By Mary Moon
British trainer Gareth Hughes taught a dressage clinic at the annual Symposium sponsored by Absorbine® and the New England Dressage Association (NEDA) at Mount Holyoke College Equestrian Center (South Hadley, MA) from October 19 to 20, 2024. Eight participants rode horses ranging from green youngsters to competitors at national (USEF) and international (FEI) levels. Several hundred auditors attended, and dozens of NEDA members and local college students volunteered. Beth Beukema and her committee of NEDA members and Eq Center staff organized the event.
Hughes, an international dressage competitor and coach, operates his training facility in Warwickshire, England. His training methods reflect those of his mentors, FEI dressage judge Stephen Clarke and teammate Carl Hester. Hughes has won more than 60 national and international titles, and competed as a member of Great Britain’s international squad. He and his wife, Rebecca, developed Classic Briolinca from a three-year-old to earn team medals at the 2023 FEI Dressage European Championship (gold) and the 2022 FEI Dressage World Championship (silver). In 2024, they retired Briolinca from sport in May, and subsequently lost her to colic in early October.
Several hundred auditors filled seats around the ring to watch Hughes give individual lessons to demonstration riders. Adult amateurs Cornelia Hamilton and Mary Ellen Briga were delighted to audit the clinic. “It’s nice to see an international rider correct and improve the details of the riders, and this can perfect them,” Hamilton explained.
“I still remember auditing the Kyra Kirkland clinic at the 2023 Adequan®/NEDA Symposium, and her advice about riding with level hands and not swinging your body during flying changes. Anyone can learn so much to improve their riding by auditing a clinic,” Briga recalled.
“I love watching riders being schooled and seeing what the clinician is doing, and how they try to help the rider. We’re both Second Level riders and really happy to see a Second Level horse (Stella M, a nine-year-old Rheinland Pfaltz-saar mare) and rider (Cassie Martin, Saco, ME) among the participants,” Briga added.
The demo riders included juniors, adult amateurs, and professionals. One of the demo riders was Mount Holyoke College freshman Leah Drew (Lincoln, MA) who competes with her chestnut Westphalian gelding, Danons Damian, at the FEI levels. She applied to ride in the clinic because the Eq Center is only a short walk from campus, and she admires the way Hughes rides and trains, “He seems to enjoy the horses and the process of training.”
Riding
According to Hughes, “The coach’s job is to give the rider information, and the rider’s job is to give the horse information so he learns. As a horse and rider go up the levels, more is demanded of the rider to tell the horse what to do. Before the questions get too difficult, part of my job is to get the horse and rider on the same page.
He explained, “A coach does not just tell the rider what she is doing. A coach tells the rider how to improve. The coach translates what they see and explains it to the rider.
“When I coach, I remind riders at every level about correct position and aids. I remind them that low, wide hands are ‘backward-thinking’ hands. When their hands are closed on the reins and in the correct position, they are ‘forward-thinking’ hands.
“The rider must be able to feel their horse’s mouth at all times when working. ‘Soft reins’ does not mean ‘no rein contact’. I remind my students to imagine that the reins are an extension of their arms and their fingers hold the bit rings.
“I like to see a straight line from the rider’s elbow through their hand to the bit. If the rider raises or lowers their hands, then I want to see the horse raise or lower their neck and adjust their frame.
“Often, I tell my students to ride with shorter reins, longer arms, and to keep their heel under their hip. I remind each rider to allow their horse to have a longer neck and use more pushing power from their hindquarters, but only to where he maintains his rhythm and bend in the movement or exercise.”
How Horses Learn
“It’s important to understand how horses learn before trying to train them,” Hughes told auditors.
He explained, “Horses need to learn how to learn from our aids. Horses understand pressure. Horses learn when riders apply and release pressure.
“The rider’s two most important aids are pressure through the reins and pressure through their legs on the horse. The rider asks the horse a question by using their aids to apply pressure. When the horse responds correctly, then the rider releases pressure which tells the horse that they responded correctly, and the horse learns. The horse doesn’t understand and learn when the rider says ‘Good’ or gives him a pat. The horse understands pressure and release.
“One of the hardest things about riding is riding with the right amount of pressure on the reins. Legs are a lot easier – the rider should keep their legs as quiet as possible.
“The rider can only improve the part of the horse that her aid affects. For example, the rider’s right leg influences the horse’s right hind leg. The right rein influences the right side of the horse’s neck. The rider’s seat influences the back of the horse.
“Once the horse starts to move freely with some energy, we can start to work on influencing his shape and frame, perform figures and exercises, etc.”
