Andreas Helgstrand clinic report
A report from the Andreas Helgstrand clinic I audited Friday at Flyinge, Sweden’s national stud. It’s not edited completely yet, parts are still in note form.
The purpose of the clinic was to show the training of a dressage horse from youngster all the way to GP. There were two 3 yr-olds, two 5 yr-olds, a 7 yr-old, an 8 yr-old and a 10 yr-old. Helgstrand rode one of the 5 yr-olds and the 7 yr-old, the others were ridden by their regular riders.
The 8 yr-old was last, and I admit after 3 hours of concentrating, I decided to just listen and watch instead of scribbling
Also, with my own 5 yr-old the young horse/basic training sections were most directly relevant for me, so that’s where I took the most notes.
This was the first time I’ve seen Helgstrand other than shows and a few very short interviews on TV, so had no idea of what he would be like as an clinician. I got a very positive impression of him, both as a rider, trainer and instructor. Always very calm, but assertive and consistent. Super hands, I very impressed by how discrete he was with his rein aids.
He kept refering to how different exercizes etc strengthed the horse, how to avoid training injuries, when you can safely push them, and when to hold back. Gave the impression of always putting the well-being of the horse first, while still being very goal oriented.
He started by saying the he’s a GP rider, who trains GP horses. He always has GP in mind in the training, even of the youngest horses. For example, he already with the 5 yr-olds began playing with P&P, introducing the horses to the concept, so when they later on had the strength to actually train the movement itself, it would just be a matter of taking something the horse is familiar with a step further.
He repeated many times to never over-ride the horse. Take the horse as far as he can go, keep pushing him toward the limit, but never go over it.
To avoid the horses hollowing their backs, when training collection (or on the youngest horses, training half halts), don’t let them lift up their head/poll. Keep them low in the poll when you collect – how low depends on the training level of the horse, but even when training the GP horse, he wanted to see a slight lowering of the poll (compared to the competition frame) in practicing collection. The theory is to help the horse stay round and up in the back when you ask it to step more under with the hind legs. Once the horse is strong and balanced in the collection with the poll lowered, you can then lift the poll up and ask for the same collection.
He works horses in a slightly lower/longer frame than what would be “competition appropriate” for the given level. He rarely in training rides his horses up in competition frame, only in very brief intervals to test that they are able to comfortably work in the higher frame and thereby are ready for that level.
_____3 yr-olds_____
The 3 yr-olds were recently started, had been under saddle a couple of months. Still very foal-like in their expression because they hadn’t developed riding horse musculature yet, they were adorable Both were top quality young stallions, but very different from each other. One was quite compact, and easily carried the rider around. The other had a longish back, and was clearly much more unbalanced. Both had awesome gaits, floated across the ground – an impression compounded by the design of the arena, because no sound carried from the hoof beats to the audience. The riders both rode without spurs, but with dressage whips.
His focus with the 3 yr-olds was to have them concentrate on their rider by being constantly given something new to do. Just riding around and around has no training value, the rider should make sure to always be giving the horse problems to solve, either mental or physical challenges. Transitions, big circles, tempo changes etc. He demanded the horses respond instantly to the riders’ aids, half halt means WAIT, forward means GO. He wanted them to seek forward and down toward the bit, and stay enough off the leg to step under with their hind legs – the more compact of the horses had an easier time carrying himself, and was able to push off effectively with his hindquarters at relatively low tempo, whereas the long backed horse needed to be ridden much more forward to acheive the same balance and power from behind.
He prefers not to use too many sideways movements on the young horses, rather concentrates on riding them straight (not necessarily just in straight lines, but evenly balanced). Important not to let their natural crookedness develop into a big difference between a strong and a weak side, but to build them up as straight as possible from the very beginning.
Walk on a very young horse should always be in a long and low frame, they should always think forward at the walk. Once you can collect the trot and canter it’s easy to apply collection to the walk, so there’s no reason to train collection in the walk before then, rather concentrate on keeping them forward and 4-beat.
If the rider is well-balanced, he prefers sitting the trot. The rider is more still on the horse, and thru constant contact with seat and legs able to react and aid the horse much more precisely when sitting than when posting. If the horse reacts negatively to sitting the trot of course go back to posting, but as long as the horse continues working well under the rider, you shouldn’t be too afraid of sitting, even on very young horses. (of course this requires that the rider is able to ride a balanced and effective sitting trot).
In the canter, if the young horse rushes use a circle to get the tempo down. Support the outside should so they are balanced on the circle, but other than that just let the curvature itself be the brake.
____5 yr-olds____
There were two 5 yr-olds, a mare and a gelding. The mare was ridden by the owner/regular rider, the gelding was ridden by Helgstrand.
Now the horse understands forward and back, turn, and move away from the leg, and their balance and strength is greatly improved, so now you introduce the different movements. Here he asked for leg yields, counter canter, and introduced flying changes. Beginning collection, and playing with P&P.
