Pictured above: Jennie Jackson riding her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout.
A Riding Clinic with Jennie Jackson:
Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
Friday-Sunday, May 30-June 1, 2014 Dirt Floor Arena, Proctor, MN
Jennie Jackson has traveled the world teaching and exhibiting Dressage En Gaite, and we are honored to bring her to Minnesota for a three-day riding clinic held Friday-Sunday, May 30-June 1, 2014 at Dirt Floor Arena, Proctor, MN. Auditors are welcome to enjoy three full days of professional gaited dressage instruction by Jennie. Cost: $25/day or $50 for all three days. Pay at the door.
Whether you ride english or western, are new to dressage or just want to learn exercises that will help improve your horse’s smooth gait, everyone will learn from Jennie’s wealth of teaching and training experience. Riders and auditors will learn effective dressage methods that improve the quality of natural gait through lateral exercises, balance, bending, rhythm, impulsion, and relaxation.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to watch first-hand instruction from a seasoned dressage professional and the pioneer of Dressage En Gaite.
About Jennie Jackson
In the 1980s Jennie began applying and perfecting dressage methods of training to gaited horses, and in 1998 she introduced dressage as a humane training alternative to the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. In 2006, Jennie and her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout performed the first Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. The team demonstrated Prix St. George movements as canter pirouette, tempi changes, and piaffe and passage en gaite. In 2010, Jennie and Champagne Watchout were formally invited to exhibit their Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as the official breed representative of the Tennessee Walking Horse. For more about Jennie Jackson and Champagne Watchout, visit www.walkinonranch.com.
Please note: Still photos are allowed, but no video recording is allowed. DVDs will be available for sale at the clinic.
If you’ve been to a Larry Whitesell Gaited Horsemanship Clinic, you know what I mean when I say, “It is a lot to take in.” I have audited four of Larry’s clinics and ridden in three, and the last two clinics included Jennifer Bauer, a beautiful rider and a wonderful horsewoman. At each clinic a few more dots are connected in my understanding of Larry’s training philosophy which focuses entirely on what the horse needs and teaches riders how to lead their horses into balance, relaxation and engagement.
For me, the August 2013 clinic held at RNR Ranch in St. Croix Falls, WI was all about unlocking the braces in my horse’s back and hindquarters for engagement and discovering what braces I have in my riding position that say “stop” to my horse.
Larry explained the “escalation of aids” in this metaphor. He said, “What if for the rest of the clinic, I speak in French and if you didn’t understand, I speak louder and louder, would you understand me then? How would you feel about my teaching method? Confused? Frustrated?”
I have struggled to get my mare to go forward and know the escalation of aids all too well: squeeze, cluck, tap, and repeat louder and louder until my horse goes forward. It had never occurred to me that perhaps I have been speaking French to my horse.
Larry and Jennifer helped me discover braces in my riding position that say “stop” to my horse, such as my inside rein was saying “go this way” but my outside rein was saying “no”; my legs were saying “go”, but my locked hip joints were saying “whoa”; and my saddle which fit my mare beautifully in the cross ties touched her wither as soon as I sat in the saddle which says “ouch.” Adding squeeze, cluck, tap and repeat louder and louder only sent my horse forward in tension with a hollow back.
Larry and Jennifer worked with my mare and discovered that she had braces in her hindquarter joints and her back was hollow. They showed me a few places to massage Makana each day to release the tension. Then they switched out my saddle with Larry’s Freedom endurance saddle, and Larry and Jennifer demonstrated riding exercises that will help strengthen Makana’s abdominal muscles to lift her back and flex her haunch joints for engagement. Among the exercises are turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, three repetitions of three steps forward followed by three steps reinback, and switching up a riding session with lots of transitions in gaits and between gaits every 5-10 steps and changes of direction. Most importantly, reward often.
Now that I am back home, I’m riding in a well-fitting saddle and putting into practice what I learned. And none of it includes French.
I hope this is helpful. Let me know your thoughts by sending a message.
Jennie Jackson dressage for the gaited horse clinic.
By Jennifer Klitzke
Still seeking answers as I apply dressage with my naturally gaited horse, I learned about a DVD by Jennie Jackson. In January, I purchased her DVD set with my Christmas money.
