Provenance Dressage

06/08/2024

CONGRATULATIONS to California rider, Steffen Peters who placed 3rd out of more than 40 competitors in the Grand Prix in HAGEN. Riding Suppenkasper (pictured here at the Spring Benefit Show in CA), his 2020 Olympic mount owned by Akiko Yamazaki/Four Winds Farm he was joined by four other Americans in the top eight, including Californian, Anna Buffini on Fiontini. Photo by Terri Miller

06/08/2024

Congratulations Electra and Einstein!!!
So very proud 🤩🥉😍https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=7451629831622575&id=100003268958365&mibextid=WUal2a

04/18/2024

"...Oliveira took several young trainers aside and asked us a series of questions.

"What were our goals? Did we wish to teach? To train horses, either personally or professionally? To compete?

The answers we gave him determined the direction of the conversation. When it came my turn, I answered: "I want to train horses."

He considered the answer with the sincerity it was given, then replied: "Then ride a lot of bad horses. I don't mean ride dangerous horses - you are too valuable now to get hurt - but ride
the difficult horses and learn."

He elaborated a little on this theme during our last interview.

"Nowadays riders learn one system because if they have a horse that isn't suitable for dressage they sell the horse and get another,
he observed. "So instructors now don't know the old systems - for instance, Baucher's flexions - and don't know how to use those
systems to improve the horse. Now everybody learns one way, but that doesn't mean that every horse will respond best to that way.

"You can take pieces of a different system and apply them, and riders can understand why they do something from a different system to correct specific problems. But no one teaches the other systems anymore, so riders don't learn to be able to do that."
- Stephanie Grant Millham

04/15/2024

Save the date! April 17th marks Pathway to Paris: USET Foundation Inc. Giving Day, a day dedicated to supporting U.S. equestrian athletes on their Pathway to Paris 2024.

Donate ➡️ uset.org/givingday

04/13/2024

: Unlike humans, horses don’t have collarbones. Their shoulders are held to the rest of their skeleton via a sling of muscles and ligaments instead, often referred to as the “thoracic sling.”

Why is this important? We often ask our equine athletes to perform complex movements that require tremendous strength and coordination, and horses carry the majority of their weight in their front end. Therefore, it is imperative that the bulk of the muscles that support the front end are kept healthy and conditioned, and the horse is trained to use their “motor” — that is, engaging the large hind end muscles as much as possible to avoid excessive weight bearing on the front end.

If the front end of the horse is consistently overweighted or not at an appropriate level of fitness, repetitive biomechanical stresses get transferred down the leg to the smaller ligaments and tendons that were not designed to bear this weight, which can then lead to injury.
•
Brough to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee

02/28/2024

MULTIBREED MANE EVENT!

Mark your calendars!

April 12-14, 2024
California Ranch Company
Temecula, CA
See more at our website www.wcchorseshow.com

California Dressage Society Classes
Western Dressage Association of America WDAA Classes
The Gypsy Vanner Horse Society Classes
Pinto Horse Association of America Inc. Classes *
Ranch Riding
Andalusian / Iberian Horse Classes
Open Breed Classes (English & Western)

There's something for every horse and rider!

02/27/2024

The late Dr Klimke told us:
“The horse should be happy and going softly with invisible aids. To achieve this the trainer must be very patient and disciplined. The aim is to keep your horse proud so that he accepts you as master. Don’t sit on him but influence him. The horse must carry us easily and only then will you achieve self-balance.”Share more of his wisdom, and enjoy a photo gallery illustrating his philosophy:
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/07/wisdom-from-reiner-klimke/

01/29/2024

I say this to my students all the time ❤️

To increase your horse’s elasticity ...

Imagine his topline as a giant accordion, breathing in and out. Play with mild increases and decreases in his pace, letting his body move quietly through its spectrum.—Jeremy Steinberg

🎨: Sandy Rabinowitz

01/26/2024

So very Proud of Tufia Steidle and Lantano IV their first year out at Level 1 Working Equitation! Super Competitive group of Horses and Riders, and they Nailed it! Looking forward to 2024 season 🎊🎉🐴🥰

01/18/2024

Great take away!

