Keeping Pattern Horses Fresh
Click here to read the complete article
By Kristen Spinning
In the minutes, hours, and even days before a big show, the pressure to get everything just perfect can become an obsession. Drilling the pattern may seem like a panacea for nervous energy, but too much practice at the show can be your worst enemy. Add to the mix a hefty dose of anticipation, on the part of a seasoned show horse, and the problem can escalate. So, how do we work out the bugs and keep horses and riders sane in the process? The solutions are as varied as the horses, riders, and trainers themselves.
All-around trainer Michael Colvin doesn’t like the idea of simply “drilling” a pattern.
He says, “We warm our horses up and then work around the different parts of the pattern and the transitions without actually practicing the pattern. Once we know we have all of our parts organized, we can move on to putting it all together.” Colvin instructs his clients to practice the pattern to get the scale and timing down while keeping a cautious eye on the horse’s responsiveness. When the horse starts thinking too much, or reaches a point where Colvin feels comfortable with how the horse is working, he changes things up a bit to avoid anticipation. “We deconstruct the pattern,” he continues. “For instance, if the pattern calls for you to lope on one lead, change to the other lead, and lope straight for awhile, we might change the pattern to going around much longer on that first lead and then take him down to a walk instead. That way we remove as much of the anticipation possible, but we’re still going in the direction of the pattern.”
Colvin’s deconstructed pattern still has a level of organization to it without having a concrete order. “We work through all of the elements and make sure the horse is willing to lope as long as we want him to, or extend his trot as long as we want. We change the transitions as well. The pattern might call for a trot with a transition to a lope, for example. So, we might take that and trot for a longer time than necessary, then take it down to a walk for a little while before having them lope. That way, they aren’t thinking about breaking from the trot to the lope all the time.”
Colvin likes to work his horses just to the point where he can get some more effort out of them, yet they are still fresh. Throwing in variety keeps his mounts following the cues of the rider instead of doing it on their own, or worse, getting mad about it. Finding space to practice at some show grounds can be a challenge. “If you’re fortunate enough to find an arena that isn’t real busy, that’s ideal. We try to time it when there will be less traffic.”
Colvin spreads out his practices, usually earlier in the day before the show or later at night, to be sure his riders learn the pattern and are confident executing all the pieces. Another session can take place closer to class time, and a little more work is done again in preparing just before the class. “Right before a class, we might concentrate on the deconstructed parts. For instance, lope on the left lead until the horse relaxes and doesn’t think about anything else. Then we’ll walk a bit and do another part.” He emphasizes that he doesn’t practice a pattern over and over right before the class. “We check all of our pieces, but we don’t put it together in a way they can decipher.” That’s his key to keeping the horse fresh and alert when entering the ring.
“The horse will learn the pattern before you do,” cautions trainer and judge Kelly McDowall. “Don’t overdo it.” He makes a distinction between the needs of schooling the horse and schooling the rider. “Everyone learns differently,” he continues. “It comes down to how best an individual can memorize the pattern. Some people need to ride it several times. Others do better by getting off their horse and walking through it.” McDowall would much rather have his clients dismount and walk the pattern rather than ride their horse through it 20 times.
He shrugs off the concern of over drilling at local or regional shows; there simply isn’t the time. With so many horses, clients, and classes, it’s pretty hard to overindulge in pattern practice. However, he has observed it becoming an issue at the big shows. “We get the pattern three days ahead at the World Show,” he says, “We could school day and night if we really wanted to.” His routine at the majors is to start slow and not overdo it. “We’ll do one or two rides the first day to put the ideas and timings in their heads.” After the initial run-through, he will have his clients go off and do other things.
By circumstance and by choice, schooling takes place in a different arena than the show pen. However, that means the timing and visual cues are different. He continues, “You really need to get into that main area to get the timing and distances right. Pick out banners, lights, or gates as reference points for where you’re going to make transitions.” He concedes that the challenge is finding time in those main arenas. “Even in the middle of the night there will be 25 riders practicing, and that’s a lot of traffic.” McDowall advises his riders that when someone gets in their way, they should stop and wait. “I tell them not to quit and wander off, or else you’re telling your horse that’s what he’s supposed to do.” Instead, he coaches the rider to bring the horse’s head down and start in a circle, or another type of athletic exercise which reinforces that he still has to pay attention.
McDowall’s advice for heading off anticipation is to break down the pattern into three or four parts and work only on the parts. He suggests, “all of these patterns have a couple places in them where there is a stop or a turn. Use those as natural places to break it up.” Also, it’s important not to drill your maneuvers in the same place all the time. He also advises that problematic maneuvers be practiced outside of the pattern, or schooled in a different place in the pattern.
Many of these top-level horses are so well-trained that a pattern might actually kick in the memory of another pattern. He recalls, “the Horsemanship pattern at the Select World Show had a long lope down the side of the arena. A lot of these horses have done Western Riding so much that they got to anticipating a lead change. That messed up a lot of people.” McDowall saw that potential trap and schooled his clients through it by having them lope around the arena a couple of times. “The patterns are designed to see who is really able to control their horse. They separate out who has a plan and who doesn’t, who can break down that pattern and work through the places where a horse’s instinct will kick in.”
