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<\/a>Rebecca Ashton sits in on a clinic with the Dutch showjumping trainer\u2026 She also took the photos<\/h3>\nAlbert Voorn was back teaching in Australia and not even the hottest November day on record was going to keep his students away from his clinic at Krissy and Heath Harris\u2019 property at Mt White.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Dutch Olympic medalist garners an enormous amount of respect from his riders because he gives them an enormous amount of respect back. Whether he is teaching national representatives or weekend amateurs, everyone gets an equal amount of attention and explanation, and everyone leaves the arena smiling. The message is always the same; keep it simple, respect the horse and leave him to get on with his job. This is what some of the riders had to say…<\/p>\n Rory Hovell<\/strong><\/p>\n Rory is from Margaret River, WA but has been based at George Sanna\u2019s place with 13 horses, competing on the east coast, while keeping an eye on ten pregnant mares at home back west.<\/p>\n \u201cI brought three horses to the clinic, two stallions, Fair Diamond and Cassini Rosso, and this one, Finnigan who is by Carpino out of Bollinger (Cassini II). He\u2019s rising six and has been jumping up to 1.15m. Albert\u2019s approach is very, very correct, very classical, but it\u2019s a different way of doing it. He allows the horse to go and do his job. Where I wanted to do so much more before, he wanted me to do a lot less.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUsually you have everything you need at the walk, and then from there you go into trot. But here Albert had us just start in trot. The horses actually loosen up, they free up and then you canter. He just wants them to start forward, free, relaxed and hold themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe entered the arena, trotted, cantered and then rode with reins in one hand which actually gets you thinking about your own position. Then we used smaller circles to slowly bring the horse together. All of a sudden your horse is carrying himself in front of the leg, into the bridle, holding itself relaxed and you haven\u2019t had a single fight. Then you start jumping. It\u2019s common sense, but you always feel like you need to work harder where really you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour leg is nicely relaxed around them, but it isn\u2019t on them. As you collect more, if you need more leg, it supports them but you don\u2019t end up with more in your hand. The biggest thing for me was the outside rein. You need to get the horse to look where it\u2019s going and look at the jump. You need to use your inside rein to say, \u2018You\u2019re going there,\u2019 so they\u2019re looking where they\u2019re going and they\u2019re cantering on their own, then they actually take themselves to the jump. This is opposite to thinking outside rein, control the outside shoulder and turn them from the outside. You have the outside contact, but it\u2019s allowing – not a backwards feel. You still have both sides of their mouth. We think about that with young horses, but not as they get older.\u201d<\/p>\n more follows<\/em><\/p>\n Albert made a comment that your position was so much better. What changed over the course of the clinic?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m quite tall so I tend to collapse in the chest a bit. But now my abdominals are killing me! My stomach\u2019s burning and my shins are burning. Having said that, he\u2019s not into a really, really deep heel because it stiffens the leg. It\u2019s more about releasing the top of your leg and letting the bottom part relax against the horse with all the weight in the stirrups. His way of getting me to sit up straighter was to hollow out my lower back and it really made a difference. It\u2019s just a different way of saying things, but it worked for me. As he says, the closer you are to the vertical, the more effective everything is. He doesn\u2019t like too much rider movement. The horse has to jump into you instead of you jumping a little in front of the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor Albert, it\u2019s all about having the horse go in its most natural state. He told me the story how he had a stallion who was incredibly good on the flat, but he would always have one rail down behind. So, he free jumped it one day and saw how it went naturally. It wasn\u2019t so round, it poked its nose and was a little bit flatter, but it jumped 100% better and used its hind end better. After that, he let it jump more naturally and it was unbelievable behind. It had been ridden almost too well on the flat, too controlled. He also said, in riding that way, his vet bills have gone down 80%.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith one of the other stallions, I wanted to work on certain things but Albert said, \u2018He\u2019s built the way he\u2019s built, so let him go the way he goes.\u2019 His hind legs get a little bit behind him, but that\u2019s where they are. When I left him alone he jumped even better. The better the canter, the better the jump.