United States Eventing Association

Correct Connection on Day 1 of the USEA ECP Symposium

Temecula, Calif.—Jan. 14—Each year, the USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) brings aspiring and certified coaches together for the ECP Symposium.

The goal of the Symposium is to exchange ideas and techniques about teaching horses and riders, all while following the philosophy of correct basics on the flat, over fences, and across the country.

This year, the ECP Symposium headed west for the first time to Galway Downs, and nearly 50 participants from across the country came ready to learn from ECP faculty and guest coaches and speakers.

ECP faculty member Jennifer Howlett Rousseau started off the morning discussing the importance of the “ECP Handbook by the Levels.”

“We’re going to utilize it these three days,” she said. “One of the goals of the handbook is to create commonalities around certain things, like common language within our sport—using similar or the same terms; standard training principles centering around proven training principles. We’re trying to build consensus and unity in the coaching community and to try to create a really positive culture around good coaching in the United States.”

Rosseau stressed that the faculty isn’t using the Symposium to tell coaches how to teach something or change the way they approach things, but for them to keep in mind common themes in teaching and training. Basic themes include the link from flatwork to jumping, developing an independent seat when jumping, and uniform teaching of the various rider positions used in eventing.

“We’re all going to watch the same horses, and we’re all going to have a slightly different way of tackling what needs to happen with that horse,” said Rousseau. “[We’ll] explore what works and maybe what doesn’t work in some cases. This is a safe space for allowing that to happen.”

ECP faculty member Mary D’Arcy chimed in to add, “There’s a perception that we want to teach everybody the same way and use the same words. We are not interested in a cookie-cutter approach. Everybody is an individual, and we’re interested in the basic, correct, classical principles of riding and training and teaching. If you notice at the World Championships and the Olympic Games, people are coming from all over the world—some have gone through the German system, the French system, the Spanish system, the Portuguese school, and all of the various interpretations that are becoming a bit harder to differentiate, but there are some clear differences.

“At the end of the day, all of those people are going down the same center line at those major championships, and they’re being judged by the same judges. At that point, a correct extended trot and a correct self-carriage and balance and correct technical movements are all the same—it doesn’t matter where you start from,” she continued. “Everybody is an individual—the only thing that’s non-negotiable is correct, classical principles from centuries of education from people who knew a lot better in most cases.”

As the participants broke out into groups of 10-11, ECP coach Bec Braitling reminded the participants that they should keep an open mind as they observed unfamiliar riders and horses this week.

“A lot of people who come to my [ECP] workshops develop students very comfortably in the home environment and the students they see frequently," she said. "I think one of the hardest things to replicate is somebody who walks into your arena, and you have to have that calmness and an open mind to really look at them and see what is happening.”

Participants headed out to the arena to watch three dressage sessions with horses and riders of varying levels, keeping in mind, “different solutions to common problems.”

Each group teamed up with one of the ECP coaches—Rousseau, D’Arcy, Braitling, or Emily Mastervich, and discussed what things they’d like to work on as each horse and rider warmed up for 15 minutes. Then, each coach stepped into the ring to use an exercise to two to correct an issue or improve something.

Here are some takeaways from the day:

Correct Connection

Kristina Koehler rode her 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Ogano x Prinzessin) Opus 54. The pair have competed through Preliminary level but have been getting scores in the upper 30s. She described the gelding as a bit of a bully and a bit rude on the flat, and they toggle between relaxation, softness, and bringing him up more in front.

Opus 54 trotted with his head behind the vertical, which all the groups homed in on. He lacked some forward momentum in trot and could be spooky, according to his rider.

D’Arcy went first, saying the connection was the issue. “There’s an absence of a consistent, elastic contact, and the horse is not going forward enough in the trot and canter to create that contact and then connection into the hand,” she said, adding that it was evident in the downwards transitions. A more solid and elastic contact resulting in a better connection over the back would improve him immensely.

She suggested changes of speed and gait and leg yield in trot and canter to improve engagement—two steps leg yield, two steps forward, and repeat. In between the exercises, she wanted to see a stretchy trot to test the connection, which had been shaky during Koehler’s warm up.

“This horse is actually behind the leg a lot of the time,” said D’Arcy. “Connection is created through activity in the hind leg, working over the back, through the neck, into the contact. You the rider, depending on the horse’s way or going, what movement you’re doing, and what level of training he’s at, decide what frame will I go in? A half stretch frame? Incorporate your lateral movements. Then bring him into the more working frame. You have to be able to control the neck of the horse through the activity in the hind leg, over the back.

