United States Eventing Association

One of the most popular seminars at the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention is always the Training Solutions For Top Event Riders and this year was no different with the extensive panel speaking to a packed room. The session is informal with audience members asking questions and the members of the panel taking turns answering.

Panel: Karen O’Connor, Boyd Martin, Phillip Dutton, Leslie Law, Clayton Fredericks, Buck Davidson, Lynn Symansky, Hannah Sue Burnett, Shannon Lilley.

Q: What creative items do you guys use that may be successful training wise?

KO: Huge success with a leather bit for dressage. Really soft in their month.

BM: Avoid using strong bits, rare to compete through prelim with anything but a snaffle

PD: Standing martingale – can’t compete in them but it is good training habit wise.

LL: Can’t get away from the correct training. Stay away from draw reins – you need to be a very good rider to ride in draw reins and if you are a very good rider why are you using side reins? I try to stay away from gadgets?

CF: The lunging bungy – elasticated bungy (neck stretcher in America). Much better than side reins because it allows the rider to stretch equally to the contact and then gives back. I have had a lot of success with removing the nose bands and have your horse submit to you more naturally. Still underestimated how important it is to look at the inside of your horse’s mouth when you choose your bits.

BD: Never jump at home without a snaffle. Take stuff away e.g the stirrups from the saddle, take away the reins in an enclosed situation.

SL: I also use leather bits – really helps the horse’s yield to the contact. I try to take the gadgets away because there is not substitute for good training.

HB: I love breastplates – it terrifies me when I see horses jumping without a breastplate.

LS: I do a lot of work riders with riders on the lunge – take the stirrups and reins away.

Q: Any ideas on how to get a horse not to grind their teeth?

KO: I have had luck with putting a tiny bit of dirt in the horse’s mouth right before you go into the ring.

BM: Gum bits

Q: What’s the progression for a young horse on what you do and what you ask for on each day?

PD: I like to establish that when you are on the horse they are listening to you all the time. Your horse always needs to be going forward all the time from your aid. As you get more education you add roundness, softness, etc. Sending a young horse to an experienced person is much better than sending then to an inexperienced person.

BD: For me it is bit like a kid who is never told no until it is too late. They need to go forward, straight all the time but I have a goal each day and once I achieve that goal I finish for the ride.

CF: The horse no matter the level needs to be in front of your leg and submissive to the contact. When you kick them to go they go and as you progress it becomes more fine-tuned. Gradually as you reinforce those ideas you can eventually be dancing with the horse. Cross-country ultimately comes down to is the horse in front of the leg? If the rider asks it to go forward to jump it goes.

LL: If you identify the training scales you are never going to go wrong. It is important to listen to your horse – a 4-year-old might only have 15 minutes in them.

KO: If we asked eachother on how to hack a horse out – they would be marching, overtracking, working at the walk. The go walk hack with a purpose.

Q: Any tips on how to deal with a horse who is very nervous in warm-up?

SL: I find if you can do as much desensitization at home as possible it helps. If you can ride with lots of horses in the ring at home and get them tons of distraction. There is nothing that replaces going off of the property as much as possible – they grow up so much more.

HB: Break it down, start with one-on-one, start slowly, then do two horses then three horses. Be really patient until they are comfortable. Taking them into a big warm-up and just having them deal with it

Q: What do you think is important in a young horse: conformation vs heart vs talent?

BM: It needs to have the ability to gallop for 11 minutes and jump about 35 big jumps. Pretty good jumping ability. Pretty good in the dressage as well. I don’t nit-pick too much conformationally. I go for more rangy horses with 60-70% TB.

PD: I would rather get a horse with a really good horse that is easy to train. There is nothing more frustrating than having a very talented that is hard to train.

LL: I am looking for 60% TB so you have got that gallop and the stamina at the top level. Good technique and scope over a fence. Good walk, good canter. If they have everything else I will forgive a poor trot. Temperament is huge. As well as heart. Difficult to see in 40 minutes though.

CF: The biggest mistake that lower level riders make is going for a 4-star winner rather than isolating the level you want to compete. You are much better with a good attitude who wants to help you out. When I am looking for a 4-star horse I am looking for what these guys are, but quite often they surprise you with what they can to. Breed them with good attitudes.

KO: Make sure that you and the horse are a good match with personality. Bucket horse. You bring one bucket of feed out to 5 horses. Identify the attitudes of the horses and find the one that matches your personality.

Q: The differences in the qualities in the ones that you buy in this country vs. abroad?

BM: If you go to Europe (Ireland/England/France/Holland) there are thousands of horses breeding sport horses and in America we don’t have those people. They are all trying to breed horses for the Olympics within a few hours of themselves. We just don’t have that band of breeders chasing the perfect event horse.

SL: I agree with Boyd, if you go abroad you have the opportunity to ride a lot of horses in a day and just being able to get the numbers is pretty huge and that in of itself makes it worth it.

CF: We call that tire-kicking, Shannon!

Q: If you could pick one horse of any of the other riders on the panel which would you pick and why?

HB: Neville Bardos b/c my horse is pretty similar and I think I would enjoy that type of xc machine

LL: I would have to go with Inmidair – it is a very fantastic jumper, and I think she has done a fantastic job producing that horse. It could definitely medal.

