By Nancy Brannon
Massar Stables in Arlington, TN was host to a dressage clinic with USET Rider Katherine Bateson-Chandler July 23-24. She rode on the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) team, and she won the Trilogy Dressage Saddle “Best Seat” award at the 2010 Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI.
Originally from England, Katherine got her own horse at age 12. To be able to afford a horse, she mucked stalls for board and baby-sat for riding lessons. As a horse-crazy teenager, Katherine developed a passion for dressage and wanted to learn from the best. So she chose Robert Dover and by age 16, went to hang out at his barn.
When Dover moved to Wellington, Florida, Katherine went to work for Melinda McPhail. Then Dover hired her to work with him, so at age 16 she was mucking stalls for one of the top riders in the world. She started walking horses out, then rode them a bit to cool them out, then got to warm them up. She worked her way up to being Dover’s personal groom. She refined her skills under his tutelage, traveling to major dressage competitions, getting to see the best riders in the sport, and learning all she could. She became his “eyes on the ground.” When Robert Dover retired from competition, she was given the opportunity to start showing herself.
“He is absolutely the best communicator and instructor I’ve ever seen,” she said of Dover. “I watched a lot of his teaching for 17 years. Teaching is a learned skill and I learned to communicate well by watching Dover. He can put into words what he sees that people should feel,” she explained. “I find his words coming out of my mouth a lot!”
Early on, she only took instruction from Dover. “On my own, I’ve ridden with Carl Hester on the British team. His approach is different, but he incorporates the same philosophy as Dover, whose point of view is very classical. Carl has a classical background, but has a more modern way of teaching. So I layered his ideas on what I learned from Dover. I’ve learned from Steffen Peters, too, whose philosophy is similar to Dover’s. All three love horses and horses love them! Their number one priority is the horses’ health and welfare. That is also very important to me - and in someone I ride with.”
As winner of the “best seat” award, she credits developing her effective and secure seat in learning from Robert Dover. “Robert was a stickler on position. He made me ride with one hand; ride without stirrups; close my eyes, etc. At the time it was very hard, but it has worked well for me in the long run. This ties with the health and welfare of the horse, because horses can only perform their best under a well-balanced rider with an independent seat.
“I focus on helping riders feel that they can separate their hands from their seat.” Some exercises she uses are to tell the rider to send their hands way forward, so there is slack in the reins; to bring their legs away from the horse to balance with just their seat; to work on 20 meter circles. “I make them aware of what they are doing, of any bad habits. You need a good ground person to notice these things, along with video-taping.”
Her horse Absolute (aka Lenny) is at Massar being ridden and trained by Ally Rogers. “I bought him as a 4-year-old and rode him for a year. Then when Nartan was purchased for me to ride at WEG, I had to literally pack up and move to Europe for the summer with a few weeks.” She and Ally have a similar background, did international grooming together, so she was the logical choice to take over Lenny’s training. “It’s very important to me how the horse is kept and Ally and I have the same philosophies. We’ve been friends for years.
“Lenny is a very personable horse; he loves his people,” she bragged on him. Ally is showing him Third Level and he has qualified for Championships this year. Ally will keep him through October, when she’ll take him to Lexington, VA for Regionals October 26-28. “This is the first year he’s shown – ever!” Ally emphasized. It’s unusual to start a dressage horse’s show career at Third Level. “He has done very well, gotten good scores. He qualified for Regionals in his first two shows!”
The U.S. Team placed 4th at WEG and Nartan had a break afterwards. Katherine showed him some this past winter and went to Europe, where he sustained a minor injury. But soon, “I’ll be prepping him for the Olympics. I’ve been giving him lots of time to heal, doing light hacking out. Next year, I’ll be showing him in specific shows to qualify for the Olympics. He doesn’t need the experience. He needs to be shown in specifically targeted shows to make the Olympics.” So watch for Katherine and Nartan at the 30th Olympiad in London next July and August!
