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Turns
Your turn dictates how the jumps will come out,
says trainer Susan Baginski. Turning is a fundamental component
of riding any course, whether Hunter/Jumper or equitation. The
first thing to teach a rider, Susan says is to “Look to where you are going!” Look
before you turn. Look then make a conscious choice about where
you want your horse to go. Many times the rider looks down at the
horses’ necks all the time. Riders need to learn to function
with eyes up and their minds planning ahead.
This is the philosophy of Susan Baginski, who runs Baskin Farm
in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The farm houses about 50 horses.
Her students range from Young Rider Championship competitors to
zone and national champions in the Pony, Children’s, Junior,
Equitation, Amateur, and Jumper divisions. In 1997, a twelve-year-old
student, Haley Deffa, who had been riding with Susan for 5 years,
was named best Child Ride at the Washington International Horse
Show. Susan also manages to judge a few horse shows each year.
She has ridden and competed since she was eight years old, and-although
she devoted many years to attain a prelaw degree from Penn State
Univ. – she has always wanted to be a professional trainer.
Susan continues with her theories about turning: “ I know
it sounds simple, but if you can’t look up, you certainly
can’t plan where you should turn. There’s too much
traffic in most rings to ride around without looking! Riders should
turn their heads around and look over their shoulders too!”
“There are a lot of different techniques that can be used
to teach riders to use their eyes. As an instructor, I like to
move around the ring as I teach. I also like riders to practice
a single jump set on the diagonal. A horse may automatically follow
the side of the ring and find a jump set along the side, but he
won’t find a jump in the center of the ring set at a diagonal
unless the rider turns him. This forces the rider to look for the
jump. I also will position myself in the corner following the jump
and tell the rider to look at me. From this position I can tell
exactly when the rider turns her head and looks at me. I can if
they look too late or not at all, or drops their eyes, I can tell
this immediately. The rider should start looking at least two strides
before they reach the midpoint of the short side of the arena (depending
on size). The rider looks, and then plans specific turn to the
jump, and then they turn. The rider can focus on your raised hand
or a point on the wall to become more aware of when to make the
turn.”
Susan says, “cutting turns are probably the
most common mistakes I see when I judge. Instead of taking time
to canter out into the corner of the ring and lining up the next
jump, many riders get impatient. They are anxious to get to the
next jump and worried about finding the jump correctly. All their
efforts are focused on the fence and not on the turn. Then they
cut the turn.” This happens with even the more experience
riders that are past the basics. They know they are supposed to
sit up and look. They need to practice waiting and deliberating
and plotting the turn. The basic Hunter rule is this: when turning
to a line of jumps, don’t turn until you can see the center
of the second jump. Think of the center jump as your goal, not
the first one. Otherwise you will be cutting the turn.”
“ The
second thing I teach any rider, once they are past the basics of
looking up, is maintaining a rhythm. The rider has to be able to
feel the horse’s rhythm, or at least tune into
it some. If your horse is speeding up or slowing down in the turn,
you have to feel it happening. A rider who takes their time and
plans the turn, and follows the track she has chosen can still
lose their rhythm. Both rhythm and finding the track are important
and they must work together.
Just Like Playing Pool
“Courses and turns become more complex in the equitation
ring. These riders are more advanced and therefore tend not to
cut the turns as much; they’re used to riding a specific
track to each jump. I explain it this way. As you plan your equitation
or jumper course, you line up each jump or sequence of jumps as
if you were lining up a shot on a pool table. You map out the whole
shot to create a certain result. Always ask yourself, where do
you want to be going on the backside of the jump? Plan the whole
shot, not just the first half of it! For instance, if you are doing
a rollback turn, you might angle the first jump to enable you to
turn easily (or quickly) to the second jump.
“I use the same example for courses in the jumper ring.
If you want the quickest jump – off course, think about lining
up paths from the jump to jump that will give your particular horse
the best set – up for each ‘shot.’ A straight
line between two fences might look like the shortest, fastest path,
but maybe your horse is hard to control in those situations. In
that case, you might decide to organize your horse by riding a
broken or less direct line. Always analyze the course with your
horse in mind. If your horse drifts to the right, and you know
there’s a sharp right hand turn after the vertical, plan
a track, which meets the vertical in the middle or on the left
side. You want a turn that’ll keep your horse organized,
leave part of your knee on the right-hand standard!
“Always try to flow around the course….smooth equals
fast. We’ve all seen Michael Matz do it. It’s the classical
style. The smoothest track from A to B to C should be the fastest
course.
“ When I start the kids in the jumper classes, I do not
encourage them to go fast. They are encouraged to ride good turns-
to conscientiously select and ride the short, middle or long track
to each jump. Of course the riders know that the shorter track
will ride more quickly than the long, scenic route. That’s
fine as long as they control the turn. Most kids can gallop and
control the turn, so controlling the turn comes first.
“ I watch them first. When I feel they have good control,
then they can go fast. I’m very verbal. You’ll here
me yelling, “Gallop now! Or go Faster! When they need to
go. When kids have been taught to, be careful, and finally you
tell them they can add speed, they may be slow to really pick up
speed and do it! That’s OK. They’ll get the idea soon
enough.
