[From the June 2011 Sho Times:Shannon Dueck is a contributing writer to the
Sho Clothes Sho News monthly newsletter]
by Shannon Dueck
(Photo of Shannon Dueck by Sue Stickle)
Are You Drilling the Movement or Developing the Movement?
What is the difference? Drilling a movement has negative connotations, because much of the time riders and trainers are repeating a poorly executed movement over and over again. I know you have all heard the saying that perfect practice makes for perfect performance. The same is true for poor practice, it does lead to poor performance. Repeating a movement badly just for the sake of doing it is just poor training, I think you would agree! Doing a leg yield over and over again that is unbalanced, running, sucking back or above the bit (a common First Level problem) or a flying change that is late behind, rushed, croup high (a common Third Level problem) time and time again is only going to put you and your horse down the path to physical problems and mental insecurity.
We want to develop a horse correctly in all the exercises right from the start, so that we can then repeat the movements well again and again, and thus use perfect practice to help ensure perfect performance. This kind of "drilling" should have a positive impact on your progression.
So how to develop a movement correctly? First, make sure you and your horse are ready for the movement. This seems like a no-brainer, but I often see horses that are nowhere near balanced or bent correctly on a 20 meter circle being pushed to perform leg yields, or horses and riders who are not yet able to collect the canter on a 10 meter circle being asked for a flying change. It's not a surprise that the new movements are not performed well.
Second, make sure your horse understands every element of a movement or exercise before trying to put it all together. That means for a trot leg yield that your horse can (1) move his haunches easily away from one leg behind the girth, (2) stay round straight and over the back in both reins, (3) stay forward while staying round in both reins and then voila (4) your horse has a chance of doing all three at the same time, which should result in a good leg yield!
Third, Repeat. The good leg yield. Not the bad one. If one element of this leg yield is missing, work on that element before trying to put it all together again. Always assess what element (or multiple elements) are missing, fix that one element (or multiple elements one at a time) and then put them all together again - in the good leg yield. Repeat. And reward. And don't repeat too much, or the pieces begin to abandon you once again - horses get tired, so do riders. Do this again the next ride - and the next, and the next (you get my drift). I think maybe 2 or three good repetitions per ride is a great thing to aspire to!
This is good "drilling" or repetition. You will reap the benefit of proper development of each movement or exercise. This will result in a horse that looks forward to his or her work, because more of his or her efforts result in a "good boy (or girl)".
I would like all of us working on this very demanding sport (and art) of dressage to have more positive moments than negative, and the way to do this is to NOT RUSH through the levels. The way to do this is to make sure that you really do understand the objectives of each level and can perform the movements well before pushing to the next level. This has nothing to do with competition, more to do with your day to day training at home. Competition is a whole 'nuther can of worms. More on that later :-)
International Grand Prix trainer and competitor Shannon Dueck is a Pan Am Games Individual Silver Medalist, and has competed at both WEG and the World Cup Final. She has trained with Bert Rutten of the Netherlands, Kathy Connelly, Lars Peterson, Hubertus Schmidt, Robert Dover, and most recently, Wolfram Wittig while in Germany this past summer.
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