For The Love of Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center)

by Diana Vincent

  “I can’t believe how much I must have been interfering with her,” Katrina said, as they took a walk break.

  “I think we forget sometimes that a horse can have an off day, just like we can,” River explained. “When they’re feeling their best, they can still do well even if we’re a little heavy on their mouths or not quite in balance on their backs. But if they’re having an off day, it’s harder for them to compensate for our faulty riding.”

  “I didn’t feel like we were doing that bad until I compare how much better he feels now,” Sierra said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, Fiel can ‘cheat’ easier than Calliope because of his more uphill conformation. Some judges might not even notice how he was sucking in with his neck, because he naturally holds his head in a rounded frame. But if you looked closely at his throatlatch, you could see the tightness there, and also, he was dragging his hind end.” He gave them a few more minutes at the walk, and then asked the girls to gather their reins again, and then worked them in canter both directions, concentrating today on just having them both move their horses out in a rhythmical, forward moving canter. Then he asked them to stay on a twenty-meter circle at the canter, and give with the reins, allowing their horses to stretch their necks for a few rounds, and then gently, using mostly seat and legs, to bring them into a more collected frame. “Squeeze gently on the outside rein to help support them,” he directed, “and depending on what you feel, you may need more inside leg, or more support with the outside leg, to keep them bent on the circle.” He watched both girls individually perform the exercise, coaching them on what aids to use to help them keep their horses balanced.

  “See how much easier it is when you don’t yank them around with the reins?” he asked when both girls finished the exercise and brought their horses back to walk.

  “It is,” Katrina exclaimed. “So, why do we even need reins?” She was very pleased as well as amazed when Calliope had responded to her seat and the support of her legs transitioning down from canter to trot to walk.

  “To communicate,” he answered. “You’ll get quicker responses to what you’re asking, and it helps your horse to balance and work off his hind end when you communicate through the reins. But it’s too easy for a rider to forget the reins are for communication and not control.”

  “Yeah,” Katrina agreed, thinking about how much more responsive her mare was when she was light in her hands.

  Sierra also nodded her head with a pleased expression on her face.

  “Sierra, you said you wanted to work on renvers since it’s in your test.”

  “Do you think we’re up for it today?”

  “It’s worth a try. Fiel is looking good right now, but I want to see if he favors that right shoulder in lateral work. Katrina, you want to try shoulder-in today?”

  “I need to learn it for the dressage test if I want to ride intermediate level next year, don’t I?”

  “Yes, and you also need to learn travers.”

  “Travers…is that haunches in?”

  “Yes, and Sierra needs to practice renvers, which is haunches out.”

  “I get mixed up between shoulder-in, travers, and renvers,” Sierra admitted.

  “Me too,” Katrina echoed.

  “Forget about the words,” River advised. “Just think about how you want your horse to bend and where you want his shoulders or haunches. Sierra, you and Fiel both know shoulder-in, so you lead; first at the walk.” He watched the riders walk on the long side of the arena, tracking to the left. As they rounded the first corner onto the upper short end he said, “As you come around the next corner onto the long side, make a small circle. Tune into the aids you are using for the circle; your outside leg is moved back and you adjust your rein communication to ask for flexion to the inside with your inside rein, and enough support with the outside rein to keep from falling onto the shoulder. Finish your circle and then start the circle again, but this time adjust your aids to keep your horse moving down the long side with the shoulders slightly inside the track and the hindquarters remaining on the track. I can’t tell you exactly what aids to use because you adjust your aids as necessary to keep your horse bent around your inside leg and moving on three tracks.”

  “Here goes,” Sierra called out as she finished a volte in the corner, and then correctly kept Fiel bent around her inside leg as they proceeded down the long side in shoulder-in.

  “Good…adjust your aids to keep that bend,” River coached. “Like right there…good,” he said when he saw Fiel drop his outside shoulder, turning his neck to the inside rather than bending, and then Sierra corrected him, using a squeeze with the outside rein and more push with the inside leg.

