Gaited dressage quality improves through gymnastic training
I have been eagerly waiting for my arena to dry out enough this summer to begin cavellettis and gymnastic jumping. Not only would I love to train for a three-day-event with my Tennessee walking horse mare, but I am hoping that gymnastics over cavellettis and fences will improve her “jump” in the canter and strengthen her hindquarters for a more forward and deeper flat walk.
For the first two days I free-lunged Makana over ground poles, raised cavellettis, and a bounce. The third day I climbed on and rode her through the same configurations. She seems to enjoy the variety that gymnastic jumping provides.
Northwoods Dressage Association Gaited Dressage Demonstration
Tennessee walking horse Gift of Freedom and Jennifer Klitzke were featured as one of the demonstration teams at the Northwoods Dressage “Ride-A-Test” Clinic in Proctor, MN. The team demonstrated how gaited dressage training can improve the natural movement of the gaited horse and rode through NWHA First Level, Test Two before a couple dozen onlookers.
Dressage is More than Trot
I was honored to bring my seven-year-old naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse mare, Gift of Freedom, to the Northwoods Dressage “Ride-A-Test” Clinic in Proctor, MN to demonstrate the benefits of gaited dressage training.We were among five demonstration horse/rider teams over the lunch hour. Other informative and well-executed demonstrations included gymnastic grid training over fences, dressage driving, tandem driving, and an encapsulation of Training-Fourth Level frames, gaits, and movements.
After a bouncy, three-hour trailer ride along 35W road construction, Makana, my saintly husband, and I made it safely to the Dirt Floor Arena with an hour to spare before our NWHA First Level, Test Two gaited dressage demonstration. There were the usual Proctor race track distractions such as a model airplane show to our right, heavy equipment prepping the race track behind us, and a well-used port-a-potty relieving spectators to our left, plus cones, jumps, and carts chasing horses around the warm up arena. My husband even caught on camera some impromptu port-a-potty inspired piaffe between restroom visitors.
Makana rode a respectable test–gaited dressage style–demonstrating the range of gaits: medium walk, free walk, flat walk, running walk, canter, medium canter, and halt. Afterwards we demonstrated suppling exercises that help establish balance, bending, engagement and range of motion. These exercises included the leg yield, shoulder in, haunches in, rein back, transitions between flat walk and canter, serpentines, and 10- and 15-meter canter circles. In case you are wondering, these exercises are not intended to train the gaited horse to trot. Rather, these dressage exercises are meant to bring out the best natural, innate smooth gaits your horse can achieve!
While USEF tests require a trot, dressage as a training method is not measured by whether your horse trots or not. The essence of dressage is to produce balance, rhythm, relaxation, connection, harmony and engagement. These qualities improve the movement of all horse breeds, whether they trot or gait, and to help any horse be the best it can be and a joy to ride.
Whether you intend to show gaited dressage at schooling shows, recognized dressage shows that offer gaited dressage classes or just ride for pleasure, dressage training builds teamwork with your horse and improves your horse’s movement without the use of mechanical devices, harsh bits, and expensive shoes. I’ve witnessed dozens of pacey horses transformed into four-beat, smooth mounts with the use of dressage training–and not one of them trots!
Rocking R Farm, Foley, MN hosted their second of three well-attended 2011 schooling dressage shows on Saturday, August 6, 2011 open to gaited dressage. I rode Gift of Freedom (Makana), my seven-year-old Tennessee walking horse mare in First Level, Test One and First Level, Test Two. We were the only gaited dressage team riding among 36 horse/rider combinations.
Instead of a three-day affair like last weekend, the Rocking R Show was three hours for us; this included two hours travel time! We were off to a frantic start since I didn’t plan for how long it would take to get there and arrived 20 minutes before my first test. Yet we missed the soaking rain storm that swept through the show grounds a half hour earlier. The overcast sky and rain cooled the temperature down to a comfortable 75-degrees and the precipitation made for excellent footing.