\u201d \u201cYou need to get the horse to look where it\u2019s going and look at the jump. You need to use your inside rein to say, \u2018You\u2019re going there,\u2019 so they\u2019re looking where they\u2019re going and they\u2019re cantering on their own, then they actually take themselves to the jump. This is opposite to thinking outside rein, control the outside shoulder and turn them from the outside\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not hocus pocus. It makes perfect sense and you need to ask yourself, \u2018Do I really need to be asking for more?\u2019 The young ones will slowly get stronger and they\u2019ll be able to hold themselves more, and then you can go onto smaller circles and turns with more pace. He said once they feel good, step it up. When you step it up, they\u2019ll lose their balance but then you rebalance them, get them stronger and then step it up again. I think that\u2019s how you chip away to make them better, rather than saying, \u2018I want you here now\u2019. They will get there. We rode for an hour and we never once had a fight or an argument, or you never felt you were rubbing a hole in their side getting them forward. It\u2019s all relaxed and soft.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday we did lots of transitions. We opened up the canter, we rode small circles and began collection and extension exercises, but without doing anything else. We cantered, trotted, cantered, trotted, walked, trotted, lots of transitions, but that way the canter got better and better. The horse was relaxed, holding itself and balanced.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a serpentine exercise where we jumped a fence, turned onto a circle, walked, picked up the canter, changed through the serpentine, jumped the next fence, walked, circled, cantered next the fence and so on, so it all built on itself. He uses the turn onto a jump to keep them where you want them, rather than going straight for long distances. The horses are always flexed to the inside, bent around the inside leg and looking where they\u2019re going. They\u2019re controlled by the line, not by your hand. You balance them back on the hindlegs, and then you get off them and leave them. If you can canter to a fence and have the distance, then you have it. You can\u2019t find the distance if the canter is always changing rhythm and the horse isn\u2019t in front of the leg. If the canter is always the same, anyone can find distance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always the same with these people who are good teachers. Albert himself says he doesn\u2019t have a natural eye, but he has figured out a technique to find good distance by the way you come off a turn, by keeping the canter the same, by getting the horses looking at the jumps. No one missed when they did all that. I thought it was all really interesting. Keep It Simple,\u00a0Stupid!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI remember watching Albert warm up at the Sydney Olympics, there was the Dutch dressage team there and Jeroem Dubbeldam and his horses are so beautiful on the flat, and then there was this one guy on a little bay stallion, a plain snaffle bridle with no noseband and a navajo saddle blanket and a normal hat, chaps and jeans and I was wondering who on earth it was. That was Albert Voorn and he won the silver medal. He does things his way. He\u2019s worked out what works and doesn\u2019t have to conform to anyone. He\u2019s always been that sort of person.\u201d<\/p>\n Albert and Lando, Silver at Sydney<\/em><\/p>\n another rider comes next<\/em><\/p>\n AMANDA MADIGAN<\/strong><\/p>\n Amanda rode Helen Chugg\u2019s imported stallion Baluga who has just started jumping 1.40m. \u201cWhen things start going wrong and the horses aren\u2019t leaving all the fences up, like they\u2019re supposed to, you start trying to compromise and change things rather than making it simple and stepping out of the way a bit. As riders, we tend to try to get in there and help the horse out too much. At the end of the day, it\u2019s the horse\u2019s job to canter and jump the fence. It was nice to have the reminders and the little tweaks here and there.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI found Albert\u2019s message was very simple. When you\u2019re riding a horse, they should be able to stop when you want them to stop, go when you want them to go and turn when you want to turn. We start to make it too complicated. He was more on making sure the rider was balanced and in their own self carriage, so that the horse could be in his.\u201d<\/p>\n next Helen Chugg talks about Albert<\/em><\/p>\n HELEN CHUGG<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe used to bring horses to Albert when he was the National Coach prior to 2000. He was very, very good with the hot Thoroughbreds back then. I think probably in his teaching, he\u2019s a little bit more classical now. It\u2019s very simple, very easy, very correct and he\u2019s very Dutch! No clashing aids, kick the horse to go, and pull the rein with no leg to slow down. The lack of clashing aids was very important for the Thoroughbreds. It\u2019s interesting now with these sorts of Warmbloods, that it applies to them too, where 20 years ago most Warmbloods would have been a bit too Germanic. It\u2019s that simple, and it should be that simple, and I think the horses appreciate it. Keeping the inside flexion, but keeping the weight in both reins equal is a very important message. A lot of people just pull the inside or the outside too much.