Text: Amelia Campbell-Horne It’s that time of year again when all our showing stars descend on Kyalami Park Club for the annual Horse of the Year Competition. For horse lovers, it’s an event not to be missed as a vast array of breeds and types congregate for all to see. With special displays, Championship Classes and a range of activities for the whole family, if you can be there – you should! Last year, we gave you an inside look and a how-to guide to the Warmblood classes. This year we will be looking into the classes offered to a breed that produced some of the most well-known sporthorses o ..read more

It may be summer in South Africa, but here at HQ, we are making snowmen. The snowman exercise consists of two circles: one bigger circle, 20m, forms your snowman’s body, and a smaller circle, 10m, forms his head. There is no set way to ride exercise; similar to the figure eight exercise, you can do the circles with no transitions, use a transition when changing reins, or just do whatever you feel is necessary for you and your horse. The key is in the preparation; you must prepare your horse correctly for a change of direction or transition, ensuring you have the correct bend and rhythm. Yo ..read more

Yesterday, we looked at the walk-to-canter transition, and today, we add to that by combining it into a simple change. A simple change is a change of canter lead with a few steps of walk between periods of canter. The simple change is the beginning of teaching your horse to do a correct flying change; this is why you will find it in early dressage tests. Simple changes are also a good way to improve your horse’s reactivity to aids, improve the coordination of your aids as a rider, ensure your horse is in a true frame and develop self-carriage. If your simple changes are straight, bala ..read more

The walk to canter is more challenging to teach your horse than the trot to canter, but once learnt, it is easier for your horse to execute. This is due to the sequence in which your horse’s legs move. The walk is a four-beat gait where all legs move individually. In the trot, the legs move in two diagonal pairs. To transition from the trot to the canter, the linkage of one of these diagonal pairs must be broken, whereas from the walk, there is no such physical complication. How to ride the walk to canter 1. Ensure your horse has an energised walk but is not tense; many horses begin to antici ..read more

‘The Countdown’ is excellent for improving your horse’s reaction to your aids, ensuring they are in front of your leg, and getting them to engage with their hind end before you start to attempt more complex exercises. How to ride the countdown Like many of the exercises we have spoken about, the countdown is centred around transitions. You can do them both between paces and within paces. We advise you to start this exercise with walk and trot and then build up to the canter. As an example: Start in trot and do a walk transition when you are ready. Walk for 10 steps and return to trot fo ..read more

A three-loop serpentine is a series of three, equal-sized half circles which form an ‘S’ shape across the arena. Start this exercise in walk, to allow you more time to perfect your aids and your horse’s flexion (and build their muscles) before riding a three-loop serpentine in a working trot, and finally in canter. Begin riding the serpentine at either A or C, and know the markers you are riding to before you begin. It can be a good idea to place markers on the centre line to help get your ‘eye’ in and ensure you are riding three equal loops. To create the first loop ride a half circ ..read more

In essence, this exercise asks that you ‘push’ forward on the long side of the arena and ‘collect’ on the short side of the arena i.e. on the long side of the arena, you extend the gait and on the short side, you collect it. This exercise is excellent for developing strength, balance, and reactivity to the rider’s aids. However, horses can start to anticipate the ask of this exercise quite quickly so it is always a good idea to avoid ‘drilling’ the exercise and move on to something else once your horse has got the idea. NOTE: It is essential to gauge the level to which your horse is capab ..read more

You can complete this exercise in either walk, trot, or canter. But like with most of these exercises, starting at the walk or trot is best. One would usually begin with a 20m circle and spiral into a 10m circle, but you can adjust this as needed. If spiralling to a 10m circle is too tricky for your horse, you can spiral down to 15m.   You want to ensure you do not spiral in or out too quickly but maintain a balanced, calm, and rhythmical pace throughout. This exercise improves your horse’s suppleness, balance, and thoroughness.   It goes without saying that the smaller the circle ..read more

We enlisted the help of National Candidate Showing Judge Tarryn Stebbing to get an overview of the whats, wheres, hows and whys of showing to give you a quick introduction to this fascinating discipline. HQ: Can you start at the beginning for us and talk us through the main showing classes? Tarryn: Of course. The first thing to know is that our showing in South Africa is heavily based on the British Showing system and as such the classes have their origins in the British traditions. In terms of classes, the best place to start is with the three ‘show’ classes: Show Hack, Show Riding and Show H ..read more

The Bone Collector is a simple yet effective tool to improve straightness off the arena’s edge. The exercise is easily changed to suit you and your horse’s level; you can make it more ‘advanced’ by adding various transitions and altering the sizes of your circles. There is no set gait to start or end, although it is a good idea to walk the pattern first to get an idea of the shape. Ultimately, you can do the exercise in all three gaits depending on your horse’s experience level ..read more