Dressage In The Balance The horse can’t learn well unless the rider is consistent By Nancy Brannon Andrea Lugar is well-known for her artistic talents in sculpture. She is equally respected for riding and training dressage horses, having done it for several decades. Her approach to dressage is a bit different from the conventional training methods. She follows the methods of Jeff Moore, an International Dressage judge and FEI competitor, who wrote the USDF'S Glossary of Terms, and is active with the American Vaulting Association. Andrea described Moore’s credentials: “He is the primary teacher on the L-judges program, setting the tone for the program. He gets people to think in fresh terms, to go in-depth to figure out what the traditional dressage terms mean” and how those play out in the movements that dressage requires. Jeff’s home base is Osierlea, a private training facility in San Juan Bautista, California. See http://www.osierlea.com. Jeff and Andrea both stress biomechanics in their approach to teaching and riding dressage. “When someone wants to improve their horsemanship,” she said, “rather than emphasizing getting ‘the look’ right and doing the geometry of the test,” their approach is “less about the finished product and more about control of the core of both horse and rider.” By core, she refers to core muscles that enable balance and strength. “The first thing the rider has to do is have stability of the mid-section so that he/she can maintain position and balance regardless of what the horse does. If you maintain muscle tone in core muscle groups, then the rider can independently move limbs to move in harmony with the horse or to make adjustments in the horse.” This approach fits all levels of riding capabilities, from the beginner to the most advanced. Andre explained the benefits of developing these core muscle groups. “The fitter you get, the more stable you can stay. Then the horse notices more readily the signals you give and learns more quickly. The horse can’t learn well unless the rider is consistent.” Are there particular exercises that riders can do to develop these core muscles? “The exercises [she teaches] are specific to each rider because riders have their own tendencies n some are too rigid, some too wiggly, some too authoritative, and some too wimpy. We have to work through our tendencies,” Andrea said. “We have to cultivate an awareness of what the horse is doing and at the same time to increase the attention span of the horse to what the rider is doing. Jeff says that horses don’t care who’s in control; they just want to know who it is. If a horse gets to do what he wants to do part of the time and what the rider wants part of the time, it’s confusing for the horse. You’ve got to set up the situation so that the rider is in charge all of the time, and that’s cool with horses; they relax and it’s fine. You can set it up without being aggressive or authoritative about control. Just be consistent about telling the horse when to stop, when to go, don’t get in my space, for examples.” “You can love and reward them, but they’re not like dogs who want to please you all the time. Horses have a great work ethic and are willing to work for you. They are also good problem solvers. So you establish a pattern of ‘do this and the pressure is off.’ That’s good. The horses figure out what to do to make life good for them.” “So you establish a pattern of working with them to make life good for them. Give a stimulus, they respond, then let up on the stimulus. Praise them and life is good! It’s a simple process. You build on the simple tasks to solving problems and gradually get them to do what seems harder. You get there by having taught them simple responses. The horse gets comfortable and doesn’t mind. Horses are willing partners - willing to work for you because the human continues to be the main mind.” In other words, the rider has established the pecking order. While the specific biomechanical exercises and instruction are tailored to specific riders’ needs, there are themes in what Andrea teaches. “Awareness of body alignment, of where you are in space relative to the saddle. My riders don’t necessarily stay centered over the saddle all the time, but they have to keep their pelvis level with the world and keep their shoulders level as well.” “You need a ground person to watch you because it is easy to get into the habit of collapsing the rib cage and being unlevel. Most people have a dominant side, so unless someone tells you are crooked, you’ll think everything is just fine. The horse may even be accustomed to it and be doing OK. But to get the maximum athletic output from the horse, the rider has to get into the best position of stability and be able to control his/her body precisely to have influence on the horse for fine tuning and training.” “The joy is that it’s on-going. The joy is making a communication break-through, when riders are able to hold themselves so they can feel more in the horse. To recognize flaws is good because then, from a neutral but stable body position, the rider can decide how to address the flaw, the thing they want to improve. When the rider can be in a neutral, stable position, if the horse is making wrong choices about the stimulus, e.g., bucking, the rider is still safe and in a place where ‘I will not be displaced, tossed about by the horse.’ Then the rider can use an arm or leg to correct the horses if they want to buck, to explode, or run off. You can re-think, address the problem, and make a plan.” “One of the hardest things to teach riders is how to break down their goals into small pieces. Instead of going for ‘the look’ or frame, the rider can think about what the horse needs to do to be in ‘the look’ or frame for himself. Through a series of different exercises, or requests, the rider can help the horse come to the conclusion that traveling in this more athletic way is a good way to respond to the series of requests. For example, if we want a more collected trot, instead of shortening the reins and asking for more energy while restraining more with the reins, the rider could cultivate moving the horse sideways while not going forward so much. Then teach to horse to flex his head right and left so he doesn’t feel restrained by not going forward, but to still keep active tempo in trot. There are a variety of things the rider can do to teach the horse that not moving forward as quickly, but with activity and the ability to stay supple, are some things he can do. It’s confidence building in the horse and the rider doesn’t just tighten up and ask the horse to keep going at the same time.” “It’s important to separate issues to give the horse time to think. Riders tend to get too goal-oriented and the horse has no idea what the goal is. The horse needs to be rewarded for every good effort along the way.” Andrea has expertise in putting together musical freestyle rides, or musical Kur, as well. She gave some general pointers about putting your ride to music. “The first thing to do is find out the horse’s tempo at walk, trot, and canter. That is most easily done with a metronome. The average tempos of horses gaits are 90-104 beats per minute at walk and canter; the walk and canter are the same tempo. At trot, it is around 150 beats per minute.” “The best way to do this is to take a video of your horse moving in all three gaits, just doing circles, not dressage movements. Then find music that is the right tempo for each gait. Play the video on your VCR and see how each piece of music makes you feel when you watch the tape. Keep in mind that the music you like may not be the music that goes best with your horse. Get other people to watch your tape, even non-horse people. They can tell you what music is lifting the performance.” “To get the right music for your ride, you may have to splice the music to get what you want for a 5 minute or so performance. You will want to get help in making good edits on the music. With digital computer technology it is much easier to edit music now than it used to be. I have also had success with altering the music - adding notes, increasing the volume, etc. Mergers, transitions are important. But stay with music that doesn’t change key throughout and steer away from vocals.” Judges have a lot to do when judging musical Kur rides, “so they don’t go for new-age, innovative pieces. Judges know the movements you’ll be doing in your test, but they don’t know the order in which you’ll do them. They have to keep up with what you’re doing, making sure you get all the required movements. Plus, they have to make artistic decisions on how the music fits the horse0 and the flow of the test. So innovative, unfamiliar music makes their job harder. You want the judge to enjoy your test.” What music works best? “Classical music works well as does good popular music, even commercial jingles. I saw a ride that used musical themes from TV shows of the 1950s and ‘60s spliced together. It was clever! Movie themes work well, too, because in a move you have different tempos based on the same theme.” Andrea has used music from “The Last of the Mohicans” in some of her previous Kurs. “Usually it takes 40 hours or more of putting together music for a good freestyle. It’s not something done just a few days before the show.” “There is something about music that lifts the quality of the ride. Perhaps the rider is more consistent in rhythm and the horse responds to that. I don’t know who’s listening more - the horse or rider. But riding to music feels like the ride is better. It’s just fun to put on music and ride!