Words by Wiola Grabowska
Photography: Christine Dunnington Photography
The atmosphere, the effort and the fabulous training spirit: The Riders
The 5th Aspire Equestrian Training Camp – Spring Camp 2017 – The Team. From left to right: Lou and Robyn, Gemma and Ozzy, Aisha and Prince, Sasha and Boo, Sofija and Jasper, Kate and Jack, Kelly and Mojo, Paige and Oscar, Caitlin and Mollie. Myself in front of the riders (as instructed by Christine and damn she was right – love the photo!)
There is so much planning and thoughts that lead to Academy’s Intensive Training Camps that it’s hard to believe when one is done and dusted!
Our host for The Spring Camp 2017 was Oldefields Equestrian Centre in Seer Green, Buckinghamshire. Huge thumbs up for this venue as even though they have been undergoing some extensive improvements works, we felt welcomed and comfortably left to enjoy the facilities of which their 40×70 ish m arena was a luxury we don’t have at home.
A few of my own reflections
The actual Camp is a whirlwind for me and probably the biggest challenge is to switch quickly between teaching different riders, different horses, different tasks, different learning styles, personalities and characters, in such a way that the sessions bring the best out of the horses and riders.
I feel I am getting better with each Camp but still plenty to improve. It’s important to me that all the riders retain their own styles of riding with just the core foundations and structure in place.
I don’t want to train carbon copies and my personal coaching challenge is always is teaching certain basics of horsemanship and training values that matter to me and become so solid, so confirmed, so ingrained that they simply provide an unbreakable foundations for the riders to grow on in their own style.
The key is that the rider treats the horse with respect and knowledge of how the animal learns – both from physical and mental point of view, what makes them do what they do. I have zero tolerance for violence in training and zero tolerance for riders who think it’s horse’s ‘fault’ something isn’t happening.
I feel very lucky to teach the kind of riders I do, they keep me on my toes and challenge me for sure but I wouldn’t have it any other way and hope they are able to continue riding with me long term 🙂
Enjoy the photos 🙂
THE CANDID SCENES
THE TRAINING SNAPS
Sunday jump session
Saturday morning flatwork
Gymnastic jumping session
Group go at leg-yield on the wall
Group go at leg-yield by the fence.
Last session: stretch and relaxation on the lunge
Saturday gymnastic jumping session
One handed to improve steering with the seat and weight aids
Improving posture in-hand
Sunday jumping session
Gymnastic jumping session
Last session: leg-yield on the wall
One handed – improving riders’ feel for turning aids with the seat
Sunday jump session
Leg-yield in hand
Gymnastic jumping session
Saturday. Gymnastic jumping session
Gymnastic jumping session
Last session: Stretch on the ground
Last session: experimenting with different postures and how they affect the horse’s way of going. Here Ozzy is going too deep in his neck frame but he is by no means made to do so with any strength. He’s a young horse changing postures all the time.
Leg yield
Saturday. Gymnastic jumping session
One handed part of the session to help the riders discover more seat aids. Focus on stirrup weight and how subtle weight aids do the job
Last session: group leg-yield on the wall. Not easy!
Last session: stretching and relaxing all the muscles
Saturday afternoon gymnastic jumping
Sunday morning jump session: line of oxers to build riders’ feel for stronger canter
Sunday morning jump session
One handed to switch on rider’s seat aids
Gymnastic jumping session
Gymnastic jumping session
Gymnastic jumping session
Leg-yield
Experimenting with size of the circle and body position to help the horse find more comfortable posture
Learning coordination in leg-yield alongside the fence
One handed riding to “switch on” seat riding
Gymnastic jumping
Last session: having a go at a leg yield on the wall in the group
Finding centred position in the saddle
RIDERCISE SESSION WITH CLARE GANGADEEN
On Sunday morning we spent 2h with the founder of RiderCise, Clare Gangadeen, who ran a variety of test exercises to help everyone build more awareness of their own individual strengths and weaknesses from the rider fitness point of view.
“Clare is a qualified and insured, PT, Functional Coach and Soft Tissue Therapist with over 12 years experience in the Fitness Industry and 20 years riding experience” www.ridercise.co.uk
“If a rider is disadvantaged by their riding fitness, strength, mobility, flexibility, motor skills and/or Muscular-Skeletal health/ symmetry it can affect the way the horse is able to perform and may even cause many of the issues we heavily invest in correcting.” www.ridercise.co.uk
Next Intensive Training Camp is planned for August and we are on the lookout for a suitable venue to hire 🙂
Until Summer Camp!
All the best,
Wiola
Huge thank you to:
Christine Dunnington (left on Jasper in her Friday session) for hundreds of photos and videos taken during this Camp as well as hours of help behind the scenes;
Kelly Hill, the Academy’s livery head honcho, for all the assistance and help with making this Camp happen;
Gemma Hill for legging back to home yard to teach our youngest rider who didn’t attend the camp and for making a super video out of many vlog clips we took for our in-house enjoyment;
Tatiana and Gary Thorpe for all-round support and a fantastic BBQ on Saturday night;
Lou Crow for helping me get home in the evenings!
And all the riders for making these Camps so much fun to run!
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