When you put together a leading Australian sports performance psychologist and an elite American Dressage Olympian and trainer for a masterclass, the result is a valuable learning curve for all involved in the sport. Roger Fitzhardinge took part in the Queensland event.
By Roger Fitzhardinge
Dressage is normally considered to be a very physical sport. But, as any competitor knows, there is a great deal of mental energy and concentration required as well. It was, therefore, something of a masterstroke to combine the two elements by bringing together the talents of two experts - German-born American three-time Olympian, Steffen Peters and performance psychologist, Jonah Oliver, to present the Mitavite Ultimate Masterclass
The masterclass came to fruition through the foresight of Nicole Magoffin. Nicole had trained with Steffen in Australia and then at his training establishment in Del Mar California. Jonah worked with the Queensland State Dressage Squad and his input had been of such benefit to the squad that it was decided to combine the two talents and present the concept of “The mind and the Physical”.
It was in a format that was easy to comprehend, fun, inspiring, relevant and educational. And, it would help every rider, coach and interested dressage enthusiast engage in the mental approach, in what is normally seen as such a physical sport while gaining an amazing insight to the fair and kind, yet respectful, training methods that Steffen is renowned for.
The first training day with Steffan went straight to improving the basics, with Jonah observing riders' attitudes to their training adding a few interesting observations and absorbing their attitudes. The second day was a day of training before Steffan coached and Jonah explained about living with anxieties and nerves. The third day was a simulated competition with a warm up where Steffen helped each rider prepare for a test, with Jonah putting in to real practice what he had taught the previous two days. Roger Fitzhardinge judged each test and at the conclusion spoke of what he had seen in the test and the marks. It was simply an inspiring and motivating three days jammed packed with information, education, fun and passionate enthusiasm that coupled with total honesty, humour and emotion made for an unbelievable few days.
At the opening session Jonah and Steffen sat down and simply discussed the reasons why riders find it tough to compete. Riders blame anxiety for why they did not perform well, but this is absolutely not the reality. It’s not causational, it’s correlated instead. of course these anxieties and fears will be there but you must learn to make space for them and ride with them. You can’t get rid of them. It's about competence not confidence. It's reality not emotion. Steffen rides with all these emotions and it's just that over time he accepts them. There is no use trying harder or trying to get rid of these emotions - it's simply a competition no matter how big the occassion. It's just an ordinary test on an extraordinary day.
Steffen Peters.
The first horse and rider were of Pony Club Novice level and Harlem was a Warmblood/Arab/Standardbred cross gelding bred to jump. His rider was year 12 student, Emma Moore. Harlem was a lazy type of horse and coupled with Emma's kind and gentle demeanor allowed us to see training at grass roots level. Steffen kept the sessions so easy to comprehend and his quiet calm voice simply telling Emma how it was.
Jonah stepped in and gave Emma some help.
“You always want to be perfect, but you have to raise the bar. There is no use playing safe here with a competition tomorrow. Remember that talent is technique and pressure and you can't be talented if you can't combine the two. You have to learn to expect you will have fears and nerves, but accept them, put them to one side and focus on the training and take that with you. Work at your competence,” he said. Emma improved beyond imagination over the three days and rode a really pleasing test with not a resistance to any forward work.
Harvey Besley, a red Brahman cattle breeder from Rockhampton and Bloomfield Sorrento were next up. Steffen worked on how little Harvey would have to do to get the job done. It was about energy and half halts. Some great one liners from Steffen were: "Don’t cruise around without a feeling of variation" and "He must always be respectful of the contact."
In training, he said, "Keep the suppleness and don’t hesitate to move the neck and test the movement. Keep it yours. Do less degree of flexion for a longer time and finish what you start, not bending quickly one way and the other. Never let the horse against the bridle or neck longer in any collecting or downward transition"
Jonah helped Harvey to stop analysing too much or from becoming the fortune teller in his constant expectations of what may go wrong.
"You need to strip your rambling messages back to pertinent and simple points so you can access the important issues.” Steffan took this on board and finished by giving Harvey key words and focal points to help warm up for the test. His competition ride was a well rounded example of how the combination of the mind and the physical go together.
Dolly Joyce and Roosendaal BFD showed the Medium level and the training and help was all very similar to that of Harvey. What was of interest were Dolly’s superstitions - such as not riding with anything new. As she warmed up for the competition, Jonah gave her a brand new whip to take into the test. Such superstition is simply reinforcing the causation theory (e.g. I went badly because I was using that new saddlecloth). It is an excuse for poor riding and it's not the reality. Dolly rode a perfectly good test despite the new whip.
The mare Jaybee Ryana by Royal Hit is an amazing mover but a worrier and a little tricky in the contact. Ryana showed some amazing moments and the entire work was patient and kind and with plenty of breaks, but always about respect to the bit and never to be rude and pull downwards. It was simplistic and easy. Steffen also rode her on the last day to feel what was happening and to help Lientje with feedback about his findings. The mare is usually trained and ridden by Nicole Magoffin.
GB Winchester and Gary Lung demonstrated the PSG level and what a super demo. Gary is a hyperactive, humorous gentleman who was quickly brought to admitting his nervousness and anxiety in test situations. Jonah simply had Gary focus only on the competence and not on any emotion. Focus on breathing and the reality of the situation. It's about competence, not confidence. Gary and Steffen worked a lot on the canter pirouettes and exploring the reactions and honesty to the aids and the self carriage and not too down and against the contact.
“Never compromise about Chester being non-responsive to the aids. That’s not negotiable.” Steffen also rode Chester to initiate the piaffe aids better for Gary - and initiate he did.
Gary Lung and GB Winchester - pictured here competing in the Grand Prix at the 2017 Boneo Classic.
© Equestrian Life
Alex Berns and Kings Legend were an interesting combination competing at Grand Prix and what a great horse. It was the piaffe that was holding them back and Steffen suggested it was always done in the downward transitions to walking and not to allow Legend to get heavy downward in the contact in any of the trot work.
Steffen also rode Legend and felt ways around the misunderstanding in the piaffe. Many great exercises were formulated to help this talented combination. With Jonah, Alex related how she used to be a gung-ho competitor until a few weeks back when Legend became upset in the warm up and Alex admits she had a meltdown and felt she couldn’t cope in the show ring. It was yet again a focus on the competency and not the confidence. Legend did not show a Grand Prix test - as with the work in a transient phase a mistake during the test could lead to habit forming and it was not worth that for the sake of good training.
Last and by no means last was Steffen riding Dante. Nicole Tough had generously given the ride on the Dowsett Family-owned imported Depardieu gelding to Steffen. Dante had just returned from winning the Inter I at the Nationals and Steffen showed what a well-schooled horse he had the privilege to ride showing the way to the Grand Prix movements. The last day when he rode through the Inter I test it was simply a delight. Steffen made the whole test look effortless as if he sat and did nothing. After all, this is what it was all about.
Jonah and Steffen finished as they started, sitting discussing the pros and cons of being competitive. Jonah left with a great analogy. Draw a line on the ground and pretend it’s a beam, he said. Walk up and down the beam until you feel competent to walk in balance along its length. Now, Jonah says, that beam is suspended from the roof and again you are to walk up and down on it. Nerves, anxiety, sweating etc....most people would crouch low and go very slow with their arms out. Wrong. Focus on the competency and do not change the technique - it worked on the ground and it will work in the air.
It's not about confidence, it's all about competence.
Steffen Peters and Rosamund.
© Ken Braddock