Coaching
“When I begin a lesson, I assess a horse and rider combination and consider what I’m looking for at their level. A good horse has no specific color. I’m careful about not allowing pre-conceived ideas to influence my thinking,” Hughes told auditors.
“In the warm-up, I watch the horse and rider while I hold a mental picture of what we’re training for, which is a competitive dressage horse. When you start with a young or green horse, you don’t know where you’ll end up in terms of level of accomplishment. But I always train with the perspective that I’ll keep the door open for the horse to progress to higher levels, all the way to Grand Prix.”
Confidence
“During a lesson,” he continued, “I’m always looking for a horse, especially a young horse, to have a nice experience and leave the ring a little better than when they arrived.
“I ask myself, ‘How can I give this horse more confidence?’ This is particularly important in a situation like a clinic or show. Sometimes it helps to have another horse in the ring with him while he’s being trained. Sometimes it can help to ride a tense horse with or behind a more experienced and confident horse. I don’t hesitate to end a workout after a young horse relaxes and gains some confidence. That can be enough progress for the day!
“If it’s a more mature or experienced horse, my first priority is for the horse to release their tension before training exercises and movements.”
According to Hughes, “We see this all over the world: Young horses are going beautifully, but advanced horses are not because their gaits lose quality. My goal for every horse is to have relaxed confidence, which comes from the horse understanding what he needs to do. Don’t confuse good activity with rushing. When a horse has good activity, he is committed to working and the rider can adjust him like someone can use a dimmer switch to adjust a light fixture.”
Tension
“Tension is part of the reality of training horses, whether very young horses or horses that work well at home but not at a competition. Keep in mind that as a horse becomes more educated, he gains more confidence,” Hughes explained.
He coached the participants, “When warming up, walk on a large (20-meter) circle or go large around the ring with enough contact to give the horse confidence but not restrict the horse or pull down. Take your time. Always be safe, but when you can, give your horse enough room with the reins to use his neck and head to keep his balance, especially in a challenging situation like a clinic or show.
“Then quietly trot, keep the trot tempo, and start to build a little connection. My first priority is that the horse goes forward, and my second priority is how the horse goes—the trot tempo, frame, etc. Once the horse starts to move forward, the rider can begin to influence his shape and frame, do figures, etc. The more forward energy you can give a horse, the more direction you can give him, and the more he will gain confidence. Then you can move on to training.
“Be careful, because visual impressions do not necessarily match what you – the rider – feel. For example, a horse may look like they are working on the bit but hold tension in the base of the neck in front of the withers or another part of their body.”
A rider asked Hughes, “What should the rider do when their horse starts to lose focus on his rider?”
Hughes responded, “When you start to feel your horse lose focus, ride a turn, a circle, or a curved line. When your horse turns, he pays attention to you because he needs to balance and move with more forward energy to engage himself.
“When you’re working, if the horse does anything other than what you are asking for, ride in a circle and recover the rein contact and connection.
“Remember, don’t ride what you don’t want. If work is not going well, then don’t keep doing it. Instead, do something, change something, and get the horse doing what you want.”
Hughes reassured all the riders, “Don’t worry if your horse makes mistakes. A mistake is an opportunity for a horse to learn. Never punish a horse for making a mistake.
“If you have a horse trained by someone else, give yourself time to learn to ride him. It can take up to 18 months to make this adjustment. There’s a big learning curve for both horse and rider, and there can be ups and downs in your progress.”
Training
When he works with a horse, Hughes “has a mental picture of a Grand Prix horse, and I work backward from this mental image to train the horse. It’s a progression from the starting point of training a four-year-old horse to accept a rider and their rein aids, and leg aids. I start with the trot rhythm at the base of the Pyramid of Training (POT). Balance affects rhythm, and rhythm affects contact.
“It’s important to train a horse so he develops his muscles in the way we want. This begins with a basic version of his future self as a more advanced horse. From a four-year-old to a five-year-old and so on, the work we do today should make things easier for the horse in the future.
“If the horse finds his work easier, then you, the rider, will find it easier to train him. This is why you need a system and guidance to prioritize your work and training.”
From young horse to Grand Prix, Hughes looks for many of the same qualities in the gaits, such as pure rhythm. “The exercises and movements differ as a horse goes up the levels. But it’s still the same basics and walk, trot, and canter as appropriate for the horse’s level of training.
