Christmas Lecture Demonstration

My general overall impression of the day was one of enthusiasm, interest and support from both riders and spectators, even though the cold weather was quite biting.
It is always difficult for the riders when they have to work in front of ‘an audience’, especially if the audience comprises other riders and loved ones!! But all riders coped very well and, in my opinion, made great progress through their individual lessons.
I really enjoyed the teaching of such a dedicated group of people, and hopefully the riders had some exercises and a programme to take home to work on and help them to progress to their goals.
Hopefully next time there is a visit to Kintbury Park Farm the weather is kinder to us all.

Lindsay Jenkins & Diamonit

CHRISTMAS LECTURE DEMONSTRATION – SATURDAY 17TH DECEMBER

I would firstly like to say many, many thanks to Lindsay and her husband Mike for being so accommodating and wonderful hosts once again. Lindsay’s excellent understanding of her horses and Isis guinea pig riders made this event a pleasure to attend. Albeit, the weather was rather chilly at times.

Thank you to my fantastic, immaculately turned out, brave guinea pig riders who were willing to put themselves in front of audience and under the microscope of Isis members and to boot a very experienced list 1 judge. Victoria Russell & Boy, Denise Small and Spike, Claire Matheson and her stunning little chestnut horse, and of course my particularly naughty Miss Marple who misbehaved throughout our demonstration, making it even more exciting to watch (and ride....LOL)

I would also like to thank all of you who supported this year’s Christmas Lecture demonstration, and also say a huge thank you to all of you who e-mailed me after the event, expressing your thoughts of how much you enjoyed this event and thanked me for organising such an inspiration day. Your lovely comments make organising such and event so worthwhile and appreciated.

Good luck to you all for 2012 season.

Lindsay started her demonstration by riding the first of 2 of her horses. She rode a lovely, incredibly sweet 14 year mare called BB who was a retired Ex 4* eventer who was sent to her 3 years ago for retraining by her owner. Lindsay’s retraining of BB now enables her to be used a school mistress. Lindsay demonstrated various lateral movements in walk and trot only. Lindsay explained that she would not canter this horse with an audience due to her sometimes having explosive mood swings, which were brought on from her Ex eventing days. Lindsay told us all to take particular attention to this mares walk pirouettes and how they would differ so much to her second ride Diamonit. Lindsay talked us through how correct training is imperative if you wish to get the best out of your horse, taking your time when training gives you a fighting chance of having a much more longevity partnership together. BB showed us how her lack of correct training had influenced her way of going, her lateral movements seemed quite hurried and a little sporadic in tempo and rhythm, although she was incredibly willing and eager to please, BB’s initial rushed basic training had spoiled her way of going long term. It was lovely to see that despite Lindsay’s beautiful sympathetic way of riding BB was still a little hesitant to trust everything she was requested to do. The invaluable lesson learnt during this session is to take your time and do it correctly. There are no quick fixes when it comes to any training.

Diamonit, wow what a super horse he is turning out to be. Anyone who attended the first One Day rally at Lindsay’s back in November 2011 will see just how much progress he has made in such a short time. Lindsay performed the same lateral work that she did on BB but to a much much higher standard. Diamonit has been produced correctly and accurately, his basic flatwork in walk, trot and canter is just exquisite. He has not been taught anything special, just correctly schooled. Lindsay rode him through walk pirouettes with ease and relaxation, you could see he knew what Lindsay was going to ask of him, but he waited for the correct aids (whereas BB hurried and anticipated her moves). She finished off her demonstration with beautifully executed one time changes and told us all how she was going to struggle to fit the required amount across the long diagonal during a GP test. His changes are huge, but in reality that is not a bad problem to have.

Lunch was served around 12.30pm and as delicious as usual. HOMEMADE. French onion soup (of which I have since acquired the recipe from Lindsay - YUM) accompanied by garlic bread. Hot jacket potatoes and chilli beef. Dessert was the most delightful moist light lemon cake, Lindsay excelled herself once again. Everyone helped themselves to tea/coffee and biscuits which were available all day to keep us warm and going throughout the day.

