He gets them started at 3.5 years old then once confident with the very basic education they are then turned out until there 4 year old year.

How often does he work the young horses and how many days does he school them?

Carl says it really does vary re the type , age and character of the young horse .

As a rule they are schooled four days a week with basic training exercises. These are walk , trot canter transition’s , and progressive halt training and centre lines . Leg yields are used as a suppling exercise, always paying detail that the shoulder leads. Carl keeps the exercise’s simple but always the way of going is correct. Stretching the horses at the beginning and through out the sessions, keeping them relaxed and trusting of the rein. Also constant giving of the reins ( picture above ) to check the horses are in true self carriage . He is always a stickler for the horse being in perfect balance with the neck open and training them in the shape and stage you would expect them in a competition.

They are all hacked twice a week around the local lanes and roads as he believes this form of cross training is hugely beneficial for strengthening the ligaments and bone structure. Daily strolls in the fields before and after exercise for all .

He said above all- listen to your horse . They all develop and grow at different stages, and if your horse offers you different behaviour’s , adjust your program accordingly. Remember Less is Best !

I was extremely excited to watch Charlotte and Carl training their up-and-coming Grand Prix team.

This opened the door to many useful insights into their training system. Firstly, the transition into and out of the collected canter was constantly being schooled.

Remember your pirouette will never be better than the steps entering it; so you need to establish a very good collected canter!

The aids were separated more on the younger team, with a gentle whip aid on the top of the croup for the collected canter strides. Then a very clear, separate leg aid was used to activate forward out of these collected steps which refreshed both the canter and the horse!

Also, they constantly check for genuine self-carriage by giving the hand forward in the shorter, collected steps. Each exercise was tailored according to the age and stage of each horse and also the ability of each horse (ie to hold the collection longer with more sit and engagement).

🔝Top Tip from the Master was to remember that a half pirouette is three to four strides, a full pirouette is six to eight strides. So don’t exhaust and wear your horse out by trying to maintain the collected canter strides for any longer than this when training pirouettes. Just aim for three to four collected canter strides on the younger/weaker horse and six to eight strides on the experienced/stronger horse.

Working pirouettes were a constant training tool, but complete shoulder control was everything! As you train the pirouettes do not ask the hind quarters for too steep an angle in travere as this negatively impacts the carrying power of the inside hind leg.

Once all the above boxes were ticked, we progressed onto forming the test pirouettes.

Once you have established a good collected canter in true self carriage and you have excellent shoulder control and can ride travere with the optimal angle for weight bearing and balance (see Part 1 of Canter Pirouettes in previous post) you are ready to start creating competition pirouettes.

The half pirouettes were often performed on the centre line, which HAD to be entered in shoulder in (Absolutely NOOO compromise) and cantering short before the pirouette. Carl is a stickler about the hind legs remaining under the horse’s body in the pirouette (not slipping to the inside or to the outside) and the shoulders must turn around the quarters like they are turning around an imaginary post.

A leg yield was used at the end of the half pirouette, away from the inside leg to reactivate the inside hind leg and to refresh the bounce and shoulder control to the canter.

Another of Carl’s favourite exercises was the canter half pass to the full pirouette, back to half pass. He wants the riders to use the half passes as a tool to activate the bouncy canter strides.

Lots of walk breaks were added into this work as muscle recovery for these exercise’s is super important due to the associated increased loading of the limbs that results.

To me, Charlotte and Carl are the most brilliant of riders; the precision with which they execute these exercises is sublime. The way they then channel the resulting suppleness and control into their tests is simply outstanding. I have spent every hour here studying these riders, mentally rehearsing their ways.

I can’t wait to put it all into action when I get home, both with my own horses and with the riders that I coach.

Carl places great emphasis on rhythm; it is after all number one on the training scale! Also, he is constantly reminding riders that impulsion is not speed!

A common problem that Carl sees is riders making a horse faster instead of collecting the energy to get the horse more collected and engaged.

Whether you are trying to introduce more elevated, collected strides, or wanting to get a correct lengthened or extended trot, Carl will tell you to think “slow the front legs - quicken the hind legs.”

To this he may add “ease the horse up the hill and into the air- carefully adding in the activity- but not not letting the horse get stronger in the hand. This allows the lightening of the forehand.

You must be the conductor of the orchestra and keep it balanced and pure in rhythm.

Touching the horse lightly with the whip behind on the croup can also help horses to understand to get more lift and cadence, rather than run.

Carl is a stickler about riders never holding the horse into a frame. He gets you to constantly check that the horses are in self carriage and likes to reward the horses in movements like high collection by giving the hand forward.

However many people struggle to understand exactly how much weight a rider should have in the reins. Carl will often stop a pupil to stand beside them and feel the rein with them to help them develop a better understanding of the feeling required. In another exercise designed to improve feel, Carl will get the rider to walk on a long rein and close their eyes while following the nod and movement of the walk.

However his FAVOURITE exercise, and one that he often uses on a horse that finds it hard to follow the bridle when the rider gives the hand forward, is to place the reins over top of the forefinger and under the thumb and then school the movements like this. This totally changes the horse’s confidence and acceptance of the bridle, and riders get a softer, more elastic feel.

And off course, let’s not forget his fantastic elastic reins which are still a popular training tool with people that struggle to find an elastic contact!