Robbie Soster Takes A Lesson With Miguel Tavora

 

Don’t people love to put other people in neat little pigeon holes? Miguel Tavora, he’s Portuguese, he studied with Nuno Olivieira, he must be one of those artier-than-thou trainers who can’t produce competition horses, isn’t he? Well actually, no. Because of his background, Miguel may have a series of distinctive school figures and training exercises, but the goal is exactly the same, to produce an equestrian athlete, capable of showing all the movements of the Grand Prix dressage test – and to prove it, he has produced a string of top competition horses in Europe, the United States and Australia, including an Australian Grand Prix Dressage Champion….

While poor Nuno is done a grave injustice when people judge him on the basis of some of his less talented and crazier ‘followers’, Miguel is more likely to quote the German founder of modern dressage, Steinbrecht, than he is Baucher, although Miguel has argued very persuasively that some of the world’s top competition rider /trainers are regularly using Baucherist techniques, even if they are not aware they are doing so!

I challenge anyone who knows anything about dressage to find anything in the slightest bit ‘Baroque’ in Miguel’s lesson with up-and-coming Australian dressage star – and long term Miguel student – Robbie Soster on her exciting Rotspon gelding, Robali Razzamatazz. It was clean, fresh, athletic work, and while the gelding has had a few bad competition experiences before Robbie got him and finds it hard to show his true form in the competition arena, hopefully he will settle and be able to show the world before too long, how talented he is, how talented his rider is, and what a very good trainer, Miguel is.

Truly it was an exhilarating experience to sit in the indoor school at Miguel and Di Tavora’s equestrian centre in beautiful Kurrajong, and watch a new Grand Prix combination in the process of emerging from the training cocoon.

Each every exercise is preceded by a very distinctive figure to get the horse on the bit: “Mobilize him…”

And Robbie, who has been working with Miguel since she was twelve years old, needs no further prompting, she has the chestnut turning on his forehand, but still Miguel is making sure she does it correctly: “Always more forward than sideways.”

It’s a great exercise, it really gets the horse’s attention, and they are off into a bright trot.

“Put him down and round on the circle but no shortening of the neck, a little more power in the trot. Sit on your inside diagonal.”

 

 

Robbie does and the change is immediately obvious, Miguel is pleased:

“He wasn’t bending enough, he couldn’t use his inside hind leg, if you sit on the inside diagonal you can get the power.”

Robbie doesn’t need to be told what to do next. It’s down the long side in trot, in a counter shoulder in. The horse is being gymnasticized – going forward, and at the same time, being asked to be more supple through his body. Time for a little loosen up in canter, but watch carefully, every next movement is prepared beautifully, so Robbie trots a little collecting circle, and then gets a perfect canter depart, and she is riding changes of tempi on a twenty

metre circle before heading off once again down the long side in a slight counter shoulder in, letting the wall rather than her hands, hold the position. I am instantly reminded of watching Jean Bemelmans working in Germany on my last visit – it’s exactly the same thinking.

The pair are back on the twenty metre circle, “collect, GO, collect, GO, collect, GO, collect, GO.”

“Half circle, through the circle and flying change, repeat on the other rein.”

Back to the trot, and Miguel wants the horse a bit more forward, a bit more into Robbie’s hand, now he is happy – ‘perfect’ – and indeed the horse is so light and engaged, so crisp with such a wonderful rhythm, that it is… perfect.

I remark to Miguel later that when I saw the horse before, he used to roll his neck over and look tight, but now he is in a lovely frame…

“They tell her to ride round and deep, I was always telling her, I want to see the neck forward, round and down, but the neck forward, the neck forward. When the neck is down and back, it is jammed.”

 

 

“Pick up, collect the trot… now collect the walk… now let him relax, long but round, the head can go out, but the nose can’t go out. Take him again, and ride a working pirouette in walk.”

And of course, coming out of the collected work in the walk, the trot is super, so light to the ground, so cadenced.

“Now go rising in medium, sitting in medium, rising in medium, sitting.” The horse is floating in the best possible way…

The work never gets stuck, there is always a new exercise to be ridden, or combination of exercises: “Down the long side, shoulder in, travers, shoulder in, travers, and into rising medium trot.”