  Two horse lengths behind, Katrina moved Calliope into the small circle. As she came around and kept her aids for the circle, she tried to continue on down the long side, but Calliope, confused, brought her head up and stepped toward the middle of the arena.

  “It’s okay,” River said in a soothing tone. “Take her back onto the circle.” He came up to the mare and stayed near her side to coach Katrina. “Squeeze your outside rein as you come back to the rail and more weight on the inside…more inside leg…you got it. Now, just a touch with inside rein, don’t lose the outside rein…yes, just a touch for a little more bend to the inside…keep the leg…good…few more steps…great! Let her go straight and praise her.”

  “She did it!” Katrina exclaimed, reaching forward to pat Calliope on the neck.

  The two riders practiced the shoulder-in a few more times at the walk in both directions, and then River instructed them to try at the trot. Sierra had no problem, as she and Fiel had ridden the movement many times. Katrina, tensing up at the increased pace had difficulty at first, but with River again coaching her step-by-step, she at last successfully executed a few strides of shoulder-in at the trot in both directions.

  “Okay, that’s enough for Calliope,” River said as both girls brought their horses down to walk and gave the reins for a stretch break. “We’ll just work on the shoulder-in for the next few times until we are sure she understands and she stays relaxed. Then we’ll try the travers.”

  Katrina nodded happily and then gave her mare a long rein to allow her to stretch her neck as she cooled down.

  “Sierra, Fiel already knows renvers, so it’s just up to you to ask him correctly. You’ve been riding travers in test two, and you’ve got those aids.”

  “Yeah, I move my outside leg slightly back to ask his hindquarters to move off the rail. I adjust my rein aids to keep his shoulders straight but with slight flexion to the inside. He should still feel like he’s bent around my inside leg.”

  “That’s right,” River confirmed. “To ride renvers, you use the same aids, but reversed. You will want to move him a little to the inside of the track so you have space to move the haunches out. Think of it as if you were riding travers on the opposite rail. It’s harder because you don’t have the actual rail for a reference.”

  Sierra nodded as she gathered the reins along with a closing of her legs, asking Fiel to round his back and neck.

  “In your test you only have to ride renvers from letter to letter. It’s kind of cool because you start down the long side in shoulder-in, and when you get to the center, you just reverse the bend. You should already have him bent around your inside leg and his shoulders off the track. Reverse your aids to bend him around your outside leg; and adjust your rein contact to help him change the bend of his neck and shoulder. You may straighten him for a stride so that you aren’t too abrupt asking for the change of bend.”

  “Okay, I think I’m ready to give it a try.”

  “Try it first at the walk,” River directed.

  As Sierra rounded the corner of the short end to the left, she gave the aids for shoulder-in, pleased with Fiel’s prompt response. He moved his shoulders to the inside and continued down the long side moving laterally on three tracks, crossing his inside legs in front of the outside as he moved. As she approached
the center of the long side, at letter E, she moved her inside leg slightly back and squeezed her outside rein to ask Fiel to change his bend around her outside leg as they continued down the long side.

  “Good boy!” she praised him, feeling the rush of satisfaction that occurred whenever she communicated with him so that he understood what she wanted him to do.

  “Well done,” River praised. “Now straighten him, and try it again on the next long side.”

  Fiel again responded promptly and correctly to Sierra’s aids.

  “Ready to try at the trot?” River asked.

  Using the same aids, Sierra tried again at the trot.

  “More outside leg and steady with the inside rein,” River called out as she tried to change the bend from shoulder-in to renvers. “Give a little more with the outside to encourage the bend.”

  “That wasn’t so good,” Sierra admitted as they came to the end of the long side and Fiel had stiffened in his shoulders, never achieving renvers.

  “Let him stretch on a twenty-meter circle…good…now re-establish your contact…that’s good…stay relaxed…okay, go ahead down the next long side into shoulder-in and try again at B.”

  It took two more tries before River finally said, “Good, a few correct steps there at the end. Could you feel the difference?”

  “I’m not sure,” Sierra admitted. “I think it seemed like he finally got his legs underneath him for the last few steps. It still felt like his shoulders were too stiff.”

