Monica Theodorescu looks back

Chris Hector at the Frankfurt Horse Show in 2018

German team coach Monica Theodorescu was a welcome visitor to the press room at the Frankfurt Horse show, and my German colleagues were kind enough to invite me to sit in on a little informal discussion, conducted, for my benefit, in English as well as German…

For Monica, it has been a good year, German teams from juniors to seniors had bagged 60 medals at championships over the 12 months! “And that is only in dressage, so I think it has been the best year ever.”

Placings in the Freestyle at the under-25 Championships – Jil- Marielle Becks for Germany, Charlotte Fry for Great Britain, and Lisa Maria Klossinger for Germany. Two out of three medals for Germany

“Of course now we get more medals with the children, there is another set of medals to win. Our under-25 team won the championship, and also three individual medals, the girls were fantastic, they were all four in the Grand Prix and all scored above 70%.”

The winning team at Tryon, Chef d’Equipe Klaus Roeser, Isabell Werth, Dorothee Schneider, Sönke Rothenberger, Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl                                     Photo FEI/MARTIN DOKOUPIL

The year was a bit dominated by the German win at the WEG in Tryon…
“The facilities for the horses were very good, especially in the conditions. It was very sad that the Freestyle was not held. Dorothee Schneider had been the fourth highest going into the freestyle at the earlier championships and so she had missed out, so she was really happy to be in the top three, she loves to ride freestyle…”

And then the rain came down…
“But there were such good facilities there, and with goodwill, the freestyle could have taken place. They could have dropped out the last cross country eventing fence in the stadium, or held the freestyle the day before in the smaller stadium. The smaller stadium was beautiful. They needed the goodwill of the FEI and I think the FEI was really poor. That was really disappointing for us. On the Friday night, the FEI had their barbeque, that was their answer, sorry we are having our barbeque and we cannot do anything. They could have tried to find a solution, not leaving it until the possible solutions were too late, like changing the flights or moving to the other stadium.”

The winning cross country finish for Great Britain’s Ros Canter in the main arena. Was this the only solution? Could the Freestyle been moved? Could the return flights for the horses been re-scheduled?

“Of course it is more difficult if you have to organize things, than if you are just brainstorming, but because of all the information about the coming storm, the freestyle could have taken place the day before. It was scheduled for the Sunday, and the Grand Prix Special, was on the Friday, so we thought it could have been scheduled for Saturday in the smaller stadium. On the Saturday in the big stadium, there was the last fence of the eventing, and, this is just looking from the outside, but they could have taken away that last fence and let us ride in the big stadium or use the smaller stadium.

But the FEI wasn’t interested?
“Friday night our Chef d’Equipe talked to Mr Kemperman, the head of the dressage committee, and he said because they had their FEI barbeque, nothing was decided that evening. To re-organize the flights for the eleven, twelve, thirteen horses that were going back to Europe, they should have tried to re-organize that straight away on the Friday night or Saturday morning. After then, with customs and all these things, it was too late to re-organize the flights.”

Do you think we should forget the WEG idea and go back to individual world championships in different countries?
“Well maybe not individual championships, but maybe two or three together, whatever matches, but I think it is not really possible altogether, and Aachen doesn’t want to do it every four years. Maybe there are other venues, like Calgary, that have the infrastructure. I think the idea of having the WEG is a great idea, but do realize that idea is just not possible.”

Monica and her Stockholm ride, Ganimedes

Stockholm was the only one to get it just right…
“But then it was only five or six disciplines, and they had a very good venue with everything close, but still it was not eight disciplines back then, where you need over 100 kilometres for the endurance…”

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The Gold Medal team at Seoul, Liselot Linsenhoff, Monica Theodorescu, Nicole Uphoff and Dr Reiner Klimke

What has turned it around for German dressage? For a while Germany was unbeatable, then you slipped from the pedestal for a while, now you are back – aside from having a very good coach, what is the secret?
“There is no secret, that is the secret! There are no secrets. (Monica is laughing) First of all we have fantastic horses, you watch more of the breeding than I do, but I think it is amazing the quality of the horses that we are able to use. Then I think we have a lot of the best riders, and again there is no secret, it is just correct training and riding. For me there is no ‘modern’ or ‘classical’ riding, there is good or bad riding, correct riding. That’s what I try to tell everybody, don’t go crazy, we had that and it didn’t work. One of the many things my father said was every exaggeration is wrong –  that I use as a principle, it’s probably for life also, but for sure it is true for the horses. Only just leaving them in the field and riding long and deep doesn’t get you anywhere, but also asking too much, too hard training, that is absolutely wrong.”