In the half pass, Robbie has to vary the work, going a few strides sitting, a few strides rising, a few strides sitting, it makes for a wonderful forward half pass.

“Refresh, rising on a twenty metre circle.”

And it is back to the rising / sitting half pass exercise on the other rein. Everything is so logical, it fits together like a jig saw puzzle…

Razzamatazz is back on the twenty metre circle, this time alternating shoulder in and haunches in, collecting, suppling again, getting ready for the extended trot across the diagonal:

“Diagonal trot, rising for the first two strides, then sitting to extend the trot.”

 

 

Fabulous! And Robbie is riding better than I have ever seen her ride before, softer, more supple:

“That was the result of a lot of gymnastic exercises, and lots of correcting from the trainer – if she started to get stiff with her hips and contracted with her legs. She would put her legs always on the same place, the rider’s leg needs to move a bit. If they displace too much, they make the hind quarters swing, but when they move enough, so for the flying change left, the right leg a little bit back, automatically the hip goes down and softens the loins and the movement goes through the horse, into the horse. But if the rider’s legs are always in the same place, they get stiff – the horse needs that displacement of your weight. The way you put your weight on the saddle for the canter right is not the same as the weight for canter left. The weight aid by itself does nothing, but the weight can help a lot the effectiveness of the leg to give the aids with a supple hip, a supple lower back and because that is on the right timing, not abrupt, the horse understands better and responds better – the horse is like us, they don’t like to be uncomfortable, and it he feels a bang on the back, the croup goes up – action – reaction.”

“Walk and have a break, then we will do some work in canter.”

Once again, Robbie collects Razzamatazz in the walk, and once again, the canter depart is superb.

“Twenty metre circle, canter, halt, canter – push a bit more into the halt. Good, go medium canter, collect and halt.”

And another super canter depart: “Change inside the circle, now halt.”

 

The horse is really cantering on the spot before he comes to halt. Another flying change through the circle and it is time to prepare for the pirouettes:

“Haunches in, open up and straight, very straight on a ten metre circle, now haunches in, now medium canter, medium canter on the short side, collect in the corner, and half pirouette.”

Robbie changes the rein and repeats the exercise, again, the half pirouette is excellent.

“Walk, relax.”

“On the bit again.”

Robbie automatically goes to one of those little collecting circles to prepare for the canter.

“Now we prepare the flying changes.”

Again, Robbie knows the routine. Twenty metre circle in canter, halt, canter, halt.

“When you feel you are ready take the diagonal and make a flying change every second stride.”

Good changes, and without needing to be told, Robbie goes to a medium circle on the new rein.

“Good, wakey, wakey. On the circle medium, collect, but not so collected as for the pirouette. Two or three transitions, canter / halt to get him on the half halt. When you feel the half halt is light and responsible, go to the one times changes on the diagonal. Just two.”

They nail them.

“Now three.”

They get two nice ones in the middle of the diagonal, not three. “I don’t care, the flying change was good.”

The changes have been a battle for the horse, according to Miguel:

“The right hind leg was always stepping short, or they would jump together, so I jumped ahead a little to introduce the tempi changes, if we do the change every three strides then he has to prepare for the second change, and because he was not engaged enough for the second change but because the flying change was very confirmed, he will punish himself for not stepping forward with the right hind leg. Specifically we would work a lot on the circle, because it was the right hind leg that didn’t go so far forward, work to the right, but also to the left. so he had to step with that hind leg. Sometimes he would drift a bit with the hind quarters out, I didn’t care about that, what was important was to make him step forward with the right leg as much as the left leg, and that gets rid of the problem of both legs together.”

 

 

“And Robbie had to learn to ride a lot more in the changes, especially the half halt, and know that the aids for the change to the right are not the same as the aids for the change to the left. She has to increase the aids to make the right hind leg go. On the right circle it is easier because he is already bent to the right and the right leg has more of the tendency to step under and swing forward, but to the left is important also because it is more difficult so she has to ride more, make the half halt more, and get the canter more through, more bouncing, more jumping to get the right hind leg.”

You were saying you wanted the canter halt transitions to fine tune the half halt?

