Stone Mountain, GA --
Twenty two riders and horses converged on USDF Region 3 Director Pam Schwartz's Morning Glory Farm on Sunday November 17th for training. The clinic was in response to a recent survey by GDCTA in which the members showed their desire for low-cost, lower-level training.
While Schwartz, a USDF "L" judge, conducted one hour sessions in the arena, GDCTA's vice president of dressage, Gina Krueger, lectured and passed on "Gina-isms" in morning and afternoon sessions in rider equitation and the necessary seat and aids for effective dressage riding. She began her relaxed and informal lecture with a handout from the USDF Dressage manual on seat positions and the equitation pyramid.
The independent seat "begins at the top of one boot, across your inner thigh, through the crotch and down the other side to the top of the other boot", explained Gina. "It isn't just your behind.... that whole mechanism is what you ride with and that your seat, being independent of your hands and in control of your horse, is what you are striving to achieve." "The forward driving aid is coming from the top of the boot, the lifting of your upper torso, the independency of the weight providing the horse a 'channel' to go through, inviting the horse to go forward," said Krueger, who is an active dressage trainer and rider as well as member of the USDF Committee for the USDF University. (Webmistress' note: Gina has also received recognition by USDF as a Certified Instructor as of December, 1996.) Krueger is an animated speaker who encourages audience participation, asking her audience to stand and assume various positions to illustrate her points.
"There are three most important aspects of dressage.... they are your seat, your seat, and your seat! Your horse will only go as good as you ride it and you'll only be as good as rider as your seat," Krueger said. "We have to have strength in our seat for good riding, but you don't have to be strong."
During these lectures, Schwartz was conducting sessions for riders of all levels-- from Intro through second level. Feedback from the clinic was extremely positive, and the participants encouraged the GDCTA to have more frequent clinics of the same nature.
"Pam really got down to the details," said rider Sara Wood. "Sometimes when you come to these things, they just sort of give you the 'gloss-over' but Pam concentrated on where I needed help."
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