Reno, Nev.—Oct. 11

All three trainers at the Young Horse Trainers’ School, Linda Allen, Julie Winkel and Jose Alejos, have informed opinions about developing tomorrow’s talent, but no one claimed to have every answer. Throughout the weeklong program at Maplewood Stables in Reno, Nev., Allen has stressed that there are many different routes to get a horse from a weanling to the main ring, and the important part was for each trainer to find what works for him or her, and let the horse be the honest judge of that.

“You have to know where you end up, and know that with a younger horse you’re not going to get there with one ride, or even thirty rides,” said Allen today, on the fifth day of the classes aimed at horsemen working with young horses at all stages. “You need to work with clear priorities in mind, with short and intermediate goals for every horse you ride. Toward the end of each year you’d like to have a goal of what you’d like the horse to be doing, and be comfortable getting there. But I don’t like the idea of firm goals. Things can change and you don’t want to force him to do something he’s not ready for.”

Allen’s adapted the German Dressage Training Scale for jumping horses, modifying a few principles in how they apply to the different goals of jumping versus dressage. Each step builds on the previous one, and cannot be correctly achieved without losing the steps below it. The base of the pyramid begins with rhythm, then progresses through relaxation, contact, impulsion, straightness and ends at collection. As she explained each step as she understood it, Winkel and Alejos chimed in with their experience.

Allen pointed out, for example, that relaxation is necessary not just for the physical demands of the sport, but in order to learn the material being presented.

“If he’s tense and or wants to hurry and thinking ‘I want to get out of here,’ he can’t learn anything,” she pointed out. “Unless the horse is sufficiently relaxed to be able to absorb what he’s doing and how, whether or not he does it is a moot point.”

New Challenges

Yesterday riders instead focused on halter-breaking foals, loading horses onto the trailer for the first time and evaluating Winkel’s homebreds in a practical conformation clinic. The young horses who had been ridden all week enjoyed a day off, and came out today looking fresh and happy at work.

Today the mounts were back to work, working for 45 minutes apiece in pairs on specific problems. The horses had been working all week in a different ring on the other side of the property, so faced a new situation on Day 5 of the clinic.

Alejos started the session on the 3-year-old Friesian stallion he rode yesterday, Krino, while Anna Forssell climbed aboard the 3-year-old Outspoken for that filly’s fourth ride. While riding a dominant young stallion at the same time as a green-as-grass filly may not seem intuitive, the distraction was an essential part of the day’s ride.

Two days ago Krino was extremely tough for Alejos, who’s developed a devoted following across the Americas thanks to his work training young horses and problem horses.

Read about Thursday’s session. 

Today he was much more manageable, and was more distracted by a stud turned out nearby than his female companion. On Thursday he fought Alejos, who was forced to use strong aids to gain his respect, but today he was much more focused. While Krino’s future is in the dressage ring, but Alejos took him over various jumps in the ring at will to give him a challenge and keep his focus.

Outspoken looked incredibly comfortable for the fourth ride of her career, and she wasn’t distracted at all by her companion until her pasturemate came down the hill. She started by trotting a placing pole in front of a crossrail a few times, then moved on to other small short exercises that built on each another.

“This is different for her having another horse in the ring,” said Allen. “Your young horse is always going to be concerned with new. If a horse is in new situation, it’s all the more important that the work is familiar.

“The harder the jump is, the easier it should be,” she continued. “The easier the jump is, the more complicated the approach or the turn afterward. You want them believing as they go down there that they can get over what’s in front of them.”

Natural Tendencies

The next pair of 4-year-olds Allen described as “sensitive but smart.” Ostentatious started out quite tense, and Gretchen Deane worked hard to get her to relax. Allen and Winkel worked to help her soften her seat and change her balance, and by the end of the ride Ostentatious looked much more comfortable and jumped beautifully. Continental was naturally quieter, and worked more on finding the right pace.

Winkel pointed out that Deane’s extra effort to mesh with Ostentatious wasn’t a bad thing.

“I believe that each person is naturally either an over-rider or an under-rider,” she said. “One isn’t better than the other, and the goal is always to get to the middle. And every horse is either an over-rider’s horse or an under-rider’s horse—either naturally a bit quiet or a bit hot. At the end, you’ll have more success with the horse who’s your type, but you’ll learn the most from the one who’s not your type.”

For the next pair, Allen tried a different approach, skipping canter work on the flat until the horses had warmed up over a few jumps.

Kevin Winkel’s 5-year-old Joker wanted to get heavy occasionally, while Alvaro Tejada’s Outlier stayed lighter. Allen had them start with half turns in reverse over verticals set on the quarter line, working on track and smooth turns.

“Notice when the horse zeros in on the jump,” said Allen. “They will at some point, and it’s a good exercise for you as a rider to feel what that feels like.”

Meanwhile Alejos tacked up 2-year-old Blaze for that colt’s third ride. He didn’t flinch at the new environment (aside from spooking once when a horse knocked down a jump). Alejos let that horse hop over a few tiny fences as well. He rode him in an English saddle with very light contact, and kept things very simple.

“The younger and greener they are, the less you expect and the more you accept,” said Winkel.

Avoiding The Fight

Tejada stayed in the ring on 5-year-old Guinevere (by Pillow Talk), while Forssell came back to ride that mare’s 7-year-old full brother, Let’s Talk. Both horses were in the process of working out some bad habits developed earlier in their start. Let’s Talk had a tendency to rush a bit, and got heavy easily. With that horse Allen distinguished between a waiting and a holding jump, admonishing Forssell to avoid a battle and break the cycle by not “taking the first pull.”

Allen had the riders work at will on the flat and over fences while she chimed in to ask why they were doing what they were doing and offer suggestions.

Sylvia Alejos was next up on her dun jumper, a 6-year-old reformed bucker, while Wendy Hoff climbed onto 5-year-old Concertina. While that mare wasn’t as fresh as her last ride, she did tend to drop down and get heavy, while still tracking under herself behind. Hoff worked hard to stay light with her hands to avoid the downward spiral, and Concertina responded well.

Sylvia’s mount had become hard in the mouth lately, and her father climbed aboard for a training ride on Thursday. That tune-up held, and today he was much more responsive to her hand. She worked on getting just the right pace from the horse to help the jumps come up smoother.

Riders prepared for the final day of the program by helping Kevin build a course for tomorrow’s mock-competition.

Catch up on Thursday’s clinic here.

For a full report from Young Horse Trainers’ School check out the Oct. 27 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.