{"id":27904,"date":"2016-08-08T15:20:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T05:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=27904"},"modified":"2018-03-21T20:14:13","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T09:14:13","slug":"sitting-in-on-another-clinic-with-jeremy-steinberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/08\/sitting-in-on-another-clinic-with-jeremy-steinberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting in on another clinic with Jeremy Steinberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_MG_1777\"Last month we featured an interview with Jeremy conducted by Rebecca Ashton, now join Rebecca and sit in on a clinic watching the man do what he does best…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting in on a Jeremy Steinberg clinic is like going to a university lecture. Jeremy talks A LOT! \u201cYou can tell when I\u2019m angry. I stop talking!\u201d he confides. However, there\u2019s method in his \u2018madness\u2019. The American sees himself more a teacher, than purely a coach, so explains things as well as possible so his students not only understand what\u2019s happening here and now, but also the background and theory behind it.<\/p>\n

Helen Lawson entered the arena with her mare Floryda who was just starting up again after time off and rehab. Even from the start, Jeremy wanted Floryda to understand why she was there. \u201cI\u2019d definitely stretch her at the start, but I would minimise it. I wouldn\u2019t just sit there for too long and let things become stagnant in respect to the horizontal balance. I\u2019d play with little balance fluctuations so it doesn\u2019t get complacent, so later when I try to get her to come up, she will think, \u2018Why come up now?\u2019 I would only stay there if the neck was being used against me. That\u2019s way more seldom than we think. With most of them, like her, I wouldn\u2019t. She\u2019s a little horizontal in her balance already.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do very, very little long and low in the canter. The canter fluctuates, in a sense, over the wither. The whole body comes up in the croup and lands down in the wither. If I start riding them down, the croup gets higher and higher, and the forehand lower and lower, just because of the nature of the pace. I do it more for a psychological benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would put in a lot of canter\/ walk transitions to help rotate the horse\u2019s body. Even in the warmup, you don\u2019t want her to flee her quarters, just sit her into her quarters a bit. Think of the upward rotation of the forehand and the downward rotation of the quarters and give her breaks when she needs them. Does that make sense with the balance? Talk to her about that from the beginning. Especially with her body type, that\u2019s the kind of balance I want from her right from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The walk trot transitions bring up more points of discussion, \u201cNo faster than that in the tempo. Slow, swinging, big, high steps. In this speed, I want to drive her hind legs without her speeding off. If I can\u2019t do that without her speeding off, and fleeing the engagement, I won\u2019t ask for more. I\u2019m looking at the relationship between the big stride and the engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because you put a bit of tension in their body, for example in the walk, it doesn\u2019t have to mean that you\u2019re going to canter,\u201d Jeremy continued, \u201cAs soon as she walks, do something like shoulder in or haunches in so she gets busy thinking about that and absorbing those aids rather than what she\u2019s trying to avoid. In the walk, she sucks in, gets tight and starts jigging and she makes you take your leg off, but instead you\u2019ve got to drive it through and out. You have to keep your leg on their tension-loaded body to push it through. Keep your driving aids on and tell her, \u2018I\u2019m going to make you loose and through.\u2019\u201d\"_K3A2235\"\"_K3A2230\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just walking with her to set the miles, to give her a visual and touch her on the chest just so she sits back, not that she stops.\u201d Jeremy explains what he\u2019s doing to Helen Lawson<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Look at that. Does that make sense keeping the leg on at the walk? If you take the leg off you\u2019re validating the tension. Your body language is then saying there\u2019s something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen was keen to try some half steps so Jeremy told her how they were going to go about it, \u201cTry to just sit still and enjoy it. Don\u2019t work up there. Less forward. Even less and just sit there and enjoy it. I\u2019m just walking with her to set the miles, to give her a visual, and touch her on the chest just so she sits back, not that she stops. The poll needs to stay nice and high and encourage the hind legs to come backwards. If they\u2019re having a little trouble rotating back, you can rein back. Keep it quiet though. You don\u2019t want the half steps to stay over the shoulder, because later you\u2019ll have problems with the transitions, because she\u2019s a little too weighted in the shoulder. It\u2019s not at all a bad starting place, just know the path you want to take from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canter was next and it was a similar story to the trot as Jeremy explained, \u201cAs much as she\u2019s manageable in front, I would drive those quarters under. The stride becomes shorter, less ground covering, but it becomes higher. I don\u2019t actually shorten it per se, it shortens as a result of the balance change. The power has to lower the quarters and give the forehand lift which lightens the forehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the big stride and nice long even arc of the horse\u2019s body, and start rotating the horse\u2019s body, then the length of stride is smaller. When I go to collect them, if it\u2019s true collection, I\u2019m taking her forehand and shoving it on top of her hind legs. The weight of the body is weighting the hind legs or the other way to look at it is lowering the quarters to allowing the forehand to come up. The forehand should be freer, lighter, higher and more expressive than before. If the tempo slows, it\u2019s just the body getting closer to the ground, rather than the body\u00a0rotating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Houghton is an old hand at Jeremy\u2019s clinics and it was nice to see her horse DP Formidable progressing from last time. She was into the arena and straight into the trot work as Jeremy assessed the combination. There were a few moments in the lateral work that Jeremy wanted to address, \u201cEvery day when you do those leg yields, know and set your trajectory. It doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t make variations to that, but HE can\u2019t change it to avoid getting you involved. Don\u2019t let him bulge his shoulder through it.\u201d\"_K3A2188-2\"<\/p>\n

