Lynne is a well-known CRDA clinician; she remembered many of the riders and their dressage goals from last year, and has been working with some riders for many years. She also had fresh insights based on her own experience as a trainer and rider. Lynne’s teaching style is straightforward, kind, and her lessons are peppered with humor and good analogies.
With the temperature heading toward 90 degrees, Lynne guided riders through detailed walk warm-ups noting the horse’s attitude and suggesting adjustments to the riders’ aids. Shoulder in and haunches in are excellent exercises because they supple the horse for later work and leave some “gas in the tank” for faster work later. “Shoulder in and shoulder fore should be part of your life,” she told one rider. With each rider, the walk warmup set the stage for new exercises and accomplishments. “Always have a plan for your ride starting with basics of a good walk before moving to anything else,” Lynne told Magda Laszczak, who was working on simple lead changes. “We made huge progress, and really improved our canter,” says Magda. This work was followed by some half steps to piaffe, the best part of the session for Magda.
Lynne guided Carol Burkhart through what she called “the creepy walk,” a slow, controlled walk, aided by a tall, open rider core, that soon had the horse stepping underneath, a good preparation for more advanced work, such as piaffe. “You would think going so slowly it would feel completely underpowered,” says Carol; “It was in fact quite the opposite… He felt a foot taller and was engaged in the bridle.” [This is] definitely a tool I will use regularly now.”
Michele Bigelow is working at training/first level with a mare she brought along herself. “I have been riding with Lynne for 7 years, so she really knows me, our capabilities, and how much she can push Cookie and me,” says Michele. “I took a clinic with Lynne last year and was not comfortable cantering, so we had worked on shoulder fore, shoulder in, haunches in, with haunches in being brand new for us.” This gives us a nice exercise to ride to keep progressing.” This year, Lynne helped Michele with a lovely canter. “It was great to get out and do something normal, see horse people, and connect with Lynne in person,” says Michele. It was a great weekend and thrilled I could participate. I hope we can have more.”
For another rider, Lynne suggested putting down some “imaginary cavaletti” to help the rider think about lifting his horse’s front end and front feet. As this rider took a short break, Lynne took the opportunity to guide a transition from free walk back to medium walk. It takes skill and focus to make this happen smoothly, and Lynne used a rest period to remind the rider that even in walk, “simple details are important.”
Moving from the “creepy walk” shoulder in, and haunches in, horses and riders settled into trotting, half pass, piaffe, and canter exercises. Everyone worked hard, but there were smiles all around when riders left the arena.
Lynne’s sailing analogy was refreshing advice for moving forward: “Think of your spine as the mast, and your core as the sail. The horse is like a sailboat, billowing out in front of you.” This was a refreshing thought to carry away from a great clinic on a warm, sunny weekend.
Halt and Salute 