Riding with Rien van der Schaft
The Horse’s Quandary
Riding with Rien van der Schaft
Leslie and Rien van der Schaft at Hill Haven Stable
In November of 2016 I had the pleasure of auditing Rien van der Schaft, currently the Finnish Dressage Team Coach, at his first clinic held in Canada hosted by Alison Banbury, owner of Hill Haven Stable, Hillsburgh, ON. I knew instantly I wanted to ride in his next clinic when I heard him emphasize over and over again to “ride forward into both reins.”
I was thrilled to learn he was coming back in September 2017 and immediately reserved three sessions.
Rien’s teaching is amazingly like the old classical masters I was fortunate enough have ridden with from 1972 until my last competition at Grand Prix in 2005. I am most grateful for the teaching I had. They all said “Ride forward calmly into both reins and let the horse carry himself, show him the way.”
As a senior dressage judge and FEI dressage steward, I was on the road for many years, leaving my young horse to grow into his big frame. After several years of riding sporadically and trying to get my now not so young horse trained, I was elated to have had the opportunity to ride with Rien.
First and foremost Rien is honest to the horse, patient with the rider, serious and calm in demeaour accompanied by a quick wit and sense of humour. If a mistake was made during one of the various exercises the rider was asked to execute, it was no big deal. He has the innate ability to bring out the best in horse and rider.
Rien is adamant about riding forward to both reins equally. Flexion means at the poll, not from bending the horse at the base of the neck. Bend is created by riding from the inside leg to outside rein, not by bending the neck.
“Not enough people pay attention to the balance of the horse”, he explains. “There is not only backward and forward balance but there is left and right balance. That is why the turns should be ridden around the inside leg, not with too much over bending in the body or they will curl like snakes; then the horse is loose, but is not compact.”
Myself and Zilvano in piaffe
“He is a big horse for you,” he said of Zilvano, “but you deal with him really well. It is wonderful to see. Riding is not about having long legs, being big, being heavy, being strong, it is all about balancing your horse,” commented Rien during my ride. “There are no excuses,” he laughed. Zilvano is a 17.2 h.h. Dutch Warmblood; I am a mere 5’2.
Key tools to change the balance of the horse are the transitions and lateral movements and the combination of these movements. In the half pass it is very important that the horse moves his inside hind leg under his body. The more the inside hind leg comes under the body the more the outside hind leg can cross over. If the half pass is ridden with haunches leading, the inside hind leg is next to the body instead of under it.
Getting control of the hind leg through lateral work was repeated over and over again throughout the clinic with every rider. Rien uses many exercises such as turn on the forehand, leg yield, and half passes to help achieve this. The goal is to create a more active hind leg. For example, start leg yield or half pass on the diagonal line at the walk; keep asking the hind leg to increase the activity (not speed) until short trot steps are obtained. Upon reaching the wall, ride a transition to walk. Immediately proceed to canter. This proved to be a fabulous exercise to gain control of the hind leg, increase the activity and keep the horse in front of the leg.
The first day Rien asked me to create half steps out of a turn on the forehand, turn on forehand to rein-back, out of rein-back to walk then going forward to leg yield at the walk on the diagonal, eventually creating short trot steps, cautioning it should not be to be too fast.
“Those are the things you have to practice; you have to use these to improve the whole use of the horse’s body. These things get the back looser and get the hind legs looser.”
The second day we practiced going into piaffe, forward to half steps and back again while maintaining the forward intention. In the half steps when you feel like you are losing the impulsion take the haunches out a little. On the circle on the left rein I was asked to take Zilvano’s haunches slightly to the outside so the left hind travelled more toward the direction of the right fore.
On day three we continued exercises to improve the piaffe, passage, piaffe transitions. I was happy to obtain a few energetic passage steps. Rein noted Zilvano tends to stay too much on the spot and insisted I maintain the forward intent.
“Very often people think the goal is piaffe, passage and pirouettes. It is not true,” he states. “It is the exercises that are meant to make our horses go better. It is the exercises, it is the training,” he reiterated. In our daily riding the leg yield, half pass, rein-back, piaffe, passage, changes are all meant to make better use of our horses’ bodies.”
Rien is both an amazing and inspirational coach. It was truly an honour to ride with Rien and to reaffirm the art of riding is still alive.