The DVDs showcased naturally gaited horses moving in collection, engagement, and forwardness within their smooth gaits. I watched every DVD back-to-back for hours. This is what I wanted to learn how to ride my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse using dressage.
An Amazing Connection
To my amazement, a couple weeks after my purchase, Jennie Jackson contacted me and asked for feedback about the DVDs. ME? I was a bit spellbound that the famous Jennie Jackson, only person in history who has trained and shown a naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse to the highest levels of dressage, was interested in knowing my thoughts. More so, I was thrilled just to connect with her.
She was interested in knowing, “Who is this person who bought my entire DVD library?!”
During our conversation, I asked, “Do you hold clinics in the Midwest?”
That’s how the first Midwest “Jennie Jackson Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic” got started. Six months of preparation came together June 29-30, 2013.
So how was the clinic? Stupendous! The Jennie Jackson Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic exceeded my already high expectations. There was a terrific mix of gaited horses, ages three to thirteen, green to advanced. There was a unique mix English and western riders who were new to dressage as well as experienced. Riders and horses were challenged and took home effective dressage methods that addressed their riding goals.
Jennie drew from 40 years of training and showing experience with Tennessee walking horses and the dressage she has learned from top instructors.
During the clinic, both horse and rider received individualized instruction. Jennie explained dressage concepts to the horse as she rode. Then she coached each rider through these concepts as they rode their horse.
My training questions
I brought two questions to my sessions: 1)How to ride a head nodding horse with contact and 2) How to cue my horse forward without rushing into short quick steps.
Jennie addressed both questions with effective tools to help me at home. During each lesson I experienced moments of “the feeling of right.” Connection, forwardness, and engagement while riding at a medium walk, flat walk, and canter.
I’ve been an avid dressage rider since 1988, so the concept of inside leg to outside rein is not new. In fact, I believed I had been riding this way. Jennie explained a more effective use of my rein, seat, and leg aids. She helped me understand why “hands together” equals “horse together” and the difference between direct rein and indirect rein.
Riding at a Jennie Jackson dressage for the gaited horse clinic with my 9-year-old naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse.
Jennie also addressed my forwardness issue with Makana. Jennie noticed it took twenty-two cues of squeeze, cluck, tap, and repeat before my horse finally moved forward.
Jennie said, “Your horse reads you faster than you read her.”
I didn’t have a lazy horse. I have a smart horse. Makana had duped me into believing she’s doing the best she can when she’s only been giving me 20% of what she is capable of! It is quite sobering to realize I had desensitized my horse to my leg aids.
Jennie’s intervention was just what we needed. She showed me the need to establish myself as the leader in our relationship as I retrained Makana to respond to my first cue.
Riders and their Walking horses learned lateral exercises to break up pace or hard trot, engage the hindquarters. She helped others introduce the canter or improve the quality of the canter over cavalettis. We all got an adrenaline rush watching Jennie coach one of the riders hand gallop.
Jennie taught us how lateral exercises, such as pivoting around the fore, shoulder in, shoulder fore, and leg yield molded each horse into exquisite, round and beautiful frames.
Riders and auditors took pages of notes to jog their memories as they returned home.
One of my favorite sessions was watching Jennie ride a multi-gaited Tennessee walking horse through medium walk, flat walk, fox trot, rack, and running walk. Then Jennie coached the rider through the same series of smooth gaits. Another session Jennie transformed a pacey horse into a natural four-beat gait using dressage methods. Then she coached the rider how to maintain the smooth gait.
An enormous “thank you” to riders and auditors who helped bring Jennie to Minnesota and a huge “thank you” to Jennie who drove the 2,000-mile trek from Tennessee to Minnesota and back. We are already talking about when Jennie will be back!
In my quest for answers the last six years riding my Tennessee walking horse using dressage methods, I feel like I have finally connected with “the feeling of right” as it relates to riding a head nodding horse with contact and forwardness.
About Jennie Jackson
In the 1980s Jennie began applying and perfecting dressage methods of training to gaited horses, and in 1998 she introduced dressage as a humane training alternative to the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. In 2006, Jennie and her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout performed the first Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. The team demonstrated Prix St. George movements as canter pirouette, tempi changes, and piaffe and passage en gaite.
