United States Eventing Association

Horses, riders and spectators braved freezing late-November temperatures and flocked to Morven Park in Leesburg, Va., over the last two days to learn from six-time Olympian Mary King.

The clinic, organized by Kelly Gage of Team EnGaged, featured two-days of lessons with the iconic rider, was open to green horses and riders through Advanced level pairs.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Thursday’s lessons allowed spectators to gain insight on Mary King’s training methods on the flat. The day started out with a young horse group, and progressed up the levels as the day went on. She explained while the riders warmed up that even though she has ridden for decades, she still takes a bit of time each day to focus on perfecting her position.

“Take some time to think about yourself while you’re going around in the beginning,” she said. “I like to think about making my body longer in the front to make me sit up instead of thinking ‘shoulders back,’ which can make you stiff.”

Mary stressed to the riders the importance of being very strict with themselves, and they’ll see a difference in how quickly their horses learn.

“You must be very methodical with your training and be very clear about what you’re asking,” Mary explained. “As a rider, you have two primary responsibilities on the flat: To be effective as a rider, and to make sure your horse is responding off your leg.”

To follow up on these two major responsibilities, Mary had the riders practice walk to trot transitions, and then trot to canter transitions. The horses must respond at the first squeeze of the riders’ legs, and should not come above or below the bit.

If the horses raised their heads during the transition, Mary asked the riders to immediately go back to the previous gait, correct the horse and then ask for the transition again. She had them walk for 5 strides, then trot, then walk for 5 strides again, creating a very strict system the horses had to abide by.

An Exercise for All Levels

In every group that rode on Thursday, Mary used a circle of four canter poles on the ground to discover the strengths and weaknesses of each horse and rider. She asked the riders to count the number of strides they were getting between each of the poles and to try to keep it consistent.

Many young horses faltered at first and broke their stride over the poles, but quickly became more adjustable in the canter and began to think for themselves. For the more experienced pairs, changing the number of strides between each pole tested the obedience of the horses and their ability to shorten and lengthen their stride on a dime.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

Mary explained how she progressed as a rider by watching and learning from others, particularly her idols.

“Carl Hester has always been my idol on the flat,” explained Mary. “I tried to watch him, analyze his body position, and imitate what I saw him doing. I would ride around the ring pretending I was Carl Hester!”

Ben Maher is who Mary would try to imitate in the show jumping, and Lucinda Green was her cross-country idol. “Lucinda always has the perfect forward-leg position on cross country so I would watch her, picture her, and then emulate it in my own riding,” explained Mary.

The jumping began on the second day, and the themes from the first day carried over. She cited the brilliance of Michael Jung in his ability to channel a horse through combinations in a forward, unwavering manner. She explains that he always rides with his upper body back and his lower leg forward, sending his horses on in a confident manner. “Go home and see if you can find some video footage of him riding. He’s really brilliant!”

Mary explained that riders have two primary jobs when approaching a fence: “To steer on a correct line, and to create a powerful canter. The more energy and power your horse has to its canter stride, the easier he’ll be able to jump out of stride.”

Mary stated that Captain Mark Phillips explains the canter stride best. “He told me to picture a bouncy ball. Now if you’re dribbling that bouncy ball and you want it to go higher, you’re not going to bounce faster, you’re not going to bounce it slower, you’re going to bounce it stronger. This is the same for canter work; you must obtain a stronger, punchy stride.” This will keep the horse’s hind legs underneath him and make it easier to jump higher.

A Four-Jump Course

With only four jumps in the ring, Mary managed to devise a challenging but confidence-building course, moving the fences around to suit the needs of each group.

After a basic warmup with a vertical or an oxer and a placement pole, she had riders practice jumping on an angle. On a line of three jumps, she had them jump the first and last jump of the triple, navigating around the middle jump. Once all the riders completed this exercise, she had them do a figure of eight over the middle oxer of the triple, and then do the triple in a straight line.

Mary then introduced a narrow jump to the group, standing a barrel upright with two standards close by on either side. She asked the riders to jump through this a couple times to familiarize their horses with the skinny obstacle. Then, she incorporated a small course of technical questions: a bounce line, veering left 4 strides to a corner, looping around to the narrow barrel, veering right 4 strides back down the bounce line the opposite direction.

Mary stressed the importance of keeping your shoulders back through these technical questions, especially through the bounce, to allow your horse to be quick with his front end. She was also picky about lower leg position, especially with the younger riders. She said that not only will it allow your upper body to be still, but it will decrease the chance of being pitched out of the tack if the horse should misstep.

Regardless of the experience and age of the horses and riders, Mary’s themes and principles remained consistent. Many of her exercises she considered to be “bread and butter work” that riders should incorporate into their schooling at home. Mary remained positive and encouraging yet firm, expecting the riders to do the same with their horses.