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a reminder of just how simple it can be, and like Amanda said, if the horse starts to get a bit excited or strong in the ring you then try to make it more complicated and introduce other things, when really we should be keeping it simple. Instead of supporting the horse all the time with the leg like a lot of showjumpers do, for me he had more of a dressage message that the leg says go, then the leg is light and the horse can breathe. It was a very valuable three days for us and I\u2019m very happy we came.<\/p>\n \u201cBaluga is a very quiet horse. We call him \u2018Bob the Slob\u2019 at home. It\u2019s important that he learns to have his own energy, and his own adrenaline, and not be frightened or worried by that. Horses like that have to learn to enjoy their adrenaline and lightness.\u201d<\/p>\n HEATH AHMAT<\/strong><\/p>\n The sixteen-year-old from Western Australia got to experience a new horse under Albert\u2019s watchful eye.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main message for me was to be soft with your horse and be relaxed, even if you\u2019re telling your horse off. If you get tense then the horse gets tense, then you can\u2019t do anything. It\u2019s been a great few days.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just bought it, so this was the first time I\u2019ve ever sat on it! It was really good to do that with Albert. It helped a lot and helped build my confidence. He was very understandable with what he wanted you to do. He was clear; you did it and it worked. He didn\u2019t just ramble on.\u201d<\/p>\n KRISSY HARRIS<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinic Organiser, Krissy Harris rode nine-year-old Rosthwaite Sausalito when I watched her jump.<\/p>\n \u201cThe horse really suits me because I learnt on Thoroughbreds and I\u2019m little, and I like them light. He\u2019s jumping 1.20 and I had a lovely lesson today.<\/p>\n \u201cAlbert does change the emphasis of what he teaches every time he comes. It\u2019s always the same principles though, but this time the emphasis was if you\u2019re sitting in the saddle, you sit there and you do nothing. The leg and your whip send your horse forward, not your seat. For a jumping horse, no seat. The minute you use your seat you tighten the top of your leg and that pushes you out of the saddle, so then you try and jam your bum back in the saddle so you have all this activity and tenseness on top, which makes the horse hollow out and run away. So he wants you to sit there, that\u2019s it.\u201d \u201cThere are a lot of relaxed and happy riders here. When riders get frustrated with themselves they often then get frustrated with their horse, but Albert is good at keeping everyone calm and in a positive mindset.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAfter last time, I think our direction is pretty good. The previous clinic we were flat out trying to make the corners and circles, but that\u2019s ok now as we put the practice in. You have to remember that your money isn\u2019t spent for the three days Albert is here, it\u2019s also for the three months afterwards where you have to keep the same thought process happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do really love the way he teaches with three in a lesson for an hour, because that\u2019s what you\u2019d do at home, rather than six or seven in a lesson that goes for two hours. I like that he does something you can replicate at home. He treats the amateur hobby riders with the same interest and energy as the professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What have you been up to since I saw you earlier this\u00a0year?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been teaching lots of clinics, but we also sold the farm. We sold it with a big loss of \u20ac600,000. It left us a little bit of money to buy a little house where my wife and I can probably spend the rest of our lives. We have the horse truck, I have a nice horse and we also have another horse that we have almost bought, we\u2019re just waiting for the blood test. I think that horse could go all the way. It\u2019s an eight-year-old chestnut mare by Staccato, bred by Paul\u00a0Schockem\u00f6hle.\u201d<\/p>\n So you\u2019ve still got the competition bug then?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat is why I have the two horses and perhaps a young horse from our own breeding, so yes, hopefully with them we can do a bit of showing. The young horse is now five and I have a young boy who has started him off for me, so I will start riding him in January. That is actually the plan that I can do a little bit of riding and a little bit of teaching. The very big financial pressure is gone and I can concentrate on my wife and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Nice to have that pressure lifted but it\u2019s still a little sad I\u00a0imagine?