{"id":27521,"date":"2016-06-10T16:19:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T06:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=27521"},"modified":"2020-02-28T16:44:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T05:44:06","slug":"mary-hanna-dressage-rider-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/06\/mary-hanna-dressage-rider-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Hanna \u2013 Dressage Rider \u2013 Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mary1Header\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Story \u2013 Chris Hector and\u00a0Photos \u2013 Roz Neave and archives<\/h3>\n

Mary Hanna wears her years lightly. It really is hard to get your head around the fact that she first broke onto the Australian dressage scene in the early 80\u2019s. In many ways, Mary Hanna\u2019s story is the story of the coming of age of Australian dressage\u2026 and like many of our first dressage riders, Mary grew up with horses a part of her day to day life:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOurs was a very horsey family, it was compulsory. If you didn\u2019t ride you didn\u2019t get fed practically. I lived on a property in the Western District and everybody rode. We rode to do the stock work, it was just part of life\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother was mad on jumping. She used to do a lot of hunting and she trained racehorses, and she used to go around all the shows around Australia riding in Section Fours when they galloped around the showgrounds jumping big jumps that looked like telephone poles\u2026 she was mad on that, and then she discovered the beginnings of dressage down in the Western District and became a bit interested in that, but eventing was always the main thing we were brought up on \u2013 eventing and hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Jumping was Mary’s first love…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Advanced as an eventer, and got on the short list for the World Championships in Kentucky on a horse called Suave. At the time I was absolutely obsessed, it was all I could think about, jumping fences and eventing, I absolutely loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pic1Eventer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary and\u00a0Br\u00fbl\u00e9e conquer the Gawler track\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

So what caused the career change to dressage?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I married Gert Donvig, the first horse we bought was the Danish stallion, Kilof McOhl. In those days, they had strange rules about professionals. He was getting Kilof ready for what was called the Haig Cup \u2013 a Prix St Georges level competition that happened all over the world. About two weeks before the event, they rang and said, \u2018Gert can\u2019t ride Kilof because he is classed as a professional\u2019. Gert said \u2018what if Mary rides him?\u2019 Okay. So I had a two week crash course riding Prix St Georges, Kilof was very kind to me \u2013 and I got really interested in dressage. I thought, this is fascinating. We did quite well, we came second to Erica Taylor and Crown Law, and from then on, I was hooked on dressage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor quite a long time, I continued eventing and dressage. I had a very nice mare, Duell Way, that I used to own with Ralph Grosby. I took her to Heytesbury one day, she was a very brave mare but she should have been a showjumper not an eventer, she had quite a bascule\u2026 but she would never stop at anything. She was competing Prix St Georges and Advanced eventing at the same time. At Heytesbury she came into a big ditch, she just took off and basculed beautifully but didn\u2019t get to the other side and smashed her face on the rail on the other side. I was lying next to her, looking at the blood streaming down her face, and I thought, no I\u2019m not going to do this to this horse any more. I did event a couple of times after that because I had an owner \/ trainers steeplechase license, and I did event some of the steeplechase horses for their education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who taught you about dressage?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGert was number one. In the early days we used to go to Hubert Eichinger from the Spanish Riding School, he was the first person, apart from Gert, who taught me. Earlier I went to Franz Mairinger when I was eventing, but I had a bad attitude, dressage was a strange thing you had to do before you got to the jumping part, you just suffered it. But I still remember some of Franz\u2019s lines \u2013 one day I was fiddling a horse down on the bit, and he told me an old cow could be fiddled on the bit, but this was a dressage horse, and it wasn\u2019t the way to do it. You remember a few of those classic lines\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Gert and Mary and the two black stallions – Gert is on Granada, Mary on Kilof McOhl<\/em><\/p>\n

