Sit Into, not On Top, Your Horse at the Trot

The work continued in a similar way with the small tour horses. Shannon Peters was praised for her lovely seat on Marlando. Mr. Balkenhol commented that she really sat “into” the horse in the trot, instead of “on top” of the horse. He wanted to see Marlando more up and out on the vertical in all the work. He asked Shannon not to flex the horse too much to the inside in the canter work. With many of the riders, he had them occasionally counter bend the horses slightly in the canter to bring the inside shoulder in more and then return to a slight position to the inside. The horse’s canter would get bigger, and the neck more open after these slight flexions in the poll. He reminded the rider always to sit on the inner seat bone in the canter when doing this work.

When a horse had a problem in an exercise, Mr. Balkenhol often went back to something the horse new better and then returned to the more difficult exercise. “It is very important for all horses at all levels that they must be able to fulfill the requirements of the training scale,” he said. If one part is not correct, one must work on that before going on. When David Wightman had trouble with the two tempis on Partouche, Mr. Balkenhol had him go back to the canter half pass. He rode up the center line and did a half pass to the middle of the long side. Once this was good, they rode the same pattern, but asked for 3 two tempis on the line from the center line to the middle of the short side. This way the horse stayed calm, did three nice changes, and was rewarded with a break.