Martina Hannöver is one of the regular stars at the Bundeschampionate - the German National Championships - regularly making the finals, and taking the title a few years back with the young Rohdiamant!
We asked Martina to explain her training methods and found, of course, that it all starts with the correct principles of training the four-year-old horse…
"There is no secret, the work with the young horses is always the same. I am trying to make them go straight and go forward, with the hind legs in the same line as the front legs. They must learn to move over the body into the hand, they must learn that the rein and the bit are not awful, they must be happy to make the contact, if you have nothing in your hand, you can’t give a halt, it is like a car, if it is not going forward you cannot use the brake."
"That’s how I’m trying to teach the younger horses. Really round, deep, even a little behind the vertical. It depends on the horse, some horses feel more comfortable and secure if they are a little bit behind the vertical, but when they are really working into the hand, that is when they are truly through."
The work for the babies is repetitive and simple:
"My four year olds do walk, trot and canter. The exercises they do depend on the horse. Yesterday with my three year old, I tried walk / canter, canter/ walk and there I just want the horse to feel comfortable to learn my aids and understand them. It doesn’t matter too much where the head is, it shouldn’t be too far out because then it goes against your hand and the bit, and then the horse hurts himself in the back and they don’t want to go forward any more."

"I always use shoulder fore with them to make them straight. I change around a lot - straight, then circle, then straight, then circle. Not just going along the long side, three or four canter strides then into circle, so they learn to go straight, and to bend. It is much easier for a Grand Prix horse to know the zig zag if they learn from the beginning how to get straight on the leg, on the soft rein, and to bend and then go straight."
"Keep changing what you do. So many horses just get used to going forward along the long side that they don’t carry the weight on their hind legs any more. Then I go back to the bending because it is easier to get them to carry the weight on a circle, that way they learn without getting afraid, to listen and to wait, and to come into a more collected canter."
I noticed that you were testing by giving away the inside rein to make sure the horse was accepting outside contact?
"It is always the ‘telephone’ on the outside rein, that’s how we talk to our horses."
And lateral work?
"I work on half pass without bend with the four year olds, or half pass in the counter bend - leg yield - so that they get free in the shoulder, and then when they get older it is easy to teach them a flying change because they wait. Younger horses when you train them in half pass, they get a little bit afraid, they just know the leg as an aid to push forward or to control, but not to push sideways. So you end up with them too forward, too much in your hand, and you can’t ride a nice half pass with them, and you can’t teach them a flying change. With this work, by the time the horses are seven they are really strong in the back, not stiff, but strong in the muscles behind your saddle."
Do you teach counter canter to the four year olds?
"I try, if they learn it easily, but some horses they have such a big canter that I don’t push them into this exercise, because I don’t want a horse that spends its whole life at L level, I want a horse that goes on to Grand Prix level."
When do you start playing with the flying changes?
"Whenever they offer them to me. If the flying change is not really against me, then it is alright. If they just make a change, they really want to work for you and they just want to do the right thing, then don’t punish them for that."
Now with the five year olds, and the international five year old test?
"They have to do medium walk, medium trot, medium canter and in the international test, just a simple flying change which is really good. There is not a half pass, just a leg yield and I think that is a very good exercise for young horses - in trot, from the centre line just to the wall, just asking the horse to listen to the legs, it is one step before half pass."
It says ‘medium’ trot but in many five-year-old classes it looks like as close to extended trot as the rider and the horse can get?
"Sure, you give what you have. Even in the medium canter… it says medium but no-body does it. Sometimes I think it is the same in tests where it says ‘medium trot’ then ‘extended trot’ - only a few good judges know the difference."

What are the hard parts of the five-year-old test?
"I think there is nothing really hard, I like the international test a lot. Our German national test has a lot of counter canter, that I don’t like. The International test really shows you if the horse has three good gaits, and that is the most important thing because then you concentrate in your training on the gaits, and not of the movements of the test. Any normal horse that is used to the atmosphere of being at a show, can do the international test."
What impression are you trying to make with a five-year-old horse?
"That they are really carrying themselves. That they are straight - I saw many horses at the Bundeschampionate that were not straight. In my opinion that is one of the first things, ride your horse forward and keep it straight, that’s the most important point of riding. At the five year old level you can really try to make a nice halt, nice circles - again, coming really straight with the hind legs into the front legs, keep the rhythm all the time, give them the reins in überstreichen, that’s what the judges want to see. The correct bending on both hands, in the corner, on the circle. I think it is a very good test."
"Horses that are really calm can do the five year old test, not too much pressure - if they have walk, trot and canter, that’s the most important thing. Remember though that some horses that might be a little bit too hot for the five year old test can make good Grand Prix horses when they are older - it’s like people, look at me?"
"I love them when they are hot at five years old. That’s why I often don’t take them to the big shows by myself - just send them to the show with my bereiter to get used to the atmosphere, and if they are doing piaffe or something like that in the test because they get excited, she can just say, ‘okay, I don’t want a score’." (At German Young horse shows, if the rider doesn’t salute at the end of the test, the judge doesn’t give a score).