I always had the impression that Gert had ridden a bit in Denmark before he came to Australia, but not to any high level, and he was prepared to make it up as he went along\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d had a bit of influence from the trainer of Liz Hartels, but he was only trained in basic dressage. And you are right, he was a great improviser, and that is why he survived so well in the horse world, building up the business. He was flexible and he was a sponge, he just took everything from anyone. When he won the scholarship to go to Germany, and met Bimbo and all those people, he jumped right in and brought it all back home. Then he organized for me to go over there, to train with Bimbo, and then in Denmark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bimbo perhaps doesn\u2019t get the respect he deserves, in Germany lots of the top trainers and riders use him\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very influential. The thing about Bimbo was, every horse when you got on it after he\u2019d sat on it, felt good. I know he was a tough guy and I think we\u2019ve all become a lot more soft with the horses \u2013 and we are riding hotter horses \u2013 but every time you hopped on a horse after Bimbo had been riding it, it felt beautiful in the mouth, and hand and in the connection. He was very good at getting them engaged with the hind leg and soft in front. Connected but soft. He really knew how to get that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Bimbo – who started so many riders…<\/em><\/p>\n

It is different, starting your dressage career at Prix St Georges level\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew how to steer around an Elementary test, and I was always fascinated by the training of the horse. I guess there was another incident earlier in my life which made me think about dressage and that was when I was very young and went to Warnnambool Show, and \u2018Doc\u2019 Mathews was riding Aintree Boy. I\u2019ll never forget it \u2013 he rode Aintree Boy in a freestyle to \u2018Greensleeves\u2019 \u2013 I remember it was raining and it was under lights at night, the horse to my mind, did the most beautiful piaffe and passage \u2013 I was absolutely blown away, I can remember thinking, \u2018for sure one day I want to do that.\u2019 You see people in your early stages and if you see something that really grabs you, it influences you later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month Mary travels to Europe to train for the first time\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

