DEVELOPING QUALITY WITH TRANSITIONS

WORDS - Sarah Holmes

IMAGES -Show Circuit

Francesca Masfen and her fouryear-old gelding, Riverrock Falcon, were fortunate to spend time with Carlos DeCleermaecker while he was visiting New Zealand. Carlos, a Pferdewirtschaftsmeister with 50 years of experience riding and training with some of Europe’s most influential classical dressage coaches and riders, generously gave his time for this Show Circuit training clinic.

Francesca is 20 years old and is presently studying for a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Property degree at the University of Auckland. She successfully evented to 2* level on her schoolmaster, Kinnordy Galilee, but has now taken to dressage and is focusing on bringing her HP Fresco gelding up the levels. Falcon was bred by Aliesha Moroney-Ormsby and started by her husband, Chad, from Riverrock Farm. Aliesha says, “Falcon is an example of the proven F and S line cross. He encapsulates his dam’s trainability and his sire’s modern type. Francesca is doing a great job – we are really proud of them both.” Carlos immediately identified an elastic and willing horse in Falcon, who shows great promise for his future in the dressage arena. He noted Francesca’s balanced seat and soft hands but could see a need to improve the connection from the hind leg to the bit.

With time and correct training basics, we enable them to maintain balance for longer durations and through increasingly difficult transitions and movements.

A true connection is when the horse is working from its pushing hind legs over its loose and swinging back into an elastic forward contact between the bit and the rider’s hands. The horse should be in a correct frame, drawing the bit forward, with the neck reaching out from the wither and the top of the neck supple and loose. The rider should be able to feel they can slightly flex the poll left and right.

Next, Carlos shifted focus to trot-halt transitions. Riding into the full-halt, he coached Francesca into thinking about a series of half-halts, finishing with a full-halt.

It’s essential to have balance in all downward transitions. A lack of balance during the transition is often paired with a lack of preparation before the transition. Carlos suggests teaching a young horse first and foremost to halt with immobility, in the correct frame, while staying connected, and only then think about making the halt square. The square halt should develop later as the balance improves. If you don’t prioritise immobility and submission in the halt, confusion about the stop-go aids is highly probable.

Carlos asked Francesca to score her transitions. If it is a 7.0, there are still 3.0 marks to achieve. You need to practice transitions for a 10.0 – practice perfect transitions, and until they are perfect, keep practising.

The answer to improving connection is to do many ‘perfect’ transitions. When you think you are doing a lot, do more! On a 20-metre circle, Carlos asked for walk-trot-walk transitions, with five to six strides of true medium walk before asking for the trot. The horse should be able to transition to a working trot from an energetic medium walk without changing its posture, frame and forward elastic feeling in the contact. Regardless of training level, it is critical not to allow the walk to slow and lose the engagement of the hind legs – always think of active steps. With respect to the horse’s frame, Falcon is the sort of horse that Carlos does not want to see too deep. However, a rounder frame during the warm-up phase, while the rider works on flexion and bend, helps improve the overall connection and balance of the horse – two prerequisites for achieving a correct uphill frame.