Trainers need to spend more time stressing turns and control over
speed, especially with jumpers. You really should not teach speed
until they are past the phase of forgetting the course (They all
go thru through that phase) and past the struggle for control of
every turn.
“ I also teach kids not to listen to the crowd. I know you
can hear the crowd telling you to go faster, but block it out!
The people in the crowd are watching the clock and screaming ‘Go,
go, go!’ but they are not the ones that should have to decide
whether speed will work for you. You have to decide if speed will
work for your horse at that moment. If I think my student can go
faster, she’ll hear me encouraging her to go.”
Lead Changes
“A lot of great teachers have different ways of teaching
lead changes. I like to tell riders that the turn and the lead
change are two completely different things. Most riders want to
get the change when they hit the end of the ring and turn. But
most horses can’t adjust backward and swap smoothly at that
point. I know you have seen lots of people change leads by bouncing
they're horses off the wall. That’s rough.
“ I prefer to see the lead change happen as
the rider enters the turn or even en before the turn. You do this
by organizing your horse4 immediately following the out-jump. In
the first step after the landing, find your own balance. In the
second step, reorganize your horse and help him find his own balance.
Finding his balance could entail slowing down, elevating or moving
forward. In other words, maintain your rhythm.In the third step,
bend your horse slightly into the corner and move him to the outside
rail. You’re setting him up for
a change. Ask for your change as you are entering the turn. (And
this leaves you time to look ahead for the turn and to choose the
track for the next line.) It’s crucial to set your horse
up after the jump and get your change before the turn. If you wait
until you reach the end of the ring before you try to change, and
then you only get half the change, your rhythm is gone for this
turn. I tell green riders, or riders on green horses, to circle
and get organized when this happens. I might tell the rider to
continue if it’s a seasoned
horse that simply made a mistake.
There are too many riders who feel a lot of pressure to get the
changes at horse shows. If I have a rider who is feeling a lot
of stress to get the changes, I try to take the pressure away at
the show. Whenever they miss a lead, their plan is to continue
as if the lead were correct. Lead changes are a tricky thing to
teach. It can result in anxious horses and riders. Particularly
if a young rider is in a hurry to compete, I like to them something
that knows the changes. That way the rider can learn about showing
without worrying about lead changes. “I hate to see seasoned
horses doing a skip change behind. Do not trot the change behind!
If you’re on the wrong lead, continue through the corner
on that lead. If the horse finds this uncomfortable, he may try
harder to rebalance himself and fix it. Or pull up, walk a few
steps, and pick up the correct lead. No trot transitions! – This
can turn into a skip- change.
Flatwork
“Horses need to properly, just as riders do. Teaching a
young horse to turn is basic flatwork, with a lot of work on circles.
It’s a matter of using both reins and both legs. People always
want to turn using an inside rein. That bows the horses body out,
he falls to the wall, and the rider has lost control of the turn.
Instead, add some outside leg and rein. It is important to understand
the concept of turning with two hands and two legs, not just the
inside or outside.
“When a ride overshoots a turn, they either misgauged something
or the problem is directly related to a horse that drifted because
the rider forgot to use outside rein and leg.
“ A young horse should practice wide circles, progressing
to smaller circles. The horse should move with his neck straight
in a consistent rhythm. It gives the rider a good visual if you
have them think of the horse staying straight from head through
shoulder, between the reins. The concept of bend creates a lot
of confusion… riders think they’re suppose to see
the horse’s head bent way off to the side. Remember, most
of riding is feel. Pulling a horse’s head to your knee is
not a bend! If his weight shifted to his outside haunch on the
first half of the turn, and his body followed the track you chose
around the circle, then he turned correctly.
“When to introduce the concept of bending is specific to
the individual rider. I wait until the rider’s tight and
her leg is strong enough to get a response from the horse. Then
I start them going around the ring, bending in each corner. It’s
a matter of discipline, of repetition… and it’s boring.
Kids would always rater jump anyway; they think all flatwork is
boring. Most kids can bend their horse perfectly when I ask, but
they never think about doing it any other time! I tell them to
bend in every corner … and of course they bend only in the
corners they think I can see. I’ve noticed that kids
usually have a pretty good feel. They can feel the horse swinging
out in the turn…but
they let it happen. The trainer needs to remind them what to do
about it. Adult, however, are more analytical. They might have
trouble finding the feel, and they might have more trouble using
the outside rein and leg, but they are pretty good at making decisions
and knowing where they are suppose to turn.”
Well, I Looked
“At some point, I will ask the rider what went
wrong with the turn and they will say,’ Well, I looked!’ And
then I’ll say,’ Yes you did, but did you choose a path
and ride it?’ And the answer is no. Trainers have to keep
working on this until the student is accurately planning and riding
inside, middle and outside tracks. ’Finding the jump’ shouldn’t
be the focus for riding the course. It’s more important for
riders to remember that, if you and your horse find your rhythm
and ride good turns, the jumps will find themselves.”
This excerpt of Article from Hunter & Sport Horse Magazine July/August
1998
By Trainer Sue Baginski
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