Winter 2025 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN 11 Winter 2025 Your horse's hooves and legs endure constant impact, whether on the trail or in the arena. Hawthorne provides trusted care to help prevent cracks, soreness, and strain—ensuring a stable base for every ride. Keep your horse sound, strong, and ready for every adventure with Hawthorne's proven solutions. Every ride begins with healthy hooves and legs. hawthorne - products . com (800) 548-5658 A stable base from the ground up both balance and better communication. Start by approaching your corner at a walk. “Then two or three strides before, ask for an almost-whoa. Then walk on, straight into your corner, turn and al- most-whoa again, before asking them to move for- ward.” With practice, you will feel the almost-whoa incre- mentally shift to a half-halt. With every trip around the ring are four chances to repeat the exercise: Halt. For- ward. Bend/turn. Halt. Forward. “Teach the horse to wait for you,” she says, admit- ting to being a “little bit of a purist” when it comes to the half-halt. “It’s a rebalancing exercise. Sit up straight. Put your leg on, let your horse come back, and let them learn to anticipate your aids because you’ve been consistent.” Out of the saddle, this forward-thinking coach says the opportunities have never been greater to listen and learn from – or hit the replay button to – the perfor- mances of more experienced riders from anywhere around the world. “We are so lucky today, to get to hit a replay button on rides we want to watch again and again,” she says. It’s a long way from Seoul and the 1988 Olympics, where she wrote in her journal about her amazement “watching the training of so many athletes” and where the first seeds were planted for what would lead to D4K and “Lendon’s Youth Dressage Festival” back in the United States. “There was so much that could be done to bring up educated athletes as riders,” she mused, back in the days before the Internet or streaming services. Among the legends of yesterday that today’s rid- ers can replay is one of Lendon’s own great influences: Jack Le Goff, who coached U.S. Three-Day Event- ing in its “Golden Age” (1970-1984). Fun fact about Lendon, prior to qualifying for two Olympic dressage teams, she was a Preliminary-level national champion in three-day eventing, having spent two years training under Jack’s guidance. (Hint: Learn more about Jack Le Goff in this 1982 interview, now a HorseTV Glob- al video on YouTube, Jack Le Goff Eventing: Molding Champions.) Watch riders you admire. More than once – and get granular about it, she says. “Watch the same rider a couple of times, but watch them for different reasons,” she says. For example, “What do they do in their corners? Or, just focus on one part of their ride. How do they use their legs? How do they use their hands or handle the bit?” Speaking of hands… there’s one more tool in her clinic arsenal that helps keep hands steadier and conse- quently, helps riders communicate more clearly to their horse. It started with a pair of technical riding gloves with a quick-release safety band known as SteadyHands, by a company in Australia called Equisk. “I use them a lot,” she says, to improve hand po- sition and rein contact. But some found them claus- trophobic. “One adult amateur absolutely panicked. Others love them. Everybody moans and groans at first when they go on, but they really help make a rider aware of what they’re doing. I’ve seen riders see-saw- ing high and low and completely unaware of doing it.” Since last summer, she’s discovered an evolution to the gloves. A stream-lined design by TactEQ is a glove- free alignment aid designed to help riders create more elastic contact, steadier rein connection, and clearer communication through hands that guide, not pull. “And I can just stuff these in my pocket,” she says, en route to her next clinic. Where she’ll be asking more riders to run her down in the corners. Image on cover courtesy of L.A. Berry. Training With Lendon Gray (Continued from page 4) I n t h e C o rn e r, U n de r t h e Tre e Returning to Colonel Ljunquist’s observation that “dressage principals are eternal,” for the rider on your holiday list you can still find Lendon Gray’s 2003 classic, Lessons with Lendon: 25 Progressive Lessons, or 40 Funda- mentals of English Riding, co-authored with Hollie H. McNeil, on Amazon.com. Or start youth riders on the right lead through Dressage4Kids and its educational and com- petitive opportunities, at dressage4kids.org . Hands are the final tool. courtesy of L.A. Berry