Training in Florida with Anne Gribbons
Suzin Daly and L.A. Baltic Sundance

Introduction
In June of 2004 I made the decision to put myself in full training for one month. I have been competing on my stallion, L.A. Baltic Sundance at Intermediaire and he is on the verge of moving up to Grand Prix. He is doing all the Grand Prix movements; it’s a question of pulling it all together for the required sequences. Last year I had planned on a month’s training program. I had made some inquiries, calling Gunner Ostergaard and Michael Poulin. Unfortunately, getting my responsibilities at home covered was not possible back then. I had obligations to students, horses in training and my own facility, Halifax Farm, which required full time coverage.

In 2004 I had heard that Anne Gribbons was coming to North Carolina for a two-day clinic. I wanted the training to take place in Florida which would also give me the opportunity to visit family. I knew Anne from Long Island and also that she had a new facility in Florida. Anne had been the first person to instruct me on long reining back in 1979. In 2003 I had done clinics with Bo Jena, Director of Sweden’s National State Stud of Sweden Flyinge, and studied advanced long reining techniques. In my conversations with Bo, Anne Gribbons’ name came up. Turned out they knew each other well. I was familiar with her personality and teaching methods. I remembered Anne as a straight forward instructor who called it as she saw it.

I contacted David Gribbons about training with Anne for one month in Florida. David was very informative, explaining that they had nine studio apartments fully equipped so both horse and rider could be in residence at Knoll Dressage. Since training, not competition, would be my focus it was highly recommended that I arrive in December when things would be quiet. We agreed. My next step was to sign up for Anne’s clinic. I emailed Sandy Dennis, who was the organizer of the Anne Gribbons Clinic. Sandy was very accommodating and gave me a slot for both days. Everything was falling into place. The clinic would give Anne the chance to see where Sundance and I were in our training.

D-Day seven months later
The game plan was to leave for Florida early morning December 8th. I went to bed early, but slept poorly with the trip on my mind. Around 3 a.m. I had breakfast and got dressed. The truck and trailer had been packed and by 3:45 a.m. I was heading for Knoll Dressage in Chuluota, Florida. It’s a straightforward drive; the farm is thirty minutes off route 95.

The drive down was easy and traffic light. I made my turn onto route 50 at Titusville and was about 30 minutes from the farm. I contacted David advising my location per his request. Ten minutes later, there was not one but two full blowouts on my left side trailer tires! I immediately pulled over the side of the road. I looked down at two rims sitting on the ground. The next thought was I only have one spare! At that moment a state police car was passing and I frantically waved him down. He did a turn around and pulled in behind the trailer. There wasn’t much he could do but keep me company and calm. I called Owen who immediately got on the internet to find a place in the area that may be able to assist.

While I was on the cell with Owen I watched a yellow school bus pull in behind the troopers’ car. Out of the school bus a middle aged woman who introduced herself as Kelly asked if there was anything she could do. Kelly explained to me she too had horses as we both stared at the rims resting on the ground. I was hoping Kelly being a local, could give me the name of a place that could get me a second tire and rim. Kelly did better than that. She jumped into action by calling her father on her cell phone and asked her dad to pull the spare tire off her trailer and bring it to my location. Within twenty minutes Kelly’s dad showed up with the spare tire. We ran into problem number two. Because the trailer was sitting on the rims, we couldn’t get my jack or theirs under the frame. As we were contemplating that problem, a car pulled over in front of my truck. A young woman came over and asked if we could use another hand? The young woman joined us staring at the rims on the ground. She introduced herself as Angela. Angela also had horses and offered to run down the road to her sister’s place to retrieve a professional jack on wheels. Angela said it would have no problem rolling under the trailer frame. The state trooper at this time felt I was well taken care of and made his escape... About 10 minutes later Angela was back pulling a rolling jack which was quickly placed under the trailer frame. Kelly, her dad and Angela are pulling off rims and putting on spares. Within the hour, I was ready to continue my trip.

I was very grateful to Kelly, her dad and Angela. I had everyone’s phone numbers and addresses. Within the week I returned Kelly’s tire and mailed my saviors gift cards as thanks for their help. I arrived at Knoll Dressage without further incident. Sundance, who was completely unfazed throughout the trip and drama, had quietly continued munching and drinking. Approximately 8 p.m. David knocked on my door to welcome me. He was very sympathetic about the ordeal and was glad that all turned out well and told me that my lesson would be at 10 a.m. the next day.

