MARCH/APRIL 2010 THE RIDER/57

Dressage Niagara Presents John

MacPherson Clinic

On Saturday, February 20th, Dres- sage Niagara hosted a very informative day for over twenty dressage enthusiasts. The dressage clinic was held at the out- standing new facilities at 3 Gaits Equestri- an Centre in Fenwick.

The clinician, John MacPherson has represented Canada internationally for over twenty-five years. John has twice won the Bronze Medal at the CDI-W Dressage at Devon. He is also a certified Level Three Dressage Coach and an M Level Judge. We were very fortunate to observe his teaching and training methods and philosophies.

Two riders, Cora Lee Cardinale and Sarah Smith each rode twice for John. The other riders were Monica Kotkavy and Andrew Lowry.

All participants were at about the same level, training to 1st Level, so it was interesting to see how John approached each rider/horse combination’s specific training issues with different techniques and exercises.

Although each combination had dif- ferent challenges, John’s underlying goal was to have each horse improve in their rhythm and tempo and bend. John obvi- ously kept the dressage training scale in mind with the horses presented to him on this day. Rhythm, relaxation, and straight- ness became the foundations of the school- ing sessions.

With a tense, reactive horse John began with trot/halt transitions to improve the horse’s focus on his rider. They then moved onto leg yielding. The rider was told to “feel every stride as if it was your first stride.”

To begin developing a pirouette, the horse was walked in a six metre circle with hindquarters moved into the circle. Then a half-pirouette was requested.

Another exercise used to relax a dif- ferent horse was to trot the long side of the arena, walk transition and change direc- tion, turning towards the wall and immedi- ately transition to trot.

The turn on the forehand was used to improve the horse’s lateral flexion and therefore their bend. Counter flexion was also used to improve the bend. Counter canter was utilized to improve balance and straightness. J ohn emphasized the rider sets the tempo and used the mantra, “Ride the Rhythm.” He also explained how to use your balance subtly backwards and for- wards to improve upward and downward transitions. He challenged the rider to have the horse learn her body language to improve the responsiveness of their transi- tions.

Other directives from John were to “ride the hindquarters and balance the forehand” and to keep a metronome in your head. Precision in transitions was paramount.

There was noticeable improvement in each participant and everyone left with renewed enthusiasm, new exercises to work on in their own riding, and some catch phrases to remind them what the key foundations of good riding are.

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