
British Olympian Carl Hester is on an educational tour in North America. After a two-day session at Pineland Farm in Maine, U.S.A, Carl travelled to the the Caledon Equestrian Centre for a masterclass in Canada on 21 - 22 October 2017. Kim King reports on the event and what she has taken home from the clinic.
Carl Hester Masterclass Clinic
Day One
The clinic started with four year olds. Andrea Bresee and the beautiful Ismeaux displayed a very nice round of stretching with a lovely swing and regularity. This horse was one of my favourites and he was presented very nicely by Andrea. Carl began by stating the basis of all his work is stretching the horse. Several other themes emerged with the young horses such as riding with a longer contact and working both sides. Carl insisted that you must have a plan for your warm up. His own system with the young horses includes a lot of stretching the horse to the bit while keeping the hind legs coming to generate the arching openness in the spine from the front to the back. There was a clear message that you need to teach your horse to stretch properly and it's not just throwing the reins away and going as fast as you can. He was clear to keep the balance in check and to teach the horse to reach for the contact. With young horses he was mindful of safety with the longer reins as well. There was a young mare by Sagnol presented by Erin MacQuarrie The mare was very overwhelmed with the environment, Eiren is a brave and relaxed rider who did a great job under the circumstances. Carl reminded everyone to keep expectations reasonable for young horses when exposing them to new or stressful situations. Iron Butterfly eventually relaxed and made good progress in stretching and moving forward into the contact. Carl said he would be very focused on achieving continued progress with relaxation and stretching with as long a rein as is safe as a routine for this mare to build her confidence. He stated that the rider must find the " swing speed" for the horse which is the pace at which they can lengthen the neck and swing thought the back while remaining in reasonable balance. Some horses will swing better in the back in trot and some will swing better in the canter. We were able to see examples of each with both of these young horses.

Carl took the time to answer some questions via twitter inbetween riders. One of the questions was "what type of person does it take to become a top rider? " Carl answered the first most important quality was to be able to take input and constructive criticism and not take it personally, but to use this information to improve. He used his relationship with Charlotte for a basis to explain that this.
He shared several of his own horse management strategies and displayed a strong belief in keeping young horses out and moving. His program is varied with hacking, road work, field work for three days a week for all of the horses not just the young ones. Several times he mentioned having a plan for your work out, and he shared that his horses warm up for 20 minutes trot and canter stretching usually out in the field. They are them brought into the arena for him to sit on and he trains for around 25 minutes. The horses are finished with a stretching session again and then cooled out walking outdoors. He alternates his harder working days with easy days. He also makes use of a water treadmill in his program.

Day Two
On day two Tina Irwin rode a mare, Simsalabim. This is a special horse which is just beginning its dressage career. The front and hind leg was incredible on this sensitive black mare.
The third level horses were presented by Jacqui Brooks with Emmet and dressage royalty young Kahla Ishoy on Sakima. While they were both able to demonstrate the third level movements, these horses were very different and so we were able to see the various issues at hand as they worked the third level movements.

The Prix St. George horses were expertly presented by Vanessa Creech-Tetrauds on Fleur de Lis and on the second day Tom Dvorak on Cyrus. As I watched Vanessa ride around I remembered showing against this pair at the Canadian Interprovincial Championships in Calgary. Both of these riders set the bar high in terms of their ability to take instruction and demonstrate the improvements in their horses. Vanessa's horse displayed a bit of tension and it gave an opportunity to see how Carl would address this. He stated that tension can enhance the paces or make them worse, he suggested to Vanessa to keep the horse moving sideways keep the neck long and hand forward in front of the saddle. Regarding the neck he stated: the horse balances with his neck so let it out and a further example was to look at the shape of the underside of the neck where it joins the head. The ideal is to see a "u" shape not a closed "v" shape. There was a lot of information in these sessions regarding the pirouettes, the small canter, canter half pass and flying changes.

An interesting part of the clinic was watching a long time student of Carl, the young rider from the UK Rebecca Edwards. Rebecca has had major success in Europe in the young riders' classes and has been touted as a rider to watch in the future. When you see this lady astride a horse it is poetry in motion. Carls instruction of Rebecca gave some insight into how he actually teaches someone he knows very well. He was not nearly as forgiving and really challenged her and she took his instruction with only a few quips back. One of the most interesting thing he did with her was change the way she held the reins in that she held them in a fist to address contact issues. Each horse was very different in type and presented varying challenges in the training.
One of the most spectacular movers in the clinic was Megan Lane's horse Denver. Wow, just Wow. This horse can move like crazy. Carl was very complimentary while quickly assessing and targeting areas for improving the extravagant mover. At this point I put down my pen to admire and watch every step and take in what might be one of the fanciest horses I have seen.

I could have sat and watched for days and days. With many pages of notes in hand I have returned to my home base to with several new exercises to improve my riding and a deeper understanding of how to develop my younger horses.
Text by Kim King - Photos © Karie Elderman
Related Links
Carl Hester Set for Centre-Stage at 2017 Liverpool International Horse Show
Following in the Footsteps of Legends, Carl Hester Getting Nervous for Global Dressage Forum
Charlotte Dujardin Buys 5-year old Toretto At Clinic in California