Dressage lesson with Allison

After a great week the Camp has drawn to a close. Four of the riders will compete tomorrow at the Sporting Days Horse Trials, two in the Novice, two in the Beginner Novice. A fifth will compete next weekend at Pine Top in the Preliminary.

From my perspective as a coach and teacher, it was a great week. Starting Monday with Abigail Lufkin addressing the mental game of riding and competing provided a perfect touchstone throughout every lesson. At the end of the day we have to match our mental skills with our physical skills. In my experience this is poorly understood by amateurs and professionals alike. All too often I hear negative self talk when positive self talk would be so much more constructive.

At the beginning of the week Allison Springer, who shared the teaching with me, and I evaluated each of the riders. We then decided to either weight the individual’s lessons towards the dressage or the jumping, though every rider did quite a bit of both. Allison taught dressage each day. I taught the jumping each day and took everyone to Gibbes Farm for a cross-country school on Thursday. Friday provided one last chance to get everyone tuned up before the event. For those that were jumping this meant a walking a newly set show jumping course, warming up like we were at a horse show, and jumping a round. We then talked about how to improve the round and did it a second time. I call this “playing horse show.” It’s a great way to put our skills to the test while simulating the competition experience.

Dr. Christiana Ober and Katylou Gray brought their extensive knowledge of vet care and equine massage to the camp, and by the weekend it was even warm again. All horsemanship aside, however, I expect that I’m not alone in thinking that with the camp over, I’m going to miss Sarah’s breakfasts every morning the most!

Practice walking courses with Craig

I have been planning and organizing the Aiken Eventing Camp for a couple of months now. Craig and Allison and I have carefully composed a great week for our campers, but I have to admit I never imagined it would be this good!

First, we have the best participants ever! So open minded and so eager to learn. It’s a small group as this is our trial run (and our advertising plan didn’t come off as planned, plus the economy…), which is just perfect. They are from Connecticut, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

We started the day with evaluations. Craig and Allison talked with each rider and then watched them flat and jump a couple jumps to get a sense of where they are with their riding. Then they discussed areas of strength and weakness as well as what they would like to focus on during the week. I thought it was fascinating to see Craig and Allison’s different perspectives which meshed together well.

Then we had lunch where we discussed photos the participants had brought with them. Craig had several pictures that illustrated some key points that he wanted to call to people’s attention. One from Fair Hill last fall really demonstrates using the reins to guide, not pull, a horse through a cross-country complex. Another was of him nearly falling off in the water at The Fork CCI*** a couple years ago. As Craig likes to say, he nearly fell off, but didn’t, largely because he kept his eyes looking up to where he wanted to go.

The photos that the camp students brought were great tools, too. In fact, they largely correlated to the things Allison and Craig talked about during the rider evaluations. A picture truly tells a thousand words!
-Sarah

The competition season has now officially started! We went to Pine Top on the weekend with good results. Fernhill Ever Ready was 6th in the Training, only because of my going too fast. Sometimes I think the speeds at the lower levels, combined with too generous course measuring, combine to create an artificially slow speed. None-the-less, he jumped spot on and was very good. Sarah and Rising Spirit continued their successful partnership with a 4th place finish. And Cheryl Sackler, who has been working hard with me all winter to fine tune her riding, enjoyed a 3rd.

Today is the first day of the Aiken Eventing Camp. I will start the day with a demonstration of how to jog a horse in hand. Then Allison and I will begin evaluating each horse/rider pair. This evening Ab Lufkin will arrive to provide the sports psychology component of the camp. I can’t wait to get started!