Steffan Peters Clinic Notes

[StraightForward]

Maybe Moutaineer can add to this when she sits in in a few weeks! The notes are all from FEI level horses with pro riders. There were a couple first levelish horses that he was very patient with fixing some basic things like keeping the horse off the hand and trotting off promptly. It would have been interesting to see some FEI-bound mid-level pairs, but this started as a private clinic that ended up morphing into a fundraiser for the GMO, so the rides weren't really selected with a symposium in mind. I still got a lot out of it though, and think it will improve my rides right away!

General tips:

Find the right “temperature” for the ride each day. An FEI horse needs enough energy to
To use the whip on top of the croup, put your thumb on the handle, then you can easily tap it.
Always look for response to the calf aid. The spur is a reminder, but use it with intention, and go back to the light aid.

When the horse “talks back” it’s usually a misunderstanding of the leg aid.

School short extensions and come back more; don’t school the full diagonal.

When a horse knows piaffe (trained with clucking), us a bit of clucking to get them on the aids with minimal leg.

When any lateral movement is not working, go back to walk and re-establish the basics of bend/sideways. You can also test the forward response in the lateral work. He had a first level rider do W/T transitions in LY.

Polish your details like finishing each movement cleanly. Don’t just fall out of the movement.

Trot on first centerline can be almost a medium. Get judge’s attention with a beautiful CL and halt. Then collect more trotting to C and around the corner to be able to show difference with the medium or extension.

There are at least three halts in each test so take the time to make them good. Quick corrections will help horses learn square halts faster.

Look for the moments where you can release the rein and maintain the bend/self carriage.

It is fine to use a rein aid, but it should be for bending, half halt, or full halt. Quiet hands are good, but when schooling, don’t be afraid to use a quiet hand creatively to ask small questions and create suppleness in the collection.

It’s great to create energy, but it’s not useful if you throw it out the front door.
Sometimes a 30 second walk break can be enough after 2-3 upper level movements, just to get the heart rate down.

Think about the cooperation (submission) in movements that don’t require strength and coordination. That can help avoid throwing points away.

The cadence for a good extension or medium comes from the self carriage.

Don’t school movements at the expense of rideability. Training should make the horses more rideable.


Warmup:
In the warmup, remember you are still training. Supple the horse and check the response to the sideways aid in walk. If the horse is not responsive or supple, trot just a few steps, and then go back to the exercise. For trot warmup, ride half circles at each end leg-yielding outwards (leave room), then ride the long side in counter flexion, with some LY in. The changes of flexion are very important and should be of good quality to set up your ride. The neck should come down and forward in the half circles.

Set a good tempo in the warmup, but if the horse is hotter, the tempo can be slower to start out.
Walk:
A leg like a wet towel should be enough to keep a horse forward in walk. Keep a good tempo in the walk. Sometimes riders get too quick when asking for activity, and it disrupts the rhythm. Tempo and rhythm are related. The extended walk should be with the neck level. He does not mind if the reins are a touch loose if the nose is out, but some judges will penalize for it. He would prefer that to ending up with the nose in too much in the extended walk. Don’t confuse an active walk with walking away from the rider.

Walk Pirouettes: This is an exercise that can be perfected because it is low-impact. Ride the first step with a feeling of travers, and from there maintain the activity and bring the shoulders around. Don’t make it small at the expense of activity. You can school it on a 5 m circle. The walk piri aids will transfer well to the canter piris, so don’t ignore this movement in the training.

Canter work:
For the FEI horses, Steffan prefers to do the canter work after the warmup, and then finish with the trot work because the canter work is more demanding. Prepare the canter walk as if cantering down centerline for halt/salute with about 5 quite collected steps.

Canter pirouettes - Use exercises to develop the ¼ and ½ piris. Don’t overdo it when not well prepared. make a habit of going in and out of piri canter. 5 strides of medium is enough, then come back. Always school the suppleness in the collection, and don’t stay with a piri that is getting rigid or not forward thinking. Prepare with travers on a circle. Don’t make it too small and lose the quality. Ride a diamond from E or B to A or C, developing collection and travers positioning, then just do a larger ¼ piri and ride to the next letter. Commit to a perfect line and collect early. Some riders did ½ to full piris and in most cases he felt they should have ridden out sooner. Remember that this is schooling, so it’s not helpful to ride the full test movement if it deteriorates. Ride a line that will allow you to ride out of the piri at any time. On a 10m circle, you can ride travers, then just 2 strides piri at a time. It is fine to keep both hands together and move them more towards the inside to help bring the shoulder around.

Half-Pass: Choose the line and bend the horse to the letter. Separate the corner and the start of the HP. Don’t just fall out of the corner. If shoulders fall in at the beginning it’s a max 6, but sometimes this will also result in haunches leading when the rider tries to compensate. The horse needs to be sensitive to the outside leg so you can sit to the inside and keep the bend around the inside leg. Maintain energy in trot HP by starting as a straight diagonal, and then riding HP across X, then back to straight on diagonal to finish. Alternate HP and LY to help with the bending. Add a volte any time to re-establish the bend. Look for the simplicity when riding the HP - don’t move on to zig-zags until the HP is simple and the horse offers it. It is better to do a LY correctly to ¼ line then LY back, and work up to LY to CL, rather than continuing.

In first few HPs of the day, ride more forward and sideways, then develop the collection.

