Kelly Sigler

Kelly Sigler 2013 3 9

Saturday Freestyle Review from Riding with Linda last summer:

7 days to learn a new pattern, 21 days to form a habit

Sideways towards on 2^nd side—lift stick no string and draw

Backup: rhythm, also draw and everything on line and liberty: RHYTHM

Warmup on the ground: Calm, connected, responsive

Reins:

1.      Steady rein is phase 2—wt stirrup just a touch is phase 1

2.      Relaxed rein—no leg

3.      Partial disengagement: indirect rein—Colleen’s not Parelli level 1!!

4.      Full disengagement—Try was helped to relax most by full disengagement (belly button/shoulder)

Turn: outside arm and wt inside stirrup

NOTE: my draw is stronger than my drive and Try gets emotional w/drive/new learning/pressure/loss of control.

Warmup for finesse: Is Try relaxed and tracking up—matching diagonal pairs

Soft touch (not game of contact): rein comes up thru hands to me, thumbs hold!!!, walk—row w/arms, trot hold and use relaxation techniques.

If relaxed and not moving forward—tap shoulder wait ct of 3 and double tap etc. RB horse not moving forward—tap HQ. Canter: row also.

Jolene McDowell 1* Junior Instructor said Another WONDERFUL day with Lillan 3*: Lillan Clinic - March 8th and 9th - The Art of the Warm-up: A session should consist of a 1) warm-up, 2) teaching session & 3) cool-down. Linda went overseas to teach a L4 class and asked the students to... moreAnother WONDERFUL day with Lillan 3*: Lillan Clinic - March 8th and 9th - The Art of the Warm-up: A session should consist of a 1) warm-up, 2) teaching session & 3) cool-down. Linda went overseas to teach a L4 class and asked the students to warm-up. She watched as for over 2 hours her students did everything they knew and had ever seen and the horses were then too tired to "learn". At the end Linda committed to teaching "warm-up". The goal is: Calm, Connected & Responsive. You should be focusing on one of these three. Warm-up isn't over until you have all three.
The Horsenality determines which of the three is harder to achieve. With LBE's it becomes about responsiveness. They do things but not what you want, when you want. Create yes's & harmony by tricking them into thinking you are asking for it when they are getting ready to do what they want when they want. Example: If you see them getting ready to run, point that way.
RBI's it's hard to get them connected. It becomes challenging because they aren't entirely calm or responsive. Look for them to blow out. When they're balanced they are mentally emotionally and physically engaged and ready to learn. The more you can get them to cross their legs (sideways/disengage the hind quarters) or touch it, the better they do. Be soft relaxed yourself. Get them walking with their noses on your shoulder, have them wrap around you, with soft ribs.
RBE's struggle for relaxation in movement. Smooth relaxed figure 8's work really well. Calmness is their challenge. When you get them calm they are responsive. Yo-yo's turn them off.
LBI's: responsive responsive responsive is what's difficult for them. You have to get to their MINDS: Use soft, different phase 1. Transitions on the circle allow them to feel harmony with phase 1.
To test all three: Check for responsiveness: transitions on the circle. Calmness: the head is below the withers with licking and chewing and consistency of gait. Connection: how little does it take to get them to come to you?
Left brains (LB's) are about responsiveness, RBI's are about connection, RBE's are about calmness. RB's process in the moment of silence. LB's when they are moving.
Remember: MIND-FLEXION-WEIGHT-FEET? Ask and when you feel their mind respond RELEASE or you teach dominance.
Linda's Ladder for Brace: 1) steady rein, 2) relaxed rein (where you turn their nose slightly to the outside and keep it there til they let go), 3) partial disengagement down the rail, 4) hind quarters disengagement & go the other way.
Principle to Purpose: too often we get stuck on principle. Take it to purpose.
Thump-Thump: hair (MUST be hair) first time, 2nd time twice that energy, 3rd time twice that energy, 4th time twice that energy. There shouldn't be a phase 5 or you are nagging.
Plink-plink-plink is light, annoying tickle on the hind-end. You may see the tail twitch. That's good. It means you're annoying. If you do too much and a LB is saying "NO", the hind end goes UP.
Zone 5 to create curiosity and to connect. Zone 4 if it's a respect issue.
Ask - - - release - - - allow. We keep the ask going instead of releasing, which dulls them or confuses them. If we ask allow we get their minds. RELEASE TO THE TRY!!!!

