A Day of Dressage with Steffen Peters

A Day Of Dressage with Steffen Peters was organised through OntheBit.com.au who have a Double Disk DVD set of this available through their online address of www.OntheBit.com.au.

Julia McLean and Coralie Smyth attended the Steffen peters clinic to present this short expose of this riding philosophy and an understanding of what it is that makes this man one of the top riders and trainers in the world.

Steffen Peters is not only a high flyer as a dressage rider - victory at Aachen and bronze at the World Equestrian Games 2006, silver in the Las Vegas World Cup 2007 - he is also an outstanding coach. Born in Germany, Steffen has been based in the USA for the past 22 years and competes internationally.
His trademark, both as a rider and a coach is courtesy and his belief in correctness without compromise, high expectations of both horse and rider and consistently emphasises cooperation, sensitivity and communication, attracted many high profile riders to the the Sydney Equestrian Centre clinic in January 2008.

While his aim may mirror that of most coaches: responsiveness, suppleness and self carriage, his method centres on working with the horse’s brain and gaining its attention. Steffen believes that the horse is permitted to ‘have an opinion’, that it can be allowed to make a mistake and that all corrections must be within the horse’s comfort zone. He endorses understanding the problem before reacting, analysing and then, most importantly, helping the horse to understand better.
Definitely not an advocate of punishment or anger, nor relentless repetition, Steffen encourages the rider to make logical, clear decisions the horse will understand. He regards horses not as difficult, confrontational animals that need discipline, but rather as animals that want to cooperate if we could just explain things well enough to them.

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, it’s more his misunderstanding, coordination, straightness.”
If a horse, at whatever level appears to be disagreeable, he suggests “It’s okay, he just wants to express an opinion. That’s normal; just keep working through it, don’t even punish him. When he does his job, reward and accept it, then move on.

“Make sure your horse understands if he does make a mistake - the rider’s solution is not to be tough or demanding, but rather to ‘explain’ with a soft touch, either from the whip or reins. If there is no response from the seat or hand aid, then tap him with your whip. If the horse is being silly, ask for a leg yield, or turn him in another direction. If he leans on your hands, momentarily become firmer, then release.Tap with the whip to remind him to pay attention.”
Lots of transitions, changes of tempo and rhythm are all used, whether to create sensitivity in one horse or to settle another which is too sensitive - or as Steffen puts it “too much desire to go forward.”

Riders are encouraged to employ a reward and punishment approach - which is not as severe as it sounds but instead punishment is the correction and asking again. Reward is leaving the exercise alone, releasing the leg aid or softening to allow the horse to travel freely on his own.
“Find the perfect moment, praise and then leave alone. Sometimes it’s good enough. Resist the temptation to repeat, repeat, repeat.”
Steffen also believes in giving the horse numerous breaks during the session.

COACHING
The training methods used by Steffen for horses is mirrored in his approach to riders. Breaking tasks into their small, component steps, makes it easy for both horse and rider to learn. While he wants the rider to understand mistakes and encourages awareness and feel at all levels, Steffen stresses that they must “ride with the head, all the time making logical decisions. Apply an aid, examine the response and decide how to refine it. Test the aids, apply and take the leg off - see what happens - if the horse becomes lazy he is not naturally forward.”
Although riders are asked to understand mistakes Steffen will not accept work that is not as it should be, and constantly repeats how important it is to keep raising a rider’s expectations. “We must correct all work that falls beneath our standards or else the horse will think he has satisfied us with his work. All mistakes should be corrected at that moment, in a positive way. When asking for a movement, if the horse is crooked, go around again. Don’t settle and ride it anyway - don’t take the risk.”
A descriptive and insightful communicator, Steffen asks for observation and analysis, allowing a rider to absorb his suggestions or corrections before requiring a reaction and uses simple analogies such as “leg aids are the ‘gas pedal” or a horse has “taken a nose-dive” instead of ‘running through the hands’, that make it easier for a rider to recognise a concept.
When coaching, Steffen has eagle eyes, can see every little aid and is constantly watching and refining. Able to assess the horse’s responses, good or bad, no matter how tiny, he has a great deal of information to impart to riders but comes back to a few core philosophies that resonate through each and every session - regardless of whether the horse and rider combination is working at Novice or Grand Prix.

