Christian Schacht Clinic Re-cap: Part 2

Even though we just returned home from two days of intense riding with a clinician, I had a lesson with my own trainer last night! I really felt it was important to discuss what I had heard with her while it was still fresh in my mind. I am glad I did as the lesson was really, really good. But all about that on another day. 

I still want to share my feelings on how the clinic went, but before I had the chance to sit down and sort out what I saw and heard, Sarah, from Eventing in Color went and did it for you! In fact her synopsis of the clinic was far better than what I would have done so I am hijacking her blog post and sharing it with you here. If you would like to see it in its original form, including a photo, please go visit her blog here.

I was pretty nervous about riding in front of so many advanced riders. I was especially worried about riding in front of a clinician of such high repute; he's an international judge for Heaven's sake! When I read Sarah's post, I was a little wowed by it. I couldn't believe that I had participated in such an event. You see, I was so emotionally connected to the riding part that I wasn't able to be such a neutral observer, and I certainly didn't remember with such clarity the finer points of Christian's instruction.

After reading Sarah's account however, all of what he said and did came flooding back. Sarah hit the nail on the head. Please read her review of the clinic; it's what I wanted to say, but she did it even better.  

Here's Sarah's Post. More from me tomorrow ...

Wochenende
That's German for weekend.

I had the pleasure to meet fellow blogger Karen of Bakersfield Dressage who came to my neck of the woods for the Dr. Christian Schacht clinic at the lovely White Birch Farms in Somis. Unfortunately the clinic ran early on Saturday so I missed the first day's rides, but I showed up early on Sunday to make sure I caught the action.

First of all, if you don't already follow Karen's blog, head over there right now and add it. She is not only witty and articulate and talks about everything under the sun about horses in a totally relateable way, but she's also very down to earth and just a really nice person and fabulous horsewoman.

Dr. Schacht was a good clinician, and I would be very interested in clinicing with him someday (maybe after we do at least one dressage test - first things first here). He's uber calm, has a soothing voice, and gives a fair evaluation. I was impressed that he was able to clearly communicate when an issue was caused by rider, by horse, or by himself (in continuing an exercise too long, for example). But there was never an ounce of blame or negativity, so riders didn't get defensive as they might have in a regular lesson.

He also knew when to say "ignore it" when a horse did something undesirable - he really picks his battles with horses, and he picks a lot less of them than we riders do, I think. By and large we are quick to call something a disobedience when its really just nervousness or silliness. Moving past it and into an exercise was Dr. Schacht's approach, and it worked - the behavior quickly ended and rarely came back.

Additionally it was clear that he made the riders think outside of the box. He pushed them into areas of discomfort in terms of their mental riding. He had riders doing things they'd never done before and had them working on their aspects of riding that they had some mental blocks in, and he did this with all the riders - from Training level riders all the way up to International level riders.

He wasn't afraid to give exercises that challenged both the horse and the rider, but he also ended the challenge sooner than I think most of us riders would on our own. His method seems to be to make the horse do the exercise promptly and correctly, then to move on to something else before it can go "wrong" in any way, and maybe come back to it later. That way the horse is always thinking, always working hard, and constantly having to work on something new.

Exercises I want to try (some sooner, some later):

• Shoulder in then haunches in, on a straight line and on a circle. 
• Leg yield at trot, after turn down centerline to quarterline, then change diagonal and change bend, then leg yield back.  
• Circling in then circling out. 
• Half-stride work/ultra collected (wow!). 
• Canter up a long stretch, then turn at C or quarterline past C, and come back to E to form a teardrop shape into counter canter (can be done at all levels, according to Dr. Schacht). 

My main takeaways:

• "Each canter stride is a new beginning."
• "Think shoulder in." (To prepare for a turn and on a circle.)
• "Ignore it."
• "Pet him." (Very big on rewarding horse).
• Canter aid comes from inside leg first, then outside seat.
• Change your posting (faster, higher) to encourage forward trot.

Sometimes it's not that you're learning new things, its that you're learning old things in new ways. Overall I'm so glad I went. The riders, horses, and clinic exercises were all great to see. I came away inspired.