“Fine tune the half halt, and more than that, again the same problem, because the right hind leg doesn’t step as much forward as the left, moving from the halt – GO, HALT – go, he increases the tendency to swing the right hind leg forward, faster – on the right canter, but also with the left canter, because sometimes in the change he has the tendency to elevate the croup, and they do that because they don’t flex the hocks – it is like they are on crutches.”

It was interesting that because Robbie was getting the horse so collected and under himself, every canter depart was beautiful…

“Yes, but of course they didn’t start like that. At first he would drag, but then attack, like two canter strike offs. She gave the aid for the strike off and then give the aid again on the second stride, and after a while the horse didn’t wait for the second aid, and from the first aid he would swing the hind leg forward.”

 

 

And Miguel is somewhat controversial in that he teaches his horses – and pupils – to make the flying change with the outside leg:

“If you read some of the books, they will tell you that you should ask for the flying change with the inside leg, if you use the outside leg the horse’s quarters will swing. How can you make the flying change every stride with the inside leg? The inside leg is a leg that asks, please do it – the outside leg does more than that, it says, do it, and now! It works on the leg that does the flying change. For the change to the right, the first leg to touch the ground is the left hind leg. In every exercise, shoulder in, half pass, the horse is trained to respond to my left leg acting on the horse’s left hind leg and my right leg acting on his right leg. If the horse has not been properly prepared, if he does not have the strength, then it does not matter if you use the inside leg or the outside leg, the horse will swing the hindquarters, if he hasn’t had the basic training of the canter strike off or the transitions – walk / canter, trot / canter – flowing and going, they will swing it doesn’t matter which leg you use.”

Robbie tries again, and this time she gets the three changes.

“That’s enough, they were very good ones to finish on.”

 

 

Miguel is out in the arena with his long whip, tap, tap, tapping, and Razzamatazz is offering some half steps in lovely rhythm. Everything is so quiet, there is no suggestion that the horse is frightened, that the steps are the product of tension. Miguel is asking for the piaffe out of halt, and again, I remark later that this is not the usual way of training the movement – he explains that it is the latest refinement but not how the movement started:

“The horse needs to be able to start the piaffer from the halt because it is only when we are able to do that, that we are sure that the horse understands the piaffer, that it is not by excitement or excess of impulsion contained by your hands. But the piaffer from halt comes much later, you start from the trot to piaffe. Trot, rein back, trot, rein back, trot, normal rein back, two steps piaffer, pat and walk. What is most important in the piaffer and the passage, is to look for the rhythm. I don’t care if it is close to the ground, if I start wanting elevation and expression, it is always from excitement… and anything from excitement, the horse doesn’t really understand. He might do it one day but not the next.”

“There are lots of ways to start, sometimes trot / reinback doesn’t help because the horse can over engage, and then when you want to go to trot, he gets stuck. Sometimes we need to make a bit of renvers on the circle to disengage a bit…”

The gelding has moved on to passage, baby passage, but once again, the rhythm is great.

“I don’t care about elevation, I want rhythm.”

 

 

Once again, Miguel is using one of his favorite exercises, renvers / travers, but this time it is to get the gelding slightly less engaged:

“When the horse makes passage he engages much less than in collected trot, the critical factor for collection is the way the horse uses the engagement – is the engagement pushing him upward or forward, you can get so much engagement that the horse has so much weight behind that it can’t go anywhere. If I put the horse on travers / renvers on the circle to mobilize the croup, some people say, he will learn to swing the hindquarters in the passage. That is wrong – what makes the horse swing in passage is lack of preparation. If the horse is straight, if they have followed the training scale, and is correctly engaged, then the quarters will not swing.”

 

 

“Robbie’s horse was getting too engaged in the passage because he was coming from the piaffer – the aids are very similar, υ the balance is very similar, and the horse misunderstands and tries to put the hind legs too far under and then he does not have the push and swing he needs for the passage – sometimes you see horses that instead of doing passage they are doing piaffe going forward, and that can be a very big problem.”

Sure enough the passage comes bigger, looser with the same wonderful rhythm.

It is a great way to finish an inspiring lesson. Robbie is hoping to bring Razzamatazz out in a Grand Prix class before the year is out. If they can produce work like what we have seen today, it should be a pretty exciting debut…