2015 USEF Tests with Hilda Gurney (Part 1- Overview, Tr, 1st)

As I mentioned in my last post, today I headed down to watch a bunch of demo riders ride the new 2015 USEF tests under instruction by Hilda Gurney. This was an AMAZING experience and if your chapter puts anything like this on, go watch! Also free lunch was had and as a graduate student, I feel obligated to participate in anything that will feed me for free.

I'm going to break this post into two posts because I have a LOT to share and don't want to overwhelm everyone (including myself) with one huge post.

Overall the clinic was great! I learned SO much and took a ridiculous amount of notes (NERD). It went all day from 8am to 4:30pm and there were only a few short breaks. Riders rode every test from Training through Fourth except Training 3 and Third 1 because they were not very different. Horses ranged from young 4-5 year olds to Grand Prix horses and riders from kids to amateurs to professionals. Very cool.


General Impressions
First, Hilda told us a bit about herself. When she was younger, she was an event rider and wanted to go to the Olympics, but they wouldn't let her because she was a woman. So she switched to dressage! She said there wasn't much dressage on the west coast at the time, so she would trailer to New York for lessons (I bitched about trailering 45 minutes ah). She was basically a pioneer for dressage on the west coast. She helped start the California Dressage Society and the LA chapter within CDS.

She still rides and competes at age 71. She mentioned casually that she rides 18-20 horses per day and takes two lessons per day. Damn. She has taken over 45 horses to Grand Prix. Damn. I mean really this woman is amazing.

Overall she was very adamant about two main points:
1. Rider position- the rider should NOT block the horse. Much of what she was focusing on was the seat position. Riders who came in stiff in the hip were scolded, as were riders who did not follow with the hip in the walk and canter and who could not sit the trot properly. She spent a long time teaching one rider how to swing their elbows in the walk. She spent another long time forcing someone to ride without stirrups so they stopped bouncing.

2. FORWARD but balanced- she criticized riders for running horses off their feet but almost everyone was told to go more forward. Collection is not slow, it is not less ground covering, but it is more engaged, more powerful, and more uphill than working gaits. She was irritated that some tests were not about forward, she said that tests that backed horses off were poorly written and some of them she said she hated.


Collectives
We started by looking at the collectives. First, there is no more "harmony between horse and rider" as a collective mark, it's under submission now. I agree with that, I feel like three rider collectives is kinda silly- harmony comes with submission and quietness of the aids, which are already covered.

Gaits- Hilda said that gaits should be free and regular. Freedom meant that the gait had good reach, length, and articulation. Regular meant that the strides were symmetrical and correct.

Impulsion- Hilda emphasized elasticity of the steps and back, meaning that the horse was free of tension and that the horse uses their back and is engaged. She mentioned that we want the horse to be almost as inefficient as possible in their gaits. Hunters were meant to be able to trot and canter for hours out in the field so their gaits needed to be flatter and not take much energy to maintain. Dressage horses need more scope to their gaits.

Submission- meaning willing, cooperative, attentive, harmonious, and confident. Confidence in the rider means that there is no spooking. This also includes acceptance of the bit and an uphill balance. Even at training level, Hilda said that an uphill way of going was important. Drat. The horse also needs to make the test look easy- ease of movements was important.

Rider position- Hilda looks for alignment, evenness on both seat bones, the rider should have a developed seat so they do not block the horse. She really nailed a few riders for sitting to the outside of the bend of their horse and not knowing where to put their legs on small circles and in corners (inside leg at/slightly behind girth, outside leg further behind girth to hold haunches).

Rider effective use of the aids- the emphasis here was on clarity of the aids. She mentioned that she has very well schooled school horses (who I want to ride omg*) who some riders get on and they can't even get her push button horses to do anything because their aids are so confusing. The other big emphasis was on subtlety. Aids shouldn't be seen, she said NO KICKING EVER because she hates it when people bang around on their horses. She says she doesn't care how great a movement is, if the rider is too distracting, a 9 shoulder in would turn into a 7 instantly.

*she's in socal and I'm going to socal on Thursday but it's not on the way to boyfriend's parents and he's put up with my horse craziness so much this year that I don't want to put him through driving an hour out of our way for me to get yelled at and then have to listen to me talk about my lesson for a whole week.


Training Level
Training Test 1- so the changes to this test were that you develop the canter in the first quarter of the circle rather than second half, they eliminated that stupid half circle in canter, and there is no stretch trot circle! I like the changes to this test, I think it's silly to have so much canter work and so many places that require steering/good geometry for a young horse/rider. I also think it's a bit much to throw stretchy trot in there, it's a hard movement to ride well at this stage and it's nice to see a test that you can move your intro horses/riders to without being required to let go of the reins a bit at the trot!