The LESSON: Training the Young Horse<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis young horse comes from the farm where I have bought several horses, from Wico Witte in Holland. When I was at the Bartels, I said to them, I\u2019d like to buy a young horse. They said, there\u2019s a place down the road, we\u2019ve never had any success buying young horses from him, but I know he has a lot of youngsters by Jazz. Here\u2019s his address, go and have a look. I bought Mayfield Pizzazz and a chestnut \u2013 the chestnut hurt itself so we didn\u2019t bring it home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was a wrong decision \u2013 to sell Pizzazz\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I sold him was that he was tiny, how stupid was I? Did I not learn from Mosaic that size was not a problem? But I had three other horses at the time. We bought the horses and broke them in, and Kerry Mack came and bought Pizzazz when he was just broken in. He was just a charming horse to break in and do anything with. Then we bought Oskar B, as a two year old unbroken colt. He was a beautiful mover, and when we broke him in, he totally lost his movement. I thought, oh dear, I\u2019ve made a mistake \u2013 and he was very colty. He had no concentration whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could seriously jump. I\u2019d take him down the back paddock and jump him. I\u2019d canter into the jump and he\u2019d be looking up in the trees and just spring over the jump like it was nothing and canter off. In the end, I rang George Sanna and said, George I\u2019ve got a horse here, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to make a dressage horse. He looked at it, and said \u2018well he\u2019s not going to make a jumper because he is not even looking at the jump, he has no concentration whatsoever\u2026\u2019 I thought \u2018drat, I\u2019ll geld him\u2019. I worked him on, and he started coming to the party, but I also had Tango and I had to choose. I loved Tango, and Tango also came from Nicco, also by Jazz, and we broke him in too. I decided Tango was the one I loved, so we sold Oskar to Kate Taylor-Wheat, and that has been very successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is, if you go and buy a horse with the right breeding, and you bring it home as a baby, and you break it in yourself, and you do everything with that horse \u2013 then you know what you are getting. Even if you have problems on the way, in the end it\u2019s often a better result than if buy a going horse. I got lucky with Mosaic, but as a general rule, I think buying a young one and breaking and doing all the work yourself, is the better way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have any special system for breaking them in?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much a system, it\u2019s simple. We lunge them. As long as it takes to have them round and steady and on the bit, really good in the connection and comfortable in the mouth. We back them in the stable, and we take as long as that takes. When we can lunge them perfectly, walk, trot and canter, and get on and off in the stable and they are absolutely relaxed about it \u2013 then we go into the arena and start riding them on the lunge, then off the lunge. There\u2019s nothing special in it, it is just that you are not in a hurry. You do it yourself \u2013 the horse is in a familiar environment. As Lisa who works for me said yesterday, the trouble is that I get my horse back from the breaker and I don\u2019t know anything about him. I\u2019m told he\u2019s broken in but I don\u2019t know anything about him, and he doesn\u2019t know anything about me. The ones you break in yourself, even if you are not a professional horse breaker, are always better. You and the horse have some sort of rapport.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe work them inside, then they go outside, then they go up the hill, out in the bush, take them to a competition, and so it goes. We just build up carefully\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou send a horse to the breaker and it is costing so much a day, and the breaker wants it done, and the next one in. They are there for six weeks if you are lucky and they are done in a hurry. It\u2019s not that anyone is doing a bad job, it\u2019s just that whole system is more likely to fail than if you can take your time and do the job yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis young horse comes from Nicco. He doesn\u2019t breed so many horses but he goes around and finds foals. He knows all the mares and all the breeding. This one was a bit of a surprise to me because I didn\u2019t know anything about the mare line, but it was German and I figured a bit of solid German temperament mixed with the Jazz might go well. With Jazz, you\u2019ve got to use a mare that\u2019s pretty solid in the temperament.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lunge1a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing about it when I go to Nicco\u2019s to buy a horse, is that you can look at twenty of them in the paddock \u2013 you can see them move, you can see the size in comparison to the others, so you get a very good idea of how they rate compared to the others. I usually select a couple, bring them in, and then see them move in the indoor, look at their mechanics. Being able to choose is great instead of just going to look at one horse\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And you are not paying a huge amount of money\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy best ones were the cheapest, absolutely. There is an element of risk, you don\u2019t know how they will break in but as a general rule, he knows the mares and he knows how the foals are likely to be. I bought this horse at the end of my trip last year, as an unbroken two year old, straight out of the paddock. Gitte had looked after the place the whole time I was away, and worked very hard for nothing \u2013 so this horse was her reward. I\u2019ll do the right thing and buy my daughter a horse. We are in the middle of breaking him in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a little with him at the beginning, then had to put him out because we ran out of stables. We just brought him in two weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary has moved into the indoor to supervise Gitte\u2019s lunging session\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe start to lunge them in the round yard, and the next step is to lunge them in here. It gets the horse used to the area, then we lunge them with the other horses in here, so they get used to working with other horses. We just try to make it comfortable for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis horse \u2013 as you can see \u2013 has a tendency to come back a little behind the bit \u2013 so we have to get him to really