I was lucky enough to be chosen as a demonstration rider for an Eric Smiley demonstration which was organised by the BHS Somerset. Eric was a stalwart of the Irish team for many years, on the training side Eric was the coach for the Belgian team, is a fellow of the BHS and BE accredited.
Within the group there were four of us – myself, Sarah on an established BE100 horse, Leanne who has done a few BE100s and professional rider Louisa Lockwood on a 6yo. Eric explained at the beginning that the demo was all about the audience and we would be expected to get on with things and would not have a huge amount of input.
At first we were asked to walk round in a circle while Eric talked about how the horses were all going – were they active and forward thinking? Eric asked the riders to take their legs away from the sides of the horse and to see if they still kept going forwards. The audience was told that you would not hire someone who had no enthusiasm or desire to work, so why would you buy a horse like that? Eric said a forward thinking horse is not the same as a horse who is in front of the leg. A forward thinking horse is one who is working out questions, enthusiastic and has a desire to work.
We were next asked to walk over a single pole with straightness being the priority. The horse had to be straight on the approach and after you had walked over the pole. We then moved into trot and finally canter with the same question being asked about being straight. Sarah was asked to come forwards and walk over a raised pole which was about 6 inches off the ground. Her horse kept hitting the pole as it walked over so everything was repeated until it did not touch the pole. Eric said it was not good enough for the horse to keep hitting poles as they were more than capable of picking up their legs and riders should tell them that it was not acceptable and praise when they did not touch them. On a more sensitive horse you would look to make a noise which told them they were not doing it correctly while on a less sensitive horse a kick should work. 3 raised trot poles were laid out and Eric emphasised that this was effectively jumping because the horse needed to drop its head, lift its back and lift its legs. This is asking it to bascule. The same principles of them not touching poles applied.
From this we moved onto the rider’s position. Eric made it very clear that good balance came from the legs and the rider should have a strong lower leg position. Leanne was asked to sit lighter and more forwards in the saddle. Eric said she sat too far back in the saddle and was a little behind the movement which would mean the horse would not be as long in the stride length and would struggle to make up the ground in a distance. Sure enough this happened later in the evening. Leanne was encouraged to sit lightly and be more forwards. I absolutely hate my position and when chatting to Eric earlier in the evening mentioned this. He told me my position is fine but I poke my elbows out rather than keeping them straight and this restricts the hand and means I am tense through the elbows. It was like a lightbulb moment for me as this has never been pointed out!
From this we moved onto the exercises. Having done the trot poles and worked on straightness we were asked to jump the middle part of a combination of 3 which were all off set so in order to get down all 3 you would need to accurate so not to run out. We were asked to jump just the middle fence to begin with which was successfully done. Eventually we put all 3 together. Having done the work on straightness over the pole all the horses stayed straight and did not waver off the line.
From this we moved onto an exercise with an upright to oxer. It was on 6 strides but being stupid I did not ask and went first. I got there on 6 but I had got a short one at the end. Eric asked what I would do differently and having no clue about the number of strides (as I had no counted just ridden what I had!) I had no idea. I said go longer thinking have increased power. I did this and did it in an easy 5 but everyone else did it on 6 which looked a lot easier and controlled. Eric said when talking about distances that a rider who sees long strides into fences will have their eye get longer and longer until one day they ask the horse to go on a hopelessly long stride. A horse needs to be able to go on a longer stride and a shorter stride.
We moved onto jumping a few fences together and a member of the audience asked how Eric would teach horses to land on the correct lead. Eric said that you open the hand and use the body but you must insist and keep asking with the outside leg that they change. You keep doing it until they can learn the cues effectively. We ended up finishing jumping a bounce which everyone negotiated successfully.
I really enjoyed Eric’s approach and it was like all good trainers which is about educating the horse through building up the basics and keeping confidence high. I would definitely recommend a session with him as for me he picked up on something no one has ever commented on in my elbows. I am now tempted to tie them with elastic in order to avoid the flapping chicken look!
