100 of the Top Dressage Riders of All Time

The 10 Best Dressage Horses & Riders Ever

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For example, when you start with shoulder-in and some steps sideways, often the horse comes a bit lazy and behind your leg.

Every now and then I do an extended trot in the training, to make sure that the horse is still in front of my leg and good in my hands and on the bit. When I come out of the corner I start to ask the horse for the extended trot and open his frame and stretch through his back. My hands have to go slightly forward, but still with a good contact. Like this I can control the balance and rhythm. Lots of walk-gallop, gallop-walk; trot to canter and so on," the German athlete explained. A bit faster, a bit slower. The horse needs to respond quickly and easily. It works at all levels, the difference is just more for the experienced horses than the novice horses.

So how do you get a horse who is responsive and willing to work? Your basic information have been successfully updated. We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. Events Athletes Horses Rankings. Event Highlights History Hub. All events Watch live. Olympic Dressage riders say mastering transitions is vital to BeVictorious and develop a Grand Prix horse Like Sonke, Patrik is also a big fan of transitions Subscribe to the newsletter.

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What makes German Dressage Great? Part 7

To follow riders, your need Bronze level. Thank you for signing up to FEI. Please setup your email account. Follow your favourite athletes, horses and events. It is the wrong pressure in the horse; the wrong tension in the horse also mental tension in the horse because the mouth is like a mirror to the brain. That is something that definitely has to be fixed. First of all you get the bridle off his head. You get them in a snaffle. Even take the lower noseband away. Just to see the basic of the mouth. Then I go step-by-step.

Most of the time, the mouth and tongue is a mirror for the rest of the body, so I am not so busy at that stage looking at the mouth, I am busy looking at the hindquarter and the back and the whole connection through the horse. So you start with the German Training Scale; rhythm, relaxation, contact, impulsion etc and then you move onto lateral work to get the back. Do you keep your lateral work very simple, for example, just a whole long side shoulder in, or do you keep the horse thinking a bit with different combinations or patterns …or does it depend?

I do it longer so I can feel if it changes something in the horse. If I just do it for 10 or 20 metres, for example when you start with the lateral work, sometimes the horse is struggling with his balance, with the straightness, with crossing his legs so I use the lateral work to make the body more supple. So I will do it across the diagonal, letter to letter, 60 metres.

British equestrian team top world rankings for showjumping and dressage - Telegraph

I can do that when the horse is in balance. For example, I might use leg yield to produce balance over the suppleness, so it depends always on the level of education of the horse. It really depends so much on the horse. If you have a slow horse who might move spectacularly, it would make him insecure to make quick transitions.

Do you think riders have enough knowledge of this?

I think yes, because we are getting more information through magazines, and I think people are more interested in it. People want to be successful, but not everybody is successful, so people wonder what they can do to be better and so they go searching. They are more interested in their horse; whether their saddle is good enough and informing themselves about different things. Having enough time, is the biggest factor. Certain things take more time, but when you get that, you catch up quicker.

How did it go? That is the problem. I know it for myself and I can see and hear it from my students, it helps so much to be in an environment where everything is on a higher level, because it brings you up and makes you ride better and you also look at things differently. If you think of and plan an international career, you have to compare yourself to the top people. What is your biggest tip to those training mostly on their own?

Watching videos, being videoed? That is one thing I can recommend. The whole package, for example how to warm up then horse, how long to warm it up, how I get my horse into the test. I see many people over riding the horse in the warm up, so when they finally go down the centreline, they are dead!

Which is a shame because they are often nice horses but the riders are insecure and nervous.

You have to orientate yourself always to the top. Even if your horse can never have the most quality, the quality of riding and performance is important. She is always something.

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I have watched her for decades and I still think that. Can you over coach people? Where do you find the balance of really helping and letting them sort things out for themselves? It is also a little bit to do with the personality. I think people ride how they are, from the temperament. The more laid back person needs more, and opposite for sure. But when I see that he understands more and the horse understands more, I go backwards, I talk less.

