Story Chris Hector & Photos Roz Neave
A win in the prestigious Nürnberger Burgpokal has confirmed what lots of good dressage judges have been saying for some time now – Carola Koppelman has the potential to be the next ‘big thing’ in the world of German dressage – if only she can get (and keep!) that top horse. Carola’s Burgpokal winner, Comic FRH looks as if he might just be the one. On paper, Comic FRH – by the Holstein jumping stallion, Come On out of Pik Dame by Platon out of a Grande mare – looks like another jumper who just happens to have the talent for dressage, but my friend Ludwig Christmann, of the Hanoverian Verband, assures me that his breeder, knew the mare had dressage talent and felt that Come On also had the ability to produce a top dressage horse.
The Burgpokal is a class for eight-year-old horses, competing at a gentle Prix St Georges level, and at the Final, Comic certainly looked the part. And, let’s all hope, that the horse, which is part owned by Mr Brinkmann, part by the US stud, Hilltop Farm and part by the FRH foundation, an organization set up to keep top Hanoverians with top riders, will stay with Carola as he enters Grand Prix ranks.
Carola Koppelman has a very special softness and quiet correctness to her riding and her horses seem to respond, producing work that is best described by that sweet sounding German word, Harmonisch – harmonic.
For 29 year old Carola, it has been a long haul to the top, but along the way, she has had the benefit of working with some of Germany’s finest trainers: Schmezer, Balkenhol and now, Peilicke.
Carola’s voice is like her riding, soft and sweet, and she is occasionally frustrated by her inability to find the English expression she needs, but after a little while she seems to decide that my digital recorder is not about to bite and relaxes to tell her tale.
“I have a pony, she is now thirty years old, she is small, a medium level pony. I rode in the smaller dressage competitions with her, did a little bit of jumping and when I was 12 years old, I started with horses, and rode at the German Young Rider Championships. When I was twelve I started to ride with Holger Schmezer. I spent all my holidays and weekends there, riding his horses.”
And Grand Prix?
“I have been riding Grand Prix for seven years with my own horse, Le Bo.”
Grand Prix with Le Bo
But you have also been very successful at the Bundeschampionate, with the young horses – are you a young horse rider or a Grand Prix rider?
“Both. I have only one Grand Prix horse – I need more. It’s hard when one horse has to go the whole year. Now I have three horses at S level, as well as the young horses. Every year I have young horses for the Bundeschampionate. I need more Grand Prix horses – but when you find a Grand Prix horse, it is too expensive. I have not so much money.”
At the Bundeschampionate with Hinnerk…
“I get good horses but mostly just for one or two years, and then the owner wants to ride them herself.”
That must be sad – at the Bundeschampionate you had the lovely stallion, Donovan – but he went to the United States, for the owner to ride?
“Yes, but that is what happens.”
Winning at the Burgpokal…
How long have you been riding Comic?
“Since he was seven years old, he is now ten.”
Was that the first time you won at the Burgpokal?
“Yes – and the first time I rode at this competition. It was the biggest class I have won with a young horse – but with my older horse, Le Bo, I was second at the German Championship three times.”
and at home in Warendorf…
Will you be able to keep riding him?
“I hope so. He is fantastic. He is so intelligent but I don’t know if he can go Grand Prix this year… he is good but he has to learn a lot. He does one times changes, no problems. Piaffe we are learning, the passage is okay – but I don’t know if it will be the same at the competition. At home it okay, but in the competition, I don’t know.”
But he seems very calm in his temperament?
“He is fantastic, he loves it when there are a lot of people there. He loves competition. Hopefully he will start this year in the new Grand Prix for the young horses, eight to tens years old.”
Tell us about Le Bo?
“I have been riding him since he was three years old, he is now fifteen. He is not like Comic, he is a little crazy but he goes so often to the competitions, I think it is a little bit boring for him now.”
He is by the Thoroughbred, Lauries Crusador – is it different riding a horse by a Thoroughbred?
“No. I have one seven year old Warmblood, and she is very crazy, but with Le Bo, it is the same.”
You are based at Warendorf – at the DOKR?
“I have been here for six years now. I did my Bereiter here, here I can train with Bimbo Peilicke, he lives just near here, and he comes in the morning or I go to him – and it is fantastic to ride with him. Also Holger Schmezer comes here, and that is fantastic for me.”
And you ride one of Mr Schmezer’s horses?
“Hinnerk – he is now eight and competing at S level.”
How many do you ride a day?
“Six to nine, it’s hard work but we must earn a little bit of money. I am often at competitions, so I have one girl who is with me half the day, and when I am not here she works my horses.”
Who have been the biggest teachers, Mr Schmezer and Mr Peilicke…
“And Mr Balkenhol, I was there three years, but his stable is one and a half hours from here, and it is a little bit hard for the horses, they travel so much to the competition, to have to drive them more.”
You mainly ride stallions?
“Yes, I don’t like to ride mares, I prefer to ride stallions and geldings.”
But you are not very big – it’s not hard with a stallion?
“The stallions in my stable are so lovely, I cannot say that it is hard or complicated with them. Next week I get a new stallion from some American people, and I hope that is the same. It is my first Sandro Hit and most people say they are not easy to ride, they are a little bit crazy I think. He is a five year old, hopefully for the Bundeschampionate.”
You have a very soft gentle way of riding – is this something you think about?
“I have been riding since I was born, it was something my parents taught me, and it is just my feeling to ride sympathetically.”
And even at the Bundeschampionate, you ride very gently – not crash crash very spectacular…
“I hate that. I ride at the Bundeschampionate like any competition. I think it is good to ride that way.”
It seemed at the last Bundeschampionate, that the judges were looking more for a horse that was not so spectacular – a horse that was more correct?
“Now more and more. Before, ten years ago, it was not so – but now I think they want that. But not everyone rides the same at home like they do at the competition, they want to come to the top.”
You like riding Trakehner horses?
“Yes! But I have only two Trakehners.”
Are they more difficult?
“Yes, I can’t say why, but yes. You must be very soft with Trakehners. They hate it when you are strong with them, I don’t know why. Sometimes it is not so harmonisch, and you have a little argument with your horse, then it is not good with the Trakehners, they don’t want to work with you any more. If you are hard with them, they say, ‘no, I don’t do this’. They are a bit special.”
Is it hard to get to the top in Germany?
“The people in the A cadre, are so good with such good horses, it is difficult to come to this level.”
But this is your ambition – to ride for Germany?
“Yes – the giggle is back – yes, it is a dream. I hope so, I have good horses, but it is hard work.”
And you never wanted to do anything but work with horses?
“It’s my life to ride. When I finished with school, my parents said, you must make a normal job, a good job. So I worked for three years in an office, it was not for me, it’s so boring… I love to work with the horses. Every day I learn new things.”
The dressage world desperately needs new faces, new stars, let’s hope that Carola can keep the ride on at least one of her stable of good horses long enough to show what this most correct and sympathetic of dressage riders can do.