In 2010, Jennie and Champagne Watchout were formally invited to exhibit their Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as the official breed representative of the Tennessee Walking Horse. For more about Jennie Jackson and Champagne Watchout, visit Jennie Jackson: Dressage En Gaite.
I hope this is helpful. Let me know your thoughts by sending a message.
Jennie Jackson riding her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout.
A Riding Clinic with Jennie Jackson:
Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
Saturday-Sunday, June 29-30, 2013 Walker’s Triple R (indoor arena), Cambridge, MN
Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
Jennie Jackson has traveled the world teaching and exhibiting Dressage En Gaite, and we are honored to bring her to Minnesota for a two-day riding clinic held Saturday-Sunday, June 29-30, 2013 at Walker’s Triple R, Cambridge, MN.
Whether you ride english or western, are new to dressage or just want to learn exercises that will help improve your horse’s smooth gait, this clinic is for you. Jennie will teach riders and auditors effective dressage methods that improve the quality of natural gait through lateral exercises, balance, bending, rhythm, impulsion, and relaxation. Gaited riders new to dressage as well as experienced dressage riders new to applying dressage to gaited horses will learn from Jennie’s weath of teaching and training experience.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to get first-hand instruction from a seasoned dressage professional and the pioneer of Dressage En Gaite. A limited number of private 55-minute lessons are available. Unbroke or green young horses are welcome.
Whether you ride your gaited horse western or english, don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn how to improve your horse’s gait through dressage training methods by a seasoned dressage professional.
About Jennie Jackson
In the 1980s Jennie began applying and perfecting dressage methods of training to gaited horses, and in 1998 she introduced dressage as a humane training alternative to the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. In 2006, Jennie and her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout performed the first Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. The team demonstrated Prix St. George movements as canter pirouette, tempi changes, and piaffe and passage en gaite. In 2010, Jennie and Champagne Watchout were formally invited to exhibit their Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as the official breed representative of the Tennessee Walking Horse.
How much does a horse sense from a rider? Can my insecurities get transmitted to my horse through my reins? Can this really affect how my horse moves? These questions were raised at a recent gaited dressage clinic with Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer. I spent five full days taking in new perspectives and training techniques—as much as my brain could hold. Among the many “ah-huh” moments was an exercise we did that showed the difference between “taking hands” versus “giving hands.”
Jennifer led us through a dismounted exercise. She held one end of the reins as the rider and each of us took turns holding the other end of the reins as the horse. When it was my turn, I closed my eyes, held the other end of the reins, and followed the rhythm of gait she established on a light connection. When Jennifer changed something like clenching her jaw, tensing her shoulders, holding her breath, or looking down vs. ahead, each of us immediately felt heaviness through the light rein contact. Amazing! If I can feel these changes through light rein contact, just what would it transmit to the horse?
Then Jennifer let each of us experience the effects of “taking hands” versus “giving hands.” Taking hands follow the horse’s rhythm in a non-pulling backward motion while riding with giving hands follow the horse’s rhythm forward. When Jennifer’s motion with the reins demonstrated giving hands, it gave each of us the feeling of freedom to move in lightness. Then when she demonstrated taking hands, it felt constrained. If I can feel the difference between taking and giving hands through light rein contact, imagine how much more is communicated to my horse through my seat and weight aids?
Up until this point, I had not been conscious of whether or not I rode with taking or giving hands. For years I had battled with riding fear and had unknowingly developed a “taking hands” riding mindset as a reaction to stay safe and in control. Then I began to think about the mixed messages I had been sending my horse whenever I unconsciously rode with taking hands and at the same time squeezing my horse to go forward. Or the times I had anticipated a spook, tensed my body, held my breath, and rode with taking hands instead of riding my horse forward into balance and relaxation.
Experiencing the difference between taking hands and giving hands has given me new awareness to ride my horse with a forward hand and body position and mindset. I am already noticing a difference this is making with my horse—more willingness to more freely forward with less leg on my part.
What a powerful exercise. Why not find a friend and try this exercise for yourself? You’ll be amazed with how much of an impact a riding mindset and position can have on your horse’s way of going, and just how much can be communicated through a light rein contact.
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