Gareth (left) with team mates Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and Michael Eilberg in the press conference at WEG
The last time we chatted with Gareth Hughes he had just had a silver medal placed around his neck at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as part of the successful British team.
A few months later we were in a cold, large indoor arena near Melbourne where Gareth was coaching some of the nationally listed Victorian squad members and, apart from the rain, it was a long way, literally and metaphorically, from the jubilant scenes in Normandy. I couldn’t resist asking him if things had changed much since winning a silver medal and he admitted that ‘apart from a few more people knowing who I am’, things hadn’t changed much. After all, there are still horses to be worked every day although he has made a small change in that area “I used to work about 12 horses a day but I’ve cut it down a bit. I now ride about six but they are six that I think will really count in the future” he says and coaching still takes up a fair bit of his time.
“I’ve never been one to buy and sell horses” he says “But the bills have to be paid and I really enjoy training riders and horses, whether they are grass roots riders or Grand Prix. I tend to spend the morning riding then teach in the afternoons and usually have at least one clinic a week”
As well as being a trainer for the World Class Excel Squad in the UK where he is based in Warwickshire Gareth is the dressage coach for the Australian eventing team and he has made two visits here in 2014 to train the squad members at various levels.
On this occasion he only had two sessions of 45 minutes to assess and work with each rider so he focused on a few particular things that he feels he can help them improve. For one rider he worked on lightening the horse’s front end with some exercises as I quickly try to scribble down some of his advice such as
“Go rising trot first, let’s get the activity going and the horse thinking forward then, when that is happening, you can sit and use your seat to control the forward and create suspension”
“Your reins are not there to hold him up, your reins are there to direct him”
“The more a horse sits on his haunches, the more supple he will be in the neck”
“Use travers on a 20m circle to make him sit back and give a little. Every time he sits back, you give and eventually it will become just a tiny release. It’s the art of letting go”
For a horse that Gareth found to be a ‘bit wobbly’ and ‘inconsistent’ he suggested incorporating lateral work as ‘Riding straight lines doesn’t make a straight horse’. He suggested using the shoulder fore to keep the horse pushing through and help him release more in front and when the rider had some problems deciding at which point to start and finish the lateral movement Gareth suggested using a focal point.
“There is no difference riding flat work to jumping. You need to know exactly where you are aiming – you need to point at something and go to it”
Another rider was given some simple but effective advice regarding position.
“Shorten your reins, think tall, open your shoulders but don’t lean back. Make it look as if you’re doing nothing at all”
Sadly there is no way I can encapsulate all of the goodies shared by Gareth but I did have a few minutes with him at the end of the afternoon to chat a bit more about ‘the art of letting go’, the difference between pure dressage and eventing dressage and the importance for young riders of having someone to watch and emulate. Thanks Gareth
Gareth Hughes