After lunch it was time for first guinea pig riders to perform. Victoria Russell & Boy (Boy is a huge, green 5 year old gelding who just needs to grow into himself) Denise Small & Spike (Spike is a welsh cob who is learning to trust Denise and listen to her aids more carefully). Both Horses and riders are competing at Prelim level; Lindsay explained how two completely different horses (In height, weight and build) are judged at this level. She explained how she judges horses on their training, their natural way of going and confirmation. What to look for at Prelim & Novice level, Questions were flowing from various Isis members and Lindsay answered each one in depth and didn’t leave any myth or query unanswered. She instructed the girls to ride various movements at the same time to show how each horse was an individual yet had a similar way of going, both were rhythmical, balanced and incredibly well behaved. Unlike another horse I could mention later!!!!!
She finished the session by asking the girls to ride correct centre lines and halts, which posed even more of an interactive question and answer session. I think overall it gave many of our members a sense of reassurance into the mysteries and myths of dressage, and even more so that dressage is actually not that scary at all.

Claire Matheson volunteered as our Elementary guinea pig rider. Lindsay talked through the difference between the previous Prelim horses and Claire’s horse. Claire’s horse had more self carriage and he was supple through his rib cage to enable Claire to ride serpentine loops, 5 meter loops in off the track lateral movements required at elementary such as leg yielding. It was really interesting seeing the difference in levels and what is required in a space of 30 minutes rather than hours and hours at most competitions. Anybody who competes regularly will know that most competitions take all day and not everybody gets the opportunity to hang around to watch the higher levels, so this was a real treat for some of our novice riders.

I volunteered to put myself and my unpredictable mare Miss Marple (Jade) under the microscope for the Medium level of guinea pig riding. I had spent 30 minutes outside in Lindsay’s outdoor arena working Jade in while Claire was finishing off her elementary demo. I was set to proceed to the indoor arena when she spooked, bucked, plunged, twisted and shot off from 0 to 60mph in one stride. Yes you guessed it!!!! A bird flew out the hedge line.......brilliant. Not the best start to a demo. I entered the indoor arena and told Lindsay, this could be an exciting demo for everyone and I wasn’t wrong. Lindsay had been judging me all last season, so knew what excitement may be coming. Lindsay was great at explaining how the quality of different lateral work movements gained the appropriate marks and the difference in Jades muscle structure compared to the previous prelim & elementary horses. It takes years for horses to development enough strength to take more weight behind to enable them to move fluently through lateral work. Jade and I managed to demonstrate how to ...............
AND respectfully how not to........... Perform a left and right half pass in trot and canter. This actually turned out to be more interesting than if my mare had behaved, my husband Colin took great delight in telling me how much he had enjoyed seeing the differences. (Not sure if that was a compliment or not.....LOL) it’s a good job I have got a sense of humour.

By my own admission, Jade does not have the biggest medium trot (we are working on it) but it was really refreshing to hear Lindsay’s comments through a judges eyes. As most of us know some horses are physically unable to show massive, exuberant trot work due to their genetic build up, but can lengthen their outline to some extent, so based on this theory Lindsay judges each horse on its natural capability. The fact that the horse has lengthened its frame to a degree, the main fact is that it has actually lengthened. I thoroughly enjoyed our demonstration and would definitely do it again given the opportunity.

On that note, my report comes to an end. For those of you who have been inspired by Lindsay’s way or training, her attention to detail and her superb attitude towards Dressage and riding, I will be organising more One Day Rallies with Lindsay throughout year. The first will possibly be on March 18th/19th 2012. I will be sending out a booking form shortly. These rallies will be on a first come first served basis, so you better be quick if you wish to attend as there are only ever 8 spaces available at each Rally.
Contact me Jill Smith – jillcolin52@virginmedia.com 07792 859235 / 01993 842203 (after 7.30pm)

Jill Smith & Miss Marple