Notes from Day One -

Adequan/USDF FEI Trainers Conference
With Sabine Schut-Kery and Sven Rothenberger

Bonnie Canter & Vitalis, riding with Sabine

-use shallow leg yield in canter to get more lateral suppleness
-Think of collection, but don’t let him SLOW down
-Forward through elbows to hands in the corners, so he doesn’t feel blocked when you bring him back
-Discipline as a rider is that we do not do the job for the horse
-He must be sharper off the aids. “If you and I were talking, you would be yelling at me.”
-Sometimes it’s good to work in the walk, break it down even more for the horse. You can accomplish so much just in the walk.
-Envision in your mind, the collected canter you love. Don’t just canter around. Really insist on the best quality.
-This horse is not quite forward enough because he’s stiff. So we need to supple him, not chase him faster.
-Your inner leg must be long and BREATHING
Breathing means you’re not tight, clamping, or gripping – never get stuck in an aid.
-Teach him to push himself with the hind leg and not pull with the front leg.
-Every day you must have a high standard with your position – do not get drawn up in the heel or resistant in the arms and elbows
-Take lots of little breaks
-I don’t care if he walks (from Canter) this is a training opportunity – can I teach him something?
-Connection should be like a bungee chord. Even when you give, give in an elastic way.
-Keep the bit forward in the mouth, don’t pull the bit back to you.
-Make quality before you make things exact (like perfect placement of transitions or changes) because exact can come once there is consistent quality.
-Before I communicate, I must make the horse sharp. Like a chef, I can’t start to make a meal with a dull knife.
-A good position makes it so I can have quality aids.

Kelsey Dunlap & Heirendale, riding with Sabine

-Medium trot & when the neck comes up, ride a volte, so the volte keeps him supple, and you don’t have to pull him back.
-The neck is just a reflection of what you have behind the saddle.
-He must get comfortable with a challenge. A challenge cannot be a negative.
-Piaffe can be a little like a trick, but you have to connect in and out, so it goes THROUGH the body.
-You have to connect pushing power with carrying power.
-There’s a fine line between challenging and working on a subject and over-drilling. You can’t do too much because you’ll break their spirit and go beyond their physical strength. But you must stay in it long enough that they show an understanding.
-Leave the door open in front, but be there when he wants to run through the door.
-As a rider, you must have awareness of the rhythm, and don’t follow him when he runs off in a faulty rhythm.
-If you want the back up, you have to ride BOTH ends.
-Sven - he’s a big horse but not always the most coordinated. Don’t help him so much anymore. He must have more accountability for his own coordination.

Marjolein Geven & Sir Frederico, with Sabine

-Think of a bow and arrow. When you bring him back (draw the arrow back) he still has energy. So much potential energy.
-The canter to trot transition is so helpful. It can be hard with an FEI horse who has learned to come behind the rider. The horse must take the bit OUT and ROUND in order to do that trans well.
-Get OUT of him in the walk.
-Let the corner bring him back, not the hand.
-With a horse like this - raise the bar but have shorter sets. Really good quality for 29 mins is better than insisting on riding dor 45 mins.

Molly O'Brien & Fortunato H2O, with Sven

-The extended walk should be like walking in the forest with your dog- with energy and relaxation.
-Use the warm up to make an athlete out of your horse.
-What walk are you doing? It must either be an extended walk or a collected walk. If collected - short reins, neck up, weight on the hind legs. If extended- poll low, nose out, free in the shoulder.
-Activity IS dressage. In a few years, we don’t want a lazy duck.
-Sh in, he tilts on the R rein. You just get him to fill up the R. You have to make horses fill up the softer side.
-Everything you do, do it correctly. Don’t waste time doing a shoulder in for a 6.5.
-Quarter pirouettes are very good because it can be hard to get out of a pirouette. So you get to practice the first stride and last stride many times.
-When you have a horse this nice, you have the DUTY to concentrate and create good quality in all movements.

Kristen Stein & Karamba, with Sven

-The horse must get stronger in the core and more open through the chest. If they are tight in the neck, they will get narrow in front and tight with the front leg
-Flex him to soften him. If you want contact with 2 reins, keep him a little straighter in the neck.
-Transitions create better contact - more if they are too light and less if they are too strong.
-To be a dressage rider means a lifetime of criticism. 😂
-When there is a problem, next time you can’t come thinking there will be a problem. You stick to your program.

