Articles
A day with Steffen Peters
I saw an advert in a magazine for the opportunity to watch German born, American Dressage team member, Steffen Peters, give a clinic in Sydney.
I cast my mind back to Aachen and the World Equestrian Games in 2006. I remember wandering through the amazing facilities there and stumbling across a warm up arena where Anky Van Grunsven happened to be riding Salinero. I decided to stop and watch. Also in the arena at the time was Steffen Peters riding Floriano. After a few minutes observing Anky my eye wandered to Steffen and Floriano and I was captivated.
Steffen was working in the canter doing difficult and demanding suppling exercises and the horse was just gliding over the ground making it look easy and fluid. I watched for around half and hour and came away extremely impressed, wow! That man can ride!
Needless to say I organised tickets to go to watch the clinic and dashed to Sydney and back in a day with Mandy Finnimore hoping to be inspired and I wasn’t disappointed.
Steffen started the day teaching one of the most beautiful horses in the country, Kate Taylor Wheat’s World Star, he also taught Glennis Barry on GV William, Rozzie Ryan on Donna and Jive Magic, Nadia Coghlan and the magnificent Carlyle and one of Nike Fyfe’s student Anna Krupps on Reverent F. Rozzie is about to represent Australia on Donna Carrera at the World Cup final and the mare looked great. The timing of the clinic could not have been better for her.
Starting in the walk, Steffen explained that this is where we really can get the horse in front of the leg. “The horse must do the work. Use a “Reminding aide” rather than supporting the horse. Steffen said that the horse must go from the calf. If the horse is not actively forward in the walk then ask him to trot forward from a short clear aide from the leg and then the spur.
He is against the idea of using the whip to make the horse go. The whip is used to make the horse sensitive to the aides.
Once in trot, Steffen got each rider to frequently ask the horse for a reaction to the leg aide. He wanted to see the horse clearly jump forward whenever the leg was used. He did not want to see the leg stay on to keep the horse going.
One of the main tips that I took away was that when the horse is in warmup, do not let them be on the fore hand. They can go low and a little behind the vertical but never behind the leg and so low in the neck that they lose self carriage.
During the warm up and throughout the ride for all horses Steffen emphasized the importance of the horse staying supple through the body and light through the hand. Whenever the horse came against the hand he would get the riders to move the horses forwards and sideways away from their leg using a “creative contact” and talking to the horse’s mouth with the reins.
This moving of the horse’s poll is not to be confused with ‘see sawing’. Generally Steffen would like the rider’s hands to be “Steady but not stubborn”
Steffen achieved engagement by making sure that the horse was very responsive to the driving aides and the half halt. “If the horse does not listen to the half halt you must deal with it”. By this he meant bring the horse immediately to a full halt and wait until the horse softened in the hand before you moved off. Repeat this every time the horse ignores the half halt.
“It is the little things that make all of the difference,-never let the horse go against the hand”.
When asked what you should do about the horse that does want to lean on the hand Steffen answered, “this is a very good question, I asked the same question of Jo Hinneman when I started riding with him and he said, “don’t let him!”
Once the horses were reacting to the “go and stop” aides Steffen got the riders to move the horses sideways in leg yield. He often used counter flexion on the large circle to make the horse free in the shoulders and lighten the forehand.
When the horses were in leg yield Steffen reminded the riders, “Use a reminding aide rather than leave the aide on”. If the horse is moving sideways already then you do not have to keep the leg aide there. This makes him numb to the leg.
When the horses were reactive to the leg and waiting for the rider, Steffen would then use exercises to increase the expression and the engagement. He used Traver on the circle and on the diagonal (half pass) in the trot and canter. He was always paying attention to the horses staying in front of the leg and staying supple through to the hand in each exercise.
In the afternoon Steffen rode Carlyle and Jive Magic…..WOW. Carlyle looked simply amazing in the trot work and Nadia had a grin from ear to ear after the ride. Jive was connected and loose and making his flying changes seem too easy.
Rozzie took a moment to have a chat with us while she was sitting on Jive and I asked how she had enjoyed her lessons with Steffen and she said, ‘Oh Jenny it has just been the best help I have ever had!”.
When Steffen took up the reins in walk he said, “ There are some things that you do not discuss with the horse, when you pick up the reins to collection he must not fuss. You must repeat this until the horse accepts this is so”.
My favorite quote of the day was, “I am not a big fan of using a lot of leg to a lot of hand to get engagement. I am not saying it doesn’t work, I am just saying it doesn’t work for me”
Other tips included, “if the horse is not in balance in any pace, don’t ride it on the rail until it is”.
“Keep the horse really even into both reins and always supple and soft to the hand.”
“The reaction to the aides is 100% important”.
“It was a six, don’t accept a six”.
“Use your whole leg when you are asking the horse to bend, especially the inside thigh and knee”.
When a horse gave a kick up after a flying change Steffen said “ok, he is entitled to his opinion!” and “One of the hardest things in the sport is when we feel things are not going so well is to stay thinking rationally, keep to a plan.”
Steffen was a coach’s and rider’s role model. He was supportive, clear, positive, calm yet enthusiastic, encouraging yet realistic and always thinking about the horses and their understanding of what was required.
It was a truly inspiring day. The good news is someone did video it. If you can get hold of the video it would be well worth it. The day was run by onthebnit.com and I applaud them for taking this initiative.