TEST—simulation and mounted

Turnout feet

Collapse torso

Look down

Puppy paws/thumbs

Straight elbows/elbows at side

When I am riding: constantly check the left foot/hip, looking level not down at Try, thumbs and elbows. Remember thumbs not fingers—soft fingers. Soft touch reins rather than contact terminology. Holding a small tray. Kelly had me shorten my stirrups.

Warmup on the ground: calm, connected, responsive

Riding warmup: Standing in the stirrups: walk then try it at a trot. Try being relaxed/not bracing with the soft touch and good rhythm is warmup before beginning any teaching.

Ride to music

Coming down Straight center line: played with wting stirrup and turning head to see what happens.

Loops: (½ pass/leg yielding) off the rail and back using jump block (or cones or whatever). Leg a little forward and focus.

Played with riding over cavalettis for lengthening and shortening stride: rhythm and tempo/speed.

Played with lighthouse: turning head and wting stirrup to spiral in and out: walk and trot.

What is the distance between poles? Poles cannot be pvc pipe!

Why—asking for canter in my body on Saturday?? Easy leg/little kiss

Shortening—collecting: look up Michael Jackson and ??

Lookup wt back slows/lookdown—wt forward speeds ie canter for Keystone

Rhythm/beats of music vs qualities being expressed in the music

Standing in the stirrups and ballet porte bras—from the shoulder (down) not with the shoulder

??no bending to get flexion

When does vertical flexion come into the picture??

Riding: play with exercises from the standpoint of does my right or left side cue Try differently? I suspect Try has learned to tune out my turned out left foot and stay straight.

Sunday was a really fun day—riding in a group and music—fun exercises putting it to purpose—Try mentally (and physically) engaged in a good way.

Kelly notes:

1.  STRAIGHTNESS:  Are you straight? Test that on your horses' back while you are sitting- what happens when you drop your right ear, drop your elbow- go all the way down to sticking your toes out!  

2.  HOW DO I GET STRAIGHT?!?  Start with your feet- 

A. Stirrup Length- are the platforms of your stirrups right below your ankle noble, and if so, are they even?  Stirrup platforms need to sit right at the back of the balls of your feet.  Toes straight forward- not out like Charlie Chaplin~

B.  120 degree angle in your knee-

C.  Is your zipper in the middle?  Your visor level- shoulders level?

D.  Toe in front of your knee?

-This is just a start-

SIDE TO SIDE ISSUES:  Are you twisted on one side?- start from the feet up- is one toe out more than the other, a knee, a hip, head tilt?  Ear- ext…...

Standing in the stirrups- try the stretches- fingers up, down, forward- walk, trot and eventually the canter- this is a great test and an excellent way to get you straight!!!

3.  BE AWARE OF YOUR SPACING with other horses around you

4.  TURNING- THE different ways to turn- direct rein of opposition, indirect rein of opposition, emergency stop on ice. The latter add 2^nd rein to prevent turning. REVIEW 1^st set of dvds for turning

Turn with: Vision, Weight then Rein….

5.  Regularity- this is the second thing that  you need to focus on- look at the email on music that I sent to you

6. FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS-  What happens when you lean forwards and backwards?  Forwards= Forehand.  Backwards= Engagement.  How does this enhance my engagement and downward transitions?

7.  Put all of that together with the LIGHTHOUSE exercise- spiral in= half pass, engaged or not. This is a stretching exercise for your horse.   Spiral out= shoulder, strengthening exercise.  