Mary Houghton on DP Formidable<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t do so much shoulder in to haunches in, I\u2019d prefer shoulder in to renvers because every time you swing the haunches around, you\u2019re weighting the forehand as it becomes the stabilising point. You always come into the haunches in from a curved\u00a0line.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was time for a walk break as Jeremy continued his instruction, \u201cThere are little places if you taught him to be ok with the whip, you could encourage him to be more under; coil and load the hind legs. It\u2019s not about picking up the whip and start chopping away at the hindlegs, but a quiet tap could help the engagement a little. Some horses have never been abused by the whip, but there\u2019s a little bit of anxiety, and then Mum puts the whip down, so they learn to stay lazy. How they react is not always rational, but it is associated. They are always making associations and connecting the dots. Sometimes it\u2019s not to work harder, but with more fuel efficiency or lazier.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis shape is better this clinic. Work him like a metal wire\u2026.keep playing with it until it fatigues in the middle and breaks (or gives to you, is what Jeremy meant)<\/em>. You keep the frame, but you have to convince him that there\u2019s room for the frame to absorb more engagement of the hind legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mile per hour change is not in itself collection, but it\u2019s part of it. Just because the trajectory has changed, the step is higher, but every mph you peel off you want to increase the rpms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll swing his quarters left or right to avoid the work. When you ride forward with a forward thrust from the hind leg, the deviation is more the shoulder bulging left or right, rather than the quarters deviating left or right. They\u2018ll lean down into the stronger front leg. If you sit them back more, you get more stepping left or right or twisting the body because that\u2019s where you\u2019re transferring the weight. They avoid stepping under the centre of mass.\u201d\"_K3A2195-2\"<\/p>\n

Mary and Formidable were then on to the canter and Jeremy wanted it better still. No one could ever accuse Jeremy of just sitting in the corner saying, \u201cGood. Good.\u201d! \u201cThe inside hind leg needs to swing forward under the body. It must not move sideways first.\u201d To remedy this, Mary was asked to ride quarter lines and inside track lines with a little shoulder fore. \u201cWhen you look in the mirror, I don\u2019t want you to see the inside hind leg to the inside of the inside front leg. Now walk and stay straight. Shoulder-in like. Not extreme. Then he has to canter without losing that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s tough! He has to learn to use the swing of the hind leg to come under. Really ask him for it, but don\u2019t get so desperate to make him go that you lose all that straightness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole use of the lateral work is to get the bend and engagement. It is to get the body to function correctly and allow you access to all the individual parts of his body. It\u2019s isolation work. When we come to the canter and see the deviation of the workload from stepping under and carrying, to instead driving down into one shoulder or stepping sideways with the hind leg to throw the body on an arcing path or a corkscrew instead of straight, we have to ride them into the shoulder-in, for example, to get them to use the body correctly. You want to be able to control those different lateral movements so when you feel a deviation in an area, you can go to that quadrant of the horse\u2019s body and address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lesson finished with some half steps, and Jeremy made it clear he wanted the horse to remain in front of the leg, \u201cYou had a good shape change, but then he sucked it back off the hand and sucked behind the leg. Your job as the rider is to keep him connected. You have to live in this little zone of connecting the hind legs to the front\u00a0end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary almost did her job too well and exciting as half steps are, Formidable was getting keen to take over, \u201cHe can\u2019t tune out to your half halt. So you halted and that was ok as he got chargey. If I put that charge in his body, I won\u2019t get after him. I\u2019ll tell him it\u2019s not what I want. But if he puts that charge in his body, and is rude, I\u2019ll tell him no.\u201d\"_K3A2191-2\"<\/p>\n

