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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWhen you are working with a horse, you have to find out what its talent is. Is it collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n “The Lusitanos all have this.” – Rodrigo Torres, a member to the Portuguese team at the Tokyo Games demonstrates…<\/strong><\/p>\n In Germany, we have many horses with nice gaits that are very good Medium or Prix St Georges horses, but if you try a little piaffe and it doesn\u2019t work, then don\u2019t keep trying. Keep their nice gaits for Prix St Georges, don\u2019t keep trying piaffe, and ruin the walk and end up with nothing. Our job as young horse trainers is to find where the horse\u2019s talent lies. They breed many horses a year in Hanover, and they don\u2019t all need to go Grand Prix. In Germany, not that many people ride Grand Prix. In my opinion, a good horse is not necessarily a Grand Prix horse.\u201d<\/p>\n Ulf and a young Sandro Hit<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that is very important is the warm-up. We like to walk them to get their joints and cartilage warm, but if the horse comes out of the stable fresh, it makes no sense to press them to walk, and destroy the walk. Let them trot or canter and take the stable power out of the horse, then walk the horse for ten minutes. Then it is the horse that shows us what to do. I like to start with a little sitting trot, then you feel if the horse is level. Oh, my horse is okay, we can go on in rising trot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the horse is trotting in a good rhythm and is relaxed, try some steps sitting. Activate the horse by sitting on them and back to rising \u2013 it is like working with a rubber band, shorter and longer. Don\u2019t let the horse get slower when you sit, stay in a forward direction. You don\u2019t have to do anything, it is only the impulse of the sitting that brings the horse together and makes the rein lighter, then go rising, it is like a thank you. Always mix the work and make it interesting for the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRemember to give the horse a rest in walk. The horse can only learn new things when he is fresh, that\u2019s why you don\u2019t start trying to teach new things after you have been riding the horse for 45 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Welt Hit<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you have to change your schedule. You can warm up in canter \u2013 some horses are a bit stiff in the back and it is easier to keep your hands quiet and to sit on the horse in the jump of the canter, and that leads to a better connection. Once again in canter, play with the horse, bit of forward, bit of back, it makes the horse responsive to the aids. I am careful with my young horses not to let them get too slow, because that makes it harder for them to balance. What we want to do first is stay in correct rhythm \u2013 that is the first step of the training scale \u2013 and make the horse a little rounder in the neck.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have three aids \u2013 leg, back and reins. Everything starts with the legs, then the back, then the reins. This doesn\u2019t happen ten seconds apart, it is all one movement. The next thing to work on is the contact. The young horse can get a bit frightened and put its neck up and look around. When that happens, don\u2019t be hard, just wait. If you frighten the horse, it will just go away from the rein.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to make sure that your young horse is really ready to go to a competition. Only go to the show when everything works at home. You need 100% at home because you will only get 80% at the competition. When you get to the show, the warm-up is not to make the horse tired and dead in the ring. When I am sitting at the judges\u2019 table, if the horse is wet and looks as if it has been worked hard for 45 minutes, my marks are down a little. ”<\/p>\n Placido<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAs riders we listen to the horse and aim to get the confidence of the horse. As riders, we are asked to make a decision every thirty seconds, and it is important to make the right decisions, then the horse gets confident and relaxed. If a young horse ridden in a double bridle, but that is not a problem, if the horse gets strong it is better that it is polite in a double than rude in a snaffle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important in the walk to give the horse an opportunity to stretch. For a five-year-old horse, we only want to see medium walk. We train the horse in the moment of the transition to walk to stretch a little bit\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Welt Hit<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see a nice active trot. We don\u2019t want the feeling of two horses, one horse in front, another in the back, both parts don\u2019t really fit together. We need to train the horse to use the back. When we make a transition to walk, we give a little, more frame, longer in the walk. All horses have a weak point and our job as riders is to improve that weak point. With some horses, in the walk you really have to train it, really allow the horse to stretch.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n