A lesson with Mary Hanna

Nadia Coghlan takes a lesson with Mary Hanna

Nineteen year old Nadia is riding a very sweet seven year old gelding, Northern Campion and indeed he is the reason that she is at Statene Park, having a lesson with Australia’s most experienced international dressage rider, Mary Hanna.
“I started riding dressage when I got him eighteen months ago, before that I was eventing, novice level. I had some success but I had a bad fall. We actually went to Stuart Tinney to find another eventer, and that’s where we bought him. We were going to use him for eventing but I decided I liked dressage more, and so did Mum.”

Certainly, Campion has come a long way in those eighteen months.

“He just keeps getting better and I keep learning. We are competing elementary, we’ve done a couple of mediums. It’s a bit sticky in the mediums still, but I’ve got the elementary down-pat so that’s good,” says Nadia.

In the lesson we watch, the horse is starting to be ridden in the double bridle, but Mary warns to introduce the new bits carefully:

“All we want to do is get him comfortable and confident. We won’t do any different things, we’ll just keep it basic while he is getting used to the new bridle.”

The horse is working in the now familiar, deep and round frame:

“I want you to feel a nice even connection of both reins – just a little more in the outside rein. I want the horse round over the whole back, and deep and connected – but not falling on his forehand,” says Mary, “I want him forward, round and in a nice even rhythm. If he has a little spook, pretend it hasn’t happened. It’s important to take time in the warmup. Get him deep, it doesn’t matter if he is behind the vertical as long as he is into the bridle.”

Now of course, in some circles this way of working is regarded as a very radical new fangled innovation – not however in the stables that are producing the current crop of international dressage stars. I asked Mary later if she wasn’t worried about the criticisms of the very deep working outline:

“The way I work is possibly not quite so deep as Anky’s (Van Grunsven) way but it is still the same concept of having the horse really round and over the back and engaging the hind legs so that you are not forcing, but the horse is almost offering it because of the frame you are putting him in.”

What about the argument, this is going to ruin the horses, they will end up behind the bit, on their forehand, that only genius riders can handle this training method?

“Well I can do it, and most of my pupils can do it, and I don’t think any of us are geniuses… I think it is more logical. They can’t come behind the bit if you keep the connection. To make it a good exercise the horse has to be consistently going into the bit the whole time. As long as you do that, you should be able to ride this exercise without a problem. The other thing is that the horse has to be round when you do bring the horse back, some people let the horse stiffen the back and come up higher in front, and that is not correct. You’ve got to stay as round, if not more so, when you do the shorter steps, and really have the hind leg coming underneath, if that’s not happening you are not doing it correctly.”

The exercise moves on, with Nadia slowing the horse for a few steps, then moving him out again….

“He must be loose over the back, and forward. Use just enough of your leg to keep his hind leg active, as he learns the exercise, you will find that you don’t have to use much leg at all. Get him deeper and rounder and try to keep the feeling cadenced as you go forward again. The moment you say go, he must GO. All the time you must keep a really steady connection to the outside rein, keep him all the time, connected from the inside leg to the outside rein.”

And when Mary asks for a few short steps, she really does want short steps:

“Short steps, short steps, SHORT STEPS…”

Over a cup of coffee later, Mary explains what she is aiming for:

“What Anky and Sjef (Janssen) said in their time here, and I’ve also had it reinforced in my time in Holland with Tineke (Bartels), is that in Australia we ride the trot too fast and the canter too slow. Of course Clemens (Dierks) has been saying this for years, but we really didn’t believe him – some of us. It’s true, you cannot go careering around in the trot. First you’ve got to get the young horse forward, but once it is forward and coming off the leg, you mustn’t run the horse because you are going to spoil its paces for collection later on. I like this exercise of forward from the leg, come back again, forward, come back, and you use the exercise to engage the hind end.”

“We have also got better horses. With some of the old horses they would have been standing on their heads because they didn’t have the natural ability to bring their hind legs under them. Still not every horse here can we do that with, some of them are still the old fashioned type, I did see one in Europe where someone was trying to do this exercise and all the horse was doing was standing on its head because the hind legs were out the back. If you don’t do it correctly it won’t work. The horse has got to be able to come back but keep the hind legs under, engaged and working – not with the hind legs tipping out behind. If you do it the right way, so that the back is really round and the horse is really over the back and you keep the hind leg engaged, then go forward, you can create more cadence in the stride ultimately that develops into piaffe/passage.”