CF: I’ll ride anything! If anyone wants to give me one I’ll take it.

Q: I have a horse that is very polite and obedient but he is very short-gaited and doesn’t want to reach all the way to the bridle?

BD: To me to get a horse to take the contact – I do a lot of transitions, forward and back, you have to get them to go forward first.

CF: I like the horses really light in the contact and providing that they aren’t getting behind the contact and as long as they are obedient.

Q: How have your horse's fitness plans evolved from the long format to the short format for the upper level competition.

LL: A fit horse is a fit horse, I haven’t really changed that much. Coming from the UK there is an awful lot of steeplechasing back there and the different distances get same the fit the same where. I start with long slow cantering and then when I have a base on the horse I sprint them on a hill. William Fox-Pitt told me about doing one 12 minute canter to get the conditioned to going that length of time even if it isn’t at competition speed. I work to the conditions I am cantering on – not very scientific.

CF: The horses need to have a greater intensity of fitness now at the higher levels. It is about the amount of jumps you are doing in a minute – the galloping between the jumps is even faster so you need to have them fitter. More sprinting now then we may have done in the past.

BD: Once a horse is fit you need to know when the horse is fit. I do a lot of trotting and a lot less galloping and the longer slow gallops similar to Leslie. The training has stayed the same, but the riding has gotten better.

Q: How much down time do you give your horses?

LS: I think it depends on the horse – after a big 3-day I like to give them about a month. Then start back walking and into full work.

Q: What is your favorite exercise to teach a horse to be more brave jumping?

BD: I think it is important for a horse to know that it just can’t stop. With a young horse on xc I always approach jumps that they would be able to bunny hop over –they need to get the understanding they land it is okay.

CF: It is really important as a rider that you are fit and learn to balance so you use your legs and hands independently so that you don’t interfere with the horse and make them stop.

Q: How often do you jump your upper level horses at bigger heights?

HB: I think it depends on the horse, I have one who hardly ever jumps the height and another who is just moving up the level so needs to jump more.

Q: For the average rider who needs to have some brakes that is not responding to the snaffle on xc are their other suggestions you have?

BD: The first thing that comes into your mind is that it needs to come down to training – no quick gadget to solve the problem. Plenty of transitions, expand the levels between speeds, if your horse doesn’t slow down it means you haven’t trained it properly.

LL: When you are producing horses it is extremely important to train it on the cross-country. Teach them to be settled, go in a rhythm, and not fall. If you have got a strong horse in the upper levels the time becomes quite difficult to make. It is better to have something in your horse’s mouth that he respects than mauling on him all day long in a snaffle. It really does become a trial and error situation in a competition situation.

SL: Why is the horse running? If you thought you bought an appropriate horse why is it strong now? If you don’t have an independent hand or leg they might be running away from you. The lighter feel you have the better.

CF: Having just come from Australia where I must have talked over a hundred riders in the last few weeks, this is a problem that I addressed often. Nine out of 10 we saw it with the correction of the rider’s position. I spend time looking in the horse’s mouth and finding something that is suitable for the construction of the mouth.

BM: Put a fence into the hay shed.

Q: I train at a farm and I have inherited a few problem horses and they aren’t young but they are very inconsistent and spooky. How do you train them?

BD: Take the horse back a few steps, start in a confined and area and work up from there as I go. You have to understand when it just isn’t right you have to cut your ties and realize that there is another horse out there.

Q: What are some strategies for teaching a warmblood to gallop?

LL: I gallop them with another horse just like with the racing, hunting, teach them to compete a little bit.

Q: When do you step in with an amateur and tell them to throw in the towel with the wrong horse?

BM: I think you can improve a horse but not change them. If you are an amateur rider you are better off cutting a mis-behaving loose. Upgrade! It’s like a relationship if your partner beats you or something you are better off getting rid of the guy – there are other blokes in the country.

LS: If the personality isn’t right – it isn’t a failure to sell them on.

Q: What are somethings you can do health-wise that can help an amateur’s horse?

SL: Good horsemanship. Be in a program where you learn good horsemanship and appreciate it. If you aren’t in a program try and educate yourself and go out and be proactive.

CF: It isn’t just about training actually; in our yard we have very close relationships with the vet, farrier, chiropractor, physio, acupuncturists. It isn’t because we are superstitious we see marked results with everything we do.

Q: What are some of your favorite exercises to keep your horses sharp in the indoor in the winter?

LL: I have never stayed in an indoor school for five months!

BD: I do a lot of things in the indoors especially in the clinic that changes the horse’s thinking like turning right off the long side rather than always going left. Jumps into walls – things that make you put your leg on your horse and get them in front of your left.

CF: Leave your horse with your wife and go to sunnier climates.

Q: What can you do to get the most out of the riders to keep up with these horses?

LL: Obviously we ride a lot of horses in the day we are quite riding fit, but prior to Athens Olympics I got a bit more serious. Ran on a machine, went to a heat chamber. I find for riding the most important thing is aerobic fitness.

CF: Before Hong Kong we did a lot of running up the hill. Rider is a core strength so anything you do on an exercise ball helps.