u2019t take me literally and resemble a sack of potatoes but it\u2019s an expression meaning \u2018relax\u2019, which works well for everyone in this clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDressage must look beautiful, harmonious and easy.\u201d\"CAM_1912-2250942956-O\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made a million mistakes with the many different types of horses I\u2019ve trained \u2013 more than ten to Grand Prix \u2013 but I\u2019m so excited at the moment about my own riding, learning to let a horse go in that silhouette when they can engage, carry and have balance. It\u2019s amazing how much happier they become to do everything. With \u2018Basti\u2019, for example, who was a bit aggressive and feisty, he was missing four vertebrae. He needed to be able to stretch and go in that silhouette. I want to encourage this harmony because it\u2019s really the future of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Basti\u2019 is Bev Edwards\u2019 Jaybee Alabaster formerly ridden by Rachael Downs.\u00a0 This combination went to Europe as Olympic contenders but it was not to be.<\/p>\n

As reported in Eurodressage<\/i>: \u2018they looked to be a certainty for London selection. However, it was well documented that supposed foot problems associated with shoeing caused the horse to be withdrawn from Olympic selection\u2019.<\/p>\n

Rachael returned to Australia while the 13-year-old chestnut remained in Germany.\u00a0 He is now being competed by Hayley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all came about when Caroline Coleby visited me in Germany. She\u2019s a friend of Bev\u2019s and told me the horse was in quarantine at Klatte\u2019s, wasn\u2019t being ridden, he was fat and unfit and his future was undecided. Only a few weeks remained before he had to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayley decided to try him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a short time in which to assess the situation and make a suggestion as to what could be done. All I knew is that Bev wanted an Australian rider on the horse. After I picked him up I rode him and I liked him. And he was completely sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a rumour he had undergone a neurectomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s a neurectomy?\u201d asked Hayley. \u201cWe took him to the vet, not really knowing what the problem had been.\u00a0 I suggested to Bev we got him shod at our clinic where our farrier is based.\u00a0 My highest trained horses are all shod in conjunction with the veterinary clinic.\u00a0 It has a farrier attached and they work together. We X-rayed the front and he was shod from the X-rays. And so far, so good. He\u2019s on a Hi-Form program, who are one of my sponsors, he gets Adequan and Tildren and he\u2019s shod at the clinic every five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel he just wasn\u2019t acclimatised; he\u2019s a very sensitive guy.\u00a0 I\u2019ll defend the horse to the hilt here because I really don\u2019t think he\u2019s got any problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September she took him to a CDI-W in Wroclaw, Poland. They came third in the Inter 11 (66.606%) and sixth in the GP (67.957%).\"Alabaster<\/a><\/p>\n

Hayley and Jaybee Alabaster (Photo: Goran K Josefsson)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little early but the deadline for quarantine was coming up and I wanted to see how he\u2019d be at a competition \u2013 he\u2019d looked difficult in Mannheim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t totally satisfied. There were a lot of things I had to figure out.\u00a0 He got decent marks because he did everything in the right place but there wasn\u2019t any harmony or partnership. And there was another show after that which people didn\u2019t know I\u2019d been to because I pulled him out of the event. I didn\u2019t have him on my side and I took him home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the following weeks Hayley came to understand this horse and how to effectively manage him. He\u2019s had acupuncture, Chinese medicine, work done on his back, been hacked out, jumped, taken over ground poles and galloped around a track.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets to be a horse. To be completely honest we\u2019ve bribed him. When working on the half steps Ben\u2019s been behind me, like I\u2019ve been with some of the riders at this clinic, and in front there\u2019s Bella with a bucket of apples. Basti thinks it\u2019s the coolest game he\u2019s ever played!\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to competing in Oldenburg in early November she rode him without spurs in a snaffle<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore that event I\u2019ve never had a horse which piaffed\/passaged like he did.\u00a0 It was so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was a personal best for Hayley where she came second in the Special with 72.467%.\u00a0 She placed fifth in the GP with 69.936%.<\/p>\n

She has always known that the horse is for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked Bev to give me a bit of time to raise some money so I can keep him for the next few years. She\u2019s prepared to take a half share. I\u2019ll be seeing her after this clinic when I\u2019ll ride some of her young horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd on the subject of young horses I have to say just how impressed I\u2019ve been with those which have been in these clinics.\u00a0 I\u2019ve told their riders to train them according to the German training scale \u2013 speed, control, balance, straightness, connection \u2013 in that order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that when it comes to bringing up young saddle horses Australian horsemanship leads the way \u2013 it\u2019s just that as they mature training techniques can go a little wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayley better return soon and ensure this doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the February 2013 issue of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

This quiet little hamlet in the NSW Southern Highlands boasts a very large potato in its main street \u2013 a 10 metre long Sebago to be precise. Robertson\u2019s other features include waterfalls, forests, a coterie of notable residents \u2013 and Wallaby Hill Farm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24536,"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":[4],"tags":[410,1308,1309],"class_list":["post-24529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-hayley-beresford","tag-jaybee-alabaster","tag-wallaby-hill-farm"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24529","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=24529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32237,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24529\/revisions\/32237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}