Sleepover Camp, Homework, and General Thoughts

 

After a couple of weeks to process, I have some thoughts about our recent Pippa Callanan Clinic.  

First up, Cruise did really well for his first sleepover camp.  There was a lot of chaos with 2 young stallions, different horses in for the day only, and multiple stall changes for him to accommodate others' needs.  When I showed up Thursday at 6:15 a.m. for my 7 a.m. lesson and he was whirling in his stall because of running turned out horses, I was pleasantly surprised that he was able to focus on me and with some quiet ground work he was ready to learn by our time slot.  We need many more of these experiences, but it was really great how he was able to focus on me with chaos going on in multiple situations.

Our homework includes:

*Getting a swaying in the in-hand flexions from left to right with the correct arc/bend/weight shift at the base of the neck.

*Reverse pirouette to eventually renvers/travers/half pass in-hand is also on my to do list (it's pretty rough right now).  

*Under saddle I am to warm up with no stirrups and dangle my legs.  Apparently, I have python legs which tightens my hips and is part of his forward problem.  After I pick up my stirrups and get him forward, he must maintain or to the spur I go, no squeezing of the leg, no expecting him to "jog in a corset'.  Riding in descent de jambes all the time.  This is a killer for me.  

*The next exercise is flechi droit on the straight to a volte to a counter bent volte to a volte in neck extension.  First at the walk, then at the trot with 15m circles replacing the voltes.  

*For canter she wants me to do a  counterbent turn to canter to the end of the ring, trot, do the other side and repeat multiple times.  After the balance gets better then add in longer canters, circles, straights,  and etc.  Also, keep working on his rock back at the halt and refine the rein back.

The clinic as whole, was a wonderful experience, and I feel like I have found my people.  Pippa was very complimentary/surprised by our progress and I felt like she took me a bit more seriously this time with more complex exercises and homework.  She did tell me she thought the key exercises for his development would be renvers, piaffe, and counter canter.  Which sounds intimidating, but watching the horses just a step ahead of us I can see the progression.  Exciting.  It was overall such a positive experience and I can't wait to do it again in October.

Pippa Callanan Clinic July 2026

 

Cruise's first sleepover camp went well and we learned so much with three days of lessons plus a lot of auditing.  Bonus, we were stabled next to KL who brought Cob Jockey's Disco to the clinic.  He is gorgeous and KL was everything Jen describes in her blog.  I really enjoyed watching her sessions with him.

I have a ton of homework and a lot of thoughts that I will break up into some separate posts as I work my way through things.  The gist though, is that Pippa was very complimentary about our progress on balance and posture, and gave us more complex things to work on for Cruise and quite a bit of position stuff for me.  I'm going to share video of our last session with the homework at the end and you can watch it HERE.  I think it's really representative of how Pippa teaches.  Unfortunately, I didn't get video of the flexions or the renvers pirouette, but maybe next time, because they are integral to the French Classical system.  

Excited to get to my homework!

Almost Summer Update

 We've been tooling along, riding 5-6 times a week, with static flexions every day, an occasional lunge, and in hand work maybe twice a week.  Taking a lesson pretty much weekly has been super beneficial in learning the Legerete/French Classical system and Cruise is thriving.  His balance has changed so much, he loves the system and is so much more willing.  We did our first walk canters yesterday and they were actually good!  Add in getting our first effortless trot in hand  and lateral work in the same lesson and I feel like we are making some good progress.

I'm still working on keeping my elbows by my sides and my thumbs up but I think that's going to be the job of a lifetime.  One thing that has recently really helped my position is going to a mild roller spur instead of the dressage whip for forward.  Worn low on the heels, Legerete style, and only used as an auxiliary aid to energy and leg, riding Cruise with spurs has been a revelation for me.  I only use them to back up my energy/leg and then ask again until I get the response I want with no spur.  Cruise is surprisingly easygoing about the use of the(admittedly mild)spur but gets his arse in gear pretty rapidly.  And I just sit there with a truly forward horse.  It's amazing how much easier everything is with true forward.

We're doing another Pippa Callanan Clinic in the beginning of July and this time it is 3 days and Cruise is staying overnight for the duration.  It should be an adventure!

Interview with Helene Arianoff

 

Wonderful interview with Helene Arianoff, a Belgian Classical dressage instructor who trained with Nuno Oliveira.  Some really interesting descriptions of the seat and rein aids that led to some lightbulb moments for me.  She is a treasure.  Watch it HERE.