Rocco

This is my own story about my journey of classical dressage and Rocco's road to rehabilitation. 

I'm 28 years old from Manildra, NSW. I teach and train according to classical dressage principles and although I still teach riders, and ride some clients’ horses with a bit, I ride all of my own horses bitless and bridleless. I haven't always been interested in classical dressage, nor have I always ridden bitless and bridleless. In fact once upon a time I was an Eventer! At the age of thirteen I started travelling around NSW competing at EA events. Most weeks I would only attend school three and half days a week. Mum would load the horses on the float on Thursday before school lunchtime and pick me and my sister up from school before driving an hour to Cowra for riding lessons with Natalie Blundell. Fridays was usually spent packing my horse and gear and travelling to whatever event I had convinced Mum to take me to for the weekend. This was a bit of a ritual for many years. As you can imagine my teachers didn’t agree with it and when I was fifteen, in year eleven, my biology teacher called me over for a chat. He expressed his concern for how much school I was missing out on and explained that I couldn't continue missing class for horse events and riding lessons now that I was going into year twelve. He gave me an ultimatum: if I continued missing school I was almost guaranteed to fail HSC due to lack of attendance. After many long talks with my parents at the age of sixteen, and at the start of year twelve, I stopped attending school and moved out of home to work for eventing rider, Natalie Blundell. Dad’s condition was that I complete year twelve over a two year period via distance eduction.  

While I was with Natalie I competed up to pre novice level eventing, which back then I think was 1.05m. I competed at a few three day events and came third in an Australian Young horse championship. I groomed for Natalie at many events including the Trans Tasman in New Zealand. I gained a huge amount of horse knowledge from Nat, she taught me to work hard, to be independent and resilient. While I was with Natalie I competed up to pre novice level eventing, which back then I think was 1.05m. I competed at a few three day events and came third in an Australian Young horse championship. I groomed for Natalie at many events including the Trans Tasman in New Zealand. I gained a huge amount of horse knowledge from Nat, she taught me to work hard, to be independent and resilient. 

Nat and Brad became like family in the time I spent with them. In addition to the horse knowledge, Nat and Brad also taught me a how to make Spag Bol, kiwi style! 

At the age of eighteen I moved back home. I had decided that I didn’t have the guts to jump any higher and my focus moved towards the dressage arena. At this time I also started looking for a dressage horse. This is when I found Rocco, a three year old, 3/4 warmblood, 1/4 thoroughbred gelding. Rocco came from the Gold Coast in Queensland. From the word go I was wrapped in my new horse. Little did I know Rocco was about to shake my world. December 2012 was the start of what’s been a very long and huge learning curve. At the age of eighteen I moved back home. I had decided that I didn’t have the guts to jump any higher and my focus moved towards the dressage arena. At this time I also started looking for a dressage horse. This is when I found Rocco, a three year old, 3/4 warmblood, 1/4 thoroughbred gelding. Rocco came from the Gold Coast in Queensland. From the word go I was wrapped in my new horse. Little did I know Rocco was about to shake my world. December 2012 was the start of what’s been a very long and huge learning curve. 

Rocco- Early Days and Soundness Issues

Rocco began developing soundness issues not long after he arrived. Some days he was lame behind, some days he was lame in front, some days he had a sore back. The list went on. I struggled with Rocco's soundness issues for a couple of years. He would have intermittent periods of soundness and then be lame again. I tried almost everything I could think of with the knowledge I had at the time. Ultrasounds, xrays, nerve blocks, quaterzone injections, supplements, prescription medicines for arthritic changes, and many different saddles and saddle fitters. Some things would help for a while but what I couldn’t work out was where the problem was coming from, or what was causing it. 