Judge Jane Linville remarked on our winning Gaited First Level, Test Two ride which scored 65.67%: “Wonderful pair. Solid test. Beautiful horse.”
We received 63.1% on First Level, Test One. The Judge provided great constructive feedback in areas we can work on improving before the next show.
Jennifer Klitzke riding Gift of Freedom her 7-year-old TWH mare at the Walker's Triple R Schooling Dressage Show held Sunday, July 24, 2011.
The record heat wave with 82% dew points and 105-degree heat indexes broke just in time for the Walker’s Triple R Schooling Dressage Show in Cambridge, MN. Mike and Judy Walker put on another relaxed and well-run schooling show for 22 rides ranging from Intro through 2nd Level.
Many breeds were represented including Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses, a Paint, a Swedish Warmblood, Appaloosa, Haflinger, Friesians, and my 7-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse Gift of Freedom. We’ve been working hard on our dressage since the B.L.E.S.S. Clinic and it must have paid off. We placed first and second in First Level Tests 1 and 2 with scores of 66.2% and 61.9% against trotting horses.
Judge Val Vetos commented, “Very nice team. Good on the basics of bend and balance.”
Jennifer Klitzke riding Gift of Freedom at the 2011 BLESS Your Walking Horse Clinic with Bucky Sparks
By Jennifer Klitzke
June 5-6, 2011 marked my fourth trip with Gift of Freedom to Proctor, MN for the B.L.E.S.S. Your Walking Horse Clinic with Bucky Sparks. And yes, clinic participant Barb Nunke said it best, “The sun really does shine in Proctor!” No parkas, rain suits, or knives to cut through the thick Proctor fog this year.
For me, the 2011 BLESS Clinic was all about breaking through the mystery about contact. How do I ride a head-shaking horse with contact? Do my hands move with the motion? Do I keep the reins slack so that I don’t bump the horse’s mouth with each nod?
Not interrupting the head-nod was the main reason I switched to an Imus Comfort Bit, but a curb and a snaffle function differently. A curb bit has leverage and poll pressure that a snaffle does not, and for dressage, a snaffle is essential in training the lateral movements, and it is the only legal bit in showing at the lower levels.
While I love how free Makana moves in the Imus Bit without contact, Bucky helped us ride forward into a light (not loose) contact without stopping. This was simply breakthrough for us! A training level frame we get, and now Bucky has helped us capture impulsion into the outside rein for a first level dressage frame.
We began the exercise at a flatwalk on a 20 meter circle with a shoulder-fore position. As Bucky’s German schoolmaster would say, “You need to ride shoulder-fore for the rest of your life.” Shoulder-fore can be ridden on a circle and a straight line where the horse is slightly bent to the inside. You should see the inside eye of the horse, and the horse should bend slightly through the poll, neck, rib cage, and spine. The outside rein helps keep the horse from overbending the neck and popping the outside shoulder.
On our second day, Bucky helped us school second and third-level movements as shoulder-in, hauches-in, traver, and renver. He helped bring awareness to the rib cage. Whenever Makana was stiff on the inside rein, it was because she was stiff in the rib cage. Once we established bend through the rib cage by applying inside leg at the girth and outside slightly back to hold the haunches from falling out, Makana became soft and round and light on the inside rein through these exercises. Once we learn these movements fluently at a walk, they can be ridden at a flatwalk.
According to Bucky the shoulder-in and haunches-in are three-track movements and the traver and renver are four-track movements. All four exercises help establish balance, suppleness and softness, a more upright frame, and contact.
For more about Bucky Sparks, visit www.blessyourhorse.com.
Instead of a three-day affair like last weekend, the Rocking R Show was three hours for us; this included two hours travel time! We were off to a frantic start since I didn’t plan for how long it would take to get there and arrived 20 minutes before my first test. Yet we missed the soaking rain storm that swept through the show grounds a half hour earlier. The overcast sky and rain cooled the temperature down to a comfortable 75-degrees and the precipitation made for excellent footing.
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