VIEW PART ONE HERE:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/03/george-morris-hes-so-unfashionable/
Story by Christopher Hector & Photos by Roz Neave
We were lucky enough to see George Morris working with two groups, the second group featured some exciting up and coming combinations: Dave Cameron and Yalambi Cavalier, Gabi Kuna and the imported Black Currency, Ben Blay and his French mare, Tetiorah des Plaines, Andrew Inglis and LicaViv, Sam Buchanan and Diamond B Carla and Steph McKillop and Yirrkala Exclusive (last time we featured her in THM, Vicki was giving her a lesson of her Welsh Section D pony).
Once again, George was into his theme that the aim was not ‘seat’ riding:
“Don’t ride with your seat, your calf should just cling and give straightness and impulsion, not a knee/upper leg grip.”
“Dressage is seat riding, in jumping the stirrup is the basis of the building. Riders are forgetting what Caprilli taught us and going back to the old English hunting seat with the stirrups long, and the rider’s body behind the vertical. We want short stirrups, drive the heel down, toes out and the ankle flexed.”
“Caprilli studied the horse, the conformation, the structure of the horse; the riders today don’t understand Caprilli because they don’t understand the horse. Luckily the greats, like John Whitaker, feel what Caprilli felt, they understand forward riding. Look at Rodrigo Pessoa and Eric Lamaze, they have a very fast, racehorse-like, position.”
Rodrigo Pessoa and Status on course in Normandy – a very fast racehorse-like position coming to a fence
And this group was reminded not to adopt the Aussie habit of riding leaning back with a round back: “be careful, if your stirrups are too long, they can give you that roach back. Have your back hollowed out with a straight line, elbow, hand, horse’s mouth. Your upper body slightly forward, your centre of gravity slightly in front of the vertical. In the rising trot as you touch the saddle, keep your back hollow.”
“Educate your horse to the reins, put a mouth on the horse. Circles and changes of rein, let him stretch and lengthen, but don’t drop your hands, so the horse goes to the bit, leg to hand.”
Steph and Yirrkala Exclusive, don’t drop your hands
No surprises, the cavallettis were in play:
“You mustn’t rush the cavallettis, don’t let the horse get quick. It’s a preview of the horse’s jumping, but slow and relaxed.”
“Incorporate the cavallettis into the schooling and let him stretch and look. It is good if he trips, he learns to pay attention to his feet.”
Dave and Yalambi’s Cavalier
Back on the track, and it was time to practice canter departs. “Keep the horse as straight as possible, just a hint of the horse flexed to the inside. You can’t do enough canter departs.”
Then it started to get a bit more tricky. Voltés, and voltés that got progressively smaller: “First volte, 8 metres, second, 7 metres, third, 6 metres, then forward and straight, always out of it, forward and straight.”
Gabi and Black Currency, six metre voltes
Simple changes are not just for hack classes:
“Practice simple changes, not always flying changes, and see how straight you can keep the horse in the simple change, no neck bending, that neck bending is so 1980’s – just legs.”
Flying changes are one of George’s pet hates, horses that get croup high in the change, he has never quite forgiven Anky’s Salinero for winning gold medals with a croup high change and he is no happier to see it with jumping horses:
“The first thing showjumpers do in a flying change is try to throw the rider out of the saddle. This is an exception to the forward rule, but when I am teaching flying changes, I lean behind the vertical. Push, because when they go light in the croup, they go backwards into your legs. If the horse is light in the croup, he is going backwards. This canter work reflects if the horse is leg ridden…”
“When I used to ride Melanie Smith’s horses, people used to ask me, why do you do tempi changes? To get the horse light to my leg and seat.”
One of George’s major themes in this year’s clinics was the horse’s back.
“People who ride heavy don’t have empathy for the horse’s back, that is why your position is so important, and with the classic jumping position, the anchor is in your heels.”
First time over the Liverpool for Steph and Exclusive, get behind, be defensive
“There are three possible ways to ride a horse. One, with the motion, and that’s they way I like best. Two, ahead of the motion, and this is NEVER correct. Three, behind the motion, and this is sometimes correct. The Dutch and the Belgians tend to ride behind their cold horses, French, Americans and Australians ride with and behind but NEVER ahead.”
“So when you ride this Liverpool the first two times, get behind, sit on your buttock not your crotch, be defensive. Practice riding this way but it’s not our goal to ride the horse this way because it is rude to the horse’s back, but sometimes we have to get behind.”
It was the same with the whip, another aid in a defensive situation, and again, the application has to be done correctly: “With a jumping whip you have to take your hand off the rein, or you will pull on the horse’s mouth and clash the aids.”
“Our goal is not to carry the horse, our goal is to educate the horse to carry us. Not sit in their back so they have to have weighted boots behind to compensate for bad riding. I want to replace the body rider with a leg rider. Look at David Cameron, he is a very good effective ride, now we have to give him style.”
The riders had another line to ride: Vertical – Water – Vertical, but according to George, the most important part of the exercise came at the end of the line, the halt: “This is jumping incorporating dressage, we are getting the horse soft to the slowing aids.”
And when Dave Cameron’s lower leg gets a little loose: “Dave – at least we should make you aware when you jump where your feet are, that swinging them is Australia in the 50’s or 60’s.”
“Dave is a great rider, he’s got feel, feel, feel, strong and soft, horses jump for him.”
“How old are you Dave?”
“Thirty-one.”
“There is still time. Ian Millar is 67 and he is headed to Rio.”
The bank and hedge at Aachen, no longer part of the course
George is on to another of his themes, the pussifying of showjumping. He laments that some of the great natural obstacles, like the banks in Dublin, or the hedges in Aachen, have been taken out, as the sport is softened to take care of the modern rider…
“They won’t build oxer to oxer very often, or long to the vertical, the sport is being designed for pussies.”
When Gabi has a little run out, George points out, “that was because you didn’t angle the fence.” Gabi gets through this time, but it is still not acceptable, “do it again, but in four strides not three, it has to be four to gymnasticize the horse. This is a big wonderful horse, but that horse has to be compressed so he gets more together.”
Gabi’s horse Black Currency is one of the favoured ones that George rides, but he points out he is really doing it for selfish reasons…
Gabi tries Black Currency over a fence after George has ridden him…
“Learning to ride a horse is a never ending quest. That’s why I get on your horses; it’s selfish, riding new horses teaches me every day. What we are after in riding is truth.”
Which lead to a final message on the principles of equitation:
“The Principles of Equitation are absolute – fashion is fluid. No one follows the principles absolutely, but the classic stylists are close. Watch Patrice Delaveau, watch Isabell Werth, they are not absolute, but they are close.”
Patrice Delaveau and Orient Express at 2014 WEG
VIEW PART ONE HERE:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/03/george-morris-hes-so-unfashionable/