The takeaway from T1 was an emphasis on geometry. The horse was super super nice and the rider was great but every circle was lopsided and the rider went way too far into the corner and the horse would lose balance.

Hilda was also adamant that suppleness and forward be the main priority at this level. The horse must bend easily in both directions, even at training, and must always think forward. The upper level tests back horses off so if you don't have a forward thinking animal, they will be hard. She said you never make it to Grand Prix on a lazy horse. Uhm.

Training 2- the changes to this test were basically only a bit more walk. I like this for the same reason Hilda gave. Because you can still score well with a shitty walk (city wok), lots of riders don't work on this. So more walk in the early levels creates a need for riders to work on their horse's walk, which is very important.

The takeaway from T2 was Hilda ripping into the rider for her position. Poor girl. We went through collectives and Hilda said "does everyone like her position?" and everyone said yes! And Hilda said "I don't." Hilda said that the rider kept her leg off the horse, meaning that when the leg came on, the horse overreacted. I remember someone telling me this: If you have a lazy horse, ride with your leg off. If you have a hot horse, ride with it on.

Training 3- was basically the same so we didn't have a demo rider


First Level
First 1- they brought the teardrop back!! Ah yes! I love that movement, apparently the last time they had it was 9 years ago when I was showing first, cool. But other than that, fuck this test (apparently). So in first level you have lengthenings at the canter for the first time. Your very first canter pattern in this test is this: C canter, S to V lengthened canter, V 15m canter circle. So you're on your hot young horse because no one takes lazy horses to Grand Prix and the first thing you do in canter at your first show at first level is gallop wildly down the longside with no setup. Hilda hated it. But the demo horse was lazy so she was like "well if you have a lazy horse, this is great!" This test had a lot less canter work than the previous 1-1, you basically go down a long side and circle once in both directions. Meh.

The big takeaway was another rider position moment where Hilda nailed the rider for being stuck in her hip. Hilda said that everyone needs to sit the trot without stirrups. If you want to be serious about dressage, learn to sit the trot. Once as you're past first level, you never post again. She said it kind of ominously. She said a lot of the problem comes from leg length. Too long in the leg tips you back and you get behind the motion, too short in the leg and you tip forward and get against the motion. She said to think of Michael Jackson's hips while you ride.

First 2- this test is so much better, there's not that horrible long waiting period between that first lengthening and the first leg yield. I guess this could be bad if you want time for your horse to settle, but in my experience, this stupid test just makes horses get distracted.

This rider struggled a lot. The first thing Hilda said was "can I give you a piece of advice?" and the rider was like "sure!" and she stared her down and said "put your horse on the bit." Terrifying. The rider was so sweet though, she took instruction brilliantly.

Because of how much she struggled and how much she improved, Hilda correctly guessed that the rider wasn't under regular instruction and she was scolded for that. She said without lessons, horses train us and we don't ride them to our or their best abilities. We can't be our own trainers. Hilda said that she, herself, takes two lessons a DAY, one on an upper level horse and one on a young horse.

First 3- they took out that horrible figure-8 in the middle of the leg yields. But that means that it's now a leg yield zig zag. I always school this anyway so I didn't mind, but people seemed to think that this made it harder. Disagree. But it depends on the emphasis in your training program and the horse you're on. Fuck that figure-8 though. They also added a weird trot pattern. You basically do a 10m circle at R or something, across the ring from E-B or B-E, halt over X for five seconds, then turn the other way and do another circle at V or something. Hilda said she forgot the halt when she was showing last weekend.

This test just kind of sucks (wait until you see the second level tests though ah). The big takeaway was to let the horse move. This horse was a really cute Spanish bred guy. Not a spectacular mover but cute. His trot was flat and his canter was tense. He didn't really walk. During a lengthening Hilda said to let go of his face, post, and kick him.

Then the horse turned into the most magnificent horse I've ever seen. His trot was HUGE and his freedom in the shoulder rivaled some of the biggest movers at the highest levels. His canter became very rocking horse like and even the walk softened a bit. Hilda said that she went from a 6 to an 8 on gaits.

The problem: the rider was blocking the horse by being tight in the hip. Her tension became his and he just quietly went around. He was very obedient, but the horse that came in was written off by most of the crowd. The horse that left was a thousand times nicer. Let the horse move.


Next up: Tracey (my old trainer) riders her Grand Prix horse to demo second level. Oh and then also gets a quick piaffe and passage lesson from Hilda OMG. Also third and fourth level featuring horses that kick at riders legs and how I totally miss Rico's antics. PLUS: I get to ride baby horse on Tuesday and might get a video of me riding him.

Let me know what you think!