Lucinda Green Clinic Recap

Hi Everyone,

Before we plunge any further into event mode in the lead-up to our CNC, we wanted to give you a quick recap of the recent Lucinda Green clinic. Below is a review provided by NCHTA Committee Member and dedicated Volunteer Coordinator, Felicity Moran…..

Lucinda Green, six times Badminton winner – on six different horses – and a former World Eventing Champion, is an eventing legend. She is also an excellent teacher. Her Safe Way eventing course is a must-do for up and coming eventers competing confidently at intro or above.

Lucinda’s philosophy is based on the rider allowing a horse to learn to think for himself in tackling cross-country obstacles, as this will ultimately make him a safer ride.  Her emphasis is on forming a partnership – with the rider the senior partner, to be sure – rather than a relationship based on domination by the rider which can lead to the horse relying on the rider for direction in the face of incipient problems offered by ‘technical’ xc obstacles: – fine when the rider is in balance and ready to direct, but what if you’ve had a disastrous A element and you’re (hopefully temporarily) something of a wayward passenger as Element B rushes towards (or past) you?

Exercises in the first day used SJ equipment and footing to create open ‘galloping’ fences interspersed with small combinations. The combinations included ‘skinnies’ with random striding and ‘impossible’ angles to subsequent combination elements, to illustrate the extraordinarily demanding technical questions posed by today’s xc courses.  The focus was on getting horse and rider to adjust between the fence types and to take the initiative in getting themselves over obstacles however they were placed.

Despite my misgivings, the angles proved not to be impossible when ridden properly, but they were very tough.

Lucinda’s tenets:

1. The rider must use a defensive position jumping xc; better to look untidy but clear the obstacle in sufficient balance to ride for the next one; and anyway, being too far forward, apart from being dangerous for the rider, inhibits the horse’s ability to jump.
2. The horse needs to see the fence to assess distance and lock on to it, and he can only see at a reasonable distance through the lower half of his eyes, so his head carriage needs to allow this on the approach. He cannot see forward if he is on the bit, nor if his head is too high.
3. The horse’s near vision is through the upper half of his eyes – which is why he’ll drop his head at the last moment to look into that ditch or the water. In this instance, rider (in glued-in defensive seat, not half-way up horse’s neck, of course) may need to slip the reins before the obstacle, then ‘aeroplane’  the arms to resume contact while pushing him vigorously over the fence. Aeroplaning the arms is quicker than gathering the reins, and the rider’s response must be instantaneous to maintain forward momentum and get the horse over/ into the ‘looky’ obstacle. (Lucinda attributed this tip to observation of Andrew Nicholson.)
4. Never re-present a horse to a small fence. Make discomfort the consequence of his refusal (immediate tap with whip) and rein back if necessary in order to then provide enough impulsion to jump the fence.
5. Circling prior to jumping is not necessarily helpful! (see point two).
6. Straight-line halt on completion of each exercise. Lucinda regards this as the final and essential obstacle in an exercise, teaching the horse to listen and to stay straight for the next jumping exercise.

If NCHTA can persuade Lucinda to return in future years – on a weekend would suit most NCHTA members – it is worth saving up for. It may be one of the toughest clinics you’ll do, but it will enrich your xc training and riding methods and will provide helpful pointers on handling and educating your horse in general.