Open Day at Turville Valley Stud

On one of the loveliest days of the year (7th May 2000) the Turville Valley Stud opened its doors to a good crowd of enthusiasts who had come to enjoy a demonstration of classical riding and training.They were to experience an inspirational afternoon.

Proceedings commenced with Marcia Waterman giving a brief demonstration on the Lusitano stallion Brejiero, and the fundamental precepts of the 'classical' way of training horses was explained, i.e. that the horse should be viewed as a partner, with nothing being forced; that he should be handled with tact and sensitivity, patience and understanding. The wisdom of being content with a little at a time, and of always offering the horse a reward when he had tried to please soon became apparent.

Diane introduces Jasper to lateral work on the circle

Diane Thurman-Baker began the in-hand demonstrations with Jasper, a 5-year-old TB cross, who had been in the yard for training for only six weeks. Everything that Diane did with the horse was slow and gentle. He was put on the lunge and encouraged to move freely and to correct his own imbalances when they arose. As he became more balanced he naturally established a steadier rhythm. All the horses worked in hand wore a Portuguese roller, which allows for two sets of reins, the top pair to prevent the horse from working too low and encouraging him to lift up his shoulders.

Although on the lunge Jasper was not worked exclusively on a circle; he was worked into the corners of the arena and encouraged to lift his weight off his forehand. The whip was used as a vital tool to give the aids and the horse readily accepted being touched gently with it all over - in fact, Jasper would halt at just having the whip laid gently on him and move off when it was lifted. He was also asked to move backwards, a movement that helps strengthen the horse through the hindquarters.

Picasso is performing travers in-hand and showing the crossing of the hind legs

The next horse we saw was Picasso, a 4-year-old Lusitano stallion (by the Stud's own Diabo) who has already sired his first filly! Picasso already demonstrates the value of his early training, being strong through his back end, and is working naturally 'uphill' as opposed to 'downhill' (on the forehand). He was worked on the circle with the inside rein one hole shorter, giving him slight bend to the inside, and he demonstrated shortening and lengthening strides in trot. Diane explained the value of asking the horse to rein back in that it encourages lowering of the quarters, and that by extending this exercise to rein back on the circle, Picasso was encouraged to stretch his inside hind leg underneath him, keep his rib cage up and to open his shoulders. She also explained how Piaffe could be learnt from the rein back as a logical extension of this movement and that by asking the horse to rein back, move forward and halt, the horse learned to 'close up', i.e. standing square with his hind legs well underneath him, thus stretching his top muscles. Diane also demonstrated travers in hand with the horse moving ahead in front of her with his hindquarters to the inside, and how this movement could help teach the horse the half pass.

Photographs © Sue Wingate

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