How to ride more German?

[foursocks]

I have a similar situation and it is entirely possible you are more capable of figuring this out, OP, than you might think, because I’ve done it. I’m no superwoman, nor am I all that talented in the saddle, I’m just extremely determined! My trainer is an eventer, so dressage is our flatwork- this is 100% the most important factor because without learning how to use my seat as an aid along with all of my other aids, all the leg in the world wouldn’t get my horses in balance.

I’m 54, I’m pretty little, I do the jumpers but spent my younger years in the hunter ring so I came with that forward seat thing installed, I have two horses, AND I had to learn to ride like a German about a decade ago when I got my now-older guy. He’s built like a big tube and he’s lazy, so getting him to work over his back is hard for me because he doesn’t want to use his core. He also has a very, very, very powerful hind end, which is great except that he can pop me up out of the saddle and dump onto his forehand at the canter unless I have him really engaged and sitting and light in front, and I’m really engaged and sitting, lol.

When this doesn’t happen, he’s heavy in front and his hind end is out behind him, so we are unbalanced and it sucks. I can jump him around 1.0m and even most 1.10m jumps all day long like this because he is scopy and powerful, but anything higher or more difficult (a wide 1.10m oxer off a short turn, for example), and it gets harder physically for him to jump unbalanced so he…well, as he’s gotten older he just won’t jump.

To develop more strength in myself, what I did first was started running 4-5 times a week, 20-30 minutes, on a treadmill that had an incline function. When my knees and back started protesting that (I also have scoliosis), I got an air bike and now I do sprint-slow pedal-sprint-etc. on that for 20 minutes, 3-5 times a week. Nothing replaces time in the saddle, but this has helped my general fitness immensely. I was also lucky enough to be able to get another horse two years ago, which gets me in the tack more and in the show ring more. So, now I: have two jumpers that I ride 5 days a week, 6 days in the summer, ride my bike fairly consistently, and feel like I’m riding better than I ever have before.

The leg thing is so important, but with this everyday focus on dressage I’ve also been able to understand how to get my big guy lighter in front and that is the other part of it. Leg into hand, he goes from a downhill rectangle to an uphill square, and so long as I have the right forward pace, we can jump anything from any distance. He actually prefers to jump from the base, which of course needs him to be VERY engaged over his back and sitting. I do that and he doesn’t care where we take off from because he has the power and pace and balance to get over whatever and it feels very easy to him.

I will also add that this one’s default is always, every day, to be heavy in front and not working over his back. So, every day, I get on and start our lateral warmup work (leg yields, shoulder in, shoulder out, haunches in, walking turn on the haunches, regular turn on the haunches, half pass, etc.) and when he ignores my leg, which he ALWAYS does, I tap him with my dressage whip and that sharpens him up. If it doesn’t he gets a smack and then a quick pat as a reward for going forward, and then it’s back to work. Other things that help are to trot, ask him almost to walk, but then add leg to go back to a working trot, several times in a row. In the canter, do a medium canter, then collected, then medium, down to a trot, back up to canter, etc. Once he knows I’m serious about him actually listening to my leg he is 100% lighter in front and everything gets much easier for me, physically.

So, training and then reminding him to be quicker off my leg from the moment I get on has really, really, really helped because now I’m not just endlessly kicking into the void of his “la la la la I’m lazy I can’t hear you, lady” non-response! My trainer can get on and immediately put him together because she’s a better rider than me, and is stronger and younger. Getting him to listen to me involved figuring out that he was ignoring my leg primarily because it just isn’t as strong as hers, and that helped us both understand how to fix it.

My little guy is, again, much easier to put together but he is also built like a tube and prefers to go on his forehand, so I ride him like a German, too. It’s a less physical ride than my older one, but it’s the same basic setup, and without having a strong core myself I honestly do not know if I could ride either of them successfully to bigger jumps. They have very powerful jumps and you need some strength to jump a course with either of them! I have long legs but a very short torso and I am by no means an Amazon- I’m actually sort of scrawny.

Anyway, sorry for the book, this just resonates with me because I am in the same boat to a certain extent. If I can do it, OP, there’s a good chance you can, too.

[Chestnut24]

Thanks a lot for all these notes, I have been reading them / processing them all!
They have been really helpful, I will just look at them again whenever I start slipping into default

Today we had a dressage lesson and indeed many things mentioned here ring true with what the trainer has us doing (activating from behind and keeping him there) -

Having the various COTH inputs in mind helped focus on that more, and it worked well… Keeping real active with the leg required pretty much constant core, in itself a workout. Had a good feeling, it is clear that fitness plays a part. In fact, a takeaway is that to ride more ‚German‘ is simply more physical work

Thanks for the core youtube links, since going extra to classes is unrealistic time-wise for now with job/travel stuff (already do jogging 3 days, barn 4-5).

Also nice reminders that there are various tools in the toolbox - the trainers I ride with now are both personable/open (unlike former trainer who is a fantastic rider and sports-coach but was for me too rigid in his expectations - kind of like Railbird’s Romanian dressage instructor). I really like my horse and though its a challenge with sometimes different ‚languages‘, I think it is totally worth it.

@foursocks

I’m 54, I’m pretty little, I do the jumpers but spent my younger years in the hunter ring so I came with that forward seat thing installed, I have two horses, AND I had to learn to ride like a German about a decade ago when I got my now-older guy.

