Roger Fitzhardinge recaps the dressage masterclass and Young Dressage Horse Champion of Champions at DJWTS

By Roger Fitzhardinge

The pointy end of the three days of competition at DJWTS saw the masterclasses take place and the Young Dressage Horse Champion of Champions crowned.

Evelyn Eger with Andreas Kreuzer, both from P.S.I., came over to be the guest riders for the dressage and jumping respectively.

Evelyn gave a masterclass with three horses, and what a great insight to the training and ways to see better engagement and balance, and to keep the horses quick and easy to the aids. Her basics were so simple and again it was about getting a response and then a reward by riding with no pressure. Something what was evident with all three horses was the importance of refreshing the forwardness of the pace often, and also the stretching over the back and relaxation of the top line. It was important to be able to turn the energy up and then to turn the energy down.

Evelyn reiterated that mistakes during training were not a problem and not to be taken as a failure, but rather to understand why and when they occur, and then to be able to make a positive training exercise out of the mistake.

Alexis Hellyer and Daenerys.

© Roger Fitzhardinge

It was all around engagement and self-carriage, and to achieve this there needed to be a good deal of activity and weight over the hind legs. There was a lot of work in the canter in travers on a circle to help with the sitting and the balance of the canter and making the circle smaller, encouraging the sitting and the activity of the pace.

There was work on making more cadence in the trot and Evelyn used some work in hand to get the horses more used to keeping the forwardness about the pace, while the half halts encouraged the push up off the ground and so more cadence!

With all the top trainers and coaches there are no magic cures or magic wands. It’s all about the basics and really about balance and the understanding of the half halt… that magical mystery tool.

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Evelyn’s experience with riding horses from four years olds in young horse classes to winning internationally at Grand Prix holds her in such great stead as a coach as her wealth of knowledge, feeling and understanding the requirements at every level and movement allow her to impart so many more meaningful things to the riders.

Eight riders had two days of lessons before three were selected for the masterclass:

1. Justine Greer and Bloomfield Sekuna

2. Samantha Bartlett and AB Final Romance

3. Alexis Hellyer and Daenerys

All riders had two very interesting and informative lessons. Alexis Hellyer had two wonderful lessons and loved her exercises. The highlight was Evelyn’s attention to keeping the suppleness in the neck no matter what the movement. An exercise that was used in the masterclass was the pirouette in the piaffe to help keep the weight on the outside hindleg, to in turn help with balance with carrying and push, and that in turn creates confidence.

All in all it was a great session, albeit a little too short.

Justine Greer and Bloomfield Sekuna.

© Roger Fitzhardinge

Young Dressage Horse Champion of Champions selected

Next after listening to Evelyn’s masterclass, she rode the winners of the four Young Dressage Horse competitions and what a great time the crowd had firstly hearing a little about each horse’s career path and breeding and quirky bits from the rider. Then to see Evelyn riding and then to hear Katrina Wurst’s comments about the ride, and then to hear Evelyn’s feelings about what she concluded from the ride. Her comments were so interesting and she was very complimentary of the training of all the horses. From the crowd’s perspective the judges tended to dominate Evelyn’s riding and were constantly asking her to do exercises, like when Evelyn was preparing for a canter pirouette and was asked to go long rein canter. She did such a great job in following what the judges wanted to see, but the idea was really for Evelyn to be given the chance to feel out what was going on and the constant demands by the judges made it hard for her to focus on what she wanted and tried to feel.

Selected and Elliot Patterson.

All in all it was most interesting and for sure the four year old, Selected, was quite outstanding and was unanimously given the nod and made Young Dressage Horse Champion of Champions. Everyone was so enthusiastic about the horses and their training. It was nice to hear Evelyn saying that these horses would hold their own on the world stage.

What a great way to finish off and Selected, by Secret out of Giant Luca, owned by Samantha Sidwell and produced by Elliot Patterson, was a truly wonderful horses who’s absolutely impeccable rideability and acceptance was exemplary.

Well done to all those who put DJWTS together under somewhat trying times. It was the best feeling to all be back on track and the atmosphere was again so good. It’s over for 2023; until next year!

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