And in the six-year-old test, what are the hard parts there?
"The flying changes, many horses don’t learn them easily. Many times when you see them at the Bundeschampionate, they don’t get the jump to the flying change. Sometimes because of the counter canter! Rohdiamant was doing super flying changes when he was four, and then we did the five years old test with counter canter, and he won with 9.5, but when we wanted to go back to the flying changes, he got really nervous and excited, and I think he still has some problems understanding flying changes. When he was four it was simple for him. I’ve seen a lot of the Rohdiamants and they don’t have problems with the flying change, I think it is just a problem in the training."
"The walk to canter transition is really difficult because with some young horses, they don’t understand your leg aids, and they get tense in the ribs, and they go against your hand. Again if you train this transition right with the young horses, then you get an easier flying change - for a nice flying change you need a little bit more pressure, a little bit more collection. The half passes are usually pretty good because people work on them, on the shoulder in and the half passes. Still you have to keep the rhythm and the balance so you don’t work so much with your hands in the half pass."
What is important to get a really good shoulder in?
"That they have the right bend, they have been correctly ridden into the corner, that they have been ridden straight before, they listen to your inside leg, and remember not to just take the neck to the inside, you always have to get the outside shoulder into the arena. If the bending is not so good, you can start with a volte in the corner, but you always must remember to get the horse straight through the shoulder in. You ride shoulder in to make the horse straight, so you must think of straight and bending. Also on the circle, you try to keep the horse straight, they bend in the neck and in the ribs but they are ‘straight’ even if they are bent, they follow one leg into the track of the other."
"It’s pretty normal for the young horses when you are teaching them shoulder in, that they get a little ‘back’ in the movement, and lose a bit of the rhythm - first you have to make them secure in the exercise, so that they listen. Then you can go back to a nice trot on the next short side and try to keep that trot rhythm in the next shoulder in. It goes slowly, step by step by step. First they should learn to listen to my aids and what I want from them, so that they understand, then I can come back to the rhythm. They have to get balanced, and some horses are not so naturally balanced, and you have to work on it."
Teaching the young horse half pass, does that require anything special? I notice at the Bundeschampionate, riders tended to let the hindquarters trail a little – is that better than quarters leading?
"Sometimes in the test the horse is not listening to the legs so well, but if you use the legs too much and the more you work with your legs, the more you will disturb the horse. So you try in the warmup – a little more working on the hind legs and then in the test you can do a little bit less and the horse is happy. I don’t ask more at the test than I ask at home, or ask in the warming up. If anything I ask a little less in the test, so that they think it is easy."
"But I never have problems with half passes – sorry but I don’t!"
How do you develop the medium trot?
"I don’t have many horses that really have a great natural extended trot. The Rubinsteins, often they don’t have such a big natural extended trot, you really have to work on their muscles to make them strong in the hindlegs so that they can carry themselves. To get the extended trot the movement must come forward, and uphill, with the horse carrying himself on the hindlegs, then the nose is up, the neck is up, and you really see a nice front leg without just pushing the horse up with the hands. The horse must be strong to be able to carry itself in a nice extended trot."
"With some horses, canter work is much easier for them, when they are five or six, you can ride collected canter, working a little bit on travers, on the circle, on a volte, and you can make the horse really strong in the hind legs – and then it is much easier for them in the trot."
How do you get a square halt every time you stop?
"Whenever the horse is ridden, it must half square. It’s like young children sitting down to eat at the table, they know they must take the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left hand, they just know it, so they don’t have to ask every time. That’s the same as what I am doing with my young horses. They always have to stand with all four legs together, then they don’t have to remember it in the test, it becomes automatic. When you stop just play around, a little bit with the whip, square up the right hind leg. At first they stand like a cow, then they get more and more used to it. If the groom brings the horse into the arena for me to ride, she makes it stand square while it is waiting. When they put the horse under the solarium, they ask them to go in with slow diagonals backwards, it is much easier for them. Not teaching but playing, they’ve got to go backwards to go in the solarium so they try to go slow, not hectic, the groom lets them think about the diagonals…"
And when you are on the horse, how do you teach rein back?
"I should be better at teaching rein back because I wanted to be a jumping rider, it is not the best thing I do. Get them really down in front so they don’t get hit in the back, make it slow, for three year old horses, just one step, maybe two, so they learn it is nothing bad."
How do you train the medium and extended walk – how do you get bigger movement in the walk?
"Go on the racetrack! That’s the best you can do. Some horses, they get tense in the indoor and it is easier out on the track. For some five year old horses, the simple flying change is difficult to keep a nice walk in between, they get a little tensed up, so again I do those changes on the racetrack."
"With the extended walk I make sure they go in front with a long neck – the longer the neck, the further the shoulder can come out – and that they are still ‘busy’ behind in the extended walk."
Collected walk – that is more difficult to train?