This is great, thanks a lot! It is nice to hear from someone further down the road. Congrats on keeping it all going and reaching new levels at a later stage

[mika0116]

Very timely video from Amelia Newcomb: https://youtu.be/dtMewbbJnwk?si=u889kFlG69_IZoU2

Usually “German” riding just means more prompt, strong, and specific/ articulate…

Most German/Euro trained horses like legit won’t canter or change a lead or extend the trot unless you “ask exactly correctly to THEM”

I did a private lesson clinic session with her September 2023 & she was FANTASTIC. I flirted with eventing before I made the switch back to show jumping with the occasional dressage cross training. Even in that session she and I discussed pilates and body weight mobility exercises related to “how to get X from the horse”.

Her words were something along the lines of:

riders are athletes, we manage our horses muscles, diet, fitness, you name it… how can we be so oblivious to not do the same for ourselves out of respect for them?

[Scribbler]

As far as athleticism, adult ammy riders overall come from many different starting points, especially returning riders. Some have done no exercise of any kind since they rode as a junior, some have kept up multiple sports or fitness activities, some have “natural” balance and a long leg, some have persistent mommy tummies, some have old injuries, aches and pains. Etc. All made worse by desk jobs.

Some adult ammies do need physical therapy and a new approach to personal fitness because they have a specific weakness or injury or imbalance that needs remediation.

Riding is a high skill, high speed, high risk sport, but unlike other sports in this category it does attract those of us who love love love horses but aren’t necessarily very athletic or even brave (as juniors and adults). Pro trainers are often multi sport and excel at things like down hill skiing, but many adult ammies are not. Like me.

So it’s hard to say what an ammie should be able to do. Some may indeed need some intensive gym time while others can get by on barn work and riding fitness.

[touchstone]

@Scribbler

So it’s hard to say what an ammie should be able to do. Some may indeed need some intensive gym time while others can get by on barn work and riding fitness.

A lot of good riding is about timing and muscle memory too vs brute strength. That’s my theory about why more saddle time makes such a big difference. I think you get diminishing returns on fitness from just putting more hours in the saddle, but your cues get better.

There are so many winning amateur riders who are clearly not gym rats. (Ditto top professionals, though I do think more of them cross train now than in the past.) I think the very best riders probably have a combination of great fitness and great feel. I personally exercise a lot because it has many benefits outside the saddle! But, if I had to choose how to be a better rider, I’d choose feel over fitness every time.

[trakehners]

@mika0116

riders are athletes, we manage our horses muscles, diet, fitness, you name it… how can we be so oblivious to not do the same for ourselves out of respect for them?

To me this is the core (lol) of the conversation.

I’m not a H/J rider, I’m an eventer, so take this with a grain of salt or whatever, OP, but in my opinion we owe it to our horses to be the athletes that we expect them to be.

My competitive goal for next year is to run a classic long-format event. It’ll only be at Beginner Novice, and we should be running Novice before that at regular competitions, but it’s still going to be a lot more work than anything we’re currently doing. I’m not worried about my horse. He’s a TB and ten more months of consistent rides is going to have him in perfectly good shape. I am, however, worried about me. My legs are already screaming halfway through a 5-minute XC course. My lifelong ankle stability issues are rearing their ugly heads again. My cardiovascular fitness leaves a lot to be desired, even with the help of my inhaler (we just love exercise-induced asthma).

Knowing all of that, knowing that I have (roughly) ten months to get myself in order, and knowing that riding 4-5 days a week is not pushing my body enough, I’ve started carving out time another 3-4 times during the week to get on the treadmill for 20ish minutes and then do some work with resistance bands to get stronger. It doesn’t feel like much but I know from doing PT twice a week that those things compound more quickly than you’d expect. Yes, it means that I have to haul myself out of bed an hour earlier than I would otherwise before work (and I am not a morning person) but that’s a small price to pay for feeling better in general, let alone for what it does for my horse.

I don’t disagree with others in the thread who say that the “feel” is a major component of riding effectively, but I can feel as much as I want and it’s still not going to matter if I don’t have the strength to back it up. It’ll be twenty years since I started riding in January. I spent a lot of time on the lunge line as a kid with a classical dressage instructor and my body knows where every part of it is supposed to be, but I don’t have the same degree of fitness that I had fifteen years ago and I can’t always do what my muscle memory says I should. Carving myself the 45 minutes to work out and jump in the shower a few times a week to make myself a better partner is the least I can do to repay my horse for everything that I ask him to do for me. If I couldn’t make that happen, then the move would be to reconsider my goals, not demand he carry me around when I’m most likely making his life a lot harder than it has to be (not saying this is you, OP, just a general point).

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@Bristol_Bay

At some point, one can no longer ride to stay fit, but has to get fit to stay riding.

This is incredibly well-put! I’ll also add that I think there is a continuum of sports–while I think regardless of the activity, additional work is needed to stay fit and correct imbalances, some sports like riding, tennis, sailing, baseball, and so forth require fitness, but aren’t really all that helpful in getting people fit. Yes, they provide more fitness than staying on the couch, but to do them well requires a lot of outside work. Getting fit won’t give someone “feel,” but a fit person with “feel” can outride someone without it.

I’ll also add that although horses can be retrained, of course, I think personality and build can also impact the type of ride that works well for a horse. I rode with a wonderful trainer who, like me, is very petite (which helped me so much, because she understood some of my struggles with dressage better than a very tall person). She had two horses, both of whom I rode–one was a steady eddie gelding I loved who was SO HEAVY in the hand and really required you to ride every stride to keep him together (but I loved the feeling of being so “connected” to him). The other was a mare I never really did figure out–she was sensitive to the slightest shift in weight. Both were trained by and had successful careers with the same rider/trainer, but she radically adjusted her riding to the horse to get the best performance out of them (in a way I truthfully wasn’t able to do).