Conrad Schumacher Symposium - Lessons from 1/2 of 1 horse

I only got to attend the first day of the Conrad Schumacher Symposium because my sweet old dog had a rough night Saturday night. Aside from it being very, very cold, and me being surprisingly ill-prepared for the weather, it was really fabulous.
So my first take home message is: Go next year! For anyone who rides dressage, at all, in any capacity, there is tons to learn and it will be worth the money.
It was set up so that there were 15 horse/riders on Saturday, starting with young horses and working up to 4th level. There were also some young riders.
Herr Schumacher was really funny, conversational, and did just a bang-up job of describing what was going on. For each "set", he provided some exercises and explained what they do and why you should do them. Although the horses and riders were really good (way, way better than me and Willig), we could still see how the exercises improved them.
I haven't seen his DVD, but I'm guessing it's worth the money.
The Symposium was worth the cost just for the 2nd horse for me, which was a 6 year old warmblood who was nervous and also, just coincidentally, happened to look like Willig.
I'm not going to describe everything I saw and learned, just Horse #2. Maybe later, when I somehow magically am blessed with more time, I'll put the rest on, but I took 14 pages of notes just on Saturday - with a freezing cold hand!

A solid education starts first with trust. Do NOT punish young, nervous horses. They do not make mistakes on purpose - it is either an instinctual response or the rider's mistake.
This horse didn't want to go and C.S. said that warmbloods are bullies when they're young, but if you give them time, they become rideable. What a relief this was to hear!!
So this horse had a big, regular trot, but he was tense because his tail was up. His ears were listening though. C.S. said to let them move out - let the tension out, then canter 20 m circles, or bigger if your arena permits.
This was really interesting - he had the rider really ride the horse forward, and his head got softer and quieter the more she pushed him forward.
He said warmbloods are the opposite of thoroughbreds. A tb doesn't relax when you're riding him forward, he goes crazy. Warmbloods you need to ride carefully, but speed is good. It opens their bodies and helps them extend.
He said to get an active back in a wb, ride them over poles on ground, and I wrote, again, ride them FORWARD.
He described young horses going out on the racetrack, and how their necks got lighter and haunches moved under. A warmblood has to be ridden into your hands.
Then he showed us, standing on the ground, the difference in the horse's neck. It was all tense when he first came in, but C.S. wiggled the reins, and after being ridden forward, the horse's head was all soft. He said a horse is honest in the neck when he pushes away from the bit.
My notes say: "hold - strong - then give in - give in poll", and once they give in the poll, it moves to their back, then their haunches come under. I think this was they push back at first, but if you stay steady, then they give with their head.

His exercise for the young bully was to help him with sugar (to relax his poll) or poles on the ground.
Then he had the rider do leg yielding down the long side, a turn on the forehand, then leg yield back.
For horses that are strong on your hand, this makes them soft. Do it 5 minutes, and they get rounder in the neck.

Ok, that's just the first half of THAT horse only! I'll do the next half later.

My report, taking that home and riding Willig and doing those exercises is that they seem to work like magic!
Two nights ago, I did a lot of pole work, the back and forth on the long side with a turn on the forehand (which Willig totally knows how to do), and riding really forward in the warm up. Willig got longer and was reaching his head down and towards the bit and chomping on it at the end. This was despite wind, a flappy jacket, and this little pony shooting around.

Tonight, the wind was much stronger, and Willig's head was much stronger too. But I still got some really great steps and more offering to be on the bit from him, even though it was all mixed with some really terrible running sideways jumping around, totally evading the bit behavior. I pulled him away from his dinner though, and it really was tremendous wind.

Shannon (the owner) said Willig is too neurotic to go out on the grass. It's his loss, but what a waste. Even *I* want to live out in her turnouts on the grass; they are amazing. Maybe it's because he was raised in a CA barn? Maybe he's just never had open space before. I hope he grows out of it. Sweet, reliable Merc, of course, thinks it's no big deal.