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYeah it doesn\u2019t really get to me that much. I\u2019m pretty stress free in that way. I don\u2019t carry stress on a daily basis. I deal with pressure well.\u201d<\/p>\n Have you trained yourself or does it come naturally?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s trained. Naturally I\u2019m a person who is pretty impatient, but it\u2019s something you have to train if you want to improve on yourself. But you can only do it if you are aware of it. If you let it happen, then you are already too late. Things come up and you don\u2019t react. I\u2019m very happy with that because it means you don\u2019t have stress taking a lot out of you. When things go bad I get very, very quiet. Like my farm, I can be sad about it or I can be happy with what is still left.\u201d<\/p>\n How has this clinic been?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI get to the riders easier than the first time. I see quicker improvement. They kept some of what they learnt the last time. I get the impression they like the teaching, which is\u00a0nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Any problems in general that need to be addressed?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe thing is everybody does what they know. You never blame people for what they don\u2019t know. They try hard, then you see improvement in everyone to different extents. Training like I do with the earphone and mike, it\u2019s so quiet and there is no stress involved and that works very well. Then they can concentrate better. If things go wrong, it\u2019s not a big deal. In every progress, mistakes are made.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWorld-wide the same problems are seen. Everybody hangs onto the outside rein, and it is the biggest enemy of the rider. They do it because they are taught to do it. For me it should be like riding the bicycle. That\u2019s what they should do, both reins have the same importance. When riders get too hooked on the outside rein, they don\u2019t give the horse the opportunity to turn. Nearly all the riders pull the horse\u2019s head to the outside when they take a turn. For example, when you are on a course and you go very fast that is a little bit automatically what happens, because you don\u2019t have time to correct the horse. In the training I like to pay more attention to it, or else they hold on, and they fall more and more on the front end. Always slow down to correct it, thinking of making the horse sit, because either he\u2019ll drop down into his inside shoulder, or outside shoulder. Both are from a lack of balance, so you need to slow the horse down, not by pushing the outside leg to the inside shoulder or vice versa, because I want to collect him and get him to carry himself independently from me. The moment I push him, I keep carrying him. I want them light and I want them to carry me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHardly, because the most difficult thing is for the rider is to ride a course, so I try to focus as much as possible on that. If you had very beginner riders that you had to work on their position you can do that. But nearly all the clinics are for riders who already ride courses and you want them to improve their riding of the course. When that\u2019s good and they start to get bored, you might then say a bit of grid work. The thing with grid work, for a bad horse it doesn\u2019t help, and for a good horse it\u2019s not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Why doesn\u2019t it help a bad horse?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cA good horse is always a horse that has the mentality to jump clean, and is careful. They\u2019re either careful or not, and careful horses leave the poles up and careless horses don\u2019t. People think grid work and gymnastics make a horse jump better. That is not happening. What happens a lot is that we try to get a horse to do things it\u2019s not comfortable with, and I don\u2019t like to do that. At the end of the day, what we try to do is to make the ride to the fence as comfortable as possible for the horse, to get the horse to the spot from which it can jump the fence best. Because of that, the horse can perform to the best of his ability because he\u2019s not hindered by the rider.\u201d<\/p>\n Who out there competing at the moment is doing it the right way in your eyes?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe combination that is very, very pleasant to watch at the moment Is Luciana Diniz and Fit For Fun.\u201d \u201cThat is what it\u2019s all about. I like the type of horse; light, very careful, the rider giving the horse the ride it should have. It is smooth, elegant, not physical. That is what I like…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I saw a YouTube video of you and Adelinde Cornelissen training together. What was that about?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cShe was editor of the dressage magazine for a month and she wanted a dressage lesson from a showjumping rider.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>CATCHING UP WITH ALBERT<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>You do a lot of transitions and circles, but do you ever use grids or poles?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n