Auditing Axel Steiner

Friday morning at 6am I woke up (okay actually I first woke up at 4am scared that my alarm wouldn't go off because I'm type-A even when I sleep) and zipped out the door to beat traffic out of the bay to audit the Axel Steiner clinic a few hours north.

The clinic was right down the street from where Nicole and Peony board their horses! So we hung out at the clinic and visited ponies during the lunch break. I got to meet Murray (and his boyfriend haha), Stubby (who was being kind of a nut and showing off her fancy trot), and Spot (who we turned out in a GREEN PASTURE, I'm so jealous), along with a lot of other adorable horses. Overall, it was a great day and a great way to do a blogger meetup too.

Plus so you all know, Peony is an excellent bringer of snacks which was much appreciated because I have been known to starve at clinics because I'll get food after this horse. Just like when we were leaving- "I should probably head out... but after this horse" and ended up staying an additional two hours to finish the clinic. Whatever, going back to the bay isn't as bad as leaving the bay in terms of traffic, so I only hit a small amount. Worth it.

More pictures from the show because no pictures were taken
at the clinic!

So cute

For those who don't know him, Axel is a former FEI 5* judge, current S judge, part of the L judging faculty, and is a USEF judge examiner. Basically he knows a LOT of things about dressage and it was great to watch him teach.

A few things that stood out:

- Axel helped a lady on a PSG horse work through walk pirouettes and it was really fascinating to see. I had many a lesson on walk pirouettes with Rico and have taught them to a few students, but watching Axel teach an FEI rider on the subject was SO helpful. We could really see the difference as he insisted that the horse's inside hind leg stay under rather than stepping laterally (Rico's biggest issue) and there were moments where the walk pirouette totally transformed.

Hurry up and wait

Retracting his neck is his favorite

- New exercises! I wish I still had Rico going because TC isn't ready for any of the cool new things that came up. My favorite exercise was canter half pass left from H to X, at X, full pirouette left, then immediately half pass left from X to F. It really tested the rider's ability to control the canter in and out of the pirouette, as it's easy to lose momentum in the pirouette or overturn, which was this rider's issue.

- He also emphasized coming in pretty powerful to a pirouette, which is what I had to do with Rico as well. In a perfect world, which we all strive to live in but few actually do, you would show pirouette canter for 2-3 steps, full pirouette, show pirouette canter coming out for 2-3 steps, and then leave gracefully. In the real world, sometimes starting in a bigger canter and letting the pirouette put the horse into collection makes for a better executed pirouette. I liked hearing that because I heard that a lot on Rico and wasn't sure how much of a modification that was because he was so green.

- We also got to see a trot transform using passage. This is another thing that I've experienced as a rider but have only seen a few times. The horse was a beautiful mover, but had a better canter than trot. The trot wasn't bad at all, but it got flat and fast sometimes. Axel had the rider bring the horse into passage, then open up the passage into more of a trot and find the passage within the trot. He also had her switch between posting and sitting to try to get the horse's back to free up a bit more. It worked and was amazing to watch. The horse became a lot more cadenced and had a lot more suspension. When can I put passage on TC again??

This trot could use passage, I could use stretching down in my
leg and a more open hip angle

Why won't I sit on my right seatbone?

- Axel pointed out something in a rein back that I had never seen (or noticed, I'd probably seen it) before, that sometimes the rein back can lose rhythm. Never even considered it a thing that could happen, despite reading about how a rein back is two beats with no moment of suspension. Does that not describe rhythm? If so, does that not mean that a horse who breaks that rhythm could be losing rhythm in the rein back? It was a big "oh, duh" moment.

- One of the themes that I noticed between riders was that Axel was adamant about clear transitions between collected to medium and medium to collected. He kept telling people to make the transitions count because there are separate scores for those. He also reminded us that the judge decides the score at the END of the movement and so if you let the horse peder out in a medium trot (or half pass), the score will be lower than you may deserve.

His neck is so pretty sometimes!

Walking out

- He was a huge fan of shoulder-in for engagement. He emphasized using it to strengthen the inside hind leg (and had some funny comments to go along with it) and said it was fine to be on three tracks or even three and a quarter (so a bit more angle than three) tracks. He used it on multiple horses throughout the day.

- Test riding. He had almost all of the riders ride a test, which is not something I normally see at clinics and it was fun to watch. I think a lot of the riders were showing this coming weekend so that may have explained it. We got to see a few training tests, a 1-2, a couple of 3-3s, a PSG, and a Fourth level freestyle. The freestyle was amazing, the music fit the horse perfectly and the horse was gorgeous too.

- Apparently he told the freestyle rider (this was reiterated to us) that only 10% of people should attempt freestyles at a given level. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that. I guess I'm a believer that freestyles are fun and you should do what you want (I think he meant that 10% of people would produce really good freestyles), but it makes sense that you need to be SUPER solid at the level before attempting a freestyle and that some people probably do them a bit early for fun because by the time they're as solid as they should be at the level, they're wanting to move up. I'd love to get my bronze freestyle bar on TC but they're a lot of work.

Square in front! But distracted. He always looks like he's going
to fall on his face when he stands still. Damn conformation.

So pretty!

Overall it was super fun. Axel was a great clinician and there was a huge variety of riders to watch and learn from. Even some Training/First level horses, which were much more relevant to where TC is, but I also feel like my FEI education is continuing (slowly). The work on the walk pirouettes, the canter pirouettes, and the passage was all very helpful in my understanding, even if TC will never make it to the point where he is performing those exercises and it will be years from now before I grace the FEI ring again. And meeting Peony, Nicole, and the horses was icing on the cake.