I recently purchased a Piaffe whip for Baby’s training as well as the DVD of the work in hand by Arthur Kottas, Director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. This is only part 5 of a series of Classical Dressage for the Modern Sport Dressage Horse DVDs that he has authored. It is fabulous to say the least. I have learned a great deal from watching this DVD.
In the past I have learned a great deal watching my former instructor, Lynn Leath, ride attending her high level Dressage Clinics at North Star Training Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Once I started my riding facility in Pittsboro, I had little time to attend the clinics as well as little extra cash to pay for lessons so I had to do more watching of Dressage clinics on DVD and on the RFDTV’s broadcast of various Dressage clinics and worldclass competitions. Watching videos of world class riders as they ride in clinics and in competition has been the best substitute for expensive lessons. The great thing is you can watch multiple times and then go out and do your best to practice what you have learned. Nothing beats knowledgeable eyes on the ground and I miss Lynn’s knowledgeable eyes and commentary. But I must do the best with what I have.
Of course I have the opportunity to apply what I have seen as often as I have time for as I have more than one of my own sport horses to train to perfect our skills.
I am so pleased with this Classical Dressage video of Arthur Kottas as it shows everything that one must do to train their apt student horse in hand in Piaffe and Passage. I do not often have the benefit of eyes on ground, as in instructor or students around my facility to watch me. When students are here, I am paid to watch them and then they are on their way. I do not take instruction as I once did as I have found it most beneficial to follow the road of Classical Riding and my former instructor teaches Modern Dressage, which is not possible nor comfortable for my horse, Baby, who is a Half Arabian, to do. My former instructor is very successful riding her Warmbloods in the style of Modern Dressage. I found it to be more like torture for me and my horse. I much prefer the fluid style of Classical Riding. Classical Riding is correctly executed when the horse is ready and able to voluntarily perform at each level until they reach the high school with Piaffe and Passage as well as the Airs Above the Ground.
I have great respect for my former instructor, however, because of all of her great success in that level of Dressage as it is extremely difficult to pull off well and it takes a great deal of resources to compete on that level because of the type of horse you must ride, the world travel for both horse and rider as well as the amount of money you must spend on veterinary therapy of the lameness that inevitably results from such style of riding.
In Classical Riding there is less injury if any from overbending and repetitive stress on the joints that is caused by Modern Dressage style. In Classical Riding the horse is allowed to mature and reach each level throughout the lifespan. Baby is now 18 years of age and has matured very nicely, is sound and happy. He escaped the commonly fatal outcome of Laminitis this year and I am pleased to say that when I geared up according to the method I have learned from repeatedly watching Athur Kottas’ DVD, I had outstanding results immediately.
The first time out, when I introduced the Piaffe whip while walking Baby in hand and then going over the in hand half halt, tapping his hind legs lightly, he first got somewhat confused attempting to go in a small circle as he was accustomed to doing when being lunged on the lunge line. Then as he learned to do the half halt in hand and understand that when I tap his hock with the Piaffe whip that he should collect and raise the leg, while also taking more weight behind, he became very pleased with himself.
Baby loves to learn and I make sure to immediately reward him with praise when he gets something even slightly correct. The first time out our goal was simply to understand the half halt in hand and to raise a hind leg at the tap of the whip. Mission was accomplished in about 15 minutes. I have a very smart horse. This process was repeated on both sides and so pleasingly my Baby aced his first Piaffe in hand lesson.
We have had time to do his second Piaffe in hand lesson today and I was thrilled with the results and the potential that I experienced with him. First the goal was to repeat the success of the previous lesson and see if a next level could be attained and that would be that he would begin to raise a front foot with the movement of his weight back on his hind as he lifts one at the tap of the Piaffe whip. This is kind of ambitious. But he did it!!! And with many praises and sugar cubes he figured out what he was supposed to do. What I did not count on was two different extras thrown in by Baby himself as he was feeling absolutely fit and brilliant in the exercise.
While he was attempting to figure out what I wanted with the half halt and taking more weight behind he did a Levade in hand…Just like that..There he was up on his hind quarters with his front hooves up in the air! I praised him up and down and he was so very pleased with himself. I was very very excited that he can do this on his second Piaffe lesson. I will save that for later of course.
Then after we completed the lesson in hand, which, to keep in fun, we finished after getting a couple successive Piaffe steps with many sugar cubes to stress the success immediately, we moved on to our Classical Riding under saddle. I wasn’t aiming for much, just suppling shoulder in and basic bending. But he decided he would like to do some Passage for a little bit and that was great. Then as the work moved forward, he was feeling extremely energetic and would love to have sprinted wildly across the arena. A contributing factor to this mood of his was the crisp 30 F weather with sun shining brightly. He loves the winter weather for training and completely wilts in the late Spring until summer is past. But sprinting is not permitted during training in Classical Riding, of course. So I thought to channel his exhuberence into the work of cantering after a little collected bending and suppling. We did some surpentines, some half pass, and shoulder in, at the trot and then when he was settled into calmly moving forward with his energy, we did collected canter work with some flying changes through the center line. Then as we approached the first flying change at the centerline, what a pleasant surprise he gave me, boom, a Capriole with me on his back! Bare in mind that horses can do these kinds of movements easily at anytime they wish. The trick is for the rider to cue them to do these and do them correctly. We have much work to do in that department, however, I was thrilled with the results of his work today and thrilled to feel the power and the air as he and I were a pair above the ground of our humble clay and sand arena at Om Ranch Stables.
