Frisco Bay at Four Years, Developing the Passage |
“I can smell the piaffe.”…If you imagine these words spoken
in a heavy Spanish accent, and in the
most lighthearted and joking way, you will have an insight into the kind of fun
but educational time you will have if you ride with Alfredo Hernandez, a
renowned piaffe/passage clinician. If you think we are talking about putting
tricks on horses, you will be sadly mistaken. Alfredo just might be the REAL
horse whisperer. His timing is impeccable, and his read of both horses and
people is like nothing I have witnessed. He is the perfect mix of confidence in
his abilities, ability to admit he is always learning new things, silliness to
balance the seriousness, self-deprecating humor, and earnest desire to help the
rider achieve her goals.
I took my four year old Westfalen gelding, Frisco
Bay(Fidertanz x Conquistador) to a clinic with Alfredo at the beautiful Kimball
Ranch in Heber City, Utah, organized by Stephanie Brown-Beamer of Hampton
Dressage. You might wonder why someone would ride a 4 yr old in a clinic with a
trainer who specializes in the Grand Prix movements. Alfredo loves to work with
young horses, before they think this is work, before they have any preconceived
notions, and before unhelpful patterns are set. He plays with it, introduces
the concepts, in a careful way, so the youngsters finish with a new
understanding of how to carry themselves. He tailors his expectations to the horse
and rider, and very quickly assesses what will come easily to the horse, and
what may not. He uses his techniques to give the horse confidence and tools to
try the things that may come harder.
My goals for this clinic were to learn in hand methods that
will help my horse be more responsive to my aids both on the ground and under
saddle, and to have the concepts of piaffe and passage introduced to him now,
so that he just gradually learns a more enhanced balance, engagement and self-
carriage. I came away with many tools and learned several in hand techniques.
It will, however, take me many years to improve my technique and timing, and my
read of the horse. It was invaluable to have Alfredo show me some very small
but very significant “tells” my body was giving my horse. Something as simple
as asking the horse to move off can be surprisingly difficult when your horse
is also your pet and you really don’t want them to leave you. Every time I
asked him to move off, I very subtly yielded my own position to him, and yet I
wonder why he always pushes towards me with his shoulders. Alfredo put his hand
on my shoulder and stopped me from doing that, and Frisco instantly
yielded. There are many little
positional things Alfredo gives his students that help them gain more
leadership with their horses. A cardinal rule, for example, is to never let the
horse pass your shoulder, and if you have a ground person, the rider has the
utmost responsibility to never let the horse pass the ground person. This is
one of the keys to developing the half halt, because once they learn they can’t
pass you, they learn how to half halt themselves, and it puts them in a much more
uphill balance. If they can half halt themselves, they become easier to half
halt under saddle. Some important concepts I learned for handling the horses in
hand are as follows:
a.
If you want your horse to back up, and they are
not cooperating, a tap on the cannon bone with the toe of your boot is
extremely effective. Just step towards your horse and they learn quickly to get
out of your way if your boot’s toe meets their cannon bone a time or two. My
guy is a giant Chocolate lab and I had him stepping out of my way like a ballet
dancer.
b.
“Close the door”. The horse is never to pass
your shoulder. You need to have your shoulders perpendicular to the horse’s
shoulders. He is also never to lean into you. Alfredo believes a horse that
pushes into its handler is more dangerous than a horse that kicks.
c.
Never use the whip on the horse’s shoulders. If
he pushes past, use the toe on cannon bone technique, or, a push with your hand
on the horse’s face to turn him away from you.
d.
When asking the horse to move off, the horse
moves first, and then you go with him. This was the biggest struggle for me,
having raised my own horse, who as I said earlier is more like a big dog. I, like any “mom”, try to do everything for
him, including providing too much “help” to get him to move. I learned that my
“lazy” horse is actually not lazy at all, he is extremely responsive and light,
when I teach him to carry himself, and then, LET him carry himself. Alfredo
said this is a very hard concept for women. Not to open a can of worms here,
but, he said he has met the most powerful of women, but when it comes to their
“babies”, they always struggle to be as direct as a man can be. Horses really
need for us to be direct with them. That is how they treat each other.
Alfredo taught me how to have my horse turn on the shoulders
in hand, and then under saddle. The turn on the shoulders is a way to use
leverage to gain the horse’s respect. If you control the head and the hips, you
control the horse. He also showed other riders how to then turn it into a turn
on the haunches with reverse bend, and I will introduce this to Frisco in time.
This work transfers to the saddle, making the horse lighter to the bending and
moving aids.
But this clinic was not all about in hand work. Alfredo had
excellent exercises for us to use under saddle. With my horse, he had me do
many trot to walk to trot transitions. He said this is how you teach the half
halt. He wants the horses learning to reach into the contact from the beginning,
and learning to stay connected in transitions from the beginning. “No fluffy
reins!!” he would say. Actually he was saying no floppy reins, but the accent
makes it sound like he is saying fluffy, and frankly, I think it is a much more
picturesque way of saying it! One of the most effective exercises he used with
my horse was having me ride his neck longer and lower, and then gradually
bringing him up into the highest degree of balance he was capable of achieving
at this stage. Surprisingly, it was a much higher degree of balance than I expected.
