Amazingly this was Sonja Johnson’s first clinic in Victoria. The silver Olympic medallist who is based near Albany in Western Australia loves coaching and has taught many of WA’s rising young stars but she readily admits that it is hard for her to find the time to travel interstate to coach due to the demands of her family’s sheep farm and her own riding commitments
However in January she visited Tasmania and held two clinics in Victoria and boy, were they worth attending. We sat in on two sessions – one focussed on establishing a good position in balance with your horse and the other out on the cross country course and came away with a heap of ideas for articles! Let’s start with some of Sonja’s guidance on position and balance.
To make sure that no-one gets too precious about their aims, Sonja starts by pointing out that the most important thing about jumping a fence is to get over it and stay on your horse. That said, there is an awful lot you can do to make that a good experience for both you and the horse and, through improvements in position and balance, gain improvements in results. So, once you are getting over the fences comfortably, start to think about ‘how could I do this better?’
This saddle needed adjustment as it was sitting too high at the back
Sonja’s first check is on the riders’ tack and she makes several points including;
- All saddles should be properly fitted to your horse and all saddles should also be able to be easily refitted (one of Sonja’s pet hates are knee blocks although she admits they make fabulous fire lighters when soaked in paraffin!)
- When you put a spirit level on a jump saddle it should be even and the back of the saddle should not lift up when the rider goes into 2-point position
- Most riders jump with their stirrups too long (Sonja’s jumping stirrup length is 12 holes shorter than her dressage length)
- A shorter stirrup length provides stability and strength. One example is if you try and push someone over from behind when they have straight legs, it is quite easy but if they have closed the angle between the knee and toe in a squatting type position, it is much harder to push them over
Teneille Porter demonstrates the 2-point position
The 2-point position is obviously important to all eventing riders and Sonja makes sure the riders understand the difference between 3-point (three points of contact with the horse through seat and both legs) and 2-point (two points of contact through the legs only and bottom out of the saddle). The riders practise their 2 and 3-point positions at walk, trot and canter on both reins as Sonja watches their position.
Ali tends to hollow her back which doesn't help her position and creates a sore back
“Do you get a sore back” she asks Ali, who admits she does and it's a common problem for many riders. Sonja suggests that Ali tries to round her back more by rolling the top of her pelvis back to prevent riding with a hollow back, which becomes more pronounced in 2-point position.
However it is the lower leg which is to be the focus of today
“I have an obsession with the lower leg” says Sonja “It’s what keeps us safe” and she tells the riders that “The way to become more still in the saddle is to develop the lower leg”.
As the riders canter around, she asks them to be aware of trying to ‘bounce’ their ankles and feel if one ankle ‘bounces’ more, or is more supple, than the other
Sonja is a big fan of Performance Coach Jon Pitts (as are we) and she quotes Jon saying “Suppleness is the ability of a body to absorb forces applied to it”
Therefore a tight locked ankle which doesn’t ‘bounce’ (or absorb the force) results in the force travelling up the leg into the seat, making for a less comfortable ride. A flexible ‘bouncy’ ankle absorbs the force and helps the rider stay stiller in the saddle
Some other points to help improve the position and promote a ‘bouncy’ ankle are;
- Your toes should be at a 45 degree to the side of your horse, which puts your leg in contact with the horse ( a parallel foot will put your knee on the horse as opposed to the lower leg)
- Your foot should be at a 90 degree angle to the bar of the stirrup iron
- Your stirrup leather should be at a 90 degree angle to the ground and more weight in the outside of the foot than the inside
- The stirrup iron should be towards the toes on the ball of your foot – this is the pivot point of your ankle
After some work with shorter stirrups the riders are happy to take their feet out of the stirrups and stretch their ankles when Sonja suggests it! Throughout the day she asks riders if anything hurts as they make changes to their riding position
“When you change something in your position, it is likely to be uncomfortable as your body has to adjust to it. If there is ever sharp pain, you should stop but if it’s just uncomfortable, it’s your body telling you that you are doing something new. I live so far from everywhere that I have to ride without a coach for most of the time but Phoebe (Sonja’s mum) helps me as ‘eyes on the ground’ and is constantly asking me what hurts and why”
Sonja admits that it isn’t easy to make changes to a riding position but that it takes work and a building of strength which will reap its rewards in all phases, but especially on the cross country.
“Leading up to the Olympics in Beijing I wanted to improve my fitness and stability so I rode for an hour a day in 2-point seat at the walk. The slower the pace, the harder work it is but it paid off”
A strong position also means less adjustment on the cross country in the approach and leaving of the fences, resulting in a faster time and less strain on the horse (interestingly Sonja was one of only two riders under time and clear on the cross country course in Adelaide in 2013).
Teneille and her 4 year old horse, Nahla work on balance and position over small fences
After a lot of work on position and balance in flat work, it was time to do some small jumps in the grass arena but the focus was still very much on these two important things over the fences. Not just over the fences either but in all five stage of the jump
- Approach in 3-point seat
- Take off (horse’s front legs off the ground but hind legs on the ground) 2-point seat
- Flight (all 4 legs off the ground) 2-point seat
- Landing (front legs down, hind legs still in the air) 2-point seat
- Get away (all 4 legs on the ground) 2 or 3-point seat
As the Get Away is also the approach to the next fence, the rider needs to adjust the seat according to where the next fence is and Sonja lives by Andrew Hoy’s rule of being in 3-point seat 8-10 strides before a fence, otherwise being in 2-point seat.
Some other interesting points are
- Coming back to a 3-point seat too early on landing causes the majority of rails that are taken behind
- Being in 3-point position 8-10 strides before the fence gives you 30-36 metres to assess the distance and be in control to sort out any problems without losing too much time
- When you look at a fence in 2-point seat from a distance and then come back to 3-point seat, your view of the fence changes as your head position moves so if you don’t go into 3-point seat early enough on approaching the fence, you will need to reassess the distance
- Don’t waste time – always start out in 2-point
Amy tended to throw her upper body forward over a fence so Sonja asked her to exaggerate sitting upright over a fence (see video below)
As always riders have different problems and often opposite problems! One rider tends to throw her body forward over a fence and another has difficulty relaxing the rein so Sonja asks them to exaggerate a new position with the first rider asked to sit very upright over the fence and the other asked to maintain a loop in the rein on the approach, jump and landing. Of course it feels strange for the riders and Sonja points out that exaggerating a new position is just a training tool to try and let their brain re-calibrate a different feeling. However, the little videos that Sonja takes as they jump show that it doesn’t look as bad as it feels to the riders and is a really valuable way for them to immediately see how the change in position looks compared to how it feels
At the beginning of the first day, Sonja warned there would be a lot of slow work and a lot of talking but that the work on position and balance is fundamental to improving as a rider. It certainly isn’t a dry day however, with plenty of encouragement, laughter and the mantra that 'small mistakes are how we learn'. However on the third day on cross country it becomes very clear how important this work is
Coming up – cross country day sees work on drop fences, small courses and a few bottles of French champagne!