stretch forward. The Jazz\u2019s can sometimes be a little fiddly in the mouth so you have to work to get them comfortable to take the connection. In the start of lunging, this horse really didn\u2019t want to take the contact at all, and Gitte was putting them looser and looser, and I say, no, what you have to do now is take a little more connection and get the horse more into the bit. That\u2019s the first thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he is comfortable and working into the bit and he can do that in all three paces, then we can start to think about getting on. If they look as if they are going to buck or get a bit tricky, I\u2019ll put the Pessoa gear on \u2013 that works round the back \u2013 I\u2019ll use that too if they are a little bit lazy with their hind leg, but he is very good with his hind end. If I think they are really tricky, then I will drive them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJazz horses don\u2019t usually buck so I would be surprised if this one did. He has lovely soft, straight movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see this young horse is not losing his movement the minute the saddle goes on. A lot of them do and it doesn\u2019t mean they are not going to be good horses. If they move really well before they are broken in, and then lose it, give them time, and it will come back again. The Jazz horses tend not to move it when they are broken in. It was interesting with Oskar, I can remember Sjef Jenssen saying, \u2018oh that\u2019s normal for the Zeoliet\u2019s to lose it when they are broken in, but it will come back..\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary suggests an adjustment to Gitte:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice if he would bend a little more to the inside but one thing at a time, he\u2019s going against the rein a little bit, I\u2019d like him to accept the outside rein a more and have a little more inside flexion. Try to point the whip at his shoulder \u2013 without making him go faster \u2013 and try for a little more inside bend, just feel, don\u2019t jerk the rein, just feel as if you were riding him, through your wrist, just ask him to bend a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr even come back and try it in the walk, just gently feel with your inside rein, exactly, he can bend \u2013 that\u2019s it. Walk on, he\u2019s got to keep walking. If it is difficult in the trot, just try it in the walk, try and teach him a little inside bending, he\u2019s got to accept the outside rein. Don\u2019t let the rein go totally loose, it\u2019s the same as if you are riding him, you\u2019ve got to have a little connection \u2013 not a loose rein that suddenly goes tight, you\u2019ve always got to feel that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a tendency to drop the bit and he has got to come forward and accept the bit \u2013 even though it doesn\u2019t look nice to see the horse behind the vertical, the only way to get him to accept the bit is not to give him a longer and longer rein, we have to take the rein and get him to take the connection and then take his nose further forward and out. If we just leave him on a loose rein all the time, he is never going to accept the bit. I don\u2019t like to see them jammed up and too tight in the poll, but he is still at the stage where he hasn\u2019t quite taken his nose forward to the bit, that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to teach him to do on the lunge. He has to learn to lunge properly and take the connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow to finish off, just put the rein a fraction longer and let me how he goes. Let\u2019s see if we can get him to stretch forward a little more because you\u2019ve had it quite short there. Now he has been there, he might stretch a little more. He has to go forward to it. You have to use your inside rein exactly the same as if you were riding him, with feel. He\u2019s still trying to duck behind a little, a little bit more forward so that he takes the bit. Forward, let him have a little play, but forward \u2013 forward is better and now he is going better, go forward and into it, you\u2019ve got to make him work a bit. I don\u2019t mind if he has a buck, it doesn\u2019t matter, he just has to go forward and take the bit. That\u2019s better. That\u2019s what he\u2019s got to be able to do before we get on him. But they are all different, some are hollow and go up, some come behind, it is all part of being broken in, they have to accept the bit. But he is a soft little person so his response is to suck back a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not going to accept the bit if you just let him dawdle along, he has to go into the bridle, better, good, how does he feel in your hand?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still leaning a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFeel like little half halts through your wrist, just bending a little bit. He really bends the hind leg, he is loose in the shoulder, he is good in front and behind. Sometimes you get the hind leg bending but you don\u2019t get the shoulder as well, plus he\u2019s got a little bit of bending in the knee, and that is typical of the Jazz horses, they have a nice knee action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got such a great attitude, he\u2019s listening, he is trying the whole time, he really wants to please.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have anything tricky with the bit, just a plain loose ring snaffle. If they have trouble turning, then I\u2019ll put on a bit with a side piece, like an FM but if all is good, we start with a loose ring snaffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo finish take the side reins off and let him just walk and stretch\u2026. Then back in the box and Lisa can do some getting on and off.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just what we did, trooped around to the stable where Gitte held Brioni and Lisa climbed on and off. The work for the day was done.<\/p>\n

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

This article originally appeared in the August 2009 edition of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian dressage rider, Mary Hanna talks about her riding career, and philosophy of dressage training…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27531,"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":[1243,20,427],"class_list":["post-27521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-dressage","tag-dressage-training","tag-mary-hanna"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27521","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=27521"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48671,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27521\/revisions\/48671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}