{"id":3291,"date":"2011-02-21T03:34:28","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T03:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.89.31.130\/~thehors5\/thm\/?p=3291"},"modified":"2017-09-12T16:39:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T06:39:41","slug":"george-morris-in-australia-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2011\/02\/george-morris-in-australia-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"George Morris in Australia Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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George Morris in 2009, same simple, but not easy truths. Christopher Hector wrote the words and Ros Neave took the pix<\/em><\/p>\n

The intermediate group was a very mixed bag of showjumpers and eventers. Chris Chugg on\u00a0 his next star, Conquistador, Vicki Roycroft on Infatuation and the next big thing in Australian showjumping, 15 year old Tom McDermott riding Merewah,\u00a0 Ben Blay, a reserve for the Youth Olympic showjumping team on his nine year old, Ryles, and the eventers, Stuart Tinney riding the River Dance son, Kinnordy Rubino, Peter Gillis and Mister JJ , Emma Mason and Pharinelli, and Fiona John and Denali Blue.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly George Morris does not like the Australian eventers tendency to nag with their legs:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour legs signal for the horse to go forward. Don\u2019t tap every stride. Your legs hang passive \u2013 if the horse drops back, your legs close. If the horse is sluggish, add reinforcements from the cluck to the spur to the whip. If I think <\/em>trot and I don\u2019t get it, then I go to the stick or the spur. Tapping and kicking is not only unsightly, it is making your horse dead to the leg. If the horse is in front of your leg, it shows in two qualities. The first is regularity and the second is impulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“If the horse is in front of your leg, it shows in two qualities. The first is regularity and the second is impulsion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is an indication your horse is in front of your legs? He is PULLING. As the French say \u2018in the hand\u2019. If the horse is walking, we have say three pounds in the hand, slow trot, three to five, posting trot five pounds, canter, ten pounds, gallop, 15 to 20 pounds. Keep this sport simple. Is the horse on the bit? Is he in front of the legs? Is he pulling?? The horse has to be in the hand to jump a fence. If you have a taut rein, that is correct \u2013 if the rein is about to break, that\u2019s too much \u2013 but close your fingers and take a definite contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

more wisdom follows\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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

George Morris is of a generation of horseman for whom the school figures were the grammar of equitation, and he is outraged when most of his riders demonstrate a total ignorance of the difference between a half turn, and a half turn in reverse.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn these basic figures you stupid things!\u201d<\/p>\n

George laughs at his own ferocity: \u201cSee if I got too nice you wouldn\u2019t recognize me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Just so you won\u2019t ever be caught out, this is the difference:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe beauty of teaching riding is training the basics. The basics are simple. We make it complicated when we don\u2019t know, we have to simplify what we do and make it very simple because you can\u2019t jump unless the horse is in front of your legs and pulling. In front of that big water at Aachen, I want the horse pulling my arms out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the beginner it is enough to take contact and feel the pull. The next step is more complicated, the horse comes through the hand, there is flexion in the hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great beauty Eric Lamaze taught us in Hong Kong, was jumping with the motion. You don\u2019t have to play catch up with the horse, you are with the horse way before the jump then you don\u2019t have to do anything at the jump except relax your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best index of a rider\u2019s skill is his hands. Hands not only reflect independence of seat and legs (balance) but also the sympathetic feeling of communication between horse and rider.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

George Morris, Hunt Seat Equitation, p 134<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom McDermott staying there over the pole<\/em><\/p>\n

And the riders had to show this quality over the pole: \u201cStay there over the pole. I don\u2019t care what the horse does, just stay there, don\u2019t jump it, the horse jumps it.<\/p>\n

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Stuart Tinney shows how to stay there<\/em><\/p>\n

You have a bad habit of getting in front of the horse and that\u2019s why they\u00a0 jump so small. This habit is often created by doing the work of the hands with the upper body. The riders don\u2019t move their hands, they don\u2019t use a release.<\/p>\n

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Eventer Emma Mason<\/em><\/p>\n

