WANT TO SEE MORE WITH JOHAN HAMMINGA VIEW PART ONE HERE:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/05/sitting-in-the-hall-watching-great-training-part-one/
Story by Chris Hector & Photos by Roz Neave
We are visiting our friends, Johan Hamminga and Jennifer Sekreve in Holland. Outside it is freezing cold, inside you don’t notice the temperature because you are too focused on the brilliance in front of you…
Jennifer is riding San Siro, the six-year-old gelding is by San Amour out of a De Niro mare, purchased as a foal at the Verden auction. He’s featured in other stories with Johan and Jennifer, and it is great to watch his progress
Jennifer is warming up with the gelding, working hard to stretch him out and loosen him:
“He starts out holding himself, I have to work him a bit longer to loosen him up, but he is always willing, and really smart. I get the feeling that he is always a bit too light on the bit, I am always trying to get better contact so he stretches his neck better.”
Johan thinks he is only now coming into his De Niro heritage.
“Every day he has so much willingness to work. He is not spectacular, but he wants to do it for you. When you are a rider and you have to push every day, that is not so fine. It is important for Jennifer to have a horse to take to the competitions, this one we will keep and teach all the movements of Grand Prix. The horses of De Niro blood, when they are six or seven, then you know why we have De Niro. In the beginning they are not so spectacular, not so much movement, but when you start to reach the higher levels, then you see what they can do.”
“In the beginning he was too light and his neck was too short, you have to work him more forward so he asks to have contact. Why does the horse come too short, too stiff? The answer is in the hindquarters, in the body. He was not strong enough behind, he was searching for his balance, then it was very difficult for him to come to the right neck position and a steady contact. Now he is more closed behind, more bending from behind, and now the neck and the contact are better.”
“Jennifer, collect, and out but forward – in front of you, not too loose in your reins. Now collect a bit and make him soft on the inside rein. Take time to make him softer on the inside rein, bend a little left and right, soften your reins.”
“Now a little working pirouette, keep the rhythm, when you collect, ask a little more from behind, ask as much as you can regulate on both reins, sometimes you have to take a bit more risk – that’s training from behind. Now out and a bit deeper and longer in the neck.”
Another working session comes to an end, another calm, relaxed horse that is learning every second he is under the saddle, but learning in a logical, stress free way. It’s called dressage.
Again Johan relates this to what is happening at the hind end: “Before he was not strong enough behind, he was too wide, searching for his balance, then it is very difficult for a horse to come right in his neck position and make a steady contact. Now he is more closed behind, more bending from behind, now the neck and contact are better.”
“This is Sansiro in canter. In this canter moment, note the distance between the right and the left hind leg, his left hind leg is coming under the body as far as possible and in this moment if you take a vertical line through the ear, shoulder, hip from Jennifer, and the horse’s hock, you see the left hind leg is on that vertical line, you see also why it is possible for his left hind leg to come so far, because his neck is coming out of his wither forwards, so he can stretch the neck, and that is the reason the inside hind leg is coming so far under the body, and that gives him so much balance. Good contact between Jennifer and the horse, both reins the same soft contact, in her hands and arms, there is not a lot of power, he is soft. When the horse is in balance, he is always soft on your reins.”
VIEW PART ONE HERE:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/05/sitting-in-the-hall-watching-great-training-part-one/
You can breed to San Amour and De Niro in Australia – Go to www.ihb.com.au and find out how, and look at the range of top European stallions that are available now.
San Amour
DeNiro