Keep the horse attentive to the half halt and the forward aids in all movements. For example in the leg yield, once the horse understands the leg yield, begin asking for tempo changes while leg yielding. Keeps the horse sharp to the aids, and improves the quality of the movements.
The gelding was warmed up by his regular rider, then Helgstrand took over. He spent maybe 5 minutes getting to know the horse, just very basic tests of how the horse responded to the different aids, how sensitive it was etc.
He showed how he starts P&P training. Collecting the trot, asking for more collection from the seat, keeping the poll low and a light rein contact, then with rhythmic taps of the whip activating the hind legs. He teaches passage & piaff with the whip first, then over to cueing from the legs, to avoid having to use big leg signals in the introducory phase. He starts with just whip, once they understand that well, whip and tiny leg aid, then leaving off the whip and just tiny leg aids. He kept emphasizing to keep the poll a bit low to ensure you keep the back round, and that you should collect them from the seat, not the hand, the rein contact should be very light. At this age it’s still just very few steps, and again he stressed not to override the horse – take what the horse offers you, push a tiny bit more than that, and then reward and on to something else.
Introducing the flying change. There are many different ways of cueing the change. Helgstrand frees up the new inside shoulder, then cues the change with the new outside leg. For example from right to left. In counter canter (right lead on the left rein) ride a shallow loop away from the wall. Keep the horse flexed to the right in the loop to encourage the hind quarters slightly to the left (freeing up the left shoulder). As soon as you hit the rail, still flexed to the right, left leg lies quietly by the girth, right leg cues the change.
_____7 yr-old_____
The 7 yr-old was ridden in a double bridle. At this point, the basic training should be in place, so now you demand precision as well as quality (in the younger horses focus is always on quality). Much more focus on using side movements (shoulder-in, travers, pirouettes).
Helgstrand also rode this horse. When increasing the steepness of the travers, alternate between half halt on the outside rein, bend to the inside rein and move sideways. Wait – band & move over – wait – bend & move over. Gradually make your half halts lighter so the travers becomes more and more flowing until the horse finally is able to do the steep travers as flowingly as the shallow ones.
He used two different exercises for training canter pirouettes. The first he tried was to ride the horse into a large priouette, gradually making it smaller, and when the horse showed signs it is becoming too difficult, transition to walk, and complete the pirouette in walk. With increasing strength the horse willl be able to go further and further before you need to make the transition, and finally he can do a full pirouette. You repeat the exercise every time you train a pirouette that’s more centered than what the horse is readily able to do.
The other pirouette exercise was riding around on a flat oval, the horse is in a shoulder-in on the straight sides, in both ends go from shoulder-in to a half pirouette. The pirouette can be as centered as the horse is able to do. Keeping the horse in shoulder-in allows you to put in the pirouette anywhere, so when you feel the horse is ready, you turn him in to do the pirouette, instead of having a set place you want to do it. In the learning phase quality over precision.
______8 yr-old______
The 8 yr-old was a small tour horse. Worked on canter travers, increasingt he steepness as in trot for the 7 yr-old above, wait – bend & move over – wait – bend & move over.
Practised P&P , this horse was strongest in piaff, so trained the passage out of piaff. With a horse that was strongest in passage you would train the piaff out of the passage.
Series of changes. Start with a few single changes, then an easy series (this horse started with 4’s), working toward the series you’re training toward (in this case 2’s & 1’s). This horse did beautiful changes, they looked so light and effortless.
_______10 yr-old______
The 10 yr-old was a GP horse.
Tended to get too dull in passage, he had her ride the passage in a higher tempo to get more action behind, then collect, the quickly forward again, collect. Tempo variations were a major part of the training for all of the horses regardless of age and level.
Canter zig-zag. Just before the change ride a step of shoulder-in (toward the new inside), then change, and the travers. The shoulder-in ensures than the hind quarters aren’t trailing in the first step of travers in the new direction, which often happens if you keep the horse straight into the change.
Series. The horse didn’t have the greatest canter, and in the series it went almost 4-beat. He was pretty good at the 1’s, but made several mistakes in the 2’s, he became over-eager (very hot horse). They worked on keeping the horse calm going into the series, Andreas had the rider release more on the reins between each change, to encourage the horse to relax.
Canter pirouettes. Rding into the pirouette ride a single step of shoulder-in to make sure the shoulder comes around first, otherwise you often see in the first step the horse crosses over on the hind legs (like a step of travers) before coming into the pirouette, which makes it less centered than you would otherwise be able to.
The horse lacked energy and rhythm in the pirouettes, so he had her work on an exercise to improve that. Ride into a large pirouette, after a few steps shift to shoulder-in on the same circle, back to pirouette, shoulder-in, pirouette. In the shoulder-in activate the outside hindleg (with your leg or whip) to encourage the horse to step further with that leg. Keep the tempo relatively high.The pirouette steps that came directly after the forward and active shoulder-in were very sharp.