What follows the horse is the rider\u2019s arms not the crotch or the seat. 50% of you jump ahead of the horse, it\u2019s an epidemic. The work of the upper body should be the work of the hands. When you use a release correctly your hands do the work of the upper body.\u201d<\/p>\n

next George demonstrates<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Australia RRP $159.95, (click here to find your nearest stockist)\u00a0https:\/\/goo.gl\/3dbzNb<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand RRP $169.90, (click here to find your nearest stockist)\u00a0https:\/\/goo.gl\/BG2fyL<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

George demonstrates this, jumping the fence with his hands locked on the horse, his upper body ducking forward: \"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNow watch the difference when I soften and move my hands. I didn\u2019t throw the reins up around his eyeballs \u2013 I HOPE I didn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou must work on your releases. Do it with a short release, just two inches. What do I do with my hands? Just rest them. Rest your hands an inch or two up the neck, don\u2019t throw your hands, rest them and don\u2019t open your hands. Slipping the reins is an insidious disease. The only time you slip the reins is at a big drop fence. It isn\u2019t legs, it isn\u2019t seat, it isn\u2019t hands, it\u2019s BRAINS. Think, think, think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Release of the horse\u2019s mouth at the moment of take-off must become so imperceptible and subtle that it takes a trained eye to see it function. The hand, rather than abandoning the horse in the air, must now support and maintain a light, following feel during flight. The kind of feel one describes as a \u2018feathery touch.\u2019<\/p>\n

George Morris, Hunter Seat Equitation, p 134<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cAs teachers you have to be scrupulous \u2013 like a microscope on every detail. It\u2019s the simplest things. Lovely Beezie Madden is so humble. Tell her the simplest thing and she\u2019ll accept it gracefully because she has absolutely no ego.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was time to work on straightness: \u201cHere we have drifters, most horses drift.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So George stood in front of the jump, and as the riders came over, pointed either left or right: \u201cTake the fence at a trot, and as you jump, I\u2019m going to point and you are going to turn.\u201d And turn they did, and straightened they were.<\/p>\n

Now the lines were getting interesting. A vertical, six to an oxer, round the corner to the wall, a bending three to an oxer with barrels, and a direct six to another vertical.<\/p>\n

And there was no mercy to the rider who was rough with their horse: \u201cDiscipline the horse, don\u2019t get rough, don\u2019t get irritated, don\u2019t have a short fuse. Corrections have nothing to do with emotion. Caress you horse with your right hand, this is not good for the horse, it is good for the rider. This is not training it is developing the empathy of the rider with the\u00a0 horse. Now caress your horse with your whip up its neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ride your horses and stop in a corner and they freak out. My horses don\u2019t freak out, they trust and respect me. The horse absolutely mustn\u2019t look back and fear the rider. The best horsemen are cold blooded horsemen \u2013 hot horsemen are limited horsemen. The best riders are cold, they don\u2019t have emotion attached to the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jump will be a result of the rider\u2019s position. I don\u2019t change the horse, I change the rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

By now the line had reached its final form. Vertical, six to an oxer, round the corner to the wall, bending three to the barrels, direct six to the vertical, round the corner to the triple, two to an oxer, one stride, vertical, and a direct three to the Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cStuart your horse really needs to bend between the wall and the barrels, you\u2019ve got to give him a comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of the corner of his eye, George spotted Chris Chugg quietly schooling Conquistador. \u201cChuggie, stop, STOP, turn off the key\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have to stretch if you are a good teacher or trainer. I stretch to the max. It can go wrong and you try to end on a good note but you must stretch. Especially for the eventer horses, what we are doing is a stretch but this is what event horses have to have if a system has merit, if a teacher has merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat trainers are fanatical about basics. Legs without hands, then hands without legs. Think forward and they go. Work conscientiously without stirrups and the seat will be there. We don\u2019t have to talk about it, legs and hands, not seat. Jimmy Williams was a very great jumping trainer, and he said, it\u2019s what you learn after you think you know it all that counts\u2026 Tom, I\u2019m talking to you, but you are young, life will teach you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month we catch up with George Morris at a new venue, the fabulous Roycroft jumping paddock at Mount White<\/em><\/p>\n

