2008 CDS Amateur Clinic with Rachel Saavedra

Raquel and I have just returned from the CDS Amateur Clinic with Rachel Saavedra.  It was such an awesome experience and I wanted to share a little with my fellow Santa Clarita Valley members.

Rachel was a fabulous clinician.  I soaked up so much information over the weekend, filling three pages with notes so I wouldn’t forget anything.  I was amazed at her eye and her ability to get to the root of any problem area for each horse and rider. 

The first thing she always looked at was the rider’s position.  She shortened a lot of stirrups the first day of the clinic.  If you ever feel that your position could be a little more stable, try that simple fix.  She also wanted to be sure the rider was sitting close to the pommel of the saddle, with a firm connection through the thigh.  The seat is the entire area covered in your full seat breeches, not just the seat bones.  The upper body needs to be a solid unit, so you should only follow the forward and back motion of the walk, not the side to side motion, which can lead to collapsing hips and an unstable position.  Inevitably, a small correction to the rider’s position would bring great improvement overall. 

A lot of improvement in the quality of the horses’ walk and canter was seen when the riders made sure they were not blocking the movement, but using a following hand.  The movement of the hand comes from the elbow and is in time with, but opposite of, the forward and back motion of your hips.  As your hips move forward, your elbows move back and as your hips move back your elbows move forward.  Think about it for a few minutes when you are walking your horse at the beginning of your next ride.  I was surprised how many horses with high heads and short strides were actually being restricted by their rider; as soon as they were allowed to, their heads came down and their strides lengthened.

For me, a failure to keep my outside leg back and on in canter was allowing “unauthorized” flying changes and difficulty with the timing of the changes every four strides.  Having my legs in too much of a neutral position didn’t give Raquel a clear understanding of what lead she was supposed to be on and when she should change.  Of course I “thought” my outside leg was back, so it may take me awhile to make a habit of really keeping my outside leg back and on, but I’ll get it eventually.  I came away with several things I can work on to improve my riding and even more tips for riding my tests.