Oct/Nov/Dec 2014

Both of my horses are Gelderlanders (Dutch Driving Horses).

I have had some good riders sit on them, but they were surprisingly still not able to put them 'through the back' and into a stretch. If you can engage a Gelderlander, you can engage anything. They are breathtaking creatures but not everyone can get their vital 'middle bascule' to work. Without this, its a cut and shut. Hind legs may be active, front end may be up and arched, but if the energy isn't 'flowing through a soft swinging back' then the energy will be blocked and the hind legs disabled. The hocks can still go up and down (which is where a Driving Horses hocks wanna go anyway!) but not forward under the centre of gravity, due to the pelvis angle still being out behind as opposed to correctly tucked under.




I love my Alfie with a passion and I am over the moon with all his dressage achievements, he really has quite surpassed the %'s I ever thought he could get. So when the lady who owns his very very talented half brother contacted me to help her train 'Casper', I jumped at the chance.
Here's a pic of Casper winning the Elementary at the Isis Championship. I just love him.

Kate Matthews and DC went to their BE Regional Finals looking to qualify for Badminton. They are sooooooooo good enough to get to Badders but they sadly missed a few months of summer training and competing due to a giant hoof crack. Kate had a fab lesson the week before and the clever chick went out to her Regionals and got her best BE dressage score of 23! As Simon Cowell would say 'she smashed it!' One pole down in the SJ meant finishing on 27 and 11th place. Its on my 2015 'to do' list to get Kate to Badminton!



What a difference a few months good training has made to Nemos topline and bum! The first pic in March, the second two at a recent comp where Nemo got over 69% in his prelim and over 62% in his first ever Novice!
I have always liked this horse from the first time I set eyes on him. He is only a baby so his owner KJ Turner is taking it slowly yet adhering to Arthur Kottas brilliant saying 'take time but don't waste time'.
It is a difficult balance knowing how much to work/ride/train  a young horse. When I lived at The TTT, Mrs Sewell would put amazing laminated posters up everywhere to remind us (the young horse is a precious stone, take care with how you carve it'!)
I would say out of 10 young horses I see a year, 2 I think 'crikey if you keep doing that your going to break him.'  4 out of 10 that I think the owners are so frightened of breaking them that they don't train the horse correctly (they think they are being nice by not asking the young horse to do anything when they ride him, so hes just learning bad habits not good habits, your work with the horse is either correctly building him up, or breaking him down.)
So I always advise people to ride the young horse correctly, from day 1, for short periods. You need to ask the young horse to use the right muscles because if not he will use the WRONG muscles! If you lifted 20 straw bales using the wrong muscles wouldnt you bugger your back?!
By asking the young horse to carry you correctly (for short periods) you will strengthen the bridge of the back muscles. Look how healthy the Spanish Riding School of Viennas horses are well into their 20's (still performing!) . Gerd Heuschmann has taught me that those first few ridden years are vital to strengthen the hind leg suspensories in the 'pushing forward' phase, years before they are ever asked to 'carry'. Then they dont break so easily.
KJ is one of those i believe is bringing her young horse on absolutely brilliantly. He lunges, he hacks , he jumps, he works in an uphill frame for short periods and he stretches to the floor for short periods, 4/5 times a week. Then, as Arthur Kottas says, all we need is  'luck'! Luck that he doesn't slip in the filed, luck that the wind doesn't blow real strong just at the moment hes in full trot stretch etc etc! (Ha ha which KJ calls riding by the seat of your pants ha ha!)
KJ  teaches at Hall Place in Tilehurst Reading if you know anyone in need! I feel really lucky to teach at two Riding Estableshments (Hall Place and Cloud Stables) where the teaching they all pass on to all their clients is classical and correct.

July/August/September 2014

Jo Billings is doing a cracking job with her young horse Flash, out and about competing BD Prelim and Novice and BD music. I love this photo of them at Pachesham Area Festival. Jo was already a super rider when I first met her but its been great fun giving her some extra tools to play with to bring out Flash's potential and to enhance his movement and paces. The more Jo concentrates on her position and the function of her seat, back and core, the more Flash responds in self carriage. I am very excited about this combination and look forward to helping them all the way up the BD ladder.


