Ralf Schmitzer Coming to Colorado in May
Ralf Schmitzer, has focused exclusively on the classical art of riding and training for the last ten years. A classical baroque dressage clinician, he has over 25 years of experience teaching and training not only in Germany but also holds regular clinics in the USA.. He specializes in classical training and circencic groundwork. Ralf has studied the baroque masters as well as classical masters of today.
A thorough, yet patient instructor, Ralf has a clear, concise way of communicating to both horse and rider. He works with horses of all breeds and does not require a certain level of training for either horse or rider. Ralf welcomes riders from beginners to Grand Prix level and feels that it is especially important for riders at any level to pay attention to the well-being and health of their horse. Only training that creates a mentally and physically fit horse can also create harmony between the horse and the rider.
Ralf is particularly interested in maintaining the classical art of riding. This means reviving the training methods of the ancient European classical riding academies. Ralf is once-again teaching the forgotten techniques in work-in-hand, groundwork, longe rein work, longe line and double-longeing, as well as Spanish walk and airs above the ground. He focuses his students on the biomechanically-correct way to ride as he introduces the rider to the cultural heritage of horsemanship, its history and its importance.
Spring! Bringing Horses Back into Work
As all the snow melts, its time to start thinking about getting those horses that have been sitting in the field all winter back in shape for summer riding. There are several things you should think about that will help you help your horse get back in shape.
Its important to take the age of your horse into consideration. If your horse is fairly young several weeks of lunge line work will help them get back into the routine of work, while at the same time helping to condition them. If your horse is a little older a week of lunging should be more than enough to start to get them back into good work habits and behavior. The older horses may need a day or two to run around and buck so that they can settle into work under saddle.
Once your horse is listening to you on the lunge line its time for some conditioning under saddle. Depending on the amount of room your horse has had to run around in over the winter it may need more work to get back into shape. Remember that as you work your horse you are trying to build up his muscle and that takes time. Its important to start work slowly so that you don’t strain or over tire your horse. I like to start will large circles at the walk for 10 minutes to make sure the horse is paying attention to me and what I am asking them to do. I will then proceed to do the circles in the trot with lots of walk breaks if I feel the horse is getting tired. Remember that changing gaits is harder work than just trotting around so don’t do to many to close together at the beginning.
As the work in the trot progresses and the horse is able to trot strongly around the arena for about 20mins of good work I will start also working the horse in the canter. Start on the circle and let the horse move freely forward. In the beginning I tend to let them canter for as long as they are able to without my help. As your horse gets stronger they will be able to go several times around the arena.
As each horse is different they all come back into work differently so be patient and take is slow. Over several weeks you can build up from 15mins to 30mins of riding time. Horses that have been sitting for long periods of time should be given 2 weeks for every 1 week of time they had off to come back to the shape they where in before.
Changing Direction
Once you have established basic bending in your walk circles you are ready to begin your changing your horses bend from left to right.
The Goal: As you change your horse’s bend from left to right or right to left you are improving his flexibility through his pelvis and making him more supple and able to step under his own center of gravity with his hind legs.
The Aids: Using the same aids you used for your left hand circles, outside leg back slight behind the girth, inside leg at the girth sitting evenly on your sit bones with your inside rein slightly shorter than your outside rein and looking in the direction of your circle. As you come to the middle of your riding area start looking to your right in the new direction of travel. Change the position of your leg and shorten your new inside rein while lengthen your new outside rein. As your changing your leg position apply the new side leg to help the horse start to bend in the new direction through his rib cage.
*Note: Remember that bend comes from the horse’s rib cage and not through pressure of the inside rein which would cause the horse to become over-bent in the neck instead of having a nice even bend through his whole spine.
Circles in the Walk
The most basic exercise there is are circles at the walk. This fundamental training building block is not only important to your horse but to you as a rider as well.
The Goal - To supple and bend the horse evenly on both sides, on the arc of the circle while encouraging the inside hind leg to step further under the middle of the horse which enables it to start to bear more of the horses weight.
The Aids - The rider should be sitting evenly on both sit bones. The outside leg is slightly behind the girth and the inside leg is at the girth. The reins should be soft so the horse can stretch their neck(at this point the horse is in a long frame). The inside rein should be slightly shorter than the outside rein. As the horse moves around the circle the Inside leg ONLY (Don’t use Outside leg as it is counter productive) will ask the horse to step more underneath itself when the horse’s inside hind leg is coming forward.
Note* - If you are having a hard time feeling when the inside hind leg is coming forward try to following. Put your inside leg against your horse as you are walking around the circle. When you feel his ribcage swing away from your inside leg that is the moment that your horse is moving his inside hind leg forward. So as you feel him move his ribs away from your leg that is the time to gently apply leg to encourage the horse to step more underneath with the inside hind leg.
These are the basic steps to starting your horse the right way on walk circles of 20m. As your horse starts to bend better and step further underneath their bodies from behind they will be stretching their top lines from ears to tail. This is very important for any further training as a horse will a stiff back will find it very difficult to work the harder movements. As the horse stretches many times they will snort or grunt, this is natural and should not be discouraged, you may praise your horse even for giving over his back.
As you work your horse on circles each day ask him for a bit more bend, to make the circle a bit rounder and step even more underneath. Each day you work toward a more supple horse as they build muscle it will become more and more easy for them. This is a long process and will not happen over night.
Balance
This topic came up today as I was working with a young horse. There are many different ways that your horse must be able to balance. First he must be able to balance with the weight of the rider. Many young horses have problems with this at speed, your walk and trot may be fine but the canter tends to fall apart if you are not careful to build up your horses ability to balance ahead of time.
This brings us to the second point of balance, the horse should be able to balance over his shoulder. The easiest way to accomplish this is leg yield along the rail of the arena. This is a very good exercise to introduce your horse to the outside rein half halt and inside leg. As your horse starts to understand the outside rein half halt you should feel him start to straighten up in his shoulders and not feel like he is falling down the rail through your outside rein.
Once your horse can control the balance in his shoulder you can start work in the canter. You should notice right away in the canter that your horse doesn’t tilt to one side if you have prepared him in the leg yield ahead of time. Many young horses tend to lean to one side with an outside bend in the canter due to lack of balance over the shoulder.
Remember that as you work with your young horse on these things that it takes time to build up his balancing muscles so he can do the work easily.
Welcome!
This Blog will be covering aspects of Classical Baroque Dressage and the concepts of balance and lightness.