  “True; good that you felt that. He looked like he was finally getting his inside leg pushing off, but you’re right; he’s still tight in his shoulders. Try it one more time; see if you can’t get a few good steps right away, and then quit.”

  This time, Sierra believed Fiel managed several correct strides, and when River said, ‘good’, she straightened him on the track.

  “You felt that?” River called out, pleased that it looked like Sierra took him out of the renvers after the correct strides.

  Beaming, she replied, “I think so!”

  “Good, that was better. But I do think he might be a little sore in that shoulder. We’ll work on strengthening and loosening those muscles over the next few weeks. That’s enough to the left. Cross the diagonal and see if you can do the same to the right.”

  Sierra complied, and after Fiel gave her a few correct strides of renvers, she straightened him, and praised him, “Good boy!”

  “Good,” River called out. “That’s enough for him today. We’ll give him a good rub down and shoulder massage after this lesson.”

  Sierra nodded, and gave the reins so Fiel could stretch his neck as they moved to the rail to join Katrina and Calliope in cooling down.

  *****

  Three weeks later, Sierra and River attended the regional dressage championship. Sierra and Fiel had qualified to ride level two, in the junior rider division. River and Pendragon (nicknamed Penny), a bay warmblood gelding, had qualified to compete at fourth level in the open division. He would also ride Penny in a third level musical kur (a musical freestyle test).

  “Funny how I feel more nervous riding a dressage test than taking a cross country course,” Sierra said as she led Fiel to the warm-up ring thirty minutes before her scheduled test.

  River nodded in agreement. “Yeah, probably because it takes so much more concentration on each move. Riding cross country is much freer.”

  “And you don’t have a judge studying every single step your horse takes. Fiel, stop showing off.” She laughed with the last statement, for her lovely gray gelding had arched his neck and tail as he took a few steps of passage at the end of the bridle reins; just as two riders leading horses passed by.

  “Look at him; he wants to impress everyone.” River smiled at the gray’s antics and gave him an affectionate pat on the neck. “Don’t worry,” he said to Sierra. “He’s eager to do anything you ask.”

  “It’s the asking I worry about.” She scrunched her face into a wry frown.

  They reached the mounting block and River moved to Fiel’s offside to hold the stirrup as Sierra stepped up and settled gently into the saddle. She gathered her reins and moved Fiel away from the block.

  “Relax…relax…relax,” River murmured up to her in a mantra as he walked alongside to the entrance into the warm-up ring.

  Sierra laughed, rolled her shoulders to help ease tension, and looked down into River’s eyes, gratefully taking in the encouragement she saw there. “Okay, Fiel,” she spoke to her horse as she touched his sides to move him into a gap between horses warming up.

  Fiel shook his head, and again went into passage, his spirits filled with the tense and exciting atmosphere around him. Sierra knew she should not react to his antics by tightening up her own muscles. It was hard, for the natural tendency with an excited horse was to clutch and pull back with the reins. “Easy does it,” she spoke out loud, not only to calm Fiel but herself as well. She pulled her abdominal muscles in and with just a squeeze of both reins, applied gentle pressure with her calves to move Fiel into a working trot and out of passage. It helped that she knew Fiel very well and trusted him to respond to her aids.

  Fiel snorted as he answered Sierra’s request, and moved out in a buoyant working trot, happy to be moving.

  After about twenty-five minutes of warming up, the ring steward called out to her, “Number sixty-five, you’re on deck.”

  Sierra smiled her thanks, and rode Fiel out of the warm-up ring as River left the rail where he had been watching, to walk with her to the test arena.

  “Good warm-up,” he said and patted Fiel on the neck.

  Tess, who had been watching the riders before Sierra to assess the competition, met them outside the testing area. “A few good rides, but I haven’t seen anyone with a fluid connection with their horse,” she stated as she scrutinized Sierra’s and Fiel’s appearance. She pulled a cloth from her shoulder bag, wiped off a foamy patch of saliva that had dribbled from the corner of Fiel’s bit onto his chest, and then gave Sierra’s boots a quick swipe.

