Some aspects of Franks former training as a show horse are proving difficult to undo. His tendency to go overbent gives some clue to this. Every now and again though his ability to produce some lovely lateral and extended work leads one suspect, however, that he is definitely not just a one trick pony. He finds, like most horses, that working from behind is difficult and he’s obviously been rewarded in the past for just bending at the poll. He’s long and strong yet has a sensitive mouth….overuse of the hands exacerbates the problem. Pull back and you find you have no contact. When everything comes together – lifting from the base of his neck and bringing his hind legs under- the feeling is of riding uphill and this puts the rider in the correct position. Up until that feeling the rider has to fight for that position, resist being pulled forward, resist temptation to pull with the arms. Reliance on core strength is critical here and it’s exhausting. If you don’t work up a sweat during flatwork then you’re not doing it properly…. or you’re sitting on a ready made grand prix horse.
The problem of going overbent can be seen in these pictures. Counteracting this requires gargantuan effort to encourage self carriage to prevent Frank curling up, falling behind the vertical and having back legs paddling behind. To encourage hindquarters to engage the rider needs to sit up tall, sit back and drive forward with the seat and legs pushing the horse to work between hand and leg. This position is not easily sustained as Frank likes to pull the rider forward, off balance and then, having weakened the position of the rider there is loss of contact and rhythm.
Struggling with these difficulties and feeling like I’m not really making any progress has led to a dislike of flat work – it’s hard, it’s complicated, I’m not sure what it should feel like, I’m not sure what I should be doing… Frank obliges by bringing in the beak but this cons the rider into thinking this show horse outline is OK. In the pictures here my reins are too long and Frank is behind the vertical…he’s not working from behind, He’s not ‘through’ and this is the heart of the matter. Because I find flatwork so hard I find any excuse not to do it….tack needs cleaning, it’s too windy, rainy, too hot, too cold, I’m too tired….I’ve just eaten, I’m too hungry. We have spectacular and varied hacking here including beach rides and gallop tracks so flatwork has a lot of competition. Plans for eventing, however, mean that I will have to focus more on flat work as it is this which lets us down. Apart from a dressage score of 28 at Chepstow, where we were 4th after dressage, our scores are usually in the low 40s. Event judges, it seems, are not fooled by Frank’s show horse outline. So, Frank, we’ve been busted. What are we going to do? During a recent flatwork lesson I asked my trainer, Katy Applin, if she would ride Frank and tutor him in the ways of righteousness. Katy has ridden Frank three times now and he’s a different horse. Katy has transformed him and put the flatwork on fast forward. I was amused to hear him grunting as Katy worked him in the school. At the end of the lesson he was covered in foam. I’ve never been able to achieve grunts or foam. Have never been able to achieve flat out in the flat work. Katy Applin, you are a genius.
Here’s some video of Katy riding Frank today. There’s still far to go but so much improvement has been achieved… I wish I had asked for help earlier. Frank has made some progress since I’ve been riding him….I don’t think I’ve made him worse. I have learnt so much from our partnership and most importantly had SO much fun. I will be forever indebted to Frank for him tutoring me in the ways of righteousness 🙂 really excited for the coming season.
Only Joolz and Horses 