Introduction
To start with, Helen gave us all a quick overview of how she likes to ride and train her horses. She made it clear that her focus was on the relationship between the horse and rider, and that one should adapt one’s riding to different horses. No two horses are the same, so they can’t all be ridden in the same way.
Dan Greenwood – Exige M (5 Year Old)
This young horse was clearly very talented but struggled with the atmosphere and was very tense. Helen outlined how she ideally likes to work a young horse. This mainly comprised of stretching the neck down and out, and bringing the back up so the hind leg can engage. Starting with this method makes it possible, over time, to build collection from the seat and not from the rein, and to keep the horse searching forward for the bit.
With a tense horse she advocated keeping the aids softly on the horse to give him security and to let him know that you are there with him. Ideally, she wanted the horse to stretch out more but acknowledged that this takes time. She advocated keeping the contact until the horse understands and accepts it and offers the stretch himself, she did not feel it was useful to just throw the reins at the horse. The opportunity to stretch must be given to the horse, but only so much as you can keep the contact.
Helen then asked Dan to start using some light bending and flexion to help break up the tension but stipulated that the bit must be moved slowly in the horse’s mouth. She repeated several times that with a hot horse you must use the aids ‘in slow-motion’, and vice versa, with a lazy horse you must use quick aids. Once the horse started to relax into the inside flexion, she then asked Dan to use some counter-flexion, suppling Exige M to both the inside and the outside.
Above all with this horse, Helen stressed the need for patience, repeating several times that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. Every aid she asked Dan to apply, she got him to softly maintain it until the horse accepted it and relaxed into it.
Emile Faurie – Cavalia (7 Year Old)
This horse came in looking far more relaxed than the previous horse, and already willing to stretch and to take the contact down and out. Helen explained how in the training she looks to gradually ‘close’ and quicken the hind end while keeping the front end open.
Cavalia is clearly a very talented horse with lots of athleticism and suspension in the paces. Helen and Emile did lots of work on transitions, riding forward and back in the trot while making sure to keep the same rhythm. Similarly, in the canter she asked Emile to play with the horse, riding her forward and then back, and flexing and counter-flexing in the counter canter.
Helen also took the opportunity to explain that she likes to incorporate lots of breaks into her training sessions, but that she also likes to use them to practice the extended walk as well as just letting the horse have a breather.
This horse showed no problems with the single flying changes. Helen mentioned that when teaching the change she likes to ride different lines so the horse doesn’t get tense and learn to anticipate. When starting the tempis, she rides a diagonal line with three changes but with no counting in between, making sure to re-establish the relaxation between the changes.
Jackie Siu – Ferrera (Small Tour)
Ferrera is a very willing and forward-going horse that did some beautiful work but occasionally lacked a little lateral suppleness. To start with, Helen got Jackie to do a basic twenty metre circle, pushing the quarters out on the open side to help the hind legs to cross and to establish the bend through the body. They then moved on to shoulder-in on the long side followed by a long side starting in shoulder-in, moving to travers, and then back to shoulder-in, all the while keeping the same bend and positioning through the body. This was a really useful exercise for the pair and you could really see the improvement in the suppleness.
They then did a bit of work on the extensions, not on making them bigger and more expressive, but on keeping the rhythm constant and on maintaining the throughness. Helen stressed that it is most important to establish suppleness before attempting to put in any power. She did, however, say that you can occasionally test the limits in training as long as you are careful not to push beyond the limit. Little half halts during the extension helped Ferrera to keep her front end elevated and to allow her to swing freely forward.
They then moved onto some pirouette work, beginning with Helen explaining how important it is that the inside hind leg jumps to the inside in order for it to remain under the centre of gravity. Helen noted that quite often people stray from the intended line when they ride a pirouette; to remedy this she advised riding shoulder-fore on the line, collecting on the outside rein, and then turning the hind legs first, making sure to keep the inside leg on to stop the horse jumping too big to the inside. When working on the pirouettes at home, she mentioned that she doesn’t often ride the line from the test, instead she likes to ride working pirouettes, taking care to vary the speed and flexion to encourage greater suppleness and to prevent the horse from anticipating.
Hayley Watson-Greaves – WG Rubins Nite (Big Tour)
This horse gave Helen a great opportunity to explain how she likes to ride the paces small in the beginning before gradually building the expression through the course of the session.
Lots of work was done on canter half-pass zig-zags. Helen advised breaking it down into one half-pass, followed by establishing the straightness before asking for the flying change, then making sure the horse was still straight before asking for a half-pass back the other way, the most important point being that the rider should take their time between the half-passes. Helen also stressed the importance of riding the gait and maintaining the quality of stride within the movement, not just being content with completing the exercise.
In the one time changes, Helen had an interesting exercise in which she asked Hayley to vary the stride within a line of one times – first collecting and then riding more forward and open. She explained that training the horses to respond forward and back while in the one times gives you more options – if your horse is backing off you can then ask it forward, or if it tries to rush on you can half-halt back.
The same emphasis on maintaining the quality of the basic gaits was apparent in the passage and piaffe work. Helen said that you should always be able to ‘feel the trot’, whatever you’re doing. Again, there was lots of work on transitions forward and back, as well as establishing the looseness in the front end before asking for the power from the hind leg – this was very helpful for WG Rubins Nite, who tended to show a lot of height and power in the collected work but who could occasionally show some tightness through the back and neck. Helen asked Hayley to flex the neck first to the left and then to the right in the piaffe, taking care to lead the horse in the right direction and not to pull him, the difference in piaffe was noticeable once WG Rubins Nite was able to let go and to direct him power in a softer and more harmonious way.
Helen Langehanenberg – Donna Summer (Small Tour)
At the end of the day, Helen rode Olivia Oakeley’s Young Rider team horse Donna Summer. The focus was very much on looseness, suppleness, and response to the seat rather than the rein. Helen encouraged the horse to stretch out but still engage the hind leg and sit and stay quick in the stride. She did a lot of work on the transitions forward and back to improve Donna Summer’s reaction to her aids. In the trot she did some lateral work while keeping the horse in a more relaxed frame, only gradually asking him to come up when she felt she had established enough looseness. She explained that greater expression doesn’t come from holding in the front end but from increasing the swing in the back, and that if a horse is truly on the aids it will always be possible to build the expression so it is not necessary to always practise it in training.