August Cortaflex New Zealand Power Hour lesson with Jody Hartstone
Meet the Team
Our Trainer: Jody Hartstone
Grand Prix dressage rider, Jody Hartstone, is one of New Zealand’s most experienced dressage competitors, horse trainers and instructors. She has an ever-growing list of achievements to her name, which includes claiming the Grand Prix championship at the most recent NZ Horse of the Year Show, aboard her imported German stallion, Landioso. Jody has been teaching dressage for over 10 years. She has an enthusiastic and engaging teaching style, paying attention to detail and aiming for perfection from both horse and rider. She teaches horses and riders of all levels, ages, and stages of ability.
Jody’s career highlights have included:
- 2009 Grand Prix NZ Horse of the Year Show Champion on Landioso
- 3rd place Prix St George class at Brisbane CDI-W 2002 riding Belmont Golden Boy
- 2003 NZ advanced dressage champion riding Belmont Golden Boy
- 2004 Horse of the Year advanced champion on Belmont Golden Boy
- Shortlisted for Athens Olympics with Landioso
- 2006 Burkner Medal winner and Grand Prix champion of NZ on Landioso
- 4th place Grand Prix class at the Melbourne CDI-W 2006 on Landioso
- FEI Certificate of Capability for the World Equestrian Games in 2006
Our Rider: Natasha Wedzinga
Twelve year old Natasha is passionate about dressage and loves competing aboard her pony ‘Hugo.’ Her goal this year is to be selected for the Dressage Team Championships. Natasha has only been riding ‘Hugo’ for the past six months and would like to pick up some tips and advice from Jody, to give them an even greater chance of succeeding in the dressage arena.
Our Horse: Hugo
Hugo is a 14.2hh red-bay Quarter Horse cross. He is nine years old and has been in Natasha’s family for a few years now. He was originally ridden by Natasha’s mum but Natasha has recently taken over the reins after it began to become clear that ‘Hugo’ had the potential to excel as a dressage mount.
Warming Up
Hugo is clearly not happy at the beginning of the lesson
Natasha was already warming up by the time Jody arrived, giving her an opportunity to observe how they worked together without instruction. Jody immediately noticed that Hugo was chomping on the bit and pulling violently on the reins. At times, he came very close to pulling Natasha right out of the saddle. Natasha did point out that Hugo had recently suffered a minor injury to his head. However, Jody assured her that this would not cause the degree of resistance and discomfort that Hugo was displaying.
Back to Basics
Jody went right back to the beginning with Natasha to check that the fundamental stop/go aids were properly established. When asked how she asks for halt, Natasha replied: ‘I pull back on the reins, sit down and squeeze with my legs. When I want to go forward, I squeeze with my legs.’
Jody then asked Natasha to walk on, using the aids she had just described. Jody explained that the horse does not move off because you have squeezed him with your legs, he goes forward to stop you squeezing, because it’s uncomfortable. The same applies when you ask for halt. The horse doesn’t stop because you have pulled back. He halts because he wants the uncomfortable feeling in his mouth to stop.
‘When you’re asking Hugo to stop, I want you to use the reins only,’ said Jody. ‘Don’t use your legs at the same time as it is causing your horse confusion about what his brakes mean. You should never confuse the aids and use the same ones for different things.’
As Jody observed the pair, it became clear to her that Hugo was confused about what the bit is for. This could be seen in the fact that he was pulling constantly and was obviously unhappy in his mouth. She explained that this had been caused by riders not being consistent with him and sending him different messages about what the brake aids are.
Reestablishing the Brakes
Tapping Hugo’s front legs….
….until he takes a step back.
Jody decided that Hugo and Natasha would have to work on the confusion Hugo was experiencing with his brakes before they attempted to tackle anything else. He also needed to be encouraged to be more comfortable and accepting of the bit.
Jody started by asking Natasha to perform a simple exercise that she uses to retrain a horse’s brakes. She took the reins from Natasha, so that there was no pressure on Hugo’s mouth, and tapped on his front legs with a schooling whip.
‘Hugo will try to work out what I am asking him to do by trial and error,’ explained Jody. ‘He might go forward or backward or even to the side. He will simply be trying to guess what I want from him when I tap his legs.’
Jody started off with very gentle taps and gradually made them stronger and stronger, until Hugo started to really try and work out what she wanted. Once Hugo took a step backwards, Jody rewarded him with a pat and the tapping stopped immediately. This exercise was repeated until he moved back as soon as he felt a tap. Jody then started to introduce the word ‘back’ when she tapped his front legs so that Natasha would be able to back him up on voice command.