Finding Classical Dressage 

My aspirations to ride high level dressage with Rocco seemed crushed. Sometime around the end of 2014 I was skimming through Horsedeals and came across a horse called "Peaceful Warrior", he was a Grandprix trained horse, based with Jose Mendez in Tallong. I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford to purchase the horse although I decided to phone Jose and see if it would be possible to have a lesson on him. I was super excited that Jose had agreed to give me a lesson on "Coco", and made the trip to Tallong a few weeks later. I had an amazing lesson with Jose, he opened my mind to the concept of classical dressage. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, Classical dressage is understanding the anatomy and biomechanical function of the horse’s body. In having a solid understanding of the horse’s anatomy it allows us as riders to promote correct muscle development. It provides the horse with a strong structural foundation, which makes the horse more physically able, and willing, to perform under saddle. A strong balanced horse will also have more longevity in its career as a riding horse. After a long chat with Jose and his lovely wife Fay they said they felt that they would be able to help me to resolve Rocco's intermittent soundness issues. Delighted by the possibility, I started taking Rocco for lessons with Jose. In the first lesson with Jose on Rocco he said to me, "If this is going to work, you are going to have to keep your mind wide open.” I remember in that first lesson Jose had me riding around almost on the end of the buckle, it felt like I had taken a thousand steps backward in my training, looking back now with the knowledge I have learnt along the way, we needed to take all those steps backwards. Rocco had extremely expressive movement from the moment I got him, but what he was missing was the basics, he couldn’t trot or canter on a long rein and maintain a steady balanced rhythm. If a horse cannot maintain their balance without their rider "holding" them together then, from a biomechanical point of veiw, the structure (being the horses body) is very weak. A weak structure will not offer longevity! Around the same time I started having lessons with Jose I also started playing with some bitless and bridleless with Rocco. In one of Jose’s lessons I remember him saying to me, "Why follow the crowd, strive to do something different". These words were the inspiration for my bridleless riding.

When I was younger I owned a cracking little pony called PJ, my first eventing pony, and I actually enjoyed riding him bridleless occasionally.

How and why I taught Rocco to go Bridleless 

After having a few lessons with Jose I had forgotten all about my ambitions of riding high level competition dressage. The journey Rocco and I were about to embark on may not be one that would land us at the olympics like I had originally planned, never the less it was a jorney together and a massive learning curve.

I started riding Rocco bareback a lot and just having fun— rather than working towards a certain competition goal. One thing led to another and I thought to myself how cool it would be to ride bridleless as well. I made myself a neck rope out of some tie down rope in dads shed. To begin with I used the neck-rope along with the bridle. The aids from the rope are very different to that of the bridle as the pressure of the neck-rope is more like that of neck reining. So it was important to get Rocco use to the change in aids, teaching him with the neck-rope whilst simultaneously using the bridle allowed that. As time went on I would use aids from the bridle less and less, and use the neck rope aids more. There were times that Rocco wouldn't respond to the neck rope aids, and I would need to reinforce what I was asking by using the rein aids. As Rocco grew more confident with the rope, I took the bridle off completely. Working in a fenced round-yard for a ride or two, then progressing to a fenced arena, I figured he couldn’t go far. He certainly never showed much jumping talent, so he wasn’t going to jump out of the arena!

Initially, without a bridle, I kept things simple, walk, then progressing to trot on the full arena. Once he was confident with my aids I asked for circles in trot, then to circles in canter. Rocco had no knowledge of lateral work prior to us starting out bridleless and bareback. He has learned shoulder in, travers, half pass, and the start of pirouettes and piaffe, all without a bridle. I have been riding him bridleless and bareback since 2014. It sure has saved me money not having to buy tack!! With a new classical approach to training Rocco he was gaining strength in his body and more confidence in his work. 

