It was interesting to see the photo of Cathrine Dufour in Tokyo with Kyra Kyrklund and read her appreciation of being backed at the Games by two strong women – Kyra (who is the official coach of the Portuguese team) and Princess Nathalie, who is the coach of the Danish team. The partnership goes back a long way…
Nathalie told us in 2008:
“I was sent to Kyra when she was at Flyinge in Sweden. When I’d made my students exam, my parents sent me to her, and it was meant to only be for half a year to see if I had the talent, and if it was really what I wanted to do. From half a year it became four years, and then when Kyra moved to England, I moved to Germany and started training with Klaus Balkenhol.”
What are the key elements of Kyra’s training that help you?
“Kyra’s way of training has followed me all through my career, and now I am back training with Kyra and Richard again (this is in 2008). It’s a way that suits me very well, and when they train they really have the ability to explain what feelings you should have in certain moments. It’s not just like the German way: pull on the right rein and take the left leg then whoosh the horse goes to the side. You want someone to explain the feeling, which feeling am I looking for when the horse is doing that. Kyra and Richard are just unique in explaining things.”
But it is all still within the framework of the Training Scale?
“Absolutely, Kyra is really stuck on that German Training Scale, it is a system everyone can copy. It’s not like that extreme system that Anky (van Grunsven) has – which is working fantastically for Anky, but it is not a system that would suit me. I really like the way Kyra trains, and the system that Klaus follows, it is also along the lines of the German Training Scale, so it was good to take first Kyra and then Klaus and it helped me to develop my own hand writing in riding.”
“Kyra and Klaus are very similar. There are a lot of parallels, but again, both of them have their own hand writing. Everyone has a little bit their own way, but the main red thread is the same red thread. Kyra and Richard can just explain things differently.”
Klaus is not such a ‘talky’ instructor?
“No, you put him on the horse, he rides the horse, corrects the stuff, and you get back on and feel what it feels like. He is not so good in explaining things, but then again, Kyra is just unique, there is nobody else like her.”
Watching you teach, you are a ‘talky’ trainer, you give a lot of information, lots of layers…
“I think that is where I have a little bit of Klaus and a little bit of Kyra. I like the way Kyra and Richard can explain, and that’s what I try to give on to the pupils, but again you have to get this German discipline into the riding – trying to go from point to point and really think of what you are doing there, not just riding around… If you don’t ride from point to-point, you lose one mark, and it is a stupid mark to lose just because you are not riding from letter to letter. If you have a mistake in the movement, if you go from one letter to the next and hit the point, you should still get one or two marks for that, even if the horse breaks gait, you should still get a two or a one because you hit the mark.”
Nathalie with the star her mother bred, Digby
One of your big things is straightness?
“It’s all about straightness. If a horse is not straight, you will always have difficulties, for example the half pass left and right, it makes it very difficult to get the same quality. A horse always has one weaker side, so it is important that you train both sides to be the same.”
The mentor – Kyra Kyrkland
Your channel is important, between the arms, the shoulders, the legs…
“It all hangs together, if you don’t get the first step, you definitely won’t get the second and third or fourth step. You have to get the first step right to be able to get the other steps right.”
Over a decade later it is great to see those two strong women working together and producing such stylish riders…