Talkin' the Talk and Walkin' the Walk, Christoph day 2

There is just a certain ease to Christoph. His kind words, patience, and true compassion for the animals shone through moment after moment. But despite his wonderful demeanor, he still pushed us all to be as perfect with our basics as we could, that our positions MUST be correct, that the horse MUST accept both the forward driving aids, and the inner leg aid, and all horses must be able to stretch their strides and their bodies during all their work. All riders learned to rely on their inside reins less, by riding one handed on horses as young as five. It's an eye opening experience for sure, but when he had me performing all my schooling for the grand prix, the pirouette, the piaffe, the passage, the half pass, and the flying changes not only with one hand but also with stretching, it was nothing short of amazing. In all the Symposia, in all the clinics, and all the lessons, I have never ever seen anyone or anything come close to what Christoph taught us this weekend.

Almost every rider verbalized that after such hard work outs the first day, none of our horses felt stiff or tired. They all came out of their first lessons warm and sweaty. I came out warm and sweaty too. I have to say I was a bit tired the next day, but both Shorty and Ruby came out with smiles on their faces and feeling looser and swingier than ever! Just goes to show you that dressage done right is good for the horse!

Some of the things he brought to light frequently and on day two:

- A good shoulder in at the trot is essential as preparation for the flying change.

- You must prepare the movement by sitting perfectly.

- Don't control problems with your hand. Control problems with your inside leg.

- The movements collect the horse, not the hand!

- Better to ride a 10 meter circle in balance than an 8 meter one out of balance.

- Don't try to rush things with your hands.

- We want motivated partners, not just partners who do their job.

- Our goal with the young horse is to make him active and give him a good forward downward tendency at the end of the lesson

- Please don't ride the movements, focus on the training scale!

Yeah, it goes on and on. Almost every time he opened his mouth, he came out with something even cooler and more inspirational. We all had lightbulb moments, and all went away feeling not only worthy, but inspired. To be knowledgeable is one thing. But Christoph takes education to a higher level, by helping his students not only understand the how's and the why's behind the exercises, but is also very capable of helping them ride the exercises correctly and showing clear improvement by the end of every lesson, hour after hour, with a smiling face that showed nothing less than patience and true passion for dressage. He can walk the walk AND talk the talk. This is the hallmark of a true Master in my eyes.

Thank you Christoph. You have raised the bar for me yet again in many ways. Looking forward to next time...