Lesson: Chris Chugg teaching Amanda Ross

Story from March 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

No one gives a better ridden demonstration on the benefits of gymnastic work and the whys and wherefores of correct training than five time Australian Showjumping Champion, Chris Chugg. The rider and trainer who began his international career with the Warmblood stallion, Sky High (imp) jumping at the Paris World Cup Final in 1987, has continued with the likes of Mr Currency and the great WS Scandal to almost literally the father of modern Australian jumping horses, Vivant, World Cup Finalist (7th) and WEG Team member in 2010 and on to Gabrielle Kuna’s amazing Cristalline that was 10th in the 2016 World Cup Final in Gothenburg. We know he can ride, but can he teach? Backed by the knowledge that Chris is a George Morris A+ student we expected a good lesson and knowing Chris, we expected something a little different. We were correct on both accounts.

Some people may wonder why the Australian 2000 Sydney Olympic Eventing Individual would want to or indeed need to have riding lessons. And certainly since that time, Amanda Ross has had great international success on a number of horses. “I love learning from people who are at the top level of their sport,” says Amanda. “Chris is a real horseman, he is insightful and has incredible feel. I rode one horse each day at the clinic and he was able to tell me how to alter my ride to best accommodate each of the three horses. It is great to listen to a different perspective and to be introduced to different training methods. There is no end to the learning process and you don’t know what will or will not work until you give it a go.”

For the purpose of this brief article we will concentrate on Amanda riding Chrissy and Fraser Brown’s super talented international prospect, Dicavalli Diesel.

Warm Up
Unlike many clinics, Chris did not instruct his pupils to take up a contact, rather he had them ride forward, one handed on a long rein. “Let them have a look around and do not over correct them,” he said. “Open up the trot but do not rush, let him find his own balance; arms forward. I want the riders to relax enough to understand what happens to their horses when they are taken out of their comfort zone. A lot of people teach with flat work and contact for the first ten to 15 minutes, but I want to be able to jump the horses whilst they are fresh. To create a show scenario where they have little time to prepare their horses.
I want to see the problems and difficulties the riders encounter when they take them to a show; to try and think fast when maybe their horse is not one hundred percent under control. I want to teach them some simple skills that will help them overcome many problems. I do a lot of work over poles on the ground warming up with a loose rein, one handed, because one handed, you cannot collect and look for a distance. The decision is left up to the horse. I try to get the rider to trust the horse to find the right distance and go down to the poles; keep it simple. You can’t over ride if you are riding with one hand. Also a lot of unnecessary work goes on with some people to prepare the horse for the fence, but that is too much work. I want the horse to be going forward and confident. I try to get the people to leave my clinics with enough skills to not have any fear about riding forward down the line and to feel that the horse is committed to the task.

“I ask them to ride forward on a loose rein, often one handed for the first ten or so minutes. During that time they can do some simple turning and exercises on a loose rein, like trotting an X or a little fence. I encourage them to get up out of the saddle and do some medium canter (350mpm) and let a higher power take the wheel for a little bit and for the riders to overcome their fear factor. I like to teach safety and skills first and then get more complicated.

“When I say I don’t want them to have contact, what I mean is that I don’t want them to get on and immediately start to pull the horse’s head down. I am into flat work, but once they get in to the ring, I want them to have a natural head carriage. Also with a loose long rein, the horse starts respecting the jumps a lot more, because the decision is theirs. At the end of the day the horse has to like the job.”

The Training Ride
“Most of the people in the clinic are amateur riders, but I have some professionals like Amanda. She is a top competition rider, but what I did was to remind her that she is a training rider first. The competition skills come out in competition but in training I encourage a low automatic release that gets progressive and encourages the horse to use its neck a lot more and consequently the wither comes up and their back gets softer.

“I like to trot to my early fences; it encourages the horse to relax and get deep to the fence without worrying. A lot of riders tend to take their first practice jumps a bit fast and long. They jump a lot of fences which means that the horse has virtually jumped a course before it goes in the ring. Always I train riding to the fence with a low hand and give the horse the option of making a simple, honest mistake at the front rail, because you don’t have a lot of contact with its mouth. I think that is a better way of riding than trying to put the horse in to a frame and being a competition rider. Let the horse work it out for itself and help itself. I keep the fences small (at an appropriate size for horse and rider) and I never want to see a circle in front of a fence. A miss, if it happens is part of the exercise.