At what stage would you introduce these short steps, would you ask a four year old?

“In a mild way with a four year old – not a three year old, a three year old just has to go forward, walk, trot and canter, and into the connection. Then when they are four years old it’s fine to bring them back and work on these steps.”

But back in the working arena, the quality of the movement must stay no matter how short the step, as Mary is emphasising to Nadia:

“Even when he shortens right up, he must stay loose in the back, not in that false cadence, that false passage. If he stiffens through the back, bend him a little to the inside. Keep him deep and connected to the bridle. Then come out forward, but not running.”

Again, later, Mary was happy to elaborate on the notion of false passage:

“That’s one of the things they do when they try to resist, it is actually very hard work for the horses. Sometimes when you start doing this shortening exercise with a horse that hasn’t done it before they’ll get a little bit cross because they really have to work hard to do it. There are various things they’ll try, they’ll get a little crooked, or try to stiffen the back and do those false passagy steps, or they’ll lose the rhythm, that’s the other thing, you’ve got to keep the rhythm.”
“If you get the horse to bend a little through the neck, that loosens his back and then you can go on, that’s the best thing to do when a horse is stiff in the back and trying to do a false passage.”

Back on the arena, the horse is getting the idea, he is starting to stretch and relax his body, starting to trot bigger, even when he is being shortened.

“Once you can do it on the circle. you have to do it on the long side, but first, walk, relax, take a break… Even in the walk, concentrate. Follow the motion of the horse with your hands, never with fixed hands in the walk and sit tall. Don’t nag with your spur, bend your elbows, relax your arm, and follow forward every time the horse goes forward, follow with your hands so he is walking into the bridle. Never a straight arm and a flat hand. There, see how nicely the horse is over-tracking.”

Nadia repeats the exercises on the circle, with the same result, the horse is starting to give with his body, to loosen so he trots on all four legs. It is a simple exercise that recognizes that dressage horses aren’t supposed to go thundering around the arena in the name of impulsion – that forward comes out of collection, and vice versa. It is a technique that is used in competitive stables all around the world.

“The training system that I’ve adopted is basically a combination of the similar techniques of Anky and Tineke. More recently the lessons I had with Isabell (Werth) fitted in perfectly with what I’d done in Holland last year – and of course, Kyra Kyrklund as well,” explains Mary after the lesson, “All these people have a similar philosophy that they want to ride the horse not with force, but so that the horse offers it. You’ve got to play round with some of these things. To me the horse is like a child, if you introduce something early and play with it, it is much easier, the horse is much more open minded to suggestion, than waiting until he is an older horse and then trying to teach him piaffe and passage. You try out some changes early, try the feeling for little short steps by just bringing the trot back a little more, not through whacking around with a whip or forcing anything, just playing with it. That’s why I use the exercise so much, the going on and coming back because ultimately that is the preparation for piaffe/ passage but in the beginning you are using it to loosen the horse’s back, to make him supple and round and really get the hind legs engaged.”

The next step is a little lateral work, preparing the horse carefully as it goes through the corner:

“Not too much angle, just three tracks. Show some bend to the inside, then soften. It’s okay to use your hand as long as you soften afterwards. That was rough – try it again and come smoothly from the corner, bend and soften, so he’s really around the leg. Pat him on the neck now and then.”

Now the lateral work starts to get more interesting:

“Circle in close to me, then push out, come in, leg yield out a couple of steps…”

And this becomes the basis of the travers:

“Don’t lose your rhythm through the corner, bend and soften, don’t jerk the rein. Now we can prepare the half pass. Half pass just to the centre then go very straight. Through the corner again, and half pass to the centre line, every step should be the same – and look to where you are going. Now you are using a little too much inside rein in the half pass, and there is a little tilting of the head. Keep a little collection in the half pass, collected but forward. Now take another break, that was good.”

The horse is refreshed, the rider looking cool and ready to go on.