  Sierra watched the rider currently in the ring, following the movements of the test as a last minute confirmation that she had memorized the pattern correctly. When the rider halted at X and gave her final salute to the judge, Sierra gathered her reins, touched Fiel in front of his withers, and with her legs moved him off to enter the arena.

  “Have a good ride,” the previous rider greeted her as they passed going in and out.

  “Thanks; you two looked good,” Sierra responded with a smile, and then moved Fiel into a working trot around the outside of the test barriers, allowing rein to encourage him to stretch; wanting to maintain the relaxed state they had achieved at the end of the warm-up. She completed one circuit to the right, asked him to collect to make a half-volte in front of A, and trotted around to the left.

  She heard the tinkling of a bell. She had forty-five seconds to enter at A and start the test.

  “Here we go,” she murmured to Fiel. She continued around the barrier, asking for a few strides of medium trot to energize him before entering the ring. Then she sat deep with a squeeze of the reins and her legs supporting, to transition down to collected trot, just before she turned the last corner on the outside of the barrier, to enter at A, and trot down the center line. With a deep breath in and a relaxing of her aids but keeping her legs firm, she exhaled as she brought Fiel to a square halt at X. “Good,” she breathed out to him, and taking both reins in her left hand, she saluted the judge by dropping her right arm to her side and bowing her head briefly.

  The judge, standing for her entrance, nodded at her, returning the salute – permission for her to proceed. As the judge sat down, Sierra picked up both reins evenly in her hands, just as Fiel stepped up into trot.

  Feeling left behind for two strides, Sierra realized she should have been ready with her seat and legs as Fiel anticipated going forward. He had been in enough shows and through enough tests that he certainly knew what was coming. Now she had to �
�catch up’, and apply her aids to compact his trot from the working gait into a collected gait. Fiel promptly responded, and she felt him collect as he brought his hind legs deeper underneath to push off. By the time they turned at C to track left, she believed she had regained her core balance and that Fiel was listening to her. At H, Sierra turned off the track to cross the diagonal. She gave a quick squeeze of the reins as she contracted her core muscles and applied her legs to push Fiel into a medium trot, keeping her muscles engaged to move with his bigger steps. Just before F, she half-halted by pushing her weight down through her abdomen to sit deep as she squeezed the reins between her fingers to ask Fiel to shorten his stride back to collected trot, and then turned onto the track to the right. Shoulder-in to renvers coming up!

  As they rounded the corner onto the long side, she asked Fiel for shoulder-in. “Good boy,” she whispered as he gave her several good strides, but then she felt him lean away, falling onto his outside shoulder. She squeezed the outside rein to straighten that shoulder as she applied slightly more inside calf pressure to move him along on three tracks. Two strides before E, the center of the long side, she quietly reversed her aids; shifting her right leg slightly back to hold his haunches to the outside and guiding softly with the reins to reverse his bend into renvers; his haunches to the outside and his shoulders just to the inside of the track. She breathed out as she felt his shoulders stiffen, aware that she had tensed up for the movement, and Fiel lost the bend, moving more in a leg yield to the left rather than renvers. My fault! She adjusted her aids and it felt as if Fiel managed at least two correct strides of renvers before she straightened him again just before H, and brought him around the corner of the short side.

  The shoulder-in and renvers on the opposite track felt much more balanced and correct. Sierra breathed out in relief, having those movements out of the way. They rounded the corner and a stride before C, she took in a deep breath and then a slow exhale as she relaxed her abdominal muscles and held her calves gently against Fiel’s sides as she sat deep and squeezed the reins to bring him to a square halt. She counted, one-two-three, as she took in another deep breath, and then with a squeeze of the reins to prevent forward movement, applied her legs to coax Fiel to rein back, once, good boy, she breathed in her mind…two steps, breathe…three steps….breathe, and one more step, good boy, and she softened her legs and hands, but quickly brought legs on again to move him forward into a medium walk.