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Vicki Roycroft \u2013 The Organiser<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vicki Roycroft learnt quite a long time ago, just how valuable a lesson with George Morris can be\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI first had a lesson in1986, when I was riding Apache.\u00a0 I think Susan Bond brought George out originally, and I helped Susan a little \u2013 he was doing the National Squad clinics. The first clinic he ever did was at Mulwala. I had Apache then, and at the show, I won the World Cup class with him. I had a bit of an ego and thought I had the sport by the short and curlies. I had the horse that was winning everything. We had the first clinic, the next day, and he tore strips off me. He gave me such a hard time. I came out of the clinic, almost in tears, thinking I can\u2019t ride, I can\u2019t ride, I\u2019ve been wasting my time.<\/em> I\u2019d gone in with such an ego and came out thinking I can\u2019t ride. <\/em>I sat in the truck and I thought what am I going to do. Then I thought, bugger this. I can ride. I\u2019m going to show this bastard I can ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Vicki and Apache at Wentworth Park<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI came out the next day, and everything he said, I\u2019d just stare him down, and everything he said, I did. The only problem I had, as I think you can see watching this clinic, I can\u2019t count strides. If I try to count strides, I can\u2019t see a distance to save my life. So I\u2019ve really got to guess them. I was still getting into trouble for that, and I still do, but not as much trouble as I was in then. I realise now that I just toughed it out, and buckled down, no I\u2019m going to show you I can ride. I didn\u2019t realise then it was one of his tactics. I thought how can someone be so awful, and in those years he was a lot tougher. He\u2019s mellowed considerably since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that first time my reaction could have been the same as quite a lot of people \u2013 oh this stupid man, what\u2019s he talking about. There have been riders who\u2019ve taken that attitude in the past, but the results at the last two Olympics have shown who is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is so passionate about the sport. I\u2019ve been having lots of conversations with him over the last few days. Talking about how they planned for the gold medal at Hong Kong, and the thinking behind that, it\u2019s just amazing. When the Americans had their low time, it was when they went away from his system. Earlier, when they had success, George was a selector, and I can remember him talking about the 1984 Olympics, and he said, \u2018we chose Joe Fargis on a gut feeling, not because of his performance\u2019 and of course, he went on to win individual gold, and the USA, team gold. Then they went with their legal challenges to a purely performance based process, which didn\u2019t work, not the way they set it up anyway. It was long, strenuous and stressful\u2026 And it was only when the Americans were dragged back on the righteous path by George, that suddenly they were winning again. George dragged them back to Europe \u2013 he single handedly made them try for the Super League \u2013 when they won the Super League, I sent him a message \u2013 fabulous \u2013 because he made that happen. His thought processes, the way he thinks about the sport, it\u2019s his all consuming passion. It\u2019s wonderful when we get the opportunity to have him here. I\u2019ve been trying to drag him back for a long time now. I had hoped that it might become an annual thing but now he has been returned to the American chef\u2019s role, and I believe as a result of a unanimous vote of the riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

To me George seems to work on two distinct levels \u2013 one is ferociously verbal, and he talks about ideas and principles and drills the riders in them, but the other level, is the jumps themselves, the courses become educators\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the above \u2013 he thinks about it all before a clinic, then after a clinic he worries and thinks about what he could have done better. The clinics seem to go seamlessly but obviously there are things he thinks could have gone better.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the riders who do work hard on the flat, like Chris Chugg and Amanda Madigan, they have been the stars\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cChugg is passionate about his sport and he wants to do very well. What I admire most is that he is not afraid to expose himself or his students to constructive criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the September 2009 edition of The Horse Magazine\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join the master showjumping trainer George Morris in a brilliant coaching session…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18528,"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":[6],"tags":[71,77],"class_list":["post-3291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-show-jumping","tag-george-morris","tag-showjumping-training"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291","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=3291"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37142,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions\/37142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}