I made the mistake of simply raising my hands the first time he asked me to
bring Frisco up. He said that won’t help my horse bend the hind legs and lift
the shoulders; that you have to squeeze the lower legs, push with the seat, and
“Bend the L-bones”-another lost in translation moment. He is saying “elbows”
but again, I think his way of saying it is much more illustrative. Alfredo
believes that horses should either work with a long stretched neck, or, as
close to the balance they need for Grand Prix as they are capable at that
stage. What matters is the length of time you expect this balance. With a young
horse, obviously, less steps in this balance is better. However, he feels too
many people let their horses dwell on the forehand far too long, and then
wonder why their horses struggle to achieve the balance necessary for the upper
level work later. He also said he has never had trouble teaching a horse to
stretch, but, many struggle to learn to stay uphill, so he feels we focus too
much on having horses work with a long, low neck when this is usually not the
hard part for them. I have actually struggled to teach my horse, who is rather
short necked and upright, to stretch. But the genius of Alfredo’s approach was that
Frisco OFFERED to stretch after being required to work in a more connected,
uphill way. In my desire to get my horse to stretch, I have spent far too much
time letting him travel on the forehand in a semi stretch, often with fluffy
reins, begging him to stretch, but it isn’t honest, because it is not a stretch
to my hand. Frisco reached beautifully for my hand after the lowering/raising
exercise. Alfredo also strongly believes it is best to have a few very good
steps than to have a hundred mediocre steps. He had every horse take many walk
breaks, on a free rein. He believes many injuries in horses can be avoided by
working very correctly for very short periods of time, punctuated by many
breaks on a long rein. He also spends a great deal of time in walk exercises.
Some other important exercises Alfredo had riders do
included leg yielding corner to corner in walk, then adding transitions between
walk and trot, maintaining the leg yield. He also had riders leg yield in
canter from the centerline to the rail and transition to trot. It was remarkable
how this exercise improved the balance and cadence in the subsequent trot. With
horses that had a tendency to come behind the vertical, he had the riders push
the horse over tempo, then, bring it back using only inside leg and outside
rein. He said to never use two reins to bring the horse back. He uses haunches
in on a circle and leg yield with the nose to the inside on a circle(he says
haunches out but that is simply a lost in translation way of saying what he
wants) to loosen the horse behind the saddle. Another leg yield exercise he
uses is to leg yield corner to corner in walk or trot, but increase the
crossover so you reach the rail sooner than the corner, and immediately ride
haunches in once reaching the track.
Alfredo had some other key concepts. He said when a horse
loses the rhythm or resists, for example when working the piaffe, the very last
thing you should do is trot out of it, give away the contact and let the horse
go forward. He believes you are then
teaching the horse to resist the piaffe. He prefers to continue working the
piaffe, finding the right way to communicate what you want from the horse.
Then, HALT. Or, walk out of the piaffe. He said he thinks it is a major
mistake, when training piaffe, to ever trot out of it. No test requires that.
Teach them the right way from the beginning. Also, be sure that when working
the piaffe, the horse is taking many more walk steps than piaffe steps, to
avoid overuse injuries. He also greatly prefers a rider do the wrong thing, and
make mistakes, than to do nothing at all. He was very insistent that all riders
PUSH to the contact, and never take the hands back to gain the contact. The
reins must stay short, unless you are purposely riding free walk or
lengthening the neck. He wants riders to
pay more attention to changing the horse’s balance right from the beginning,
get them off the forehand early and often. When struggling with a movement, he
said to pick one aspect of the movement that is missing, and work only on that.
Once that has become easy for the horse, then add another element. When giving
the reins for free walk, never throw the reins away, always have the horse
gradually take the rein down, so that the horse learns manners. If you throw
away the reins the horse learns to snatch them. Lastly, he feels that when
riding a horse with baggage in a show situation, it is best to ride for safe
scores than to try to make a training point with your horse in the arena.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of my learning
experience. Alfredo is warm, funny, and will do all he can to give the horse
and the rider the tools they need to achieve what he is asking. He believes
that is our job as trainers, to give the student and the horse the tools they
need to do the job and he works very hard to achieve this no matter the talent
or level of the horse and rider pair. This was my first clinic with Alfredo,
but it will not be my last, and it is clear why he is much sought after, by
beginners and Olympians alike. Thank you Alfredo! And thank you Stephanie for
organizing clinics with him regularly, in little ole Utah.
Below are some clips spliced from video of the trot and canter work after the in hand work, but before the passage work. Notice the vastly improved balance as compared to photos on this blog from earlier in the year.
The improved canter balance after the lowering/raising the neck exercise in trot |
Lowering and raising the neck in trot to improve balance and adjustability |
Here is a link to video from the passage work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFK0w_8rKhA&list=HL1341776704&feature=mh_lolz
The music is Pa' Bailar by Bajafondo.