Auditing Walter Zettl Clinic-June 27, 2007


It is amazing how much one can learn by simply auditting! First I must say a little about Walter himself. He is such a sweet man and has such a reverant attitude towards the horse. He is equally patient and kind to people- he kissed my mom's hand and thanked her multiple times when she offered him a seat cushion. The words Walter used most commonly during the clinic were "easy", "carefully", and "gentle". He treated the bit like like one should handle explosives- with the utmost care and respect. The only time Walter seemed less than saintly was when a young rider kicked her horse when he spooked at a fan near the corner. Walter than talked the rider through the situation by having her shoulder-in as she approached the scary corner and then turn early so as not to have to fight with the horse. By the end, both horse and rider forgot that the corner was an issue.

All of the horses were worked with a long open neck on a soft contact. Never was a rider allowed to push the horse for something he didn't understand, yet all horses made noticeable positive changes by the end of their ride.

Horses were first allowed to walk on a loose rein and take in the scenery. Then "very carefully" the reins were gathered and the horses were gradually put into some simple lateral movments at the walk. After a few easy trot circles, Walter would guide the rider through transitions. He would ask for a walk and before the rider was anywhere near carrying out the task he would ask them to trot again. The walk never happened, but what did happen was a brilliantly performed half-halt that rebalanced the horse and achieved quite a lot of collection- even on the lower level horses. This exercise only worked because of the strict adherence to light, soft, and delicate aids. Then Walter would whisper "longer" and than "shorter" one breath later. He kept horse and rider thinking and active while maintaining the softness. Rarely did the rider go five steps of lengthening before shortening again, until later in the ride where the more advanced horses would perform an extension for three quarters of the diagonal. Than Walter would ask for some lateral work, but still intermingled the transitions. The most effective lateral work was Walter's shoulder-in or travers "Entwickeln", which he describes in detail on his website. Walter would ask riders to than canter for half a twenty meter circle, than walk again. Relaxation was key. To get more collection the riders were instructed to collect the horse down as far as they could in the canter and when it got difficult for the horse, let them out again. If the horse would break to the trot, Walter would say "That's okay. What would you do [about it] now? Be more careful next time." Punishment has no place in Walter's training.

A very bracey mare, that has obvious issues from the past, was brought in. This mare had a mouth of iron, and vertical flexion appeared out of the question as the brave girl riding her was lucky to get her to halt out of the walk, non-the-less soften or yield. Walter said the word patience many times over as he had the rider flex her a few degrees to the left or right at the halt. If the mare braced against the left rein the rider was to hold softly until the mare would look a few degrees to the left, and than the rider would immediately ask for the same to the right. It was certainly not he most fun and entertaining to watch, but eventually the mare would give, soften over her topline, and drop her nose a few inches. It was a small 'victory' for the rider AND horse. After what seemed like a bazillion repetitions of this inbetween trot work and 'trot, almost walk, trot' transitions, the mare started to forget the tension in her poll and jaw, and would occasionally stretch to the hand. At first it was hard to see, but each minute was consistantly better and there was a remarkable improvement before calling it a day.

The moment that hit me the hardest was when we waited and waited for this mare to relax her topline at the halt and Walter announced, "Training horses is like watching the grass grow." We chuckled, but he continued. "You can't see it grow, but then, there it is." This phrase made me think about my own training and how badly I want results, and often the results are there- I just can't expect to see it immediately, just like I can't expect to see the grass grow. There has been little rain, yet our hay field is waist high.