8.  Once you have all that- LOOPS- to develop straightness.  Begin by putting a cone 10-12 feet away from the wall.  As you head to the cone, bend your horse to the inside of the ring and push that same leg forward (example: right rein forward, right leg forward), at the cone, go straight a few strides, then bend to the outside (example: left rein bent to the left and left leg forward).  You only need a slight bend to begin with.  Start this at the walk and then the trot.  You will see that you horse is better on one side than the other- your goal is to equalize the bend so that your horse is straight!!!

As for a daily plan…

Make sure that you have the first 5 in place- play some music!!!!!  Remember- 7 sessions to start a pattern….21 to make it a habit!  After a few sessions and your horse starts to transition into reinforcement stage- add the others.  Loops need to get further away from the wall over the time to develop their strength…Email or call me if you have any questions!!!!

Kelly Sigler Patterson

3 Star Parelli Professional

kelly@kellysigler.com

Free Riding Music for Dressage and even jumping!

June 28, 2011

Coaching, Dressage, Jumping, Uncategorized

Tempo & Timing – Rushing & Labored
Dressage or Jumping – it’s the same!

“Tempo” means how FAST a horse is going

“Rhythm” means the type of beats (for example in dancing it’s waltz rhythm, or cha-cha rhythm).  In horses we have 4 beat walks, 2 beat trots, and 3 beats in the canter (which in fact is actually 4 beats if you count the “moment of suspension” in the air).

“Regularity” is when you keep both tempo & rhythm consistently correct.

How can we MEASURE tempo?

You can measure tempo in miles or kilometers per hour, or even more precisely…beats per minute (BPM).

Too fast:  When the horse “roars down the long-side” too fast, or “runs at the fences”, you will probably get the comment: “rushing”.  This happens a lot in extended paces, especially canter.  It’s often hollow, hard to sit and certainly the speed is not under your control (also emotional)

Too slow:  The smaller the circle, the slower the horse. 

A horse has to show great energy, and a good speed, and if either is lacking you are severely marked down in dressage and showing, or just wont make the last part of the staircase for cross country, or the explosive energy to take the short option in show jumping.

Why history chose speed of the horse

Long ago it was discovered that a horse could travel about 50 miles/day and be able to repeat that, day after day, without becoming unsound (and the rider surviving as well *smile*).  Certainly the horse can go faster, but can’t maintain it day after day. And, of course if they travelled slower, the enemy would catch up with you…and you wouldn’t be worried about BPM then!

Before the invention of the metronome, music composers used a words to describe both the speed and the “feeling” of how a piece of music should be played, such as:

Prestissimo – extremely fast (200 – 208 bpm)
Vivacissimo – Very fast and lively
Presto – very fast (168 – 200 bpm)
Allegrissimo – very fast
Vivo – lively and fast
Vivace – lively and fast (~140 bpm)
Allegro – fast and bright (120 – 168 bpm)
Allegro Moderato – Moderately cheerful and quick
Allegretto – moderately fast (but less so than Allegro)
Moderato – moderately (90 – 115 bpm)
Andantino – Alternatively faster or slower than Andante.
Andante – at a walking pace (76 – 108 bpm)
Adagietto – Rather slow (70-80 bpm)
Adagio – slow and stately (literally, at ease) (66 – 76 bpm)
Grave – slow and solemn
Larghetto – rather broadly (60 – 66 bpm)
Lento – very slow (60 – 40 bpm)
Largamente/Largo – “broadly”, very slow (40 bpm and below)

Walk: Long in history the walk was described as “Andante” (“a walking or marching pace”).  To this day the rules still describes the walk as a “marching pace”.

Trot: was described as “Allegro” (light and lively).

Canter: was very similar to walk (“Andante” = a marching pace).

