I attended my first Equine Affaire earlier this month. Boy, what an experience! A friend and I were on the fence and finally decided at the last minute. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but it was bigger, and better, than I imagined! I soaked in all of the information I could talking to the vendors and attending clinics, and, believe me, it was a lot! I was very glad to have brought my notebook to look back on when I returned home.

The sessions with Jan Ebeling and Vitor Silva were the best. I picked up numerous tidbits to put into play immediately, as well as some larger themes about training in general that I’m pondering a bit more.

Jan stressed keeping the horse forward in the down transitions, which I’ve already seen result in improvements in my training by not allowing the horse to get behind the leg. One of his clinics was all about half-halts. Each trainer has their own way (or ways) to help students understand this concept, which is one of the most difficult to teach. I pulled a series of “one-liners” from Jan’s talk, which have help in my own riding, and also with my students. Here are a few gems (paraphrased in my hastily written notes!):

• Close your fist as if you are squeezing a sponge
• Think of a half-halt as a series of constant ask and release
• Allow the horse to become more compact without shortening the neck (accomplished by asking for forward while stopping with the reins)
• Half-halts can be a fraction of a second or multi-stride (Jane Savoie often says 3 seconds. She has many helpful videos on YouTube I recommend checking out.)
• First comes the outline, then comes the movement
• Improve connection not by holding with the hands but with more forward (although this doesn’t apply if it runs the horse onto the forehand!)

Jan’s other session I attended focused on competition warm-up, and I appreciated how he stressed using the centerline for movements so the horse doesn’t expect to halt every time. This is also a great test of whether or not the horse is truly on your aids!

Vitor Silva’s sessions focused on long lining and introducing piaffe. I have to admit I was completely enthralled. His calm demeanor and focus on developing correct riding had me hooked! I am a HUGE proponent of longeing and think everyone else should be too, haha. But seriously, if you want to check in and see how independent your seat really is, get yourself a longe lesson! I’ll be doing an upcoming post all about this topic and hope to get a good conversation going in the comments section!

Anyway, back to Vitor’s lessons. He delved into the horse/trainer relationship and that it is our job, as riders and trainers, to relax the horse: “before we have control over the horse, we must have control over ourselves.” For someone who can be a bit “type-A” (see previous post regarding HPS), this was really important to hear. My current horse is very intuitive, and if I’m not relaxed, he knows it! This can really perpetuate a vicious cycle with the horse and rider amping each other up in turn. I also valued his approach to perceived naughtiness from the horse. He looked at the bigger picture, instead saying, “yes, the horse did kick out a bit when asking for piaffe. We are asking him to be ‘more expressive’ aren’t we? He is trying to find his balance.” A final take-away from Vitor was that a tight frame causes explosiveness. I don’t know about you, but it didn’t take me long to think of an example!

I’d love to hear about your experiences at Equine Affaire, especially if you attended any of these sessions. I’m definitely saving the date for next year!

P.S. I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t ask for a picture with Jan when I had the opportunity to speak with him!!