“You have to tailor your training to the horse – what does he say to you that day? It doesn’t matter what the ‘trainer du jour’ tells you, or the books or the magazines. Each day your horse will tell you what he needs to learn and it’s your job to listen and respond in its training”
However, on this day at Boneo Park George Morris is the 'trainer du jour' and we are listening to him as he explains that "good riding is not about big jump after big jump, it is about consistent, meticulous detail"
"Riding is now a very delicate, technical and precise sport and real trainers are very slow and very specific". Geoge is indeed very specific as he sets exercises for the riders and it all starts with the basics.
After the discussion of position, the first exercises are on the flat and they start with the seemingly basic halt and walk - how hard can it be?
Flatwork Exercises
Walk and halt
Your position needs to be correct throughout the exercise and your horse needs to be moving forward freely in the walk, not being nagged by the rider’s legs
“If the horse is not moving forward, tap with your spur or touch with the whip but do not keep asking with your legs”
“The horse first needs to be going forward in self-carriage then I ask him to stop. When the horse responds, I relax all of my aids”
When asking for the halt, it should feel as if the horse is stopping from behind and, as soon as he responds to the halt aids, the rider should stop the aid and relax in the halt. This is a good time for the rider to check their straight back position
“Halt. Sit. Stretch up”
Shoulder-in to haunches-in
“The whole of riding is about getting control of the hind legs” says George and the shoulder-in encourages the horse to engage his hindquarters, teaching him to step under with the inside hind leg
“Shoulder-in and haunches-in both help teach your horse not to be tense to the leg. The older I get, the more time I spend on these exercises”
The riders are asked to ride shoulder-in for a number of strides then move into haunches-in and back to shoulder-in without changes in pace or rhythm. After repeating this for several laps of the arena, they move into rising trot, change the diagonal across a trot pole and repeat the exercise on the other rein
“Whatever we do one way, we also do the other way”
Counter canter
The first canter of the lesson is counter canter. After cantering in counter canter around the arena, the riders are asked to make a small circle to bring them into the true canter. This is done on both reins
Some ‘hot’ horses find this difficult and try to escape the leg in the counter canter but George insists that the rider keeps the leg on until the horse accepts it.
“Hot horses have to be taught to accept the leg, first the inside leg and then the outside leg. These exercises are particularly good for a horse that wants to run away from your lower leg”
Slow canter
See how slowly you can go in the canter for 10 strides then go back to the normal canter. Repeat
Again some horses find this difficult, dropping out of the canter or getting strong in the hand, but George encourages the riders to persist in the training exercise “Don’t be intimidated by the temperament of your horse. You don’t have to force but you can’t constantly compromise”
Small canter circle
To finish a jumping exercise, George asks the riders to canter a small circle for a few minutes after the last fence. Most horses find it difficult to stay forward and balanced on the small circle for this period of time
“Resistance indicates that the horse is crooked. Resistance is overcome by straightness and this makes the horse supple, balanced and rideable”
“Transitions are not necessarily just backwards and forwards, they are in any change. A circle is a transition and jumping is full of transitions”
A trot pole is your first obstacle – you approach it the same way that you would approach a fence
Jumping Exercises
Trot pole in 2-point and 3-point seat
“This is jumping. A trot pole is your first obstacle – you approach it the same way that you would approach a fence. The horse stays centred, straight, does not get faster or slower and stays in rhythm”
After warming up in rising trot on both reins, the riders are asked to trot in 2-point position for half the arena then into rising trot and then back to 2-point position.
“You need to develop balance in suspension by repetition. It is good for the horse too – it teaches him that he should not get faster if you change your seat position. The pace should remain the same”
The riders then go over the trot pole on the diagonal, changing between 2-point seat, 3-point seat and rising trot on both reins
Canter a small fence then halt or trot before the second fence
“The object of stopping in front of a fence or changing the pace before a fence is to make the horse soft. You don’t make a horse soft by being soft, you make a horse soft by being strong. But you must be strong then soft, strong then soft. There is a degree of intensity for every aid”
Canter a small vertical fence then bring the horse back to trot across the diagonal to jump a small Liverpool. The horse needs to respond to the aid to trot but continue to move up to the slightly spooky fence and the rider must “look at the fence as if you’re going to jump it” until the point that they ask for the change of pace or halt
“The horse has to understand that you are asking for the trot. Use your voice to help bring the horse back to a trot or to move forward. A ‘whoa’ or a cluck is your best friend”
The object of stopping in front of a fence is to make the horse soft and responsive
Halt after jumping a line of fences
Jump a line of three vertical fences and stop smoothly and as soon as possible after the final fence (this was made slightly more exciting by the spectators being at the end of the line of jumps)
“Stopping a horse makes him listen. But if you are having problems stopping your horse, don’t yank him in the mouth. Use a barrier to make him stop himself”
For riders who didn’t get a great distance to the fences “You have to be able to come to a fence on both a long and short stride – you need to practise jumping fences intentionally on a long and short stride so you are comfortable when it happens on course” and “If you are coming to a fence on a ‘nothing’ stride, do something”
Use a barrier to make him stop himself
“Get it done then make it nice”
Three fences (two oxers and a triple bar) were jumped on a slight curving line to the left between Fence 1 and 2 and a slight curving line to the right between Fence 2 and 3. After jumping the fences, the riders opened the canter on the long side then came back to jump the line again and finished with several small canter circles after the last fence using shoulder-in and haunches-in
They then repeated the exercise, jumping the line with 4 strides between each fence, then with 3 strides between each fence then 4 strides between the first and second and 3 strides between the second and third fence
The lines proved tricky but with repetition, most jumped it well proving that indeed, it is conisistent, meticulous detail that counts