Tanya Rennie & Faldo, with Sabine

-The easiest part of the horse to move is the neck, then the hind leg, then the shoulder/front leg. The hardest are the ribs.
-The horses are sensitive enough to be fired up or relaxed by just your energy.
-In trot the rider must swing, but Tanya is swinging a little up in the knee and heel with each stride. There must be a swing down and in each stride.
-To get the midsection up you need both a front and a hind end. Allow the contact to be a place where they can balance *lightly*. Like if you were doing a deep lunge in a workout and you touched the wall with one finger, it is easier to balance than with no hands. But just one finger can create better balance, and just a light contact can help the horse.
-In extended walk, if he dunks his head down each stride, use your calves a bit to help keep the belly and back up. Don’t let him get slouchy and drop his sternum.
-In half pass R, he isn’t allowed to bring his R shoulder back. His chest must stay parallel to the short side. Exercise - trot on the diagonal totally straight, then haunches in but DONT let the shoulders turn.
-Don’t “ride” so much in the walk, because there’s no suspension. But you can’t be totally passive either.
-Transition to canter from walk - think UNDERNEATH you, not away from you.
-Just try it! The worst that can happen is it goes wrong. Then you can ask, WHAT went wrong?
-In the test, I want to have the walk score “for free,” so I have room to make mistakes in the harder stuff. But you must practice the walk!
-He pops the croup with the whip, so that’s the one time the leg must support the whip, instead of the other way round. The leg teaches him - no, you must push the leg under, not out.

Ended Ots & Lion King, with Sven

-In the beginning - rising trot, don’t lose activity and power. Not so passage-y. Horses lose power when too passage-y.
-Your inside tenseness - when you don’t like what he’s doing, you put that tension on him.
-Make him proud! Tell him, Look! You did it!! 👏
-Be smart - don’t ride a flying change from a tense canter. Then you make one problem on top of another.
-When he’s tense, don’t make yourself light in the saddle, sit into him to help relax the back.
-The more the horse is running away from you, the bigger you should sit. Don’t make yourself small when he’s tense.
-If we don’t get to relaxation before the working phase, he learns everything in tension.
-With these tense horses, take them out again in the afternoon for a walk in the fields, to show them that you are friends!
-Piaffe is not tenseness and pressure.
-How young to start half steps - not before 5, and then Sven likes to just play in hand, not thinking towards a real piaffe. You’re just teaching response and reaction.
-Sabine on training piaffe - I don’t get excited about piaffe, I get more excited about a really good trot - walk transition, because piaffe is in the transition.

JJ Tate & Romeo, with Sven

“The rider forms the horse.”
-The rider must paint a picture of what they want.
-In the GP, you only have one place to give a mark for quality of canter - directly after the passage. I wish there were more places to directly address quality, because it’s so important.
-For the training of the ones - do 2, then a few strides, then 2, a few strides, then 2. And soon you can do 5.
-Focus on improving the steadiness of the contact, not little moments of LRLR.
-Make it so the horse likes to work in the show frame, but don’t stay there forever.
-You are still doing too much to improve the contact. Trust your previous training that he can now stay steady.

01/05/2024

If you can ruin my friendships with a rumor, do me a favor and please ruin them.

If you can “steal” someone I’m in a relationship with, go off sis, steal them.

If you can shake anything or anyone against me in my life, please… just go ahead and do it.

I don’t have the time and energy to fight for things that are easily swayed against me.

If it doesn’t bring me peace, fulfillment, love, or money… I didn’t have any room for it in my life to begin with.

01/03/2024

My WAR HORSE ❤️❤️🐴

12/21/2023

Santa baby, put a new horse under the tree, for me 🎶🎄

Or however it is that song goes….

Featured pieces: Buckin’ Festive Ugly Sweatshirt & The Grand Prix Riding Tight in Black

12/13/2023

Five-time German Olympian Ingrid Klimke focused on conditioning, training and rider position at her masterclass in California.