“Pick up your reins, and think a bit about collected walk. Bring his head up, not behind the vertical and on the snaffle. Now try a walk pirouette. Inside leg, outside leg, there you forgot the inside leg, and he grounded. Prepare him for the movement, get him set up on the outside rein. You did the pirouette then because you were in the place to do it, not because the horse was ready to do it.”

Now it’s time to try some really fancy stuff…

“To set him up for piaffe/passage, you have to get him round again. Do a few steps of rising trot, now sitting, now come back and do some half steps. More on the spot, more on the spot, now come out of it in rising trot, get him relaxed and come back again. Shorten your snaffle, don’t jerk with your hands, tap your leg against him in rhythm. Pat him, you’ve got a few nice steps.”

Now they try the movement out of a walk:

“Collect the walk until he offers it, don’t get too hard and serious. Think of it as a bit of fun.”

Nadia confesses after the lesson that those steps of piaffe are pretty exciting:

“We started it on the driveway at home, then he did it here. He really likes it. He gets a bit upset some times, he gets a bit frustrated I think because I’m asking the wrong things, and he’s like ‘I know, I know…’”

As I remark to Mary afterwards, the dressage world has come a very long way in the past twenty years. Imagine, a seven year old horse, and a nineteen year old rider, happily playing games with some very impressive steps of piaffe!!!

“I train every horse with the idea of Grand Prix, and every rider. That’s the ultimate aim, I believe people who come to me are thinking Grand Prix, and so we try to train the horse from the beginning with that long term picture in mind. It’s a very logical systematic training system, we use that short steps exercise right from the novice horses to the Grand Prix. They do it every day. The horses develop, they get that much stronger over the back, they seem to get much more muscle on the top line, and develop a great deal more strength which enables them to do the more collected movements easier.”

It is time to move on to some canter work, and surprise surprise, it’s the same exercise in canter – forward and back.

“Keep him round, touch with the leg if he gets lazy, and a little pat when he does it nicely. Don’t spur him forward, ride smoothly forward, then collect, collect, collect and walk. Wait for him to give you that walk transition, don’t try to force it. If you get tense he feels it. Relax, take a deep breath, now find the moment of balance in walk, and canter on again. You’ve got to stay calm, relax your elbows, relax your shoulders….”

As Mary says later, Nadia’s trouble is that she tries too hard sometimes: “Nadia is good because she is very serious about what she is doing and she would be here every day if I could fit her in but I’ve got other people I’ve got to teach as well. She comes as often as I allow her – basically five times a week. She is very conscientious at home as well. Her problem is sometimes she tries to hard, she gets tangled up when she does that, she is so anxious to do it perfectly sometimes she forgets ‘hey it’s fun, have a little play’ and she gets a little tense and then I have to get her to relax again.”

But that is another big change in attitude – the idea that you should be trained five times a week. Once it was a clinic every three months if you were lucky?

“I find that people really understand now that they have to come at least every week, if they are really serious – and I’ve got quite a few serious ones – they come more often.”

Why should our riders be more talented than all those lovely German riders who still need a trainer every day?

“Exactly, they do it every day.”

And for Nadia and Northern Campion it was time to finish – “super deep and round, you’ve got to loosen his back, finish on a lovely happy note.”

Mary Hanna – and the next challenge

There is perhaps no better competition dressage rider in the land than Mary, she has the uncanny ability to produce the big performance exactly when it is needed, and an ice-cool ring craft that never throws away a point. Luckily for Australian dressage the times are changing, the eras dominated by one horse and one rider have given way to a much more crowded scene at the top of the tree, where a group of riders jostle for supremacy – it is going to make for a very interesting few months in the run up to the World Championships in Jerez.

“I’ve got a really exciting lineup of horses. Limbo is back in work, and I am really thrilled with the way he has come in. Pretender just gets better and better and he is just the most exciting lovely horse to work with. Rituel is hitting his straps, so that’s great. Those three horses are so exciting. They are very very different people all three of them. But I see this year as basically a training year. Consolidating Limbo and really training with Pretender and Rituel. It’s a lot of fun at the moment.”

You’ll be able to get Pretender to Grand Prix in time for Jerez?