Mary Houghton and\u00a0DP Formidable work on half steps with Jeremy<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to explain further the outward pull of the horse compared to downward pull. I\u2019ll accept more pull in front, but if the balance changes and you get a downward pull, that\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d The horse\u2019s back needs to lift and arc, but know that this takes time. Jeremy doesn\u2019t mind a little pressure out into the hand until the horse gets strong enough to hold it\u2019s correctly lifted back and engaged quarters on its own, but never is the horse allowed to pull the bit down to the ground causing it to be on the forehand. He then picked up a dressage whip to illustrate his point. \u201cThe more I squeeze a stick on both ends, the more outward pressure the stick creates on my hands, so I have to be empathetic to that. The whip wants to always go from the arc to straight. The horse is different because it\u2019s made of living, breathing tissue, so it can hold the shape longer as the horse gets stronger, and then the horse needs less outward pressure to hold the shape. But downward press. No.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight, now the balance is great and then the transition was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melinda Hart was next on her gorgeous black stallion Richmond H who has just started out in Grand Prix. After warming up, the combination began work on the half passes. \u201cWhen the bend gets a little questionable, half pass a few strides then shoulder-in a few strides then half pass. You base the shoulder-in on where and how they\u2019re losing bend. The shoulder-in in the middle is based on that. He likes to get the haunches swinging over too much at the start of the half pass then the angle of the pelvis works in a way that it\u2019s not carrying weight anymore. Make him march the inside hind leg forward in the shoulder-in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two trajectories the hind leg is going to take basically. Sideways and forward. The minute you start to go forward, the tangent in the middle where he has to go forward AND sideways is what he\u2019s trying to avoid. He\u2019s happy to do the forward and then the sideways, but not both together. Think more that you want to keep his pelvis perpendicular to the long side as opposed to the angle in the pelvis he\u2019s trying to create.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melinda gave it a go but Jeremy still wasn\u2019t 100% happy, \u201cSo even though you\u2019re doing half pass, shoulder-in, half pass, the arc of his body is changing relative to the wall. I want the arc of his body to remain the same relative to the wall. Within the shoulder-in stride, feel the inside hind leg to come back under the centre of mass. Feel that you\u2019re going to take the whole shape over, not just the haunches so you stop him swinging them over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need the half pass to be effective. It\u2019s not effective how you\u2019re doing it, swinging the haunches. Well, it\u2019s suppling a little but it\u2019s not strength building. And that\u2019s what will help the piaffe and passage.\u201d\"_K3A2203-2\"<\/p>\n

Melinda Hart on Richmond H in canter half pass<\/em><\/p>\n

When it was time to look at the pirouettes, it was similar instruction. Jeremy wanted a better quality movement, so broke things down and made the progression easier until the horse understood what was being asked of him, \u201cMake a bigger circle with haunches in. This talks to the same principle as the half pass: shoulder fore into the sideways. Watch your tempo. Try to accelerate it a little bit. It\u2019s the rate of repetition of the stride. That can\u2019t slow down when I start my pirouette. The miles per hour will change though. You rode from the straight line right into the pirouette. I would want to ride haunches in first and make sure I own it. Then I\u2019ll take it smaller, and check I own it and keep going until I feel the place where I don\u2019t own it. I\u2019ll stay there for however long I need until I own it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like when you play music where you may slow down the piece until you can play it, then you play it at the correct tempo. With the horses, you want to keep the tempo, but make the movement bigger, or a little easier until you can \u2018play the complex piece\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Jeremy was away again with further explanations, \u201cHorses are fuel efficient creatures. They\u2019re not going to go into an exercise with the highest effort. As long as no one notices, they\u2019ll make it easier. Any flight animal is basically a lazy natured animal because 1: They always need an internal store of energy 2: Their senses are not so good at high speed. Their senses are based on stillness. The wind blowing a smell up their nose, seeing if something is moving. Horses love interaction, but not really work. Predators work in another way. They can use energy because they\u2019ll just take a nap. Horses can\u2019t ,or they\u2019ll die. They live in a very different way. They\u2019re not being a bad horse, it\u2019s just their nature. That\u2019s why I always say, never believe your horse. There\u2019s always a bit in the reserve tanks. Especially stallions and mares, because you have to add \u2018reproduce\u2019 to the things they need energy for. However, that doesn\u2019t always give you a right to use that energy! You have to assess the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piaffe passage was next, and Jeremy wanted Melinda to really understand how the two are connected and work together. \u201cCreep the hind leg under. Not only do you need to set into him that, so this becomes a self sustaining gait, that\u2019s not your only goal, you then need to shape that into something better and better.\u201d\"_K3A2200-2\"<\/p>\n