“I always train short. I think the horse has to get within a working distance of the fence to make a shape and get the wither up. The rider must learn to sit still when they get deep to a fence, to allow the horse to make a shape and jump it. Basically, I take one metre off every line in training. If I encounter a long distance on course I will up the pace to 375mpm. I will still get deep, but that extra pace will make the two strides on landing 13 or 14 feet (3.96m/4.26m) instead of the normal 12 feet (3.65m) and that will cover the long distance and I will be steadying to the next fence. I try and use all the gears from 500mpm to 300mpm and I get the riders in my clinics to do that too.”

Trotting A Fence
“I trot to my first X, my first vertical and even sometimes to my first oxer whether it is a Grand Prix horse or a five year old going to its first jump club. If I can make an exercise even simpler, then I have a relaxed horse in the ring. I try not to do too much in the practice ring and I will sacrifice a fence on Friday to win on Sunday. I try to teach horses to use their natural instinct and if they don’t have it, I try to teach them natural instinct and trotting to a fence teaches a horse more natural instinct than cantering. But like anything you have to master this over small fences and get confident. Allow the horse to get close and you can get more shape over your practice fence. More fences come down because a horse cannot cope with a close distance than anything else. It is important to teach the horse to be happy and confident with a deep spot and the bounce teaches the horses to be happy with a deep spot and also about combinations.”

The Bounce Exercise
The bounce exercise was particularly interesting. It was used in conjunction with poles on the ground and also as the beginning and end obstacle of a short course.

“I have four, usually cross rails, but in this case planks, set at nine feet (2.743m) apart. I like the nine foot distance, because then you cannot make the exercise too high and you can both trot and canter at it and jump it both ways. Also I set the planks, one higher on the right and the next higher on the left etc which helps keep them straight. Cantering, I want the riders to show me their shortest canter in the two strides before take off (a 250mpm canter). They realise they can affect the horses’ technique and it is a great exercise for both rider and horse technique. The bounce exercise is one also that makes the horse aware of both the front and back end.”

From Chris
“I really liked Amanda’s horse and we worked on getting him to land on the correct leg for the direction she wanted to go. Basically cantering to the fence, and remember on a straight line you do not need an outside rein, keep the horse flexed in the desired direction of travel. If you are turning right, have the horse flexed to the right, well before the fence (too late and you could be asking for a run out) soften the left rein and have your left leg on the girth. And for the other direction, swap the aids over early enough in the approach. It is also very important that the rider looks in the direction they want to go. If the horse and the rider are looking right and that left leg is on the girth, nine out of ten times the horse will land on the right leg. I am not saying that I don’t ride with the outside rein, I ride flat work a lot with the outside rein, but in a jump off situation, you want the horse’s shoulders following that inside rein through the turn. In that case you are backing up your inside rein with your outside leg.”

“Amanda is a very good professional rider, but I think she was impressed that when she lowered her hand and wasn’t protective of jumping a clean fence, that the horses were actually thinking for themselves a lot more."

Amanda’s thoughts

The big benefit of the bounce exercise for me, is that Diesel likes to always land on his left lead. Yes, I can always do a flying change, but that can use up precious fractions of a second which on eventing showjumping day can mean the difference between winning and losing. So we used the bounce to train Diesel to land on his right lead. Chris just said to me that on approach and through the exercise to take my right rein and give with the left and keep my left leg on the girth and ride the right canter all the way through the exercise. It worked and I was delighted. I love a bounce. I love the fact that the horse has to keep thinking and that the rider does not have to interfere. Their job is to get the horse there and it is good for rider position and balance. Also Chris angled the planks and changed it around a little, so the horses had to keep thinking.

Chris encourages the horse to be fully committed to the exercise. It all takes time. The process of learning to ride, learning to correct the horse, learning to see a stride and learning to be a good trainer. And then you have to get to the point where the horse takes responsibility and does that for you. Chris reminded me of the difference between a training and a competition ride and reminded me that the horse has to do it for me, not because of me and that is all in the training.

We jumped a course with the bounce as the first and the last fence. We trotted in to begin and that got Diesel thinking and careful and the bounce at the end at the canter worked on the riders ability to adjust the horse back to a 250mpm canter to jump the bounce. It was an exercise to get the horse to be confident to go from a 350mpm open canter to shorten back for the bounce. It keeps them thinking and it teaches the horse to read the fence as well. Is it a 375mpm oxer or is it a 300mpm vertical?

Chris clearly has a passion for training horses and I really like it that he takes different influences and training methods on board. He is not stuck in one system and will change if he has found a better way.

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