Training starts at Knoll Dressage
Sundance had no problem recouping from his trip. The weather in Florida was crisp and Sundance showed his delight with a little bucking of good spirits. Anne, entering the ring, greeted and welcomed me. She asked how I thought Sundance felt and recommended we do an easy session. If Sundance felt tired we would cut it short. I started warming Sundance up and myself around the covered arena. The arena has excellent footing with the luxury of mirrors going across the short side.

I learned quickly that Anne, the clinician, and Anne, the instructor, are two different people. Anne’s eagle eyes of experience were quick to make corrections with position. Anne started with my head, which needed to stay up, eyes front, shoulders more back, and elbows more in and never behind the hips. This means reins needed to be even shorter and thumbs up and all fingers closed. Without missing a beat, I was requested to lower my thighs more and toes to face forward. It has been a long time since I have been told to lower my heels. Anne stresses the importance of using stomach and oblique muscles with seat. She sticks with the classical concepts and kept me very conscious of how easy it is to give a slight pull in the half halting process. She catches the slightest movement when I veer off the path of classical position. I was made sensitive to how I depended upon slightly looking down instead of feeling where the horse is. I was to trust what I felt and not feel the need to second guess what I was feeling and drop my eyes to check, especially with flying changes. I learned in this first session what the rest of the month would be like training with Anne. Staying conscious and in the now is important to riding, paying attention to the smallest detail by being focused and aware. Anne is quick to catch when I would even slightly lose a seat bone, or not quick enough in a half halt and missing the moment: Timing is everything and I missed a lot of moments.

Anne is also very specific with everything. A good example is in her approach to correcting horses. She said that Sundance was one of the sweetest stallions she has known. The dues I pay with that is that he is also a little dull. Anne pointed out he does not always respond as quickly as he should. Anne was very specific in how I should approach correcting him. Anne was very clear in using the “1 – 2 – 3 method.” For example going from walk to trot use your stomach muscles and seat, the legs are always on. If you do not get a response, ask again with a quick kick only from the knee down. If he does not respond back your leg up with one touch of the whip. Putting her system together it would be ask, kick, and touch with the whip. It is important to learn to kick only from the knee down because when you use your whole leg, as Anne explained, the rider ends up jerking or lifting their hands and moving or jumping slightly out of the saddle. This will interfere with communication to the horse. Anne’s goal is to make the rider more effective. The more effective you are, the quicker you can leave the horse alone. As Anne would say, “Make your corrections and leave him alone.” Anne is a big believer in rewarding horses. You can hear Anne constantly saying to her own horses in training, good boy or girl. Anne is always in the ring with a pocket full of goodies. Every time the horse does well she will tell you to stop and she will reward him with what she calls a cookie. Horses at Anne’s get lots of cookies.

Anne pointed out to me that stallions will tune out their riders who nag too much. Using your seat will get greater results with stallions. Anne has had stallions throughout her career, producing many Grand Prix competition stallions. Anne knew exactly how to light a fire under Sundance, yet not lose his trust and kindness. Auditing lessons and rides is a very important part of the training at Knoll Dressage. While auditing I noticed Anne was intense with every rider she worked with. What I found to be very unusual about Anne, as an instructor, was no matter who she works with; the training session was always about the rider. When a rider and horse were given a break, Anne was off across the arena working in hand with one of her other students in training, working students or her assistant Tamara. Anne does a lot of work in hand with all the horses. Many times I would see Anne in the middle of the covered arena viewing horses and riders as they worked each horse and rider combination in their own world of study and focused. Every now and then Anne would break their concentration, making corrections or suggestions. There was no socializing on horseback, even when cooling off or resting. That was reserved for after 5 p.m. when the day was over.

Anne is always helpful, encouraging and open to all questions anyone may have; there is no small talk. There are usually many other riders in training or auditing. Everyone is focused and all have one thing on their minds: becoming effective riders. Anne is not a trainer for only professional riders and Grand Prix horses. Anne likes to work with anyone who is truly willing to put the work in. To ride with Anne at Knoll Dressage, be prepared to sweat. Like any sport there are good days as well as bad. Is it worth it? You bet it is. I am very intense in my own riding. I enjoy detail and become suspicious when, in a training session, I get too many compliments. I want to know what’s wrong and how to correct it. There have been many times I have said to my own assistant Anne Perrotta; “I wish I had me on the ground to watch”. Anne Gribbons is very detailed, very intense and knows the process of producing Grand Prix horses and riders. She does not stroke her students, but she is complementary when a job is well done. I got just what I wished for and much more.