Massar Stables in Arlington, TN was host to a dressage clinic with USET Rider Katherine Bateson-Chandler July 23-24. She rode on the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) team, and she won the Trilogy Dressage Saddle “Best Seat” award at the 2010 Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI.
Originally from England, Katherine got her own horse at age 12. To be able to afford a horse, she mucked stalls for board and baby-sat for riding lessons. As a horse-crazy teenager, Katherine developed a passion for dressage and wanted to learn from the best. So she chose Robert Dover and by age 16, went to hang out at his barn.
When Dover moved to Wellington, Florida, Katherine went to work for Melinda McPhail. Then Dover hired her to work with him, so at age 16 she was mucking stalls for one of the top riders in the world. She started walking horses out, then rode them a bit to cool them out, then got to warm them up. She worked her way up to being Dover’s personal groom. She refined her skills under his tutelage, traveling to major dressage competitions, getting to see the best riders in the sport, and learning all she could. She became his “eyes on the ground.” When Robert Dover retired from competition, she was given the opportunity to start showing herself.
“He is absolutely the best communicator and instructor I’ve ever seen,” she said of Dover. “I watched a lot of his teaching for 17 years. Teaching is a learned skill and I learned to communicate well by watching Dover. He can put into words what he sees that people should feel,” she explained. “I find his words coming out of my mouth a lot!”
Early on, she only took instruction from Dover. “On my own, I’ve ridden with Carl Hester on the British team. His approach is different, but he incorporates the same philosophy as Dover, whose point of view is very classical. Carl has a classical background, but has a more modern way of teaching. So I layered his ideas on what I learned from Dover. I’ve learned from Steffen Peters, too, whose philosophy is similar to Dover’s. All three love horses and horses love them! Their number one priority is the horses’ health and welfare. That is also very important to me - and in someone I ride with.”
As winner of the “best seat” award, she credits developing her effective and secure seat in learning from Robert Dover. “Robert was a stickler on position. He made me ride with one hand; ride without stirrups; close my eyes, etc. At the time it was very hard, but it has worked well for me in the long run. This ties with the health and welfare of the horse, because horses can only perform their best under a well-balanced rider with an independent seat.
“I focus on helping riders feel that they can separate their hands from their seat.” Some exercises she uses are to tell the rider to send their hands way forward, so there is slack in the reins; to bring their legs away from the horse to balance with just their seat; to work on 20 meter circles. “I make them aware of what they are doing, of any bad habits. You need a good ground person to notice these things, along with video-taping.”
Her horse Absolute (aka Lenny) is at Massar being ridden and trained by Ally Rogers. “I bought him as a 4-year-old and rode him for a year. Then when Nartan was purchased for me to ride at WEG, I had to literally pack up and move to Europe for the summer with a few weeks.” She and Ally have a similar background, did international grooming together, so she was the logical choice to take over Lenny’s training. “It’s very important to me how the horse is kept and Ally and I have the same philosophies. We’ve been friends for years.
“Lenny is a very personable horse; he loves his people,” she bragged on him. Ally is showing him Third Level and he has qualified for Championships this year. Ally will keep him through October, when she’ll take him to Lexington, VA for Regionals October 26-28. “This is the first year he’s shown – ever!” Ally emphasized. It’s unusual to start a dressage horse’s show career at Third Level. “He has done very well, gotten good scores. He qualified for Regionals in his first two shows!”
The U.S. Team placed 4th at WEG and Nartan had a break afterwards. Katherine showed him some this past winter and went to Europe, where he sustained a minor injury. But soon, “I’ll be prepping him for the Olympics. I’ve been giving him lots of time to heal, doing light hacking out. Next year, I’ll be showing him in specific shows to qualify for the Olympics. He doesn’t need the experience. He needs to be shown in specifically targeted shows to make the Olympics.” So watch for Katherine and Nartan at the 30th Olympiad in London next July and August!
