Steffen Peters Symposium
It was an amazing weekend! At the beautiful Sumac Farms in Pictou Nova Scotia we had the opportunity to take part in a clinic with the 2009 World Cup Winner and Olympic rider Steffen Peters.
Not knowing what the expect from the weekend, I loved every minute of my lessons with Steffen. Steffen's focus and message was the importance of throughness, connection, responsiveness....of course elements that can always be improved upon no matter what level you ride at.
After a short warm up on Saturday Steffen noted that it would be nice for Whisca to become a little quicker so make certain movements better. Steffen offered he could instruct me on how to do this OR he could get on Whisca to give it a try. Of course, I didn't pass up on that opportunity. No one else has ever ridden Whisca but an offer from Steffen Peters to ride my horse was certainly not one to turn down! It was interesting to watch and pretty special to see him work with my horse that I have trained myself since the very beginning. When Steffen commented on how well she was trained on the basics I was of course very happy! Steffen also commented how much he liked Whisca's trot work -this we worked a lot on over the winter and for him to comment so positively on that is certainly great! Some helpful pointers on how to achieve the same balance and collectionin the canter were appreciated.
On Sunday Steffen shifted the focus on riding Whisca uphill and more in a show frame. Again, throughness, connection, and responsiveness remained the focus in the uphill work as well. He was pleased with her work and said it was good but gave us pointers to make it even better so that we can continue to move up in the levels in the future. Steffen's teaching was very clear and quiet. He mentioned, often times we "negotiate" too long with our horses. We don't achieve the ultimate feeling because we either give up too quick and didn't wait for the desired response or didn't "fix" quickly enough if the response was non existant, insuffient or incorrect. When it comes down to it, very black and white. I liked it a lot!
Overall a super weekend and I'm very happy and thankful to take part in it!
A few auditors took pictures during the weekend and were so kind so share with me. Thank you Martha, Teresa, and Kelly!
Not knowing what the expect from the weekend, I loved every minute of my lessons with Steffen. Steffen's focus and message was the importance of throughness, connection, responsiveness....of course elements that can always be improved upon no matter what level you ride at.
After a short warm up on Saturday Steffen noted that it would be nice for Whisca to become a little quicker so make certain movements better. Steffen offered he could instruct me on how to do this OR he could get on Whisca to give it a try. Of course, I didn't pass up on that opportunity. No one else has ever ridden Whisca but an offer from Steffen Peters to ride my horse was certainly not one to turn down! It was interesting to watch and pretty special to see him work with my horse that I have trained myself since the very beginning. When Steffen commented on how well she was trained on the basics I was of course very happy! Steffen also commented how much he liked Whisca's trot work -this we worked a lot on over the winter and for him to comment so positively on that is certainly great! Some helpful pointers on how to achieve the same balance and collectionin the canter were appreciated.
On Sunday Steffen shifted the focus on riding Whisca uphill and more in a show frame. Again, throughness, connection, and responsiveness remained the focus in the uphill work as well. He was pleased with her work and said it was good but gave us pointers to make it even better so that we can continue to move up in the levels in the future. Steffen's teaching was very clear and quiet. He mentioned, often times we "negotiate" too long with our horses. We don't achieve the ultimate feeling because we either give up too quick and didn't wait for the desired response or didn't "fix" quickly enough if the response was non existant, insuffient or incorrect. When it comes down to it, very black and white. I liked it a lot!
Overall a super weekend and I'm very happy and thankful to take part in it!
A few auditors took pictures during the weekend and were so kind so share with me. Thank you Martha, Teresa, and Kelly!
posted by Harma Fraser at 9:20 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Harma,
I saw you show Wiscalina as a four year old in Truro, the first summer I started dressage lessons, and again at Blainville last summer. I couldn't believe a four year old could perform level 1 as she did and I've been curious to watch her progress ever since. Sounds like a wonderful clinic. So nice to see a horse and rider like you two coming out of the Maritimes and kicking butt in Quebec! I'm sure you'll continue to go far.
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