By the second week I was in a routine and felt like I have been there all my life. Anne had made a suggestion that I ride Sundance twice a day. She felt that he could use the extra ride to help develop more stamina and muscle strength. This was a new concept to me. I had doubts that he would hold up and would become too tired for his training sessions in the morning. How foolish of me to doubt the experience of Anne Gribbons. Of course she was right and he did develop more muscles and stamina. The second ride was not to be in dressage training, but more, trail rides with lots of cantering which will develop stamina, wind and condition. It was also on this second week that Anne offered me an extra horse to ride. A Dutch schoolmaster gelding called Anthem. It was an excellent opportunity for me. He compensated for Sundance’s weaknesses. Anthem gave me the opportunity to develop a better seat and feel. The question I asked myself, “Could I take this to Sundance and improve his weak points?” I was able to take my experience from Anthem and become effective with Sundance. When working Anthem, like with Anne’s assistant and working students, she would give recommendations to me. I would get mini lessons and Anne would work with us in hand. Anne made me feel like part of a team.

Anne knew one of my goals was to see if Sundance could reach Grand Prix. Just being able to do the individual movements is not enough. Sundance came to me as an older horse. He needed a lot of retraining and was weak behind. Anne was quick to point out that Sundance still did not have enough strength behind to do the required movements of Grand Prix consistently. Anne is not a driller in movements but finds exercises that will help develop the strength required. One of Sundance’s weaker movements is the trot half pass. She had us do familiar exercises on a circle, go into shoulder in, hold the shoulder in until he started to labor, then let him come back onto the circle and go forward. Sundance’s weakness was very apparent. When he did achieve the required exercise to her satisfaction, Anne would say let him off the hook then request I go into medium trot. This was also practiced down the long side. She had us do combination exercises such as shoulder in to10 meter circle to haunches in. Another exercise was a few steps of half pass back to shoulder in. We would start the half pass and the moment the horse started laboring, let him off the hook and go back to shoulder in. Two fundamental movements you want to develop in horses are shoulder in and haunches in; they are the majority of any Grand Prix movement.

When auditing I observed that the riders were usually in shoulder fore and shoulder in at the trot and canter. Most of the horses warm up at the canter, and then go to the trot work. Anne explained that cantering is easier for a horse than trotting. I can also see the benefits of cantering in strengthening endurance and wind. I have also found horses to be less stuck at the trot after doing the canter work first.

Anne requested that I learn the Intermediaire II test. She said it would be better to perform Intermediate II first instead of engaging Grand Prix. She added that no one really cares about the scores of Intermediate II; it’s not a qualifying test. I decided that Intermediate II would be my dress rehearsal for Grand Prix. Anne had me ride the Intermediaire II test. I discovered I had more problems in organizing myself fast enough than Sundance had with performing the required movements. The Intermediaire II test requires 11 one tempi changes. I had to learn to do double time communication and be very quiet with my upper body. Anne coached me through the test and was very specific about planning ahead and preparing the horse, not surprising him. If the movements in schooling go well, I learned, the test will go well. Any flaws in schooling will show up clearly in a dressage test no matter what the level. This was the point of the article I wrote titled, Practice makes perfect, only if you practice perfect. My training with Anne confirmed how important it is to have as much instruction as possible, or a ground person who can catch rider errors.

Summary
Don’t ever say to Anne, “I can’t get the horse to do” something. Her answer will be “You can and you will”. I could and I did. Anne expects you to do and believes you can. Anne is as ambitious for me as she is for all her students. She had faith that I could get the job done, even when I had doubts. My training with Anne confirmed that I am a knowledgeable rider and my instincts are good. I have a good feel for horses and I must learn to trust that knowledge. I know it will be important for me to continue with instruction now that my training with Anne has ended. I would have liked to have extended my training program into January, but David informed me that they were booked solid. If he had known he would have definitely saved me the extra weeks. My plan for the future is to return to Anne for further training and lengthen my stay.

I told Anne I would be writing an article about my training with her. I asked if I could title the article “Not for the faint of heart”. Anne laughed and said sure. Would I recommend anyone going to Anne for full training? Yes, only if you really want to learn, you’re fit and prepared to sweat. Training with Anne is not for the faint of heart!

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Questions or comments email Suzin@HalifaxFarm.com