First and foremost, the rider must always ask and expect an immediate response to an aid. The aim is always for -upon application - an aid to have the horse respond and continue until told to do otherwise, or travel in ‘cruise-control’ as he succinctly puts it.
He focusses constantly on asking and reminding aids. A rider is not allowed to support, or hold the horse with an aid. For instance in a leg yield, he says, “Apply the aid - ask, get the response and lighten the aid as a reward and then remind. And so this also applies to a travers or half pass and pirouettes - rather than clamping the leg on in position, the aid is used in an on-off application as a gentle reminder of what was asked. Ask and remind the aids, don’t hold them.”
Instead of strong supporting aids in the canter pirouette, the rider should test the horse by riding more passively with the purpose of establishing how reliable the horse was, that is, how much he could be relied upon to produce the pirouette in competition. In Steffen’s words, “too much leg support and he will not be reliable, particularly in piaffe and pirouette.”
“Riders must get a reaction from the horse whenever they apply an aid. Make a difference! It’s better to have a bad reaction than no reaction at all,” is a comment clarrified by another of his analogies. “You are limited to 60kph when you are driving on the road but there is no limit on how quickly you can get from 0 to 60,” he says by way of explaining the degree of immediacy he expects.

“Always 100% response” is a recurrent phrase. “No exercise will make a difference if the horse is not 100% sensitive to the aids,” he adds.
This was demonstrated with a horse that needed to give a faster response. To create more sensitivity in walk the horse was asked to trot for 3-5 strides, back to walk and if the reaction was too slow, asked again and a better response was expected. The same principle was applied later with a more advanced horse using walk and canter. The technique was varied for other paces -opening the canter to medium to test the response to the leg.
“If there’s no reaction to the leg, use the spur but if this is not sufficient have someone help you with a lunge whip - all young horses are driven forward on the lunge and know how to respond so this is a way which can communicate to the horse what it is you are expecting from him. Sometimes a rider who is too aggressive will create too much tension in the horse.”
Although it is tempting for a rider to ‘work down’ a ‘keen’ horse, Steffen’s approach is to reinforce the need for the horse to listen to the rider with lots of correct transitions with flexion exercises like leg yield to relax and once this starts to happen, he then settles the horse, offering him the chance to stand still and relax.

Hand in hand with the expectation of responsiveness was the need for suppleness, two concepts which are crucial to achieving quality work. “Collect him, make him supple and then send forward again.”
What was shown to varying degrees was a compression of the horse with a lowering of the hindquarters and activity maintained. There was an increased bend in the hocks, and the neck and poll lowered, which allowed the back to come up under the saddle. As the neck was lowered the head came behind the vertical.
When the horse is in frame and lowers the neck, he will go behind the vertical but when the neck comes up again the head will return to the vertical. This process was used to maintain relaxation in the back and hind legs - Steffen called this ‘suppleness.’ He pointed out, “All horses when going to collection, even with a good rider, will resist. Lowering the poll a centimetre or two keeps the horse relaxed and so the quality of the collection is greater.”
The key point in the technique is that it created submission, balanced the horse and bought the back up while keeping it loose and fluid and making the horse more ‘through’ as a result. This technique was applied to all the horses early in their session and the lowering of the poll was not necessary by the end of the ride when the horse had been worked to a state of preparedness in which to enter the competition arena.
“Bending to both sides is just as important as the suppleness through the back and poll and is very important to make sure the horse is supple. When asking for flexion you must release with the inside rein, but use the inside leg. Counter flexion can be used to control the shoulder.”

ONE WHIP OR TWO?
On the subject of whips, Steffen pointed out that FEI rules only allow for one whip, the classical approach in training, and that having two whips can create a crutch that the rider would not be able to rely on in competition.
“The whip is never used to make the horse forward but we can see it used in a ‘tap-tap’ manner to gain the horse’s attention. For instance, when a horse is executing trot serpentines with a halt on the centreline, is reluctant in the downward transition and pushes against the rein in the halt, a gentle ‘tap-tap’ with the whip can be used as if to say “Excuse me, talking to you, please listen.” Similarly, a horse showing resistance to walk from trot, by stiffening and/or opening the mouth, ‘tap, tap’, back to trot, do the transition again.”
While he likes to train all his horses in a snaffle bridle because it is better for relaxation Steffen admits there are some FEI horses, strong stallions for example, that will always be in the double. “The adjustment of the snaffle is not as precise. The double must be fitted perfectly and the curb always be set to 45 degrees as loose curbs don’t do the horse any favours.”
In preparation for the competitive arena Steffen advises there is no substitute for exposure. All the young horses go to shows for quiet outings but there isn’t an exercise that can replicate the intensity of a competition. “In the World Cup arenas, the crowds are sitting right up to the side of the arena and the only way horses can get used to it is through exposure.”
Even though the word ‘lightness’ is not overly used during the clinic, it is clear that Steffen Peters believes in using a light touch both with horses and their riders. His refreshing approach is one of skill and intelligence rather than domination and strength.