Like many instructors, Martina’s day starts with the pupil who is on her way to work and the horse is slotted in as the first part of the busy day. Michi arrives with her new baby who is carefully deposited beside the arena, in the care of the Stalbollmoor team of Jack Russells, her mare Inara is saddled and ready to ride.
Michi has the mare very deep and round, deeper than is usual at Martina’s…
You like to have them working like this, a little behind the vertical?
“Especially with this horse and this rider. Michi hasn’t ridden for such a long time, so her body is a little bit weak and not so steady. Inara is out of a Thoroughbred so it is not so strong, she looks more like a racehorse. So to not disturb the back too much with her unsteady body it is easier for the horse and also the rider, to take the horse a little deeper and more round right in front of the saddle, so that the back can come up. It is so difficult for horses and riders to come back into the right condition, this is why I am not riding the horse right now. I’m just letting Michi find the way…”

Our next focus was a young Florestan gelding, Funny, with Martina in the saddle for the working session. Funny is owned by Michi…
“I was trying to get him in front of my leg, because he was very tense on my leg, he was not going into my hand so there was no chance to start to bend him, or give half halts, or anything, because the first thing is that he has to be in front of my leg. I tried to make him feel comfortable within himself, that was why sometimes I was trying to take him deeper, sometimes more up, and do some transitions in trot. Ask for more going forward, and then when I felt I had him in front of my leg, and in front of my seat, then I started to try to get more bending and more collection. I think you saw what I was doing in the canter, when I was trying especially on the outside rein, on the left hand canter, so on the right rein, to get him a little bit back in the collected canter, he blocked, just because he did not want to accept the half halt on the outside. So we had a little bit of a discussion about that.”
He was a little bit slow behind in the canter?
“At the beginning, but I think it is just that he didn’t really want to work. When they are five years old, they like to discuss whether they really have to go to school, or whether it would be better to just go and lie on the beach. We have to find a way to make him accept the work.”
What are the most important things that the judge looks for in a five year old young horse class?
“I think we have to look at the steps on the German Training Scale, rhythm, suppleness, connection – those three things are the most important with the young horses.”
Does it worry you if five year old horses are behind the vertical?
“It depends. In the test they shouldn’t be, in the warming up, or at home, you should just try to make it comfortable for them. Sometimes I feel when they work for too long with the poll up and in front of the vertical, they start to get tense in the back because it is not so easy for them to carry the weight of the rider. You feel this when you do the transition, rising trot, sitting trot, you start to sit and the horse is going against your hand. It’s much more difficult for them when they are up, than when they are down. I just try to train them to carry my weight.”

Do you expect to see an extended trot with a five year old?
“Not extended trot – just that the steps get longer and that the horse is coming from behind. I don’t want to see this tense trot, just with the front legs, with the hind legs not stepping over the prints of the front legs in the extended trot.
Is that important – that the young horse should be relaxed, not tense?
“I think so, but there are some different opinions about it. Some people, especially the ones who sell young horses, they want this very big trot, where sometimes you can see the pressure and the tension that is in the horse. I like them more loose and relaxed, but still in front of my leg, which is one of the most important things. To learn the other things – to become a Grand Prix horse – they have to have the experience of a little pressure being put on, and then relax, so that later they can do piaffe / passage, but also extended walk. If you just put pressure on, then the horse gets more and more tense, and then you have problems in the exercises.”
Would you take your five year old out on the track around the fields?
“Sure all of them are going out on the track, and the jumping arena, they have to see something else, not just the arena.”
Do you get them going fast on the track?
“I do – I think the girls are a little bit afraid. I get them going fast, but with control. They should have fun, but with control.”
Our next subject was Avalon, a three year old half brother to Martina’s Ratino, by Argentinus.
178 cm and just three years old – this is not a type of horse you see so much in Germany…
“No. I don’t prefer horses as big as this at this age, but he is my own breeding and the good thing is he has is not so long. He has a perfect neck and a perfect back, just the legs are 10 centimetres longer than Ratino’s.”
Does this make special problems in teaching them to use themselves?
“Yes also because of the big movement, especially in the canter, he has problems to balance himself, to get steady on the bit. So what I try to do is to get him to balance by himself without me disturbing him, with the neck deep and round so he learns from the beginning to use his back, and not hurt himself in the back.”
Even when he was taking the rein away, and flipping his head a bit, you didn’t get angry with him?
“I just showed him the way where he should go with his nose and it made me really happy that he was following my hand. He opened up in the neck, he was not behind the bit. I don’t tell him ‘oh you have to give in’ I’m asking for it and more and more he comes, and more and more he feels that it is much more comfortable for him to follow my hands. Jorn rides him a lot, and sometimes I don’t think he trusts the horse like I do. I really give him the rein and just ask out of my leg, now be straight, now turn, Be deep and round but without pulling on the inside rein to make the turn, or pulling on the outside rein to make him straight. I just try that he is doing this by himself and following my seat.”
It was interesting with this three year old horse that a lot of the time on the long side you were riding him in a slightly shoulder fore position, making sure he really was on the outside rein…
“On the outside rein and straight from behind.”
You start that even with a three year old?
“Yeah, this is the training scale, these are the things we have to work on from the beginning so that the muscles work up – in that way, we are honest to ourselves.”
“You can do other things, you see sometimes a three year old with a ‘nice’ extended trot, but it is only nice in front because it is only the front legs that are nice – the back is stopped and the hind legs are going somewhere else. I don’t like to ride that way. I don’t want to sell him. My horses always get the time, first to grow, and balance, and then to learn exercises without pressure.”
The day has really only just begun at Stall Bollmoor – waiting to be worked – there are a couple more youngsters, and then the Grand Prix stallions – next month, in THM…