“I do it as it comes. I’m not making any predictions about when he’ll be Grand Prix. He needs a year in Prix St George, then if at the end of the year he feels like he is handling it mentally and physically without a problem, and he is well enough established in piaffe and passage and one tempi changes, I’ll do it. I would have to be confident that he was handling it mentally, and it wasn’t too much physical pressure for him – I’ll take it each step as it comes, but right now he is right on track, and doing everything I ask of him.”

You’ve taken the big plunge into administration now – President of the Victorian EFA Dressage Committee – this is not something riders are supposed to do. Riders are supposed to come to shows and throw hissy spits if the stables aren’t up to their standards…. or that the entry fees are too high… or the coffee too cold!

“I’ve probably done my share of that, so I’ve decided that my punishment now is to become involved in administration and see the other side. It has been a really good wakeup and I think it is something every rider should do for a while. You soon learn just how hard it is to run competitions, and just how hard show organizers work. It has always been ‘them’ and ‘us’ but now I am one of ‘them’, it’s been a real eye-opener. All I can say is that I’ve got the greatest admiration for the people who do it for a number of years. What I can see is that there is a lot of tired people, and they need a lot of new faces, and I’m prepared to be one of them.”

And you’re not worried that it is going to take your focus off your competition career?

“I am worried about that, I have to admit it. At the moment I am managing and I’ll just have to see how I manage as I go on. It is a danger if you get too involved in administration, you can take your mind off the ball.”

What about Dressage with the Stars, it really wasn’t as successful a show last year as it had been in the first two years? The programming was terrible last year, is it going to have a remake before this year’s show?

“We’ve taken on board all the comments and criticisms from last year, and the organizers are trying very hard to iron out any of the problems. There is going to be a new qualification system for the Young Horse classes. The horses are going to have to compete in their own state and get a minimum percentage to qualify, there is a judges panel that is going to be specially educated to judge young horse classes, this will consist of A and B level judges specially trained to judge young horses. One of the criticisms was that there weren’t enough breaks, so we’ll have more breaks so the trade fair will get a fair go, and spectators can have lunch and go to the toilet… trainers and riders can have lunch and go to the toilet too! We are trying to make the show fun.”

“Kyra Kyrklund has agreed to be our star, and she is a super experienced person in the judging and testing of young horses, as well she has the brilliant ability to run a Master Class where she rides various horses and goes through her training system.”

How are you going to get over the problem that if we have state by state qualification by percentages for the Young Horse, the sixth horse in the strongest state who misses out, might be better than the best horse in the weakest state who gets to start?

“This is an Australian Final, which means that what state you come from is irrelevant, it is based on your percentage and performance.”

But unless you have the same judges travel to every state, then the scores can vary?

“That’s why we are going to have an educated judges panel. We are going to make a recommended panel of judges and they will be required to attend a clinic and be educated, so as best we can, we’ll have an even level of judging throughout the states.”

And Christoph Hess’ suggestion that it be run like the Bundeschampionate, with the top ten going straight from the qualifier to the final, with the rest of the horses going into the ‘little final’ and the top three from that class going into the final?

“Everything is being considered but nothing has been decided yet, we are open to suggestions. It will probably take the same format as last year with six to ten to the final, and three to the rideoff. At the qualifying events, it is likely that they will do a round in a group, but that score will be discarded in the second round where they will ride the FEI short test. These things are really still being discussed, we are doing the best we can to make the fairest format that ultimately gets the top horses there.”

Will test riders be used in the qualifying rounds in the individual states?

“No. At the moment it has been discussed that they ride two rounds, they may have test riders at some events but that is not a requirement. I think it was planned for Queensland, which is fine. If they want to run a young horse event and invite riders up for that, but it won’t be a pre-requisite for the finals that decide who goes to the Young Horse Championships.”

What are we going to do to maintain the position our dressage team grabbed at Sydney?

“I think it is a bit like the eventing, when we won the medal at Barcelona, people said ‘that was a fluke’, I suppose there are people who are saying our sixth place at Sydney was a bit of a fluke. But I can only say that the riders are pretty determined, our national coach, Clemens Dierks has been pretty determined. There is a pretty determined Kristy Oatley-Nist in Europe who is doing exceedingly well at the moment. We are just going to go out there and prove it wasn’t just a fluke. We deserve it next time.”