12/03/2023

12/02/2023

Accomplished event rider and USDF gold medalist Jeremy Beale answers a reader question, explaining how skilled riders use finesse and feel, rather than strength, to teach their horses to look for the bit.

12/01/2023

APP concursos ancce: resultados de concursos

12/01/2023

Show up for your horse. 🐴
Be kind to your fellow horse girls. 👯‍♀️
Work hard. 💪🏼
Learn something new every day. 🐎
Rinse 🚿 and repeat 🔁

11/29/2023

Sadly both Dr Reiner Klimke and Susan Hayes Woods are no longer with us, but this edited interview from 1995 is a pignant reminder that modern dressage started to go wrong over 20 years ago...

SUSAN’S INTERVIEW WITH DR. REINER KLIMKE AT THE AACHEN CHIO JULY 1995

Susan: I was watching you as you schooled Biotop in the indoor arena this morning, and it was wonderful. I noticed you were working him in a fat snaffle, and I wondered if you could talk about the importance of working in the snaffle for upper level horses.

Klimke: I ride at home only once a week on the double bridle.

Susan: Do you mean for most of your Grand Prix horses, or for this one especially?

Klimke: All. I want to have them very light in my hand. It is easier when they are really “through”, and they take the bit and take your hands. Then they are not afraid to come out to the double bridle.

Susan: Biotop seems to be very “out” to the bridle–there is not a lot of overflexing.

Klimke: And when he goes in extensions, the neck and frame extend too. And yet there are horses who make their extensions with overflexed necks and they score just as well…

Susan: Can you explain that?

Klimke: Well, when I tell you this, I don’t want to sound jealous, but I live for classical riding. Classical riding means that the horse must go: that is, the energy must come through and the horse reaches forward. But the judges don’t always mark accordingly. I don’t mind; I know what is right. I have been in this sport for nearly 40 years.

Susan: I also saw today that you were doing a lot of work on the basic paces, and simple transitions.

Klimke: Yes. The horse must go forward and he must be happy. If the horse is happy and he trusts you, then you can teach him. If you punish him, that is wrong.

Susan: They never forget. Is there any place for punishment in riding?

Klimke: I hate to punish a horse. It must not be. It can happen to anybody. Sometimes you lose your patience, you try to make the horse a slave. But it is not right. Sometimes you see riders blowing up, even here, with top riders. I say to myself, “Poor horse, I wouldn’t like to be in your stable.”

Susan: Why does it happen? A lot of these riders will teach and talk about riding classically, and mean to do it, but then it is different here. Is it the pressure?

Klimke: I think everybody wants to win. Perhaps they think if they make a horse tired it will be submissive. Sometimes it may work, but if you really look you can see what is wrong. Some judges don’t have a really good eye, and they judge by punishing mistakes, like too many or too few strides in a pirouette, for example.

Susan: Too much counting and not enough…

Klimke: Yes. The principle is: how is the walk, how is the trot, how is the canter, how is the acceptance of the bridle, how does the back work–all of these things. And in addition, the figures. But they deduct too much if a figure is not 100% okay. You see? If you make a pirouette and the horse really uses his hindquarters, and maybe the pirouette is a little big, you should not be given a 5.

Susan: That’s a little extreme.

Klimke: Yes. It can be at least a 6, can also be a 7, when the horse really canters classically. Even if the circle was too large, remember that you must deduct from 10. The judge must be able to see the main achievement of a horse and rider, in a movement.

Susan: This brings up another question, and that is–there are some amazing equine athletes here, and some of them get a lot of points because of that. Where are the places in the Grand Prix test where the talent can’t cover up the problems with the training?

Klimke: I look only at the way that the horse moves, in all three gaits. He must come from behind, with a swinging back. The head and neck must seek the bit. I hate it if the horse comes behind the vertical and stays there. When the horse is really “through”, you must be able to open and close the frame, and keep him reaching into the bit. And right now, in the judging, in my opinion, this doesn’t count for enough. But sooner or later, good riding will be rewarded. You must not lose your patience, you see. And don’t give up.

https://woodsdressage.com/ for the full interview and about Susan Hayes Woods

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