About Me

I'm Allison Hopkins and I have a passion for Dressage. I'm 16 and I train at Rocking M Stables with Yvonne Kusserow, a German master, in Dallas Texas. I currently show 2nd level with my 16 year old Hanoverian. 

In 2012 I traveled to Germany and there I attended the Pferdsportverband Weser Ems Medal Course in Vechta. This is a two week intense course including dressage and jumping lessons every day followed by some lectures in theory. 

I received my Small Bronze medal my first year then attended the same course in 2013 and received my Large Bronze. This course fully submerged me into the German training system and proved successful results which I really benefited from. 

In 2013 after my second trip to Germany I was invited to compete in the 2013 Dressage Seat Medal Finals in Estes Park, Colorado, placing 6th on a leased horse. This was my first national competition and I thought it went really well considering the circumstances!

A couple months after that I competed in the 2013 Regional Championships and placed 1st in GAIG and Southwest Training Level as well as GAIG and Southwest 1st level. 

Then in the winter of 2013 I was invited to audit the Robert Dover Horsemastership Clinic in Wellington, Florida. This exposed me to some of the top Olympic Trainers such as Robert Dover, Debbie McDonald, Shelly Francis, Jan Ebeling and others!

The most recent event I participated in was the Courtney King Dye Horsemastership Clinic in Chesapeake City, Maryland at the Hassler Dressage facility! It is the most beautiful and spectacular stable I have ever seen. Every corner of the place was meticulously detailed. Some of the wood used for the door frames was from an old mill and the light fixtures in front of the entrance were previously streetlights in Paris, France. 

I rode a borrowed horse generously lent to me by Micky Copeland and trained by Christina Morris. I'm so grateful to have experienced this amazing opportunity and it would not have been possible without them!  I also would like to thank Lendon Gray, the founder of the Emerging Dressage Athlete Program, who makes these opportunities happen for the youth of Dressage. Also, thank you Leslie and John Malone for letting the this clinic be held at your facility! It truly made the experience memorable. 

I created this blog to share my journey of dressage with those who are interested in learning new things about riding and the dressage world! Hopefully you can pick up something that is useful for your riding at home!

Enjoy!

Riding with Lisa Wilcox

          Recently our barn, Rocking M Stables of Dallas Texas, hosted a clinic with Olympic rider Lisa Wilcox as the instructor!

         Lisa coached 10 riders per day and what was amazing is that she gave the last rider and horse the same amount of meticulous attention that she  gave the first, even in our Texas heat! She worked with all levels from training to GP! She was always willing to take the extra time to make saddle adjustments or any other detail that would improve the performance of the horse.

        We had professionals, adult amateurs and JR riders. The feedback from everyone was glowing.  We were all excited to implement our new tools so we could do our best at  the region 9 championships!

       With all riders, we worked on a circle the majority of the time, and from there we would conduct our exercises. The very first day she got on my horse after I warmed up. This way she could get a feel for him, thus being able to help me with a better understanding of what I'm dealing with.  In my case,  the main problem is that my horse is really lazy!  When she first got on she said that you should never just squeeze a horse like this into going more forward, because that would just restrict him further. So she started off bumping him with her leg while in the walk. It was a forceful bump and it got him more attentive and listening to her aids. She continued to do the bump while in the trot and she never once spurred him or even whipped him. She made him more active simply by her leg aid. She would also flex him to the inside consistently for a while, them counter flex him. This really loosened up his next and let him be more supple through his whole body. She continued to do this flexing exercise while in on the canter.

        Then when I got on we stayed on a circle and in the canter I would bring his shoulder more towards the center of the circle, where she was standing. This really made a difference and he definitely had more jump to his canter!  She was holding a longe whip in order to encourage activity in his hind legs, so Calevo was very alert and by the end he did not want to be anywhere near the whip! So it was a challenge to keep him on the circle without trying to jump away/avoiding the work!

        He also got very strong when he was scared of the longe whip and I really had to give lots of half halts and had to be firm with my outside rein and leg because otherwise he would try to escape the circle!  But while on the circle the lunge whip helped to activate him during the flying lead changes. This is when the horse changes from one canter lead to the other. My horse had the problem of consistent late flying lead changes with his previous owner, so we are trying to correct that problem. When a flying lead change is late, that means that the hind legs don't switch leads at the same time as the front legs. This is a difficult problem to fix, especially is the horse is older and has done the late ones consistently.  But in the lesson with Lisa Wilcox,  we started out in in the counter canter on a circle then I would ask for the change while he was attentive and on the circle. We got a couple of clean ones! 

       Then at the end he had tons of energy and we practiced some shoulder in's and medium trots. He was so energetic and active - it felt fantastic!  Lisa Wilcox really helped me work through our issues and her diction was spot on and really clicked with me! I definitely think we made some progress in his training as well as mine, and I'm so thankful to have had this opportunity to ride with such an amazing trainer/rider!

       My trainer Yvonne Kusserow has done a great job bringing in clinicians to rocking m stables. Our next one is Lendon Gray with an EDAP clinic in November!