Walk  around 95bpm

=   clear “one-two-three-four” sound heard on hard ground
=  sounds like a “clydesdale walking on concrete”
= “1-2-3-4″   “1-2-3-4″   “1-2-3-4″

In ancient times, armies would often have a drummer sounding out the exact time for the walk.   The speed, after all these years, hasn’t really changed, even though we have much bigger horses.

It’s interesting that both the modern endurance rider, the modern competitive dressage rider and performers seem to agree on approximately the same beats per minute to be considered “ideal”.   And, no matter what the size of the horse!

Trot = around 150 bpm

=  clear “one-two” sound on hard ground
=  sounds like a little pony pulling a cart
=”1-2″   “1-2″   “1-2″

Modern dressage requires the display of several types of trot.  The most collected being piaffe (pretty much on the spot at performance level), passage (the most collected of the “moving” trots), collected trot, working trot, medium trot and extended trot (the longest steps)

If you visit the remaining military schools (Cadre Noire, Spanish School of Riding in Vienna, Royal School in Jerez), most performances are done to riding music that is, in itself, quite old…in fact the music is often as old as the schools themselves.

The same word chosen hundreds of years ago to describe trot (Allegro or “light and lively) is the same speed at which we trot today.

Canter = around 98 bpm

=  “one-two-three”    “one-two-three”   sound
=  sounds like   “1-2-3″  “1-2-3″  “1’2’3″

To be able to jump a show jump or cross country course, or to have the power to get around a pirouette, the horse has to maintain a certain speed.  Too fast, or rushing, and the horse will be “flat”, and unable to jump maximum height.   Too slow, they simply don’t have the energy to get over the jump, and in the worst case scenario, they will simply stop in front of the fence.

Both the top dressage and jumping coaches agree…when a canter gets down to about 94bpm they say it’s too slow, and when it gets to 105bpm  they say it’s too fast.  So, dressage or riding music you would needs to be exactly within that range.

Lots of websites are wrong…

I don’t normally go “out on a limb” and complain about other sites or trainers. I always have the saying “I’m not here to complain about them, I’m here to beat them!“

However, studies have been done to show exactly what tempo the top horses are riding at.

I have read several sites where the information was quite wrong.   The speeds they advise simply are too slow, or too fast, or too broad a range. Or, they still have the concept of music “to suit your horse”.

This has never been correct!  Just imagine the horse down the back of the military line of thousands of horses that wanted to go too fast…or too slow.  No! They had to fit in the requirements of the military not just “suit yourself”!

When dressage to music free styles first came in vogue about 20 years ago, they filmed the horse and sat on the lounge-room floor for hours watching the video matching music to the horse.   The problem is that the horse might be faster one day than the next, and it doesn’t train the horse to have a consistent rhythm.   That’s like the ballet dancer deciding how fast Swan Lake should be played.   No, the judges are the ones who have decided what speed they want the performance, and the performer has to go within that range.

Judges are more educated, the audiences are more educated, and no-one wants to pay $100 a head to go to a show to watch a horse doing the waltz when the freestyle dressage music is square dance music!  Be very careful when you see dressage free style music downloads that you are definitely following the judge’s requirements.

Extension & collection

The problem is extensions rush, and collections are slower.

So, we have to teach the horse to do longer steps with a longer frame for extension, and shorter steps that lift their legs higher for collection.

The easiest way that is measurable and correct is trot poles to music.

By riding to music, you’ve measured the tempo.
By riding over trot poles you’ve measured the distance (length of stride).

Read any pony club manual on all the walk, trot and canter trot pole lengths, and gradually increase them first, and then as the horse develops they can be shortened.   TO THE SAME RIDING/DRESSAGE MUSIC!

 A WARNING!!!

