United States Eventing Association

Katherine Erickson of Grey Brook Eventing got a chance to head over to the Team Training Session with show jumper Katie Prudent yesterday. Here is her report:

WELL. Remember how I spent my first week in Aiken soaking up unending sunshine and glorious 70º days? Well now I'm stuck just remembering it too, because we've had nothing of the sort for the better part of the last week! The weather has turned decidedly poisonous, and it was even warmer up home in Carlisle, MA a few days ago than it was here. Needless to say, I'm feeling far less clever about escaping to the "sunny" south of late than I did when I first got down here.

Fortunately, the sun did come out yesterday just in time for another round of the USET Training Sessions, this time with show jumping specialist Katie Prudent. I managed to nip out for the morning sessions before coming back to ride my own, and it was seriously worth the trip. Katie was audible and really made her opinions known. If she didn't like something, we all heard about it QUICKLY and LOUDLY. I really felt like I learned a lot.

I got to watch three group lessons. In each, Katie set up slightly different exercises that all tested the same basic principle: the need to be able to control the horse's length of stride. Most groups started out, after some intensive flatwork, over poles on the ground, trying to fit increasingly collected numbers of strides in. Then, they moved on to jumping lines and some short courses, all with the same focus on accuracy and adjustability. Katie accepted absolutely nothing but the best from the horses and the riders, and was very clear in the sort of results she wanted. I really appreciated the clarity of her vision and her ability to give the riders enough guidance to properly execute what she wanted to see.

I would definitely say that these lessons seemed tougher on the horses than the lessons with Captain Phillips had been. Those private lessons had often lasted just around twenty minutes and been tailored exactly to an issue the rider wanted to work on. They would jump just enough to get the result they wanted, and then quit with the horses feeling relaxed and happy. I'd actually been really happily surprised with how well they'd seem to have gone. In contrast, the lessons yesterday were not custom-tailored to any one rider but required them all to fit their ride into what Katie wanted to see that day.

Katherine Erickson Photos.