Under Pressure
Natasha locks her hands to the saddle
Once Hugo had mastered the ‘back’ cue, pressure on his mouth was reintroduced.
‘Every time he pulls his head forward or throws it in the air, you should ask him to take a step backwards,’ Jody told Natasha.
Because of Natasha’s small size, Hugo was finding it easy to pull her out of the saddle so Jody asked her to lock her hands onto the saddle. This meant that when Hugo pulled, he was fighting himself.
Natasha started to ask Hugo for a step back whenever he pulled. At first, he demonstrated a number of evasivemaneuvers when this was asked for. He tried to step sideways, before pulling again, and he also started pawing the ground. Jody pointed out that this just meant that the habit was particularly ingrained and would take a good while to break. ‘He is confused. His brain doesn’t know what the bit means. His breaks don’t work,’ pointed out Jody.
Getting There….
After some persistence, Hugo began to stand quietly and he started to understand what Natasha was asking of him. Jody asked Natasha to move off into walk to see if his good behaviour would continue. Natasha was asked to ride with her hands set very firmly so that if Hugo resumed his pulling antics, he would not pull Natasha out of the saddle.
The pair did several circuits of the arena, with the focus on Hugo not pulling at walk. Whenever Hugo did pull, he was halted and asked to take a step backwards.
Jody’s Turn
Jody asks Hugo to stand without pulling or walking off
Jody jumped aboard Hugo as Natasha was struggling with halting him. He was also tugging her out of the saddle, as a result of her not being quite quick enough to stop him when he pulled. As Jody was stronger, she was able to effectively block Hugo when he pulled.
Jody started out by asking Hugo to stand still. If he walked off or pulled, he was immediately placed back where he had been standing. When he pulled, he was asked to back up.
‘This is a way of giving Hugo a clear understanding of what pressure on the bit at a standstill means,’ explained Jody. ‘This will help him relax about the bit and will stop him worrying so much about it. In turn, this will stop the pulling and chewing.’
‘When a horse is pulling and chomping on the bit, riders are always told to drive their horses forward,’ added Jody. ‘People get the spurs out, grab a whip and ride the horse forward. This is actually the worst thing you can do as the horse’s brakes aren’t working and that is what really needs to be addressed.’
Jody also did a lot of trot to halt transitions, while keeping a nice loose contact on Hugo’s mouth. She pointed out that this would allow him to pick up the contact himself if he wanted to. On top of that, she worked on getting Hugo to only walk on when asked. If Hugo rushed off before it was requested, Jody placed him right back where he had been and asked him to stand still. After a while, Hugo connected the dots and stopped walking off unless he was asked.
Working on Crookedness
Jody asks Hugo to move off the rein
Jody noticed that Hugo was drifting to one side when he was asked to step backwards. To start work on correcting this, they came back into the middle of the arena and went through some simple exercises. One of these exercises involved teaching Hugo to move off a rein from halt.
‘To get your horse to effectively move off the rein you need to cross your hand over the neck and use the inside leg to move your horse over,’ said Jody. ‘I know in pony club and with some other instructors you are always told never to do this but sometimes it is necessary in training. The purpose of it is to get your horse to the point where you no longer need to move your hand across and your horse’s crookedness will eventually go away and he will work straight. You should not rely on your legs to keep the head straight.’
Natasha Finishes the Lesson
Once Jody had reinstated the brakes and Hugo was going slightly straighter, she asked Natasha to climb back on. They continued the lesson with Natasha working on reinforcing the brakes and keeping Hugo straight.
Natasha picked up the trot and Hugo appeared a lot more relaxed and was willing to go forward without as much of the chomping and pulling. ‘This lesson is going to take a while to sink in,’ advised Jody. ‘Remember not to get frustrated as this horse is not being naughty. He is confused so punishing him every time he pulls or getting angry at him is not going to work. Explaining clearly what the brakes are for and not confusing them with any other aids is the only way to stop his current behaviour.’
Jody’s Roundup
Natasha had fun and learned a lot
“It is important that Natasha doesn’t get frustrated with Hugo, as that won’t help either of them. She just needs to keep working on everything that we covered today. Every time he pulls, she should ask him to take a step back. Hugo is very confused about the bit and has no clear understanding of what it is for. He is showing his frustration and bewilderment through the pulling and the chomping. It will take a long time to resolve these issues so Natasha will have to be patient and persistent. She is his trainer and needs to continue what we started today so that Hugo can eventually be more comfortable about being ridden and having a bit in his mouth.”
Natasha’s Summary
“My lesson with Jody was a lot of fun and I learned a lot,” smiled Natasha. “I know that I need to carry on this training with Hugo and make sure that he understands what the bit means. I have a lot of work to do!”
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