At the recent International Eventing Forum (4 February 2019), held at Hartpury, former World showjumping champion and prolific Irish showjumper, Dermott Lennon (pictured) shared some fantastic advice on how to improve in this phase.

Here’s 17 brilliant tips from Dermott…

Warming-up

1. When warming up, I walk, trot and canter in a relaxed way, but ensure that my horse is in front of my leg.

2. Using the leg is a bit of a grey area in terms of what it means. There are a million different ways of using your leg on a horse and you have to do what works for your horse.

3. I like to use spurs and even hot horses must learn to accept your leg and go in front of it — they have to carry themselves and being in front of the leg is part of this.

4. When riding, I use forward and backwards transitions within a pace in a way that the untrained eye wouldn’t be able to see — these small adjustments in a pace is a nice way of using forwards and back.

5. Moving forwards and backwards within a pace doesn’t mean speeding up and slowing down — the horse must always engage their hind-leg and should never lose power in collection.

6. You can always use your voice as a tool for both wanting to move forward or slow down, you can also use it to help create impulsion rather than speed, such as a click on take-off at a fence.

7. A lot of people warm up in a nice collected canter and never open their horses up and get them in front of their leg. They then go into the ring and the first line is an open distance — this is when they either end up not getting the best distance to the fence, or the horse becomes out of control.

8. One exercise you can try is to take your inside hand off the rein while riding — this helps the rider to sit better with a relaxed knee and hip, while always following with the hand.

9. If you are riding flying-changes, it is so important that the rider stays relaxed — this allows you to use your legs independently and helps prevent the horse from becoming anxious and anticipating what you are asking them.

10. When you have built up to an oxer in your warm-up and you have jumped that a couple of times confidently, you can start playing with your canter on the approach.

Walking the course

11. A lot of people are obsessed with strides and stride patterns when walking a course. A lot of people ask me “how many strides are you putting in there?” My answer is always “well it depends how I jump in”. You have to ride what you’re on to create the best jump.

12. In eventing showjumping courses you have a little more time to set your horse up and/or create more canter and engagement, so make good use of that.

Riding courses and training at home

13. By the nature of both horse and rider, when faced with corners, they will want to shorten the stride, so you need to be conscious of this.

14. A lot of people ride heavy even if they don’t weigh a lot — they sit hard against a horse’s back and this has the same affect as giving the horse a good kick — riders must sit with the horse and allow them to move and jump, always following with your hand.

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15. If you are driving in first gear and you hit the brakes, the engine will conk out. Therefore, ride forward to start with so that you have somewhere to go if you need to condense your canter.

16. A lot of people have difficult horses, but it’s how we react to them that will ultimately improve or make them worse. For example, sometimes you need to go with a strong horse and then they will learn to back themselves off.

17. When you are your horse are brave enough, challenge your horse — for example, into a deeper take-off spot — this will help create jump. If you don’t challenge them, they will end up faulting more.

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Dermott Lennon’s multiple gold medal-winning ride Liscalgot has died aged 26.

The Irishman partnered the mare to individual gold at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain, and European team gold in Arnham, Holland, in 2001.

Known as “Shirley” at home, Dermott took on the Irish sports horse as a four-year-old.

He confirmed on social media today (Tuesday, 6 December) that Shirley died “peacefully at home” on Saturday (3 December).

“Shirley had many talents and qualities, but the one that always stroke me as quite exceptional was her intelligence,” said Dermott.

“It is what made her stand out from the rest. To me and my family Shirley truly was the horse of a lifetime.

“We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a special friend for over 20 years. Thank you, Shirley, for everything.”

Together the pair enjoyed victories in young horse classes and at both national and international level, including several grand prixs and nations cups.

In the spring of 2002, the partnership’s future together was secured after a consortium of three Irish owners teamed together to buy the mare from former owner Terence Harvey for a “substantial sum”.

When Mr Harvey revealed the horse was for sale, some huge international offers were made. There were also rumours the Irish government may step in to secure the horse for the Irish team.

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But it was Woods Rosbotham, Sam Thompson and James Acheson who stepped in to buy the daughter of Touchdown, securing her future with Dermott.

Following her successful jumping career, Shirley went on to become a broodmare and currently has offspring competing up to CSI4* level.

These include Calgot Pleasure, who is being campaigned by Thai rider Janakabhorn Karunayadhaj; Calgot Hero, who is with Aoife Dooley; and Class Of Touch Hero, who competed in his first four-star show at Bolesworth with Dermott this year.

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Irishman Dermott Lennon lifted the €13,000 top prize in a gripping finale to Sunday’s CSI3* Alltech grand prix at Royal Windsor Horse Show (13-17 May).

Riding the 13-year-old Limmerick mare, who has shown such consistent form of late, the pair swooped round in a four-rider jump-off to take the spoils.

