This was a day I have been looking forward to. I was lucky it was on my doorstep as coaches had come from as far as Devon and Scotland to take part. The trainers were Nial Quirk and Di Lampard both renowned international riders and coaches. Nial warmed the Hartpury Academy riders up on the flat. I have seen Nials coaching riders before so much of this was reinforcing my coaching skills. He trains the riders to ride the horses truly forward and as supple as is possible. One of the riders seemed to misunderstand at first the instruction to get her horse more supple and kept bending her horse to the left and right by moving the bit back and forth in her horses mouth causing his head to swing from side to side. Nial was quick to correct her, she was an easy pupil to train as she soon stopped the habit and we watched her horses way of going improve in front of our eyes.
Nial used the leg yield in a new way I had not seen before, to help supple the horses and he also reminded us how important it is to control the horses hind leg on a turn in order to have more power from behind. If the horse is supple he can stretch to jump and have more scope to jump a bigger fence successfully.
Once the horses were able to shorten and lengthen in canter and were supple, Di Lampard took over. She used exercises I use myself already, poles to improve the canter and to encourage the rider to use their seat not their hand to control the stride length. Di then moved this on to jumping a course with related distances, turns and changing direction.
It was a fascinating day, they used basic methods that I already use and no tricks or poles in weird places, horses were trained correctly with good basic work on the flat and over fences.
Christmas-If you are thinking of buying charity cards this xmas try looking at http://www.swhp.co.uk/ its a horse charity based in Monmouth, they also have some lovely rescue horses and ponies looking for knowledgeable loan homes.
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