What I want to do is to help any rider to help himself. Again, when you talk about performance, you have to know what will come up in the white rails and how you will manage that. So that is my goal for any horse and rider combination, that they are physically and mentally strong enough to do it without me. Sometimes you see horse, rider and trainer, especially the trainer, until the horse and rider move their feet into the ring, the trainer is constantly talking. It can be overdone. You talk about playing with the horses in training rather than drilling them.

When I talk about playing, it means to cooperate, that is the point. I have to sit on something that is with me, and on my side, and I need to be able to trust my horse. So if we take a stallion for example and he has too much adrenaline, then I go completely back from my training, say if I was going to train a pirouette, and I might give him a gallop. Too much strength, we take a little bit of it away and then we quietly come back to the pirouette.

So in that moment I show a little bit my strength, without being rude or strong. Especially when the breeches get a bit tight! Everybody has to do something about it.

Reward Yourself

You have to be fit enough to sit properly and be still. Actually when Brett Davey was with us, he had for a while a bootcamp group every week outside on the dressage arena on the loose sand they had to run and pull. Anyway, that is also something that has changed in the last years. The younger generation understands that they are sports people, not just sitting in the saddle, so they have to be fit. Things that are incorrect with the seat, for example, has a little bit to do with a weakness in yourself. You have to be strong enough to carry the middle of yourself in the proper way over the longer term.

They ride themselves into stress, you could say. Then sometimes the horse for me finds the solution because I feel different and better. I have done it. It makes things sometimes very simple and clear. At the end of the day. So I prefer to do it. What percentage would you say has been human versus horse? For sure I got great help from Rehbein, and certain people, but it was also rather a short period and they gave me a start up which was remarkable. But then until I got it right, I had to practice and my poor partner horse had to take sometimes a lot until I got it so I really have to award the horses, they made me.

I have not a trainer but I still ask my bereiter how I look.

Do I look like an old sack? I try to check myself and sometimes I have to do videos so I see those. I depends because I ride at least four horses a day but then also when I have many clients from foreign countries and they are not there, I have to ride their horses so then it might be seven or eight horses. I had this Russian horse that I won the German professional championships on, Delikatess. When I think back now, such a sweet thing, he did Grand Prix when he was six.

I think I would handle that horse much differently today.

British equestrian has hit a new high by topping the world rankings in showjumping and dressage.

My last big horse Fariano, which you know was a very, very special horse, I would just like to have one more time. The feeling and what I want to have. Is there a horse in the past or present that you would have loved to have had a ride on? Oh ja, many, many, many horses. I have to say though one horse is always in my head is Corlandus. He was a giant, cm or something, long, long legs, electric and for me, because I came from the eventing scene, he was like a big Thoroughbred.

There are still many good horses, for example Cosmo, he is a Ferrari.

I am not complicated when it comes to my person. I can cope with everybody and I want to cope with problems. I take anything that is in front of me. But I just want to see horses feeling good whatever they have to do and at whatever level so I can say, first of all I have done good work, and secondly in a way the horse if possible, enjoyed what it did or learnt something or felt well.

The welfare of the horse is important. I just want to be a person of harmony, in life in general. I enjoyed reading this — and will take some of the advice to improve my riding first of all to have a look at the almost forgotten Harry Boldt book Thank you in deed! Really enjoyed reading this! The focus on the horses wellbeing and the riders knowledge and ability to guide and show the horse what and how to perform with harmony! I wish I had such a trainer! After being with horses for 47 years and actually having a 2 year education from Sweden , I still feel there is so much more to learn and perfect.

I guess that is the charm with this sport. Your email address will not be published. Rebecca Ashton interviews the German assistant coach, Jonny Hilberath What is the difference between an athlete who makes an Olympic Team and one who ends up on the podium?

Watching her say at Rio, she was so focused. Helen Langehanenberg makes an error of course at the Euros, Monica Theodorescu and Jonny are dismayed, it was funny because Helen was second last to go, and then came Charlotte Dujardin and she also made an error… What I really like to say, in a way, is try to make the best ever test that you have done. Jonny and the glorious Wenckstern How do you think your riding and training has evolved as a result? Is that a development on from being a bereiter? Can you teach discipline?

Jonny is laughing Talking about this and this and this must be done, what are your non-negotiables when it comes to training the horse? Do you think training is the main thing holding us back?

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