Monica and her father Georg watching the warm-up arena at Aubenhausen

“Too high scores, too little, too much, every exaggeration is wrong, we’ve had that in dressage and it showed that it was the wrong way, it only lead to frustration. Now I see the riding in many countries is just getting better and better. Stecken said, riding correctly is sufficient.”

“Perhaps in the past we fell back a little because I remember there were many trainers who said, oh the Dutch, we have to do it that way.No, we don’t have to do it that way. Since I’ve been the coach, I’ve told many riders, we don’t complain about the judging, we have to show that we are better.

Kristina Bröring-Sprehe, Dorothee Schneider, and Helen Langehanenberg in London with their Silver Medals

It already started in London just before I came into the job, already Charlotte (Dujardin) and Carl (Hester) and Helen and Kristina had started to change things. We don’t complain about that one, or that one, we show that we can do it better with correct training and work.”

Nicole Uphoff, Isabell Werth, Monica, and Klaus Balkenhol, Gold in Barcelona in 1992

Monica and Isabell, both still part of the team, discuss Isabell’s test

“When we come here to Frankfurt, it is for the Nürnberger, to see the new horses, and it is obviously a way to Grand Prix and the team, and with those horses and riders for me, I always try to make those top horses and top riders, a little bit better. This year we had a few horses that could not go to the WEG, Desperados couldn’t go, Showtime couldn’t go, and still there is enough talent for our team, and that is important. I need more than four horses every year to be on the safe side. We even had to leave Damsey and Helen at home, and she is a very strong competitor. Hopefully every year we have some disappointed riders who don’t make the team.”

Monica is laughing as she says this…

“I don’t want anybody to be disappointed, but it should be hard to get one of those four team spots. From the late 70’s to the late 90’s, we were very successful and the hardest part was to get on the team. When I got there, I had this pressure every year when I was on the team,  you don’t want to be the idiot that screws up the team result. The team was always the most important and the more competition you have within the team, as long as it is fair, that is the best thing you can have. Then everybody gets a little bit better.”

Hubertus Schmidt and Escolar

What young horses do you see coming on the scene, it is exciting to see Hubertus with a nice horse…
“There are plenty, Hubertus has a very good young horse, Isabell has plenty, Dorothee has more to come, Helen has younger but very good horses. Kristina has young horses, they all keep working. Hopefully also our younger riders will come on, we need as many as possible. Benjamin and Jessica have got some fantastic horses, they are working very hard, and the team at the stable of these two younger riders is doing an amazing job. Okay it’s one and a half years to the Olympic Games, now we take a Christmas holiday, but after that, the calendar is full.”

Do you still enjoy the job as coach?
“Why not? The team is winning! And I have the chance to work with the best riders and horses, for a coach there couldn’t be anything better.”

Madeleine Winter Schulze is recognised for her support of riders and this years Frankfurt Show with an award presented by St Georg Magazine’s Jan Tönjes

Is there are tension between the very wealthy ‘amateur’ competitors and the professionals?
“Isabell, Dorothee, Hubertus, Helen and the Werndls, they are real professionals, they have to live on this, while there are other riders who don’t need to live on their riding, like the family Rothenberger or Kristina Sprehe, they also work very professionally, but it is different. It is different when you have to manage your stable with thirty, forty horses and have to have happy clients, happy owners, every weekend, that’s different from, okay I pick this show, I pick that show, let’s see what happens – that’s a little different when you have to manage all the horses and all the owners and all the competitions, but in terms of making your way into the team, it doesn’t matter – then the results count and, of course, more top results are better than just one.  You can’t just do well at one show, ah, I get a good result at Aachen and I’m on the team, it doesn’t work that way, you have to continuously show good results.”

As always, it is great talking with Monica, she is direct, honest, upfront, and best of all, intelligent….

Competing for Germany at the Euros at Windsor in 2009

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