"Probably for some horses. Some horses are too slow behind and they go lateral, then you really have to walk slow, and feel every step. You can feel, what you push with your leg, what you feel in your hand – it is a big problem for horses that are not balanced in themselves. They go from side to side in serpentines, come with this leg and they go to the other side, and you just want to keep them straight and get the rhythm into the collected walk. The walk is a movement without ‘schwung’ so it is difficult. With the young ones, it is important that they should trust my hands, they should go into my hands in the collected walk, then a little more half halts to get into the half walk pirouette."
In the six-year-old class, the horse should be a bit more electric?
"I think so, then the people want to see the future - a Bundeschampion that can also win a Grand Prix. It is hard to know how the horse will react in the show atmosphere. This year, I had a super test with Rescue Me at Aubenhausen, then we went to another show, where he didn’t have such a good stable, he could see all the ponies out in the field, and he really knows he is a stallion. He was screaming, so I had to make him a bit tired, then you have to push him, so he becomes tense. So for him it probably wasn’t the best way to go to the Bundeschampionate - he’s not a Ferrari like Ratino, he is a Golf and he will learn with training to get a bigger trot and a bigger canter. With him, I didn’t do the flying changes on the half diagonal because they have it in every test, and he got very excited every time he was on this line. I kept him in counter canter to get a nice change, so he learns to wait, to keep him electric."
"But it depends on every horse, with Ratino I know he is the best at the second show. He is really excited on the first, and really super and relaxed on the second, but still electric enough. I try to be aware of things that he is going to look at - where is a prize giving going to happen, or two mares going for a walk, and he has to concentrate, but I don’t want to push him more and more, then they don’t breathe."
Do you warm a young horse in for a long time before a class like that?
"I like it when they are fresh and show off themselves. It is always a little bit of a risk to do it like that, especially when they are young, but I also like them also to be very well behaved, so that I give them security. The most important thing for young horses is that they feel you are confident and in charge of what is going to happen. When you take a horse to its first show then you can feel if he is breathing or not - but some of the young riders who are not so experienced, and they are nervous themselves, they put that into the horse, and the horse gets nervous too. That’s not good for anyone, when we are nervous or afraid, it makes us dumb in the head. If you feel secure, then you can think."
Do you think some riders are concentrating on young horse classes and forgetting about the aim of Grand Prix at the end?
"Some people ride horses for sale, and that is a different way of riding, they always take the last out of the horse, with long spurs and long whips. We should let the horses keep growing, they are still young, they are still playing around, they should still have their own personality. It should be with much more harmony, and not that the rider is pushing the horse into something. Even if the spectators don’t know anything about riding, it should look nice. Horses have to learn to relax if they are going to go on - the good horses in Grand Prix, like Farbenfroh, they can relax, when Nadine rides from the stable to the arena, they go on a long rein, nice and relaxed. It’s not out of the stable, put your head down, go go go. The horse is alive, it is not a machine."
"I love to ride outside and they love it also. I have a little racetrack and that’s what they really enjoy - to go trot, canter, some horses just walk on the racetrack to relax, eat a little bit of grass. I have one very nervous horse, and with him I train a lot on the racetrack, just playing around so that he is still listening to me. I have had him for more than a year now, but he didn’t learn the basic in the right way, he is a super mover, but it is still a big problem for him that he doesn’t understand me. I don’t work him so hard on the exercises in the indoor because he gets stressed, I try to do it on the racetrack - now he is doing fifteen super one tempis, and I can go back to four tempis. One year ago, he was running away from me because he was so afraid of my legs when I asked for the one tempis."
The Donnerhall mare what were you working on with her?
"I try to give her security. With her big movements she can hurt herself in the mouth, her hind legs are working so hard with such big movement, that she gets a little bit tense, then when you push her she comes into the bit. When you try walk-canter/canter-walk, she is always a little stopping on the bit, I haven’t really got her away from the inside rein and onto the outside rein - that’s what I am working on now."
And with Rescue Me?
"With Rescue Me I am working on nicer half passes, nicer shoulder in, more swinging, but he has to get stronger in the hind legs and that is what I am training more and more in canter. Then I ask for a little bit of half pass and shoulder in, in trot, going back and forth all the time, so he gets stronger behind, nearly into little half steps forward. More canter work, bigger working pirouettes, some flying changes…"
Is it still a challenge - do you enjoy working with the young horses?
"It is the biggest thing for me always in my life. You never stop learning. The young horses give you such a great feeling, sometimes I get on my young horse and it gives me such a fantastic feeling that I think maybe some more Grand Prix riders should ride young horses. Feeling them move through their body is so great, make a nice walk, a nice trot, a super canter, playing around, having fun with their lives. They become older very quickly, and then it is not just fun, it is real real hard work. I give them fun before that, and try to show them that they can work for me, and we can work together. I am a partner, not just a rider who gets on them. That is so much easier when you get the horse as a three year old, or much better, as a foal, it is the time when they form their minds, and if you can have this time with the horse, they always remember, it is really super…"