“With only four in it, if you don’t go well you’re fourth so you might as well try,” said Dermott, who was nearly 2sec quicker than his rivals on his first visit to the show in almost a decade.

British riders filled the next two places in the prize-giving with last year’s winner Robert Whitaker taking the runner-up spot on Catwalk IV and 21-year-old Yazmin Pinchen slotting in to third on the 12-year-old stallion Van De Vivaldi.

Michel Hecart of France was the unlucky fourth placed rider on Quatrin De La Roque.

But most unfortunate of all were the trio who finished round one clear for jumping but with a time-fault apiece — Robert Smith (Bavi), Tim Page (Santa Cruise) and John Whitaker (Castlefield Cristobal 21). They filled fifth, sixth and seventh places respectively in a strong class for the home contingent.

Earlier in the day, Laura Renwick snatched her second victory of the five-day show. The Essex-based rider scored a somewhat unlikely success in the 1.40m speed stakes in the Castle Arena riding Rembrandt Blue — fastest of the 22 starters, despite 8seconds to add with two fences down.

“That must go down as one of my luckiest wins!” she said.

The Windsor one-star grand prix was won by US rider Emma Heise on Viper Vrombautshoeve Z, with Great Britain’s Nina Barbour finishing second on the 15-year-old gelding Calle.

Don’t miss the full report covering all the action at the CHI Royal Windsor Horse Show in next week’s issue of Horse & Hound, out Thursday 21 May.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Dermott Lennon trounced an Olympic calibre field to win the Olympia Grand Prix with Loughview Lou-Lou — the mare’s first attempt at grand prix at any show.

Lennon, the 2002 world champion, went midway in an 11-horse jump-off and his target forced errors from the rest of the pack.

Of the British, only Peter Charles and Murkas Nevada were up to the challenge for eventual third place, from an earlier draw, behind the Spanish prodigy Manuel Anon and Rachel Chavannaise.

Lennon has had a few years without the right calibre of horse power but Lou-Lou, bought a year ago, has changed all that.

“She’s naturally fast, so I thought that if I aimed to keep the fences up she’d do the time anyway! It is wonderful to be competitive again,” said Lennon, who ended up third in the leading rider of the week rankings.

Earlier, Guy Williams won his fifth class of the week, and Djakarta’s third, the Martin Collins Eraser Stakes. Ben Maher was third with Milena, also a two-times speed class winner and this was enough to consolidate his position as H&M Leading Rider of the show ahead of Marcus Ehning, even before the grand prix.

Jessica Mendoza, 15, determinedly recovered from a broken ankle in September to win the JJs Junior Jumping Championship for the third year in succession, this time with Razorlite. This was her first competition since recovery and Razorlite was chosen as he was the only pony that would not have tolerated being turned away while Jess was grounded. “It’s great that he has won something big when he’s always been in the shadow of Tixylix before,” said Jess.

Pick up a copy of Thursday’s Horse & Hound for full details and analysis of Olympia horse show

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Dermott Lennon and Hallmark Elite have been confirmed as the fourth combination on Ireland’s showjumping team for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

Dermott joins Denis Lynch (Lantinus or Nabab’s Son), Cian O’ Connor (K Club Lady) and Billy Twomey (Tinka’s Serenade or Je T’aime Flamenco), who were named previously.

The same four riders demonstrated their ability to be successful as a team when winning the Nations’ Cup of Germany in Aachen earlier this year.

Team Ireland Equestrian show jumping manager Robert Splaine explains: “Dermott and Hallmark Elite had a very good result in the Madrid Grand Prix on Saturday, which indicates a return to form for the combination.

“It means we will be fielding the same team as we had in Aachen and if we can replicate that performance we will be extremely competitive at the World Championships.”

The main objective for the team in Kentucky is to qualify for the London Olympic Games by finishing in the top five (excluding Olympic hosts Great Britain).

“Olympic qualification is the main goal but if we perform on the day we can beat anyone,” said Robert.

• Read the latest World Equestrian Games news

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Irish army rider Lt David O’Brien took the individual silver medal at the World Military Games in Belgium.

Competing with the Irish-bred mare, Lismore Clover, Lt O’Brien was leading until the last rider, Audrey Stepanenko, from Belarus, sped round to take gold.

“I couldn’t fault Lismore Clover and I honestly thought we had it in the bag,” said Lt O’Brien, who was accompanied to the show by his commanding officer at McKee Barracks, Dublin, Lt Col Gerry Mullins.

The bronze medal went to Yahor Marotski, also competing for Belarus.

New ride for World Champion

Ireland’s World Champion, Dermott Lennon, has acquired the Quickstar stallion OBOS Quality from Cork-based Marie O’Brien.

Quality was purchased at the PSI auctions some years ago and has been campaigned successfully on the international circuit by Denis Coakley.