Today at the Courtney King-Dye Horsemastership Clinjc we started off the day at 6:00 with barn chores, and then had a yoga session at 7:00. My lesson was at 9:30 with Michael Barisone. For this clinic, I am riding a lovely 7 year old Oldenburg gelding named Fiero, whose owner, Beverley Thomas, graciously allowed me to ride in this clinic. Michael is familiar with Fiero from training in Florida this past winter. Our focus was on what it takes to train a horse to the Grand Prix level. Micheal had me work on making Fiero very adjustable in the trot. We would do five steps of medium trot, then right back to collected trot, and back to medium trot. We would do that on 2 different points of a 20 meter circle. If Fiero didn’t go forward right when I put my leg on, I would make my leg aid increasingly stronger until he went forward, because if I put my leg on, there has to be a response right away. We worked on softening Fiero with the inside rein and wrist with my inside leg on and collecting him with the outside rein. We worked on collecting the canter from my inside leg to my outside rein making sure that he stays engaged in the haunches and stays uphill and light in the hand. In the beginning of the lesson I was getting pulled forward and rocked around in the saddle in the canter. Michael told me that is one of the signs that Fiero is not sitting enough on his hindquarters, so we worked on collecting the canter and going forward in the canter while being sure to maintain suppleness from the inside reign/ wrist.
We also worked on riding what Michael said was a “German corner.” At the trot you would take five steps of trot to get through the corner then be straight, and at the canter you would take 4 steps to get through the corner and then be straight. He says that is always how I should ride my corners in the show ring, and he says that all of the good upper level riders ride their corners like that. My lesson with Michael was super helpful in learning the basics of training a young horse that has the potential for Grand Prix and will hopefully be able to compete at that level when he is older. I’m sure that at some point in my equestrian career I will have a young horse like Fiero that I will have to train to compete at the Grand Prix level.
After the morning lessons were over, we had lunch and then learned about conformation and the young horse program with Scott Hassler. Scott also took us on a tour of this gorgeous facility! I learned so much today, and am excited to see what the rest of the week will bring!