I received this lovely email from one of my clients Helen Rance, who is transforming her riding in such a short space of time.
"Tracey thank you for your kind words. I seriously couldn't of done it with out you and the way that you teach. You actually make me like dressage. Something that I never have because I simply didn't understand it. In the horse world many people belittle others and confuse others with there Techno language and if you don't understand your made to feel stupid. Where as you have never made me feel like that. I feel like I could ask you anything and you won't laugh in my face. And because you break things down so simply and make it very visual I understand what your saying so I can go on and do it. You are a very very good teacher. So thank you xx".
I love my job. The art of teaching is being able to share the knowledge. But everyone sees, hears, learns, feels things differently, so to be a good coach you have to work out how to explain a million different things, in a million different ways, to a million different people (and if you cant do that then you shouldn't be a coach/trainer/teacher!)
Sometimes the explanations I make are subtle, sometimes they are incredibly graphic!
Its not rocket science, but so many people have been so confused along the way before I met them that I can understand why they are lost and I love helping them find their way.
Helping Helen train her horse from being a little hollow, with his back not yet part of the ring of energy (no one teaching Helen how to find his back!) to this beautiful round dancing event horse is such a pleasure. Here's an amazing collage of Helen and Ricky looking gorgeous taken by Su Burrows from Desk Jockeys www.deskjockeys.co.uk. Su does AMAZING videos as well as photography and often comes to video my clients lessons so they see and hear how to improve. Check out the desk jockeys website or FB page. I wish Su could be at every competition myself or my clients are at!

                                                                                                                                           



Sara Malpass has had an awesome summer.

Basil went to the RC National Qualifier and came back covered in rosettes with 81.8% in the riding test, qualifying them for loads of classes at the RC Nationals! Up at Lincoln little man Bas got 65% in his Novice, team of 4 were 5th and team of 6 came 3rd!

A super ride for Sara on Pingo at the BD Prelim Regionals scoring a whopping 72.17% coming 4th overall. Just out of qualifying for the BD Nationals at Stoneleigh on the day but then they were given a wild card! (after all the Regionals have finished, Southern, Central, Northern etc, a select few of the highest non already qualified %'s from across Great Britain are given a wild card to the championships) With a 72.7% at the Southern Regionals, Sara really did deserve a place.

Pingo was awesome at the Nationals and I could (and do!) watch the video again and again. So proud and so pleased for them.

He was also a very clever boy at the Pachesham Area Festival Novice Champs coming 3rd (this was only his 3rd ever Novice!) with 67.6%.

A very successful dressage career lies ahead of this super pair.

Sara is in the process of setting up her own freelance training business so hopefully the next time I log onto here I will be able to give you Sara's website address!


After Lou Koslicki and Oz received some demoralising feedback and % from an unlisted judge at an unaffiliated dressage show, I convinced Lou to do Listed Judges only! At least then I could have some faith in the comments and % especially if it was a judge I knew of and respected. Low and behold under the brilliant List 4 Judge Scilla Lown, (whom I have seen give a range of marks from 50% to 74%!) Lou wins her class on 74.5%!!!!! Thats more like it!
Lou wont mind me telling you that when I first met Oz, he didnt move like he does now. They have both gone from two unhappy souls, not really enjoying it, feeling like it was all too much hard work to both quite literally squealing with delight and next lesson we finish putting together Elementary 59 and the previous lesson we did travers and half pass! I could barely get Oz to trot on a circle myself on our first few lessons!
What a difference.

My beautiful Alfie was Reserve Champ at the Medium Area Festival at Patchetts. Tricky summer with his feet falling apart from the dreadful wet spring we had so although he had qualified for the Medium Regionals he just wasn't ready for the 70% needed at Regional level to qualify for the Medium Nationals, so i opted for Areas instead.  A lot of people asked me why i didnt keep him in and i adid argue with myself a lot over this. He needs to go out in the field come rain or shine for both his brain and his body and that's more important to me so that he can be a happy horse. He loves his field, he loves his grass and now he loves playing with his friend.