Training With Belinda Bolsenbroek

At the end of 2017 I attended a clinic with classical trainer Belinda Bolsenbroek.Her student group were (and still are!) a lovely supportive bunch. I felt like I had found my "tribe". I think its always nice to have like-minded people to throw ideas around with and learn new techniques and improve together. I had a wonderful first clinic with Belinda. I couldn't wait to return. I attended another one of two clinics with Belinda after this, before Rocco tore his suspensory ligament. The injury was a freak stable accident, he consequently became very lame due to it. With the help of a wonderful bodyworker, my vet, regular ice boots, compression socks, natural oils and red light therapy alongside regular walks, the ligament healed over the course of a few months. In this period of time Rocco was restricted to a stable and small yard. He lost a lot of muscle and become physically very weak throughout his body. It felt like all the hard work was undone. Belinda encouraged me to get more X-rays so we knew exactly what was going on for Rocco. In the past Rocco had X-rays of his legs and stifles but this time the X-rays were of pretty much everything! I couldn’t believe what was found. Rocco has a floating bone chip behind his skull Arthritis of the c6 c7 of his neck Minor/ Mild kissing spine Side bone in both front feet And, arthritis in his stifles. Looking at the X-rays I was shattered! The thought of retiring Rocco completely crossed my mind. I’ve never been one to give up and Rocco's personality has always been like mine in that way. I thought of the inspirational stories I heard about people in wheel chairs who were told they would never walk again, people who have bought themselves back from the most horrific accidents because their mindset wasn't prepared to accept a diagnosis or limitation made by doctors or X-ray machines. This gave me hope. Over the years Rocco has taught me that the mind is a very powerful thing, that your thoughts are what shape your reality. That if I wanted a positive outcome, to think positive thoughts. I just got this feeling Rocco wasn’t ready to retire, although I felt like I needed another opinion also. So I spoke with my coach, Belinda Bolsenbroek. I told her about the findings of the X-rays. She gave me hope. With her guidance I could work with Rocco in hand in order to build back his strength. I had never done much in hand work, although I was enthusiastic to learn and help Rocco gain strength. The classical work had taught me that by building a horse’s muscles in the correct way it is possible, through consistent correct work, for a strong muscle system to hold together a compromised skeleton. I did however promise myself that if at any stage I felt like Rocco wasn’t handling things that I would let him retire. However, the in-hand work proved to be nothing but positive for him, in fact he had delt the strongest he had ever felt and was even moving around the paddock much better. 

Rehab With Rocco Using In-Hand Work

In hand work was not something I had much experience with until the end of 2018/start of 2019. I had done plenty of "ground work" in the past, with young and problem horses, but this was different. This sort of work on the ground was still classical dressage, its purpose is the same as classical ridden work, to create balance and strength through the body. For Rocco, it was an easier way to build strength than if he had to carry a rider. Starting out in-hand I bought myself an in-hand cavesson. The cavesson allows attachment of the rein on the top of the nose. Attaching the rein on the top of the nose as apposed to where you would attach a lead-rope on a headstall, underneath, encourages the horse to open through its gullet, allowing more reach through the body. It also allows for correction of the horse’s straightness (spinal alignment) more easily by the handler. 

When I first started with in hand work all I was looking to achieve with Rocco was spinal alignment on a circle and straight line. This meant I wanted all his vertebrae to "follow" each other on the circle or straight line, like carriages on a train track. When a horse falls into or out of a circle, or wobbles on a straight line, their body is not in alignment. If you think about your horse’s spine as a train, its carriages would be "de-railing" when the horse drifts sideways (falls out of alignment). Of course a de-railed train is not going to travel smoothy. It’s the same for a horse. If a horse isn’t in correct alignement then it will not be able to find balance or a nice rhythm. I would walk backwards, facing Rocco, walking in line with his inside shoulder, I would use the whip to create awareness of where he was loosing the alignment. For example if he was drifting out with his outside shoulder, I would take the whip up over the top of the wither and point to it or gently tap the outside shoulder at the wither. Once Rocco's alignment and strength improved on the circles and straight lines we progressed to more difficult movements such as shoulder in, travers, half pass, walk pirouettes and eventually started half steps all on the ground.

I worked Rocco in hand for a good 6 months after his suspensory injury. I would work him 3 to 4 days a week for roughly 15 to 20 minutes. Rocco has always been a real pain on the ground, he bites and fiddles around. When I started in-hand work after his injury his behaviour was no different. I thought the behaviour was just him, although Belinda pointed out that his fiddling was actually a reflection of the weakness' in his body and as he grew stronger his biting would go away. His strength grew and body shape changed substantially. With the in-hand work he was the strongest and soundest he had ever been and Belinda was right, the stronger he got the biting and fiddling subsided. He was now correctly working over the back. This meant that he was carrying his weight more evenly and was lighter on his feet, relieving a lot of pressure from his joints and also creating more space between the spinal processes, relieving the kissing spine. With Rocco's strength and balance the best it had ever been I started riding him again. 

Rocco and I have performed at various demonstrations bridleless, such as at the field days at Borenore, Farm World in Victoria and some local pony club events, just recently we added Equitana too this list. 

Rocco has been so much more than just a horse to me, he's a great friend, but more than anything he’s been an amazing teacher. My journey with Rocco has inspired me to help other people with their horses.