Sunday, September 19, 2010

Riley clinics with Felicitas Von Neumann-Cosell

In part to prep for the Devon under saddle class, and in part to get a "read" on his training progress, Riley clinic'ed with FVNC this past Friday. Very interesting! FVNC was aware of our Devon goals and many of her remarks addressed how the under saddle class should be approached. Here is the early footage...



9 comments:

  1. What an EXCELLENT clinic/lesson! Absolutely spot on to make Riley look so nice. Look how his head and neck come up as he finds his balance.

    Wonderful as well to break up the lesson of the leg yield so he has the time to understand it and "digest" the aids.

    The corrections on a super nice horse like him are small, but what a difference they make.

    I was so very interested about the concept of keeping him even on both front legs in the turns as well. That balance is a good thing to remember. Will have to think about that myself the next time I school.

    Thanks so much for posting this. Wonderful. Riley is going to shine at Devon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're so lucky to have access to FVNC! She wrote an article for Dressage Today a few months ago about starting a young horse and I must have read it 10 times. It made so much sense and was something I could understand. Riley looks great working under her direction. Good work! Devon is exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful video. I could hear her so well and the camera work was very nice. Thanks so much for posting this and Riley looks like a champ!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was trying to watch the rest of the Felicitas videos on vimeo.com and it had a continuity problem. Do you have any advice on how I can watch them run smoothly?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some of them may still be marked private, otherwise it may just be vimeo. I'm going to try to load them on youtube over lunch, and will post the youtube link here...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Man, would I like to take a lesson with her!

    I liked so many things about this lesson. She emphasized lateral balance before adding back the forward. She broke down the leg yield so the horse had time to understand the different meanings of the leg. And she knew when to tell the rider to wait and be patient and when to be quick so the horse's balance would be preserved.

    On top of it all, Riley looked gorgeous! Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Especially here, Riley looks like he's developing really lovely muscling.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi! Mary Lou in Boulder, Colorado here. Jean gave me a link to this blog. I like the idea of keeping the bit in the roof of his mouth, neither dropping the bit nor holding it (I think that was the wording). Nice arena - roomy, wooden, quiet with greenery outside. I heard mention of Hilda Gurney. She is giving a clinic/symposium an hour from here - would it be worth going to observe? Lovely horse!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

Hi Guys, Your comments are valued and appreciated -- until recently I never rejected a post. Please note that I reserve the right to reject an anonymous post.