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EDUCATING THE MASSES
A SUMMARY OF DRESSAGE EVENTS IN TEXAS

USDF Region 9, Texas in specific, has hosted several educational events with Olympic level riders and trainers in the past years time (not counting the Wilcox/Hoyas USDF Symposium). The three events that I attended were the Michelle Gibson clinic, the USDF Advanced Young Rider clinic with Conrad Schumacher, and the Houston Dressage Society’s Robert Dover Symposium. I know that I am one of very few to attend all three of these events so I would like to share what I took in from these three different and important educational opportunities.

If I put all three trainers in a pot and boiled them down I would be left with some very simple ingredients at the bottom of it. All three stress the principals of the basics: the horse has to accept being ridden forward to the contact. The horse has to be respectful of and accept the riders consistently applied aids. The rider has to have a disciplined and correct position that not only gives them the ability to influence but allows the horse to perform. All three clinicians seemed to agree that if the most basic principals are prioritized the ability to master the advanced movements appears. As similar as the essence of the training is these three individuals are strikingly different and I can only give a brief summary of their strategies and styles. The best advice I can give is to audit for yourself the next time an opportunity presents itself to you.

MICHELLE GIBSON

Michelle Gibson is a US Olympic team Bronze medalist. She and the Trakehner stallion Peron were the top scoring US pair from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She has an incredible resume of prestigious International victories and awards and is still achieving incredible success in the US with up and coming horses. Michelle gained her “formative” dressage schooling in Germany under the master trainer Rudolf Zeilinger and she regularly brings her interpretation of his training system to Texas to the benefit of many riders. Don’t come to this clinic if you are searching for someone to charm you, sugar coat dressage training, or entertain you with stories of her glory days at the Olympics--or anywhere else for that matter. Michelle’s training strips down dressage to its simplest features. The answers to training issues are always painfully simple, but I have found that the simplest solution is usually the one that we riders have been creatively trying to skirt! There are no magic potions, bewitching nose twitches, or funny jokes to make the solution come. Riders have to be disciplined, correct, and courageous. Riders also have to be responsible! They are expected to be able to ride the arena and school figures correctly and to take some initiative in the lesson. Michelle can be very quiet during a lesson and only comment on what the rider presents--ask questions, introduce an exercise that you have been trying to master on your own, think for yourself and train! The horses are also expected to be disciplined, courageous, and correct. Prepare yourself to become acquainted with your horses’ hind legs! Michelle’s system is all about activating the hind leg up to the contact and then giving to advance the horses outline and ability to achieve self- carriage.

The Bottom Line: A deep well of knowledge that dedicated, ambitious riders can benefit from. Not easily impressed and not very flexible; due to this some will not be able to successfully adapt to the system.

CONRAD SCHUMACHER

Conrad Schumacher is the trainer of several European Olympic medalists—namely Sven and Gonnelien Rothenberger, and Ellen Bontje. He has many adult and young rider students with more International medals to their name than I can even imagine counting. I had the opportunity to audit a USDF Trainer Symposium several years earlier and that was my introduction to Mr. Schumacher’s style—the Young Rider clinic was a demonstration of the consistency of his program. Accurate use of the arenas (corners), correctly ridden school figures, and a wide variety of training exercises are emphasized. Mr. Schumacher also employs methods such as stripping stirrup leathers (more regularly then any other trainer I have witnessed), adding a “support rein” (a single draw rein that runs from the girth, through the cavesson, and to the riders hand), and setting up ground poles in a line or to create a 10 meter box that the riders have to negotiate their horses within. The horses have to be obedient! Mr. Schumacher will do some striking things with his body in relation to the horse. I have seen him stand in a corner with barely enough room for the horse to pass between him and the rail—no room for error—yet he does not budge. He insists that the horses accept his influence with the whip, in many ways, while the riders are or are not mounted. He is a huge believer in riding the horse strongly forward into a deep, or “half short neck”, for schooling purposes, and in a courageous rider with a disciplined position.

The Bottom Line: Incredibly powerful personality with all variations of energetic/enthusiastic, stoic, charming, and kind. He is brutally honest, at times, about any number of subjects or situations; incredible belief in the riders’ ability to ride and the horses’ ability to accept being ridden. Master motivator. Strong opinions and personality, use of auxiliary equipment, and employing terminology such as “half-short neck” have caused some controversy.

ROBERT DOVER

Robert Dover is a six time US Olympian and a four- time team bronze medalist. In my opinion he is a bit of an enigmatic figure. While he is surely one of the most successful competitors in US dressage history he is also one of the most confusing and controversial. By my count he has retired from competition four separate times only to resurface “just in time” for the next Olympic selection trials with a newly sponsored horse to ride. On three of our bronze medal teams he has been our lowest scoring rider with “major” incidents to answer for. Yet with all of his retirement prompting back problems and mini disasters on the Olympic stage he perseveres, has moments of true brilliance, and makes it, and people either love him or hate him for it. I had witnessed Dover train and teach previously, but after so many years of seeing him from a distance, and reading about him, I wanted to learn more about what he would have to offer to a captive audience, in his own words, in regard to his personal training philosophies.

The Symposium was about two things: Robert Dover and half halts. I have to say that I really like the way that he described the application of the half halt. “Breathe in, close legs, close fist--breathe out and give.”

Good. Simple. Accessible. For Roberts’ training, in his own words, half halts ARE dressage training. The half halts he described energize, connect, and rebalance the horse so that is, in essence, true. I was less than enthusiastic about the occasional lack of demonstration with the horses and riders at his disposal. There was less live demonstration of his principals and more anecdotes and speeches given than I had seen in previous symposiums, by all manner of trainers, and my curiosity was not sated. Mr. Dover is incredibly energetic though. When he focuses on a point he can really drive it home and he has more charisma than the law should allow. He stresses the absolute importance that the horses accept being ridden forward from the lightest possible aids, but as strong as necessary, to the steady contact. The riders have to have correct positions with an emphasis on the upper body staying really forward. Mr. Dover told several riders to “lean forward” for extensions and for schooling piaffe. He also discussed the saddle, how it effected the position of several riders, and made some obvious recommendations. Over the two days of the symposium there was only one “true” lesson and I did enjoy watching the progression, his intensity for the training being accepted by the horse, and his belief in the rider. It made wonder what he would offer the riders and audience if he had done more training and less presenting—a lot more it would seem.

The Bottom Line: For better or worse, a true dressage celebrity. If you want the Robert Dover Experience head to a symposium, if you want to learn about his training then go to an arena where he might be teaching.

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