Guest Blog Post # 71: "The Time Warp" by Bill Woods

It's not unusual for a novice rider to emerge from a dressage test and announce, "Wow, that whole thing went by in such a blur!" Later when that same rider has worked her way up to Fourth Level, if she has an occasion to ride another horse back in First Level she's apt to observe how luxurious it is to have all that time in the test to prepare for the next movement. In the same vein I've heard Grand Prix riders remark on how much "free time" they have when they ride a Prix St. George test.

The same phenomenon occurs as riders become more and more comfortable with individual movements. I have a student who is trying to learn to ride canter pirouettes and at the same time teach them to her horse. (Let's agree that, although common, this is an undesirable situation!) For her, too, "it all happens so fast." It's easy to say but she needs to learn to ride each stride—each footfall— individually and give her horse whatever mental and physical support he varyingly needs moment by moment. If she clamps on with her outside leg and chases him off balance, if she lets him brace against a fixed hand, she's toast.

I remember these feelings myself. I rode my first canter pirouettes 42 years ago. I can honestly (not proudly) say that it took about 30 of those years to get to the point where things slowed down enough in my mind that I was able to do what I am describing.

I read an interview once with Jimmy Clark, a world-class Formula One driver. He recounted that in the cockpit time seemed to slow down for him. He could come through a hairpin turn down shifting from 180 mph and back up and be able to recognize faces in the crowd as he was doing it. Famed show jumper Rodney Jenkins said he used to steeplechase because afterwards in the jumper ring it felt like he had forever to look for a distance.

Knowing none of this per se is going to solve you training issues, but it's important to recognize what may be going on in order to begin to fix it. The worst is to keep feeling like a tidal wave is rushing over you and think it's supposed to be that way.