|
December 2007 • VOLUME 28 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
Part 2 of an insightful and delightful interview with one of the trainers of White Stallion Productions [HFL]: So did you say you get most of your training from Michael Poulin?
[N] I can see a difference in the training and in the horses Not just the way it expresses itself, the physical things you see in the horse, but the mental things as well.
[Amanda]: They are happy boys. 
[HFL]: They are very relaxed and very comfortable in doing what they are doing. I find that in the dressage arena today, you see too much force. People try to push and pull the horses into what they want them to do. And I didn’t see that.
[Amanda]: Yes, we don’t allow that. It’s so hard, isn’t it? Dressage is hard as a rule. I mean, it’s just hard. As far as the pushing and pulling, I would rather settle for less. Personally, I just don’t like the way that looks. I love horses. I would much rather have a horse off the bit than crammed and unhappy. [Amanda]: Gary doesn’t start his horses until they’re four minimum and I like that.
Have you seen a woman named Sue Blinks? She’s on the US team the last Olympic. I remember this article that she was interviewed in [where she talked about] the criticism for her lack of push. But basically she said [with what she does,] she can live with herself and she can sleep at night. And she’s been my hero since. What’s important to us here is that at the barn they are happy and they are comfortable. And that’s what I like to see when I’m watching horses compete too. We go for longevity and we go for attitude.
[Amanda]: well, usually when somebody is swishing their tail, it’s at another stallion because they are still stallions….
[HFL]: Yes, people who are riding their horses in the middle of the dressage arena, every time they apply the spurs they get a swish of the tail which was obvious that they are not comfortable doing the work they [the riders] are asking them to do, for whatever reason. I think usually they’ve got them too restrictive in the front end. But I wasn’t seeing that. I was seeing flowing tails, relaxed tails rather than the constant digging the spurs into the horses…
[Amanda]: Right, I think that comes from the way Gary and the trainers run the show. I mean, we love our horses. They wouldn’t be pushed with spurs. We are very careful. Anything that goes wrong underneath me with my horses, I look at what I’m doing wrong myself. I try to. And we encourage everybody that work with us to think the same thing. I mean, a better rider wouldn’t have [the problems that I’m having.] Take flying changes for example, if I’m teaching flying changes and it’s always late from the right to the left, [then I think] “what am I doing wrong?” “How can I correct it?” not “What is my horse doing wrong?” And we encourage that kind of thought process in our riders also. Not “what’s wrong with my horse?”, but “what am I doing wrong and how can I make it better in my own riding?” And that’s the kind of philosophy that Gary encourages and we as trainers encourage. As far as myself, that’s what I do. I mean, you gotta. 
[HFL]: That’s wonderful. I was in a riding stable for 18 years and that’s my philosophy also and that drives my riders crazy because I said, “99.9999 percent of the time, if the horse is going incorrectly, it’s not the horse, it’s you.”
[Amanda]: I know, but isn’t that a drag? And I just figured that out about 10 years ago and I’m 36. And I think I figured out that most things were my fault. I was such a good rider when I was 18 years old. I don’t know what happened! I thought I was so much better when I was younger than I am now. I get worse every year! In my own mind [I was so much better], do you know what I mean? The more educated, the pickier I get and the pickier I get, the worse things are. I liked it better when I was flying around at training level for six years. It was much more fun. Well, not really, but you know what I mean.
[HFL]: Amanda, you talked earlier about how much you enjoyed working with the Lipizzaner. Can you talk more about that? Maybe the favorite horse you worked with? [Amanda]: I’m not supposed to have favorites. I’m their mother!
|
|||||||
|
