An interview with Christopher Hector
Dr Plewa interviews Jessica von Bredow Werndl and explains the judging to the crowd
On the opening day of the Frankfurt horse show, it was announced that Dr Dietrich Plewa, one of the long standing judges for the Burg-Pokal was standing down. He had reached the age of 72, facing compulsory FEI retirement. It was a sad day for dressage since Dietrich has been one of the few international judges with genuine credentials as a Grand Prix rider.
Dietrich started his equestrian life as a successful young showjumper, crowned the German Junior Showjumping Champion in 1963, before master trainer, Bubi Gunther spotted his talent and persuaded Dietrich to join him in Frankfurt, where he spent his mornings riding and his afternoons studying law.
Dietrich made his debut as a Grand Prix rider in the 70s and with Geronimo, became the German reserve champion in 1974. For twelve years he was the Baden Wurttemberger Regional Team Trainer.
When he quit competition riding, Dieter took up judging in the 1980s and received his 5* O status in 2009.
It’s crazy, I remarked to him, some people are incompetent at the age of 30, others have all their skills in their 90s…
“I never wanted to be a semi professional judge,” he told me after he had finished judging the first round of this year’s Burg-Pokal, “The most important thing for me is that I wanted to have the freedom to plan my time, for family, for riding, for my profession. The big shows took up too much time, three or four days, and sometimes two or three times a month, it was just too much so I quit.”
“One reason was that I think the age limit is discrimination against the older judges but it is the best of some bad solutions. I wanted to decide by myself whether I have to stop or not, and so I have. There was another small point, I was told that the age limit would be cancelled, but at the same time I was told that I am allowed to continue to judge five star shows, but I am not allowed any more to judge championships. I told them, that is a big discrimination – you have recognized that the age limit itself is discrimination against older judges, but this is a bigger one. That I couldn’t understand, so I was very proud that I had made my decision.”
But you continue to practice law, so presumably your brain still functions…
“I have to prove each day that my brain is okay, and I am still really successful in my office and my profession, and I like it very much. I am waiting for my daughter who is studying law also, and I hope in two years that I can slow down a little bit.”
Do you think that is important, I see so many people in the horse world for whom horses are everything in their lives – they don’t read books, they don’t go to the theatre, they don’t really listen to music, it’s horses, horses, horses. Is it healthier to have a profession, a life away from the horse world…
“I think it is really important to be independent. I think you need experience in the horse business, but it makes you more free in your head, you have a bigger horizon to do your judging, if you have another profession. But okay, I live with horses from my seventh year till now, I am still riding, educating horses and I think that is an advantage for me, but I am also happy with the fact that I am really independent. I don’t need to judge shows to prove that I am a big man, we don’t need the money – the very small amount of money you get judging big shows. It’s still fun, it can be fun, but for me my decision was clear, it’s enough.”
You trained with Bubi Gunther, what was he like?
“Bubi Gunther for me was a genius. He was small, his weight was always a bit of a problem, but he had a natural feeling for horses. He could ride very nervous horses, Thoroughbreds, he could ride cold horses, everything. I saw other riders, like Willi Schultheis, in his stable, but I think at that time there was no better professional rider in the world than Bubi Gunther.”
Better than Schultheis?
“Yes.”
His training principles were they very different than what we find in the latest edition of the German Principles of Riding?
“A little bit. It was in former times we did not think riding out in the fields was important, they were standing in the box for twenty two hours and then they were trained. In Bubi Gunther’s stables all the horses, even the Grand Prix dressage horses, had to jump over fences, small ones, but free running and jumping. He had been a showjumper himself and a very successful showjumper.”
And the way he trained, if he came back tomorrow would it still look like good training?
“Yes, I am sure. He was always thinking about the mental aspect of a horse. He was really ambitious to feel what kind of a horse it was, and to find the right way for each individual horse, and that would be the same today.”
When I look at the photos of Bubi Gunther and Willi Schultheis, sometimes I think it looks nicer than what I see today, more open, free in the neck…
“You are right, you saw some horses more open in the neck and the poll, but on the other side, some horses were not so supple in the back like we see today, so it was sometimes not really swinging, but a little bit made by the rider because the basic quality of the horse was not as good as we have today.”
It would have been hard to loosen up some of those old fashioned Warmbloods…
“That is the problem to compare the times of the 1950s to our times.”
Looking at the eleven horses in the Burg-Pokal today, there was not one single example of rough or aggressive riding some was better riding than others, but none aggressive…
“I fully agree. I think in the last fifteen years, it has improved a lot. We had really bad bad pictures, ten, fifteen years ago, Dutch riders and German riders, but it was only a small part of the community but it was bad for riding, for the public it was really a bad time, but I think in the mind of all riders, they have changed their relationship with the horse, and I think we are in a good way and I fully agree, today you didn’t see any rough riding.”
Some horses got a little tight in front…
“But not pulled. Some were sometimes a little bit short in the neck but not pulled by the rider, it was made by a lack of power from behind, they have to develop more muscles.”
And the horse that won, Total Hope, is just a little bit short in the neck thanks to god, he was born a bit like that…
“You are right, my comment was sometimes try to keep the poll up and the nose line more forward…”
Total Hope at Frankfurt
But Isabel has done a wonderful job with this horse, I saw them at the World Young Horse in Ermelo just a couple of months ago, and I thought this is a funny little pony with no movement…
“It’s what I said to my scribe today, that this horse is swinging, it has a lot of cadence and in the collected trot a lot of ground cover. In the extended trot it was sometimes just a little bit short in the neck and there were some small issues in the collected walk because the rhythm was not too good today. There were other really good horses, the first one, Cadeau Noir…”
Morricone and Lena Waldmann
I must confess I liked her second horse, Morricone, better…
“Very elegant, very light footed, everything fluent.”
And again, I think I could spend all day watching Kira Wulferding ride…
“I gave her a kiss and congratulations because of her kind of riding.”
Kira and Bonita Springs at this year’s Burg-Pokal
She is what everyone should aim to ride like…
“She is sitting correctly, really correctly, you can’t even see the leg aids, the hands are in the right position, there’s a light, easy contact to the horse’s mouth. The horse is really producing herself in the right frame, it’s very wonderful.”
I watched her here last year warming up and it was exactly the same, quiet, correct, gentle…
“All her horses are in a really good balance, there is no pressing, no pulling, no spurs, it is a wonderful kind of riding.”
Kira Wulferding and Bohemian Rhapsody
How does Germany keep making so many elegant, correct riders?
“I think that is because we have a big community of riders, we have thousands of dressage riders in Germany, so some of them are good.”
Will you continue to judge at this show even though you are an old man of 72 – will you be back for the Burg-Pokal?
“If they like me, I will be here.”
Dr Plewa talks with Dorothee Schneider after on of her tests, with ClipMyHorses Kim Kreling