PrintWe had the pleasure of hosting Liza Towell Boyd at Swamp Fox Farms on Dec. 4-5. It was a delight to work with Liza. She approaches each student with great attention to detail, stressing the relationship between horse and rider. Liza has a laid back manner of teaching that takes the complication out of riding. Always focusing on the positive, she is a great confidence builder for young students.
Each day in every section, Liza began with basic flat work, stressing organization and balance to her students. Each student, whether beginner or seasoned equitation rider, spent time in two-point position getting their weight into their heels and their bodies balanced over the center of their horses.
She asked riders to make sure their horses were listening to their aids and then moved on to a seemingly simple exercise of cantering two poles on a circle. The exercise became difficult for some young students, demonstrating the need for consistent pace, track and impulsion.
Each section then moved on to a gymnastic exercise where Liza tweaked the details of the rider’s position, always emphasizing the need for correct equitation in order to create a balanced horse. The gymnastic consisted of a 6-foot trot pole to a cross bar, then 15 to 18 feet (depending on the size of the horse or pony) to a small vertical. The exercise showed students how the horse’s balance and jump changed as they sat in the middle and allowed a balanced horse to jump up to them with a proper release. She explained that a rider’s weight should be at least 60 percent in her heel so that one does not get in front of the motion. This also allows the horse to jump in his more natural form.
"Look For The Deep One, Deal With The Long One"
Beginning both days with a cross bar section, Liza kept things simple for the beginner riders. She took her time in helping each rider work through a straightforward course emphasizing pace and track. Though the course was simple, students had to work in order to keep their horses deep in the corners. Using the Towell family patented expression: “Look for the deep one, deal with the long one,” Liza explained how riding a corner dictates the distance that presents itself when approaching the jump. “Corners are so important. They make or break each jump.”
And just as each corner dictates each jump, she also stressed that jumping should be no different than flat work: “A course should just be flat work that happens to have a few jumps in it.”
She then explained that each stride in a line must match and had riders jump a long bending line first in the add, then the regular step, then back to the add in order to feel the effects of the differences in their pace and track.
In the intermediate section, Liza again emphasized consistent pace and a correct track as she patiently worked each student through a simple course of eight jumps. Throughout the clinic, Liza explained to her students “horses learn through repetition.”
She got the chance to demonstrate this to one of our students on a large bay warmblood that was feeling the crisp weather by pulling in the corners and rushing through the lead change. She had the rider quietly make a downward transition to the sitting trot in each corner instead of doing the flying lead change. The horse quickly got the picture and began to balance himself after each jump allowing the rider to ask for and demonstrate a clean, balanced lead change.