Be careful never to put trot poles too close together, as that’s too dangerous – and remember that every book I’ve read says that poles should be “pinned” or “secured” to the ground.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Are you planning to ride a freestyle in competition? If so, there are some things you need to be aware of when choosing music to ride to. First of all, music used in a freestyle ( or "keur" as it is called) cannot contain ANY vocals- in other words, no singing or yelling. That eliminates the use of rap music, hard rock music, heavy metal music, most of the country music songs, jazz ( unless it's totally instrumental) and rhythm and blues. Lyrics are considered a distraction to the judge or judges, which is why they've been outlawed. Second, the music MUST match the horse's stride, and must be coherent- no breaks are allowed during a test. The tempo and rhythm must also be appropriate for the gait you are riding at. Third, the length of the music must not exceed the time limit for the test you are riding- there are penalties and points taken off for exceeding the time limit.

The most popular kind of music for dressage freestyles is classical, and right behind that are the show tunes and scores from various movies and Broadway musicals. Patriotic tunes, such as the marches by John Phillip Sousa, make excellent music for riding because of their tempo. There are also certain kinds of New age or instrumental tunes which are good for riding. What you end up choosing depends on your taste and on the kind of stride your horse has. I'm going to share a list of some of my favorite riding tunes with you, so you can get an idea of which kind of music works best at which speed. Trot music: The best kind of music for trotting is music which is written in 2/4 time, since the trot is a two beat gait. Number one on my list of favorites for this gait are the various marches, as well as other tunes which are not necessarily marches but are written in march tempo. Some examples are :

All the Sousa marches ( including Stars and Stripes Forever, Semper Fidelis, the Washington Post March, the Marines' Hymn, Oh, Columbia !, El Capitan, the Army Hymn, and so forth)
Most of the movie scores which are marches ( including Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek TNG, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Master and Commander ( at least the first part of the main title in that score) John Williams' Olympic Fanfare and march ( they use this during the Olympic telecasts on NBC) and so forth) Classical marches- there are a ton of these, written by a whole slew of different composers. Some of my favorites include: The Water Music ( by Handel), Music for the Royal Fireworks ( also by Handel) Marche Slav ( by Tchaikosky) most of the final movement of the 1812 Overture( Tchiakosky) Fanfare and march for the Common Man ( Copeland) Wedding march ( Mendelson) Overture and march from the Nutcracker Suite ( Tchaikosky) sections of Pier Gynnt ( Grieg), the "Spring" movement from "The Four Seasons"( Vivaldi) as well as the Rondeau and march by Moret ( you will know this song if you've ever watched the PBS series Masterpiece Theater, because it's the title song for that show.) Music from "Carmen" also makes good riding music at the trot.

Canter music- Most of the movie scores have songs in them which can be ridden to at the canter. What you need to pay attention to is to make sure that whatever you choose is written in 3/4 time, because the canter has 3 beats to it. Waltzes, or anything written in waltz tempo, is ideal for riding at this gait. There are literally hundreds of such songs- too many for me to list here. I will point out a few of my favorites, though. Show tunes: Certain songs from "The Man from Snowy River" are wonderful for this. The score from"Master and Commander" also has a section in it which can be ridden to, as do the soundtracks from all of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. You'll have to experiment and figure out which of these songs will work with your horse. Classical: Again, the sky is the limit as far as canter music is concerned. Good canter music includes things like Pachebel's Canon in D major ( a wonderful piece that gets used a lot as a processional tune for weddings) the back half of the "Spring" movement from "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, the "Waltz of the Flowers" from the Nutcracker, The Vienna Waltz ( by Strauss) The Blue Danube Waltz, Handel's Water Music, and sections of "The Firebird" ( by Stravinsky). The Brandenburg Concertos also make great canter music, especially concertos 2, 3, 4, and 6. These pieces were written by JS Bach. You can even use parts of Beethoven's famous 9th Symphony for this too, especially the fourth movement of that piece. Just take care that you get a non-vocal version if you use it in competition. There are several additional pieces by the Mozart family which might work too. ( I say Mozart family here because both Wolfgang and his father, Leopold, were brilliant composers.)