“I coach riders to start training by teaching their horse to accept their basic aids. To do this, I teach the rider to introduce little bits of the aids and movements, and then gradually build up. This means little bits of leg yield or shoulder-in; at first only a few steps of an easy version of the exercise. Then I teach the rider to gradually increase the difficulty of the questions she asks her horse. A rider needs a system to introduce these exercises and movements.”
Hughes advised, “Young or green horses that are natural types for dressage with good conformation, talent, three nice gaits, and a nice place for the rider to sit are special cases. It’s easy to ask this type of horse to work harder than he is physically and mentally ready to do.
“A talented young horse is still a young horse who has immature tendons and ligaments, and a baby’s brain. Even if he looks great, offers wonderful gaits, and seems ready to go on the bit, he’s still a young horse and doesn’t know what he is doing. He needs education and training. He needs to learn what contact means. So, ride with the quietest lower leg possible depending on what he needs. If he’s naturally forward, then he needs to be ridden with less lower leg, and vice versa,” Hughes emphasized.
“The hardest thing about riding is keeping it simple. The more clever and complicated you make things when riding a young horse, the more problems you will have later on. For example, ride a young horse in a nice canter, not too strong, and not a ‘sales’ canter like you see in some advertisements.”
Daily Workout
Hughes explained his system for working a horse. “If possible, I start with loose reins at the walk. As I pick up the reins, I ride on the bit for only several strides. I find the walk rhythm where I can put my legs on my horse and the horse listens and accepts my leg aids. The horse must wait for my leg aids and not ‘run’ on his own.
“Next, I post the trot to encourage the horse to take more active steps and develop more swing through the back. Then, I sit the trot. Is my horse’s back tight or swinging? I position the horse’s neck where it needs to be to influence his back and release his back muscles if they are tight.
“I think about how the weather and environment might be affecting my horse. What is his state of mind? Is he feeling fresh today, or a little stiff, or a bit slow off my aids?”
Hughes explained, “Self-carriage means the horse carries himself. Every now and again while working, I check my horse’s self-carriage by releasing the rein contact or asking him to stretch while posting the trot on a 20-meter circle.
“After the horse is warmed up and his back muscles are swinging, I train the basic exercises in a specific order. I use this system when I’m training a young horse and in each workout of any trained horse, even one at the Grand Prix level:
- Ride circles at walk, trot, and canter while helping the horse find his balance and develop contact at each gait.
- Ride straight lines while maintaining the horse’s balance and connection at each gait.
- Depending on the horse and how much effort he’s willing to make, do some lateral work in this order: 1) leg yield, 2) shoulder-in, and 3) half-pass.
“Always change direction frequently during a workout. I recommend changing the rein immediately after doing an exercise and doing the exercise on the opposite rein: right, left, right, left.
“How the horse reacts to each leg aid (right, left) in leg yields tells the rider how he will react to leg aids in shoulder-ins. A horse’s basic reactions to the rider’s aids are very important for teaching him. If he offers too much, the rider needs to teach him to wait and only offer what she wants. If he doesn’t offer enough, then the rider needs him to offer more. And be aware of where you want each exercise to begin and end.
“When you ride a leg-yield, think ‘forwards-sideways’ and not ‘sideways-forward’. A horse needs to learn to do only what you ask for. He must first commit to going forward and then go sideways at the angle his rider chooses. Leg yielding is important because it teaches a horse to have a connection from the rider’s inside leg to the outside rein, which is essential.
“There is one question that you can never ask too many of: transitions. You can never do enough transitions.
“Remember to teach your horse to halt squarely with his weight even on all four legs. I tell riders to practice asking their horse to halt and step forward to make the halt square. Their horse will eventually learn to take a half-step or full step into a square halt instead of shuffling his feet into a halt.”
Hughes recommends giving a horse many walk breaks during a workout. “I often get the best work out of a horse after he relaxes while walking. My horses learn that loose reins mean ‘relax’ and short reins mean ‘work’. When we resume work, I find the walk rhythm, put my legs on my horse, check that the horse listens and accepts my leg aids, and then ask for trot or canter. The last thing I usually do before I ride a Grand Prix test is walk my horse on the buckle.”
Stretching
Hughes also believes that stretching is important, especially for older horses. How often he stretches a horse depends upon its level of training.
“When you’re working a young horse, it’s a good idea to start to teach him to stretch at the end of the workout when he is balanced and working well. When a horse is more mature and further along in his training, you can stretch him at different times during a workout.
“At trot and canter, only ask him to stretch a little, to the degree that he can maintain his balance. Don’t stretch him too long and low so that he falls on the forehand,” he added.
