Charlotte Dujardin Extravaganza at Brisbane CDI

The Charlotte Dujardin Masterclass was the brainchild of Leesa Murray – as if she didn’t already have enough to do with the Youth Championships and the CDI. Leesa is one of those wonderful people that believes anything is possible with hard work and determination, which I suspect she needed in spades to negotiate a flying visit from the most awarded dressage rider of our time. It didn’t seem possible that Charlotte would come to Brisbane to give a Masterclass for a day but Leesa made it happen. The VIP tables sold out in 12 minutes and the general admission was also filled. On the morning of the Masterclass, there was an unheard of Sunday morning traffic jam trailing from the Bruce Highway to QSEC. It must be the first time in Queensland’s history that a dressage event has been the cause of traffic chaos.

Hundreds of riders submitted video footage of their horses in the hope of being selected by Charlotte’s team to ride in the Riders XOXO Masterclass. In the end there could only be six, two of which are trained by Team Van Den Berg, so Mel and Tor must be doing something right.

The class began with the 4 year olds. Recently married Tori Welch presented on Elite Rob Roy, another by the Queensland sire Riverside, with Deborah Oliver riding Highfield Bella Vita, an imported mare by Beltano. Gary Lung was the MC charged with trying to keep Charlotte on time but he was quickly warned by Charlotte that she had no intention of obeying his entreaties to keep to the tight schedule.

Charlotte opened by saying that she really liked riding young horses and she described her priorities in selecting the babies. They had to have a good walk and canter – and especially a good walk since this is the hardest to correct. She explained that it is easy to improve a trot and that she didn’t go for the really massive moving young horses because the extravagant movement put too much strain on their joints and they frequently didn’t stay sound long enough to go Grand Prix. She preferred the horses to just have a normal trot and canter with a temperament that would permit her to develop them. They also needed to be brave – a particular talent of Valegro apparently, who Charlotte said always stayed focussed completely on her so that she could ride for the highest possible marks. Charlotte admitted to not being a fan of stallions as riding horses. “Too much like a man,” she said “opinionated, with their minds on breeding.”

Charlotte currently has eight mares in training so clearly she believes that the females are the better option. Charlotte works her young horses for no more than 20 minutes in a session with a focus on building a solid foundation whereby the horse must go from the leg, come back from the rein. She uses 100’s of transitions and also uses her voice a lot to reinforce the aids.

Rob Roy was slightly against the hand in the transition to walk so Charlotte instructed Tori to just rise slower and massage her fingers on the reins. “Stay off his back – don’t do sitting trot” she asked “then use your voice” and Roy melted into a balanced walk without any hint of resistance. Charlotte wanted Tori’s leg to be loose with very slight pressure but Roy had to go forward to that pressure. Charlotte also wanted hands lower with shorter reins and stressed to Tori not to ride deep in the corners with a young horse. Roy had a brief rest and it was the turn of Deb Oliver and Bella Vita.

Bella tended to go quite deep and was pretty awestruck by the big atmosphere in the arena. Deb was another rider who came in with a whip. “Do you need your whip on her?” Charlotte asked, and of course Deb didn’t. Charlotte stated this is an international problem – her arena at home is also littered with the whips of riders who carry them into the arena but actually don’t need them and have had Charlotte remove them. “You watch – I’ll have taken every rider’s whip by the end of today” and she pretty well had. Charlotte used serpentines and changes of bend to get Bella’s attention and encouraged Deb to think of the reins moving rather than holding. She stressed that the half halt was a re-balancing aid, not a slowing down aid. Slowly Bella settled and Deb was able to lengthen the frame. “Build the muscles you want to keep – don’t build muscles that you’ll be fighting against later on,” and at that Bella was allowed to take a walk break.

Roy was asked to canter at which he gave an enthusiastic hump which Charlotte liked. This was interpreted as a positive sign that the horse wanted to go forwards and was certainly not a negative. Charlotte thought Roy was a “bit stampy” in the canter, which needed to be fixed by going forwards. When Charlotte says “Go” you’d better go and this really highlighted the difference between Charlotte and other clinicians I’ve watched. Charlotte instructed as though she was on the horse, not as if she was on the ground. She instructed as a rider rides. “GO” – short, direct, decisive – just like the aid needs to be. None of this “try to get the horse more in front of the leg” or “more forwards” it was just “Go”! When Tori responded with a slightly forward canter she was quickly told “Go” 4 or 5 more times until Roy was really covering ground and very forwards. “Now take your legs off and ride him forwards to a contact,” instructed Charlotte and Roy looked as though he’d been doing this for months rather than a few minutes. Now, “pat him like you love him” as a reward. Even at this level Charlotte wanted every transition to be a good one – keep repeating until it is a good one. By this stage Roy was doing a transition to walk with the reins on the buckle. A great experience for a young horse.

Bella was not so convinced that this arena experience was for her. Charlotte stated that she preferred to work her horses in canter first as it improved the trot and got them more over the back. She also believed that very forward going young horses should not do too many straight lines, but rather use the circles to back them off if required. Deb was one of many riders for the day that was told to keep her thumbs on top. “You’ve been carrying too many handbags” said Charlotte as a way of convincing Deb to avoid the flat hand. When the mare takes over again Charlotte helps Deb to keep giving the rein. “She has better balance when you don’t hold her.” The need for endless attention to detail is apparent when Charlotte says: “Right bending – disgusting, do it again.” Deb is doing a great job getting Bella to focus so there is not much room for fine tuning today but there is no doubt the mare has a tonne of ability. Some other memorable Charlotte comments from this session include:

“ Sit on your bum – hold her with your seat and your leg, not your reins.”

“ Short reins win Gold Medals.”

“ If you can’t see the top of her poll, then she is too low and you have to fix it.”

Bella finished on a long rein in a free, open trot, which is testament to the great work completed in this session.

The Riders XOXO Masterclass then continued with the Elementary/Medium horse, Irish bred Courtlands Cadman ridden by Steffi Stevens.

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Author: Liz Owens

Source: The Horse Magazine