“The real work starts at home,” contends all-around trainer Robin Frid. “We try to get our riders where they are very much on the same page. When I say I want a medium circle, they know exactly what I mean.” He says there have been many times when a rider gets to a big show and completely falls apart on the basics. “That adds hours to your prep by having to go back over a basic maneuver. It also fries the horse,” he says. That’s why Frid insists his riders do their homework so the skills and elements necessary to any pattern work are integrated into their core memory. Before the big class, it’s all about the line of the pattern.
Frid will break a pattern down into as many as five parts, having his riders work those sections repeatedly to get the line. When he does ask his riders to work the pattern, he has them change the placement of a maneuver or transition. “We can work the line of a pattern over and over without actually working the pattern.” Frid is always vigilant against anticipation. He offers an example, “at the Select World, the prelims in Horsemanship had you start, come through the middle, change leads, and go the other direction. Rath-er than getting our horses anticipating that lead change, I had them find their line, circle to the left and continue. We could repeat that seven or eight times. It reinforces the exact line of the pattern without any issues.”
During his mixed-up drills, Frid reminds the rider about the exact pattern design. The rider drills it in his or her head while the horse is physically working on some components. Practice for riders is entirely different than drilling the horses and needs to be addressed in different ways. He says, “If you’re finding your horse is having trouble with a particular maneuver, separate that from your warm-up and from practicing the pattern. It needs to be its own lesson.” He cautions against the habit of incessantly drilling turns, lead changes, and the like over and over to get them precise. “You can definitely take a horse from average to excellent to poor very quickly if you’re not careful. If there is an issue with a turn let’s say, I’ll separate that into its own ride and get it as refined as I can. Then, when we come back to the actual warm-up of the class, I’ll stay away from that maneuver,” he says. Rather than cramming more drills into the last few minutes, Frid prefers to pick them up and hold their neck a little to let them free up and relax. Then, when it’s closer to the class, he’ll push the horse back down into the bridle.
In Frid’s opinion, overworking is detrimental to our performance. He has seen too many riders go from excellent in the warm-up to extremely poor in the pen because they overdo things, start to panic, and the problem gets worse. He offers the analogy of quicksand, “Once you start to fight it, you go down deeper. Relax your way through it, and you’ll survive. When you feel that shift start to happen, try to recognize it, slow down, and relax.”
Trainer Whitney Lagace prefers to break patterns down into parts as well, but her parts generally reduce to the individual maneuver level. She says, “We seldom practice the whole pattern unless I have an owner that really needs to go through it one time for their own visualization. We only practice the pieces and perhaps put two together.” She cautions emphatically that senior horses will pick up on things so quickly that even practicing a section of a pattern can cause issues with anticipation. Lagace is adamant that every horse and rider is unique, and that knowing how they work as a team is key to helping them learn a pattern. “For my people that need repetition, I’ll have them work on the ground with cones and by walking through it,” she says. Having confidence that your horse is broke in all the maneuvers takes much of the stress out of the pre-class practice. “You also have to know what your horse’s personal limit is while practicing.”
While practicing the individual parts, Lagace observes closely to see if there are any rough spots and evaluates how they’re moving. If she feels they have the parts down pretty well, she won’t over-practice those either. When one of those parts isn’t going smoothly, she looks for what’s going on to cause the problem with that maneuver, and she does some exercises to address the reasons. She says, “If we find a little bit of an issue with something, we want to know why. If a spin isn’t going right, what’s the underlying problem? Are their shoulders not loose enough? Are they stuck in the rib cage?” She ferrets out the cause and schools in a way to fix the issue rather than drilling it during the pattern. For example, if there is an issue with a transition to the lope or the jog, she looks to see if the horse isn’t balanced, watching to see if they’re heavy on their forehand or pulling in their face. When doing a spin, she looks to see if they’re balanced correctly. When going into a stop, she looks to see if they’re falling into the stop or sitting down into the stop. Once the cause of the problem is fixed, she will go back to doing the actual maneuver. In her opinion, continued drilling of a maneuver that’s going poorly is counterproductive. “After doing it 20 times incorrectly, you’re teaching him to do it incorrectly. Then, people wonder why it doesn’t work in the arena,” she says.
She doesn’t treat drilling for the big shows any differently than the smaller ones, preferring to stay on track with the same plan and preparation she uses throughout the year. “I don’t change it up at the larger shows, because it has a tendency to psych out the riders. The mental game of showing is just as important as any maneuver in the pattern,” says Lagace.
Whitney guides her riders to have a calm frame of mind prior to the class. Over the year, they develop a pre-performance routine that includes controlled breathing and awareness of the communication flow between horse and rider.
One major difference between a regional show and a championship show is the lead-time for patterns. The extra time can trip up many exhibitors. “For the Congress, we get the pattern a week or two before,” she says. “I’ll do an inventory of my horses to make sure they’re set up for their owners well.” She assesses what the weakest part of the pattern might be for each team, “that’s where we will concentrate our energies when schooling.” However, she won’t go through the entire pattern at home either.
She emphasizes that trainers have to understand that clients are in the sport for different reasons. Some are motivated by the sheer joy of learning something new, others value the social aspects, and some are keenly focused on winning at the highest level. Understanding the goals of each one of her clients helps to plan the type and amount of preparation before a class.