“Training a horse involves a lot of repetition,” Hughes observed. “This can seem really boring, but we must never train to please other people. We train for the benefit of the horse. Later on, the time will come when we can show other people how well we’ve trained our horse.”
As a horse goes up the levels, the rider needs to create the suppleness that enables the horse to do the exercises easily.
Second Level and Above
Hughes told auditors that when he coaches or trains a horse that’s working at Second Level or above, he asks himself:
- How is the rider applying the aids? Is or how is the horse responding?
- What is the rider asking the horse to do?
Hughes warms up at the walk and then begins trot work, first leg yields and then shoulder-ins. He noted that trot work does not necessarily help improve the canter.
Then he progresses to canter work, starting with simple changes. Depending on the horse’s stage of training, he practices increasingly difficult exercises: first half-pass, next flying changes, then tempi changes, and finally pirouettes. “Canter work does help improve the trot,” he noted.
“Before you do lateral work, the horse first needs to be thinking about going forward but not too fast (‘running’) and respond every time the rider changes their aids. This means accepting rein contact with the rider’s forward-thinking hands. The rider needs to feel the horse’s mouth through the rein contact.”
Lateral work
“When warming up, I encourage riders to ride lots of leg yields at trot and canter, say, riding off the rail and leg yielding to the rail. I like to use leg yields to create the horse’s shape [frame], and ask the horse to accept the rider’s inside leg and soften around it. Horses tend to hold tension in their core (middle section of their body) and when they learn to relax this tension, they move with more suppleness and freedom of movement and better bend. This is why leg yielding to supple the horse’s ribcage is so important.
“Then, the rider can start using their inside leg to pick up their horse [go in a frame with more upward balance]. The rider can do this on straight lines and large (20-meter) circles. The rider needs to be aware of whether their horse pushes against the rider’s inside leg when they ride a straight line after riding a circle.
“If the horse stiffens, ride another 20-meter circle to get the horse to listen to your inside leg. Then you can use your aids to ask the horse to come up in front of your leg in a more uphill frame and balance.
“When a horse holds tension in the base of their neck in front of their withers, I practice many trot-canter-trot transitions. These transitions help a horse learn to keep thinking about going forward and staying in front of the rider’s leg without ‘rushing’. I want the horse to listen to their rider and respond every time the rider changes their aids.
“Next, I like to ride shoulder-fore using my inside leg, and then go straight. This exercise teaches the horse to listen to the rider’s inside leg. Then they can work on smaller (12-meter) circles. The rider is responsible for using the shape of the 12-meter circle to tell the horse how to change their balance, energy, and frame.
“If the horse is not yet ready (supple enough) to ride half-passes, then instead ride smaller circles (10- or 8-meter) at the canter. Use these small circles to give the horse guidance. After the horse responds and understands your aids, you can use smaller aids.
“When cantering, set the horse up to maintain a canter that is ‘the horse’s basic canter’. Then the horse maintains that canter and you can sit quietly while practicing half-passes and pirouettes.
“If a horse starts to work and is a little tense and tending to ‘run’, work them as above until the horse relaxes. Then give the horse a walk break to relax. When the horse is relaxed enough to have good balance and rhythm, then the half-pass is not that difficult for the horse.
“Every day, I use shapes (circles, corners, bending) to make the horse more supple and set up (prepare) each horse for work. Then I go on to practice easier versions of movements to set up the horse for the movements.
“For example, when training, I ask a horse to do a little haunches-in on a 20-meter circle before I ride him ‘large’ around the ring and practice half-pass. I’ll often practice half-pass at a more gradual angle (from K to I) before doing it at the steeper angle called for in the test (from K to X).
“As the exercises become harder, some horses resist and make their rider question how they sit and use their aids. The rider needs to keep her aids consistent. She shouldn’t change her aids to suit her horse. The horse may get frustrated and make mistakes. Don’t try to adjust your riding and fix your horse’s mistakes. Your horse needs to learn to only give you what you ask for.
“You can make the exercise easier, but keep your aids the same. Your horse will learn from his mistakes. When he learns and does the exercise correctly, give him a nice pat and a walk break!
“We need to say to our horse, ‘Learn this movement.’ Then, when your horse feels confident in this movement, you can ride the movement bigger or with more expression.
“My priority is that the horse is on his rider’s aids before the rider begins a movement such as a half or full pirouette. Every movement has three components:
- Ride to the letter where you want to place the movement
- Perform the movement
- Ride out of the movement to your destination
“Remember, your horse doesn’t know what’s coming next. The rider needs to help their horse find the right balance and gait to prepare for the next movement. Great riders develop this skill.
