View our first article in this series here
Lilly and Ben (with the running martingale) start by warming up over a small log
13 year old Lilly Noles and her 13 year old off the track thoroughbred Bendangles (Ben) had a few problems with rushing their fences and controlling the canter when they started their cross country schooling session at a recent clinic with Andrew Hoy
After watching their first few jumps over a small log, Andrew made some minor adjustments to their tack, putting Lilly’s stirrups up slightly to help maintain a more balanced two-point seat in the canter and removing the running martingale
Lilly was understandably a bit nervous about seemingly having less control but Andrew explained that the control comes by taking and releasing rather than a constant pull against the horse or resistance to the martingale
“You can slow him down with your voice by saying “whoa”, but you cannot pull and keeping pulling. You have to be able to take and release a little then, if he runs off, another whoa and another take. But it’s always take and then release, it must never be pulling and continually holding”
This isn’t a problem unique to Lily and Ben but can often be seen with riders dealing with off the track racehorses. These thoroughbreds often make fabulous eventing horses but need a little re-training to understand the different requirements of their eventing riders compared to how they are ridden in the racing stable
Stirrups up ("It will feel strange at first") and martingale off
“He’s been taught to run into the contact” explained Andrew “For him, the speed you’re going at the moment is slow and he’s wondering when you’re going to get moving! And you’re thinking, Ben when are you going to start to slow down? So what you have to do is find a meeting point, but as he doesn’t speak English you need to explain it to him through your contact with his mouth, saying whoa, slow down. However, when he does that, you must give the rein to let him know that’s what you want”
“Then, once you’re at the speed you want, allow him to settle there and be comfortable. It must always be at your speed but without you continually pulling against him”
“Just go and ride at a speed that you think is safe but without pulling against him” said Andrew and this time Lilly and Ben got the idea.
The urge to rush came back for Ben as the group moved to the ditch complex. During the cantering sessions, Andrew had encouraged Lilly to use her voice to help to calm her horse and it was obvious in this session that Andrew’s use of voice helped to settle Ben, as did the use of a low opening rein and using small circles to great effect (hear more about the use of voice in training in our video interview with Andrew here)