Jeremy explains using a whip to Melinda Hart on Richmond H<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m after a smoother transition between piaffe and passage. I\u2019m not going to definitively ride a passage out of that, I\u2019m going to make the piaffe more ground covering, and more ground covering, so I find myself in the passage. What you want to take out of him is the thought of compartmentalising: this is piaffe; this is passage. They need to become the one same concept. I don\u2019t like the shape and the weight loading in his passage. I like it in the piaffe. They do become slightly different things at some stage in the work, but at the moment they\u2019re too different. You want to teach him the passage out of the piaffe rather than out of the trot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Feel his forehand coming up higher? That\u2019s where the passage comes from, that he\u2019s so weight loaded behind giving him the ability to carry the forehand higher. Then they come to life on their own. Don\u2019t be too greedy or they\u2019ll come back to the old way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the passage, it\u2019s the weight loading and then the travelling, and then you have the feeling you can take off like a plane. That\u2019s the correct, classical way of training rather than bouncing him in the trot, and a year later not being able to get piaffe\/ passage transitions, or the judge complaining that the passage isn\u2019t high enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be careful when you start \u2018wham bam\u2019 because he\u2019ll start getting anxious. I\u2019m very sparing with the front leg because you can then disconnect the diagonal pairs. If the front leg does more than the back leg can support, they\u2019ll start dropping their bellies.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it wouldn\u2019t be a Jeremy Steinberg clinic without a few position tips. Lisa Just riding Bond 007 had her position focused on, and the first thing to happen was the stirrups were taken away. Then Jeremy ran through all points Lisa needed to focus on as she rode around, \u201cIf I ask you to compromise in your body to produce an aid, it\u2019s not the correct aid anyway. Plus you shouldn\u2019t have to drive every stride. Heels down, spurs out. He needs to hold up his end of the bargain.\u201d\"_K3A2236\"<\/p>\n

No stirrups for Lisa Just on Bond 007<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes sitting is easier than rising. I have a scholiosis so I find it easier to sit. When I rise and have to push against the stirrup, my back goes into spasm. If I can sit and drape my leg, I find it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be no squeezing anywhere. Toe up\u2026 that keeps the knee and the ankle angled when you release the knee. Wrap him with your leg from the hip. Rotate the knee. Body tall. Stretch tall through your spine like a ballet dancer. Tummy pulled in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTry not working. Look how much better it gets when you stop working. What holds you in the saddle isn\u2019t working hard, it\u2019s gravity and the swing of your hips. It\u2019s about having all the right angles in the body. It\u2019s not adding to the motion, just following the motion. Your body becomes more still as you become looser, because in the looseness you absorb the movement. There needs to be rigidity to my form, and the angles held in the correct shape so the angles can move correctly. But the movement of his body should move to the absorbent parts of my body. The structure should be very strict, but that form allows for a fluidity of movement. The joints, ligaments and muscles work with the stillness of structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he gets lighter because you\u2019re starting to sit independently. Lift your pubic bone and feel you want to lift it up over the pommel of the saddle. Now your butt is more cemented into the saddle!\u201d\"_K3A2240\"<\/p>\n

By the end Lisa had been able to produce a much softer position in her body which allowed her horse to lift his frame and move forward more effortlessly.<\/p>\n

With so many explanations, descriptions and information, riders and spectators definitely get their moneys worth at one of Jeremy\u2019s clinic. Instead of just repeating the same mantras over and over like some trainers, Jeremy takes ideas, pulls them apart and breaks them down into easy to understand pieces that all the riders can understand fully, and take home to work on day to day. Because let\u2019s face it. it\u2019s the daily doing that reaps the results.<\/p>\n

\n

Steinberg, Jeremy<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n