“You want to have your horses in neutral cruise, they keep doing what you’ve asked them to do, by themselves, until you ask them to do something else – 100% by themselves is the point.”
Christopher on course at London riding Leilani
“You can’t hold a horse, you are sitting on its back, the only way to hold them is to get off and put your feet on the ground. You’ve got to ask the horse, teach the horse, show it what you want it to do.”
With Santano at Rio
“Anyone using their spur every stride, should be yellow carded and kicked out of the sport. Use your whip, get a response, then ask again with your leg, and get a light response.”
Working a young Underdiscussion – they went on to win at Aachen
“I’m not big on bits. Another gripe of mine is the people who go into bigger bits when they actually haven’t got true control. I often warn riders when I teach, okay you’ve got a big bit, but there’s still a fundamental problem – when I pull on the reins, the horse doesn’t stop. Then once they learn to educate the horse, then they can go back to a snaffle.”
Nobilis at Aachen
Christopher sets up some angled rails, and points out that you can “keep making the angled rails steeper until the line is almost one horse wide. I’m still seeing too much back with the hands at a fence girls – this is not 1980!”
Christopher had rails set up to make riding the corner easier: “Don’t set them up for failure. Never go to a corner without a rail to help when you are training – don’t allow your horse to learn to run out. Your reins are too short – reins won’t help, get your eye and get the distance. Put your bum in the saddle and let go the reins, come round the corner, find your line and don’t touch…”
