Sitting pretty…

This month Colleen Brook talks to us about rider position, and here she studies one of the best riders in the world. Colleen discusses WEG star Beezie Madden, and her position, and helps us understand what makes her great.

Winners will always be copied, in an attempt to replicate the result.
An extreme style is always hard to copy usually because of the brilliance of the person. For example riders like Australia’s Kevin Bacon or the 2013 World Champion, Roger Yves Bost.
There were people who copied Kevin, but now we hardly see anyone ride like that in Australia.

Euro Champion in 2013, Roger Yves Bost

more on style follows

In our training efforts we should always be thinking of how to make it easier for the horses to carry out what we ask of them to the best of their ability. That means riders have the responsibility to be balanced and light. A classic position is simply the best.
You cannot help but be influenced by those who surround you, be they top level or the reverse, and so we should make every effort to look at the top riders, and these days with television coverage of top shows all over the world, that is possible for all of us here in Australia.

From a coaching perspective, I love George Morris for his work ethic and observations. He does not condone secret inventions or fashions: just hard work, good classic riding and horse management. Good habits are easy to learn but it takes discipline to maintain them.

Our first rider to observe is George’s long term pupil, Beezie Madden and Simon in a jump off on the Florida circuit.

When I looked first I thought this was a liverpool as Beezie was so far off the wings.
She must have been flying to be able to take off so far away.
Most rider positions would look similar but Beezie isn’t pulling on the horse’s mouth or standing in the stirrups. She is doing her utmost to keep up with the horse. The horse is really concentrating on what he is about to do.

Now we see the fence is an oxer, some effort to jump it, a horse needs big scope to take off from there. Beezie would know she had the horsepower to ask for such an attempt. By the look on her face she knows it is a challenge.

She has quickly rebalanced herself over the top of the fence to her usual flawless position.
The effort from the horse is showing in his back legs, he is keeping them close to his body trying to keep his balance.

There is another fence close by from the look on their faces and Beezie has brought her shoulders up in preparation for the landing. The horse has his ears pricked ready figuring out how to work his body for the next stage and still he needs to keep his back legs tight to get over the back rail.
 Very big effort from both of them.

sometimes things go wrong, read on…

This pic shows Via Volo at London 2012 stopping,
I did see this happen on TV. Amazing the angles the horse’s legs show in the pictures. The rider is doing her best to stay in the middle.
 When the mare jumped into the combination, she didn’t look to get up to the jump: she wavered and was a long way off the jump and refused.. The same thing happened  twice and  elimination was the result.

To their absolute credit, Beezie came out and jumped two 4  penalty rounds in the final of the Nations Cup later in the Games. Individually she could not go further, same as Doda de Miranda and Bogeno recently at the World’s. So anything can happen.

Cortes C at the WEG.

Cortes – Randel Z out of a Darco mare –  jumped 9 rounds with only one fence down during the worlds to finish the best horse.

Performances like that aren’t luck. It comes from super horse management and wonderful riding.

The first pic, makes me think it is coming out of a combination because of the pot plants behind the horse. I mention that because riders need to respond to how the horse feels as they  jump and what comes next, same as transitions in dressage,

Beezie looks very balanced, with a release that is feather light in the air.

The back end of the flight over a big vertical.

Beezie’s body is opening up ready for the next jump and both horses and rider are looking ahead so another jump must be close. All the angles look good here.

Finishing off the fence, both with their eyes fixed on the next jump, beautiful balance from Beezie. She is giving support and direction to the horse.

This is a critical point for both, if a horse stumbles or wavers now it is hard for the riders to keep straight or at the worst stay on board. Beezie showed all class at the WEG.

Style.

She likes her horses to be a little open in their frame which has worked well for her, and science tells us that it is less stress for the horse than the exaggerated  over-bending.

Her style has to be absolutely classical.