A few little videos fromSRS rider Christian Bachinger clinic

[Chisamba]

I first heard of tje Spanish Riding School in Zambia when I was six years old. A Charles Harris protégé came to stay with us and give us riding lessons. When she left she gave me her copy of Alois Podhajski's book on training.

Fast forward ten years and my father, now a horse transporter, brought a lipizzaner stallion to Kyalami where a group of performing stallions trained by George Iwanowski were housed. Dad twisted Mr Iwanowski 's arm to have me ridebwith him for a summer, and I had the opportunity to ride with Ernst Bachinger. I adored him. His riding and teaching were fabulous.

Fast forward two and a half decades, I was excited to hear that his son Christian Bachinger was going to be in Maryland so I signed up for a clinic. Letf the barn at two am, after the kids four h show, to arrive in time to watch and ride.

It was envigorating and inspiring and i have a few snippets of phone video to share.
Kimba walk
https://youtu.be/Nw0-zsWF5Vc
Kimba trot
https://youtu.be/QCBZibaF-Gk
Kimba Canter

https://youtu.be/plymYMX7ySU

Im home but tired. Happy to answer questions if you ask

[Chisamba]

A couple of photos:

Walk canter transition

received_10153891298521139.jpeg (66.85 KiB) Viewed 9760 times

[amygdala]

way to go! thank you for sharing!

[demi]

So nice, Chisamba! You have a interesting training background! Kimba is definitely progressing. Keep up the great effort because I love watching her!!

I almost missed this post because I don't always get over here to the obs lounge. I'll watch the vids again later and will probably have some questions or at least comments. Maybe you could post this on the training forum, too.

[Tuddy]

beautiful!!!!

[Chisamba]

So nice, Chisamba! You have a interesting training background! Kimba is definitely progressing. Keep up the great effort because I love watching her!!

I almost missed this post because I don't always get over here to the obs lounge. I'll watch the vids again later and will probably have some questions or at least comments. Maybe you could post this on the training forum, too.

I posted in training forum first. Then I remebered the adage from the old board where if you wanted to avoid too much criticism, you posted in the OL. So I changed it. Lol

[orono]

She looks terrific in all 3 gaits, great that you got to ride with the father and the son.

[Mareless]

Thanks for posting the videos and pictures. You two look great.

[Flight]

No questions from me, and thankyou for sharing! You guys look great and Kimba looks really on your aids. Loved the canter serpentine with the simple changes.

[piedmontfields]

Nice shots and video! I would love to read more about your thoughts/reflections on insights from father and son for you at different points in your equestrian career.

[Sue B]

Good job chisamba. Thank you for sharing.

[Chisamba]

When i first heard of the SRS, at age six, i rode one handed, knew nothing of leads or diagonals. Nor contact.

Anyway, by the time i went to Kyalami, i thought i knew how to ride, however on a trained horse, I found myself giving all kinds od aids unintentionally. When I rode with Ernst Bachinger he was still young and focused on improving my stillness and seat. He then helped me use my aids more efficiently to ride moves that were new to me. I rode piaffe, passage and even a levade.

In other words the horse was mature and trained, and the rider green. He taught me to ride through transitions instead of asking, the waiting for a response, then riding again. However the basics were similar through father and son, and indeed with each SRS rider I have had the opportunity to ride with.

Circles and changes of direction to get the horse to soften to the inside rein , bend around the inside leg, and do so in both directions. Both used transitions to activated the hind end and understand the half halt.

Christian did help.me understand better how the outside aids in the small circle set the horse up to understand half pass. If the horse does not understand the limits of the outside aids in the small circle, you will not get a good half pass.

Both were very patient with the horse, but also quite firm with their limits if they felt the horse could do better. With Christian, he wanted the first step of the upward transition to have the energy and tempo of every step. If you did not get it, he helped with voice or a tap from the ground. OTOH, he would ask for four or five balancing half halts for the canter walk transition to start to teach the canter pirouette.

He was the first SRS rider I saw who allowed the use of leg yield. He preferred half pass but if the rider said they could not, and showed no desire to try, he allowed leg yield.

Watching him teach similar exercises to horses of different levels you could see how the exercises progressively taught more collection, responsiveness and more difficult exercises.

Ie correct small circles lead to correct half pass
Correctly ridden turns lead to correct shoulder in
Correctly ridden transitions lead to correct flying changes, correct piaffe, or correct pirouette, depending on which exercise you use before and after the transition.

It was both inspirational and envigorating for me.

[mari]

Lovely, thanks so much for posting The Lippies are still here in Kyalami, at the Kyalami Equestrian Park. Now I'll think of you every time I'm at the the Park, which is quite often