Conrad Schumacher Notes

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Conrad Schumacher Clinic at Tower Farm
Issaquah, Wa
October 16-18, 1998

CONNECTION:

First horse of clinic had a problem bending neck and becoming round. This is a difficult problem for a young rider. Use of turn on the forehand to get horse to accept bit Rider to put outside leg behind girth, and accepting horse coming to it, to prevent from turning too quickly. Horse moves step by step away from inside leg and reins give horse a little bend with inside rein but not allow going forward with outside rein. After turn on forehand, wait a moment and then trot off. To make a correct connection, you need to be able to shorten the horse and stretch the horse in combination. The position of the horse's neck shows how the back is working.

The neck can be too low for a test but not for the work we are doing. The neck is the back in front of the rider.

One horse had a big improvement since the last clinic because the horse was more honest in the neck so the movement was bigger and nicer.

BASICS:

Medium gaits are just as slow but with long strides, not faster.

Horses are animals and need preparation for what he needs to do. Conrad doesn’t care what type of horse the young rider brings because horses come and go but the rider is the most important. He wants to make good riders because then they can make good horses.

Warmup - There are no rules, some horses relax better in the canter than in the trot. Don't do lessons in warm up but just canter to warm up.

For a cool down after work, do a serpentine in the tort without using your reins. A young horse is long in the beginning of the work and we work to get it shorter. An older horse is shorter in beginning and we make it longer, but a Grand Prix Horse must be able to be ridden like a young horse or it is not good.

Lateral work done in walk makes it easier for the rider to feel everything and the horse also has a chance to feel everything. Walking exercises help keep horse more sound because it gets the horse more "oiled". If you do the work in the walk, you do not have to do it and repeat so many times in the canter and trot.

Classical means that everything must be learned in a classical way but if horse hasn't learned in the classical way, sometimes we must find a solution so that we can go on in the classical way.

Dressage work is every day one little step higher.

RIDER AIDS:

When you go into a halt, use a little more inside position so you are able to use outside rein for halt.

When you want to trot out, lean a little forward and use lower leg.

When we want to make the horse more active, we use both legs in trot and canter, but in the collected walk, we use alternate legs.

All horses must learn the leg yielding of inside leg to outside rein.

You must have a breathing leg that breathes with the horse. The steady leg contact for the horse that is like a baby in the mothers arms, making the horse happy and secure so he can relax more.

Rider should become soft in the reins but should not be able to see it.

Getting a horse straight is a matter of using the rider's hips a lot. You must take the shoulders away from the wall in shoulder in with the hips not the hands and reins.

You must use your wrists and fingers on the reins, the moment you use your arm, you are always too late but with the wrist you are quick enough.

One rider had a stiff arm and this can go down the arm into the hips. If one part is stiff, then it can move down to the other parts of the body so must be fixed. If the hands are making the wrist stiff, the body won't continue to work.

The hand position depends on the conformation of the rider, where your elbow is and where the horse's mouth is.

Don't take neck down with the hands, but keep them up and use wrists for bending.

You must ride horse to snaffle even in a double bridle.

A rider must learn to sit and wait for a sensitive horse.

The muscles of the horse come together from all sides to where the girth is and so you must keep your leg forward to loosen these muscles under the girth.

You can use two whips and put whips on upper legs to help maintain the correct position of hands.

COLLECTION:

We must get the horse to be a little straighter in canter to get a higher collection. When the horse moves his hindlegs to inside they are no longer under the center of gravity.

Canter pirouette should not be a stress movement, it is a canter, should be no different than cantering on a circle. Actually a volte in canter should be more difficult than the pirouette. It is important that you have a feeling that you could do the pirouette for hours.

In walk pirouettes, to get the best marks be sure that both pirouettes are the same distance from the long side. In training, go as far as possible to the wall before doing the pirouette. If you do them as in the tests, they will anticipate more and could become excited in the test.

You should always take your hip more to inside in the second third of the walk pirouette or it is more likely that the horse will stick behind.

You should bring the canter back to almost in place with the wrists keeping the rhythm.

If you need to increase impulsion in canter, kick horse before never in the pirouette itself. The pirouette should work because you made the impulsion good before, but if you make a big correction in the pirouette, it can make the horse more nervous.

Flying Changes: You must activate in the counter canter with the outside leg. A horse who does not accept the outside leg can not be ridden.

Half passes: The neck of the horse should be parallel to the line you are on. Don't press the horse over with the outside leg, just use it for an aid.

Work on Piaffe:

Always begin the half steps from the trot and shorten the tort and gradually make the piaffe. Don't begin piaffe from the walk because the rhythm must change.

Get the horse used to the rider doing nothing. You just activate with a kick or whip. If you do too much than the horse does nothing when you do nothing. If the rider is working too hard in the piaffe, the horse does less and less. Many riders do too much at home to get piaffe and live in the illusion that they can also do that at the show grounds.

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