| Magazine Contents | Conrad Schumacher Comes to
Teach in the U.S. Briar Fox Farm takes students to Colorado to ride in & also audit this prestigious clinic. |
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| SECTION Health West Nile Virus Six Behavior Instincts SECTION Training SECTION Juniors SECTION Shows
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About
Conrad Schumacher Schumacher trained young riders for USET from 1991-95, and, since 1997, he has trained European Championship, World Championship, and Olympic riders including Ellen Bontje and Sven and Gonnelien Rothenberger. At the 1996 Olympics, he coached Sven and Gonnelien to their silver medal team finish for the Netherlands, and Sven to his individual bronze medal. From 1979 to 1989 he trained the European Young Rider Championship first-place team and individual medal winners. He was the official trainer of the British team at the 1998 World Equestrian Games. In all, Schumacher's students have won over 40 international medals! He is the USDF Advanced Young Rider clinician and the USDF Trainers Conference clinician. 2002 Advanced Young Rider & Junior Rider Clinic Series This program gives young riders and junior riders the opportunity to learn international standards in Dressage. USDF strongly supports junior/young riders because the youth of today are tomorrow's international riders, instructors, trainers and judges. Eight riders are accepted into one of the six clinics after meeting USDF criteria for selection. Conrad Schumacher Gives Six Clinics Across the US The locations for the clinics in Fall 2002 were Tempel Farms in Illinois, Bear Creek Farm in Washington, Shadow Ridge Equestrian Center in California, Farewell Farm in South Carolina and Autumn Hill International Equestrian Center in Colorado. Briar Fox Farm Student Katie Westphal rides in Colorado Clinic Nineteen year old Katie was thrilled to be selected for the Advanced Young Rider clinic held at Autumn Hill International Equestrian Center in Boulder, Colorado. Her horse is Epigram; a 14 year old Swedish warmblood gelding. Katie is from Augusta, KS and boards at Briar Fox Farm and her trainer is Bonnie Griest. Katie has owned Epigram for seven months. She began competing with Epigram this April at Fourth Level and Prix St Georges. Within six months they earned scores from the USDF All Breeds Award/Swedish to finish the year 3rd in the nation for Juniors at Fourth Level and also 3rd in the nation at Prix St Georges. Katie is a USDF Bronze & Silver medalist. She plans to qualify for the No. American Young Rider Championships in Bromont, CAN in 2003. Briar Fox Farm Students attend Schumacher's Colorado Clinic Instructor Bonnie Griest also took three students to audit the clinic. Katie's mother Denise was also along to learn more about dressage. The students were Sue Clarke (USDF Bronze medalist and Training/Preliminary Event rider), Cathrine Losh (USDF Bronze medalist), and Rachel Branch (USPC C3 & First Level rider). All of the BFF contingency watched eight hours of clinic for two straight days gaining much insight into the training of the horse. On the third day they attended only half of the sessions because they had to depart early for home on snow packed roads. Schumacher Teaches International Standards in Dressage He tailored each lesson to the individual needs of each rider and their horse. By the end of the 3rd day there was great improvement in every rider and every horse. He used many varied gymnastic exercises to help each horse become more supple and round. To help the riders develop a good seat: He had the riders canter down the long side and take both legs away briefly from the horse's side to feel how they were sitting on their seat bones. He used the exercise of Half Pass to Shoulder In to Half Pass to Shoulder in to teach not changing their legs but just the seat. He recommended for a better seat: riders use a school master, spend time on a lounge line, do trot caveletti and ride different horses. Rewarding the horse: There are two rewards...stretching and uberstrichen; translated as a momentary release of rein contact that is a check for the rider & trainer that the horse is in true self carriage. He said that during each riding session stretching is crucial between exercises and movements. He likes to see horses have a swinging, pendulum tail in the ending stretch of the session. During walk breaks the rider should stay organized and not just wander around on the buckle. Half Pass and Preparations for Canter Pirouettes: He stated that once you have the horse through in the canter, round and supple you can start schooling the pirouette work. He said that a steep half pass is a pre-requisite for the pirouette. He had the riders start from a volte in the corner to get control first. He said that a good half pass makes the horse obedient as well as supple. He used an exercise of a small circle around X briefly doing canter on the spot followed immediately by a large circle stretching down for reward. He also used an exercise along the long side of canter half pass to the quarter line and leg yield back to the track keeping the horse's neck supple, deep and long. When arriving back in the track do canter on the spot. To get out of canter on the spot he suggested thinking of letting the neck stretch out and down. Schumacher Clinic Offers Great Opportunity to Learn Many additional different gymnastic exercises not listed here were used to teach better riding skills and to improve each horse's way of going. Each rider in the clinic in Colorado gained more confidence. Their horse's made great improvement and were sound, supple and happy at the end of the three day session. Other riders in this clinic were: Anna Wood (Boulder), Leigh Romano (Boulder), Anya Bershad (Sante Fe, NM), Greta Barringer-Richers (Longmont), Emily Wagner (KS), Tyler Haney (Boulder), and Jessica Greer (Fort Collins). All of the Briar Fox Farm contingency hopes to have the opportunity to attend the Spring 2003 Schumacher Clinic Series.
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Briar
Fox Farm congratulates Katie Westphal. She qualified to compete at the
North American Young Rider Championships in Bromont, Canada on Aug.
19-24, 2003. She represented BFF, Area IV, and the USA. In the photo
above, she earned a Silver Medal & Prix St George Swedish Horse of the
Year 3rd overall ridden by a junior! Their overall average at PSG was
64%. 