Rousseau’s group also focused on the connection and used bending at the walk on a small circle—getting the horse to bend then reach, bend then reach, until he started looking for connection, then carry it through in trot. The group wanted to keep the pair away from straight lines, so they suggested a spiral-in and spiral out on a circle in canter as well—“to get out of those long, straight lines where it’s just a discussion between the rider and the horse,” she said. “Really trying to make it be an exercise-driven result so that you’re letting the exercise do the work.”

Peters Pops In

Participants were in for a special treat as six-time Olympic dressage rider Steffen Peters taught two sessions in the morning. He first worked with Erin Kellerhouse on her Advanced horse Woodford Reserve, a 14-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tinarana’s Inspector x Laharn’s Laughton).

Kellerhouse rode through Advanced test A, with Peters providing commentary during her ride and pausing to discuss certain movements before having her ride them again.

Then he worked with Whitney Tucker Billeter and her 8-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding Archie, who hasn’t begun his eventing career yet. He was a bit wide-eyed coming into the arena, but Peters knew a proper connection would help him.

“Since we deal with a little bit of tension [with Thoroughbreds] and they’re a little bit busy in the mouth, we’ll teach them with very simple transitions what the connection is all about,” he said.

He had Billeter start with just walk to halt transitions, noting that square halts are important as most dressage tests have at least two, if not three. He does 15-20 of those transitions a day as a simple exercise. He likes to see that when the rider closes the leg and squeezes the rein, the horse gives simply. It’s an uncomplicated exercise to get a “playful contact.”

The pair went on to work in trot and focused on bending and relaxation for Archie.

Control of the Horse's Body

Professional Tori Traube rode her own Novice level 6-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (I’m Special de Muze x NLS Nikitas Cool Dancer) HSH Chin de Muze next, and their lesson focused on the cube exercise in walk that was suggested by coaches in Braitling’s group. It involved shoulder-in, haunches-in, counter position shoulder-in, and then renvers on a square.

“We noticed that a couple of times he kicked the rail with his right hind going left,” said Braitling. “It will bring awareness to the rider of where the horse’s hind leg is at all times, and then where we’re able to move the parts of the horse.

Kendra Mitchell was the final rider of the day on a client’s horse, Princess, who competes at Modified. The mare had spooked coming down to the arena, and during her warm up, Mitchell rode her quite tactfully but strong, then let her frame out a bit as she finished. The groups noticed, and thought Mitchell was a bit strong in her rein contact and a bit driving in her seat, especially when she sat the trot.

Mitchell knew she wanted to work on the mare’s balance, and admitted she may have gotten a bit too controlling, but she felt good about how she ended her warm up.

Rousseau’s group noticed that for every transition, Mitchell got behind the vertical with her body, but when she was on the vertical, she and the mare were softer. The challenge for the lesson was for Mitchell to stay on the vertical.

Braitling’s group had the pair leg yielding a few steps in trot, then straight for two steps, then leg yielding. They also noted the correction to Mitchell’s seat. “How are we going to help promote this feeling that the horse has somewhere to go?” she asked. “It’s very difficult to ride when they’re tense or sharp. We’re always promoting that feeling that the seat is allowing the horse to come through and that the seat can say, stop—alright move on—stop—and we have this feeling of harmonious communication with our seat so that all that’s left with the reins hopefully is that they’re just there because they have to be there.”

Braitling’s go-to exercise is walking on a circle and thinking of stopping and moving the seat. This warm up exercise was a good reminder before Mitchell headed into the leg yield exercise. Braitling noted it’s a good exercise for riders who use the reins to control the speed of the horse.

The pair went on to execute the leg yielding exercise seamlessly, adding a stretchy trot in between as a reward and a break for Princess.

Tomorrow’s sessions kick off at 8:30 with a round table discussion followed by show jumping sessions with demo riders.

USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP)

Coaches are essential to the training of riders and horses for safe and educated participation in the sport of eventing. The USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP), formerly known as the Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP), was initiated in 2002 to educate all levels of eventing coaches with crucial training principles upon which they can continue to build throughout their teaching careers. ECP offers educational workshops and assessments by which both regular coaches, Level I through Level V, Young Event Horse (YEH) coaches, and Young Event Horse professional horse trainers can become ECP certified. Additional information about ECP’s goals, benefits, workshops, and assessments as well as names and contact information for current ECP certified coaches, YEH coaches, and YEH professional horse trainers are available on the USEA website. Click here to learn more about the USEA Eventing Coaches Program.

The USEA would like to thank Galway Downs, Parker Equine Insurance, the United States Pony Clubs, and Strider for their support of the Eventing Coaches Program.