Piaffe: Work towards getting the steps quickly on the aids. Leg is the gas pedal and seat creates balance. School less steps and go out before it feels backward. Again, we’re schooling, not riding the test movement. Work on some piaffe from lengthening to develop the forwards and back on the diagonal and long side. Make it easy so you’re not using up your energy in the test trying to piaffe for the horse. Use some trot HP and then back to piaffe for activity and suppleness. Ride some piaffe over X as a habit. Horses show for several years halting at X, then get to GP and need to piaffe there. It’s just a mental issue that is easy to avoid. If horse tends to drift to one side in piaffe, bend to that side. For one horse, piaffe was in the corner with collected or lengthening to help make it easier to come back into piaffe. Goal is to see piaffe through the whole body.

[mari]

Lovely write-up, thanks so much for taking the time <3

[exvet]

Agreed! These are great notes. Looks like it was a weekend well spent!

[blob]

thank you for sharing, lots of helpful tips in here!

[khall]

Thanks SF for the clinic notes. I love SP. what a kind man and fabulous rider/trainer he is

[Moutaineer]

Im looking forward to this coming weekend auditing him. Except its going to be cooold!!!!

[Moutaineer]

SF's notes are more comprehensive than mine, but i did have a few takeaways from last weekend.

First off was use of the leg. He was on everyone's case about nagging with the leg. Keep your leg in light contact all the time. Squeeze with your calf, if no response apply the spur for one full second, and cluck. Praise forward response mightily.

Leg is the gas pedal, seat is for collection. Don't pump with your seat for forward motion.

Big on the use of the cluck and voice (I foresee a change to the rules about this in the next couple of years.)

One young woman had a big rangy rather undermuscled 4 year old that was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. She was riding him pretty deep and round supposedly to help develop his back. Steffan said OK, but he also needs to learn to come up and out because if you dont teach him that now you are going to be struggling with him plowing around on his forehand forevermore.

He said start with a lot of straight lines, off the wall. Teach the horse to be naturally straight right from the start.

Never ignore inconsistency in the contact.

If hes blowing you off and you want to get his attention, tap with your whip on the saddle pad rather than using it on him.

The whip is for "drawing his attention to an issue" not for punishment.

The junior was on a big horse that tried to buck and intimidate his rider every time she asked for something more difficult. The rider was doing an excellent job and they made some progress over the two days by not caving to him and making him turn in circles and go forward briskly every time he did it, but I fear that horse is a lost cause. (Whoever thought breeding a Hungarian Warmblood (I've never met on around here that wasn't a completely knothead) and an Appaloosa wants their head examining.)

Through all the levels, be really picky about transitions. Don't accept anything less than perfect and it will soon become a habit for the horse.

He emphasized developing reliability in the movements at the upper levels. You dont want to have to go in the ring and have to finesse your way through a movement. You need to know that the horse can follow instructions and do it, so you can focus on other things.

He absolutely loved our assistant trainer's 8 year old, developing PSG horse, who she has had and brought on since he was a yearling. Told her he " needed to be seen" and that he would have the team coach look at them when they go to CA to show in April, and that she needed to be looking at a CDI with him quite soon. He can be a spooky handful at times, but his view was that to compete at that level a horse needed a bit of spirit. (He also told her that if she ever wanted to sell him to talk to him first. She's a bit in shock about the whole experience!)

Justin's 6 year old worked his socks off. SP said that this year was the hardest year for a horse as they arent babies any more and they have such a lot of more difficult stuff to learn .
FCs. No point in even starting them unless you've got a decent collected canter and feel like you have some degree of control over every footfall.

To that end, TOH. The first hind footfall must be a distinct crossover from outside to inside. Develop that level of control. And teach the horse to halt square, every time. Make it a habit so you dont have to think about it in the show ring.

I think the greatest overall takeaway I got was about how your horse needs to be aware that you are aware of what he is doing at all times. To quietly correct the little stuff so it doesnt develop into big stuff. I suppose that's a level of respect and ppartnership.

He was kind to horse and riders, made everyone feel comfortable and it was a great learning experience.

The facility was brand new and very fancy, with outstanding footing. They fed us a gourmet catered lunch.

They are going to have shows there this summer, too, which will be a big change from the rat holes we normally have to show in around here!

[blob]

great notes, Mountaineer! And how exciting for the Assist. Trainer to get such incredible feedback!

Interesting re: the clucking. I used voice in all my ground work which means my horses know the difference between 'trot' v. 'canter' v. 'walk' when i'm lunging them either on the line or free. But while riding I've tried to stop the clucking because to me it starts to become a naggy thing where it's easy to just cluck around all the time.

[khall]

Thanks mountaineer for the clinic notes! Love Stephan Peter’s. He’s so kind to horses and humans both

[StraightForward]

Thanks for the additional notes

The facility was brand new and very fancy, with outstanding footing. They fed us a gourmet catered lunch.

I saw that on Facebook and let my husband know he needs to hurry up and win the Powerball. Cool that they will be hosting shows.

[Moutaineer]

Yabut... a super fancy facility at the base of a ski resort where you have to walk down a steep, icy hill to get from the barn to the indoor arena?

[StraightForward]

Yabut... a super fancy facility at the base of a ski resort where you have to walk down a steep, icy hill to get from the barn to the indoor arena?

Well, my husband skis... There are some acceptable places in the Sun Valley area, if I had to choose