“For example, the canter zig-zag is a sequence of half-pass, straighten the bend, straighten the flexion, flying change, flexion, bend and half-pass in the new direction, etc. The flying change is the first stride of the half-pass in the new direction, not the last stride of the half-pass in the old direction. The horse needs to wait for the rider’s aids. This is very different from show jumping where the horse sees a visual cue and waits until he is in the right place to jump.
“Teaching a horse to wait for the rider’s aids, listen, and respond is important even in the simplest exercises. Remember to control the horse’s bend and balance when you ride each corner of the ring. Each time you ride on the quarter line, center line, or a diagonal across the ring, be aware of whether your horse stays on the line. If he comes off the line you choose, put him back on the line and repeat the exercise.
“It’s the same principle with flying changes. You’ve got to be able to canter your horse in a straight line while he waits for your aids to do a flying change or tempi changes.
“When some horses learn movements such as tempi changes, they get a little cheeky and test their rider by doing movements on their own. Riders must learn not to let the horse influence their position, aids, and riding. Your position must influence your horse’s way of going,” he noted.
“A good exercise for dealing with resistance is to work your horse on a 20-meter circle and ride the trot or canter forward and back, forward and back, forward and back until you feel that your horse is listening and working with you. Wait until you and your horse are on the same page before practicing lateral or other exercises,” Hughes advised.
Piaffe and Passage
Hughes explained, “A dressage horse needs to be fit enough to do dressage. This means strength and power. To do a Grand Prix test and finish without being overly stressed or fatigued, the trainer must build up their horse’s strength to perform passage, piaffe, and pirouettes.
“How do you teach a horse to perform these difficult movements? Your horse can’t read! So we do lots of exercises to set up the horse’s body, keeping it fit, strong, and supple, so your horse will say ‘Yes’ when you ask him to do exercises.
“We use transitions to create more engagement and uphill balance. But then it becomes harder to maintain the balance and manage the gait. So don’t work too hard to get a ‘fancy’ trot. Instead, develop a trot you can easily manage and maintain the engagement in half-passes and other exercises.
“The rider first needs to find the basic trot where their horse can maintain its rhythm, balance, and consistency. Then, the rider can ask for more expression, but not beyond what their horse can maintain without losing the quality of their gait.
“When the horse is working securely in this trot, the rider can practice adding energy, impulsion, and engagement to ask her horse for a few strides of passage or collecting her horse to ask for a few strides of piaffe. It should look like the rider doesn’t need the reins.
“When I coach, I tell riders, ‘I don’t care if you can do piaffe and passage. I care whether you can get your horse to piaffe and passage.’ I want to see the horse work harder, not the rider. If the rider has to work harder, then something isn’t right with the technique. The horse must learn to take more responsibility and soften around the rider’s leg. The hardest thing for any rider is to give aids and ride quietly because there’s so much to manage when training and riding these movements at the Grand Prix level.”
Showing
“When it comes to showing,” Hughes commented, “Riders have two tools:
- What you’re feeling as you’re riding,
- What you’re aiming for when showing, i.e., what the judge is looking for. Riders need to understand what the judge will reward with higher marks.
“I find it easier to have a horse that’s a little lazy in the warm-up but still reacts to my leg aids rather than a horse that’s too sharp and too ‘hot’ off my leg aids. I want to win the test, not the warm-up. Our job is to make it look easy to ride the horse in the show ring. I want to come into the arena feeling like I can do everything asked for in the test. Do less but get more by guiding, not holding your horse.
“In a test, I prepare, I present, I go on, and I forget. As a rider, I have to show the judge what is needed for each technical movement. Asking the horse for bigger, more expressive strides makes the movements more difficult for the horse to perform.
“When we start competing, and do really well at the lower levels and are winning, it’s easy to become a little arrogant and expect that you will continue like this and Grand Prix will be easy. I learned very quickly that riding at Grand Prix is very different! It’s so technical, so difficult, it’s like learning to ride again. It changes your whole outlook on how you train through the levels to try and consistently produce Grand Prix horses. It’s hard to ride a Grand Prix test, and it’s extremely hard to train a Grand Prix horse.
“I’ve learned that it’s better not to try to ride every horse the same way, not to fuss too much, and not to worry about making a mistake. My advice is to just practice. If you make a mistake, then learn from your mistake and move on,” he concluded.
[…] in 2024, British Olympian and two-time FEI World Equestrian Games dressage team silver medalist Gareth Hughes headlined the October weekend event. The symposium attracts hundreds of auditors and riding spots […]