{"id":38570,"date":"2017-12-08T14:58:21","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T03:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=38570"},"modified":"2017-12-08T14:58:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T03:58:21","slug":"riding-in-the-third-dimension-with-leonie-bramall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2017\/12\/riding-in-the-third-dimension-with-leonie-bramall\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding in the third dimension with Leonie Bramall"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s very odd. Australia currently doesn’t have a dressage coach, and yet there are a number of very talented, experienced trainers, who have competed successfully themselves and produced successful students, that EA continues to ignore and who end up teaching\u00a0those \u00a0who are prepared to go to the expense and work of organising the clinics. Why not subsidise our top riders to go to these clinicians?<\/i>
\n Like Leonie Bramall who has been coming to Australian since 2010…?????<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Shannan Makauskas meets Leonie Bramall at the Queensland Dressage Forum and chats to her students<\/h1>\n

Photos by Alex Makauskas<\/h1>\n

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Leonie Bramall has a foundation of training in the German system, and a genuine love of horses and interest in the way they learn, Leonie produces the elements of the training scale in a positive way, and one that is successful in competition.<\/h1>\n

At the Queensland Dressage Forum more than 110 spectators, including over half of Queensland\u2019s judges, huddled together in the indoor arena at Caboolture show grounds. Competing against the din of torrential rain, Leonie instructed several riders to execute test movements and demonstrate her approach to training.<\/p>\n

Queensland Judge Convenor, Lesley Sullivan, said: \u201cWe decided we wanted to have an expert from overseas and we were looking at getting Leonie last year. Then Mary Seefried spoke to Jenny Gehrke who said, \u2018Well I\u2019m getting Leonie out so why don\u2019t I coincide it for when the forum is on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The atmosphere in the arena made it quite a task keeping the more hot-headed horses\u2019 concentration. Two water tanks next to the arena were overflowing in what could have been seen as a man-made waterfall, but was instead received by the horses as a certain death threat.<\/p>\n

Many bookings were cancelled on the day due to people either being flooded in, or concerned they would be flooded out, if they left their properties. For those who battled the weather it proved to be well-worth the trip, with Leonie\u2019s methods producing pleasing results despite the distracting atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Leonie addresses the judges before beginning the demonstration: \u201cWe have a rule in Germany which I think is the best thing, and that is that you have to be allowed to get the horse in the ring and settled before they ring the bell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the harm in letting the horse and rider have a trot around? They\u2019re all getting the same advantage. It just doesn\u2019t make sense to me. We need to use common sense and give the horses the benefit of the doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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First in, Gary and Chester<\/em><\/p>\n

Gary Lung was first in, riding the scopey six-year-old gelding GB Winchester (Weltmeyer). The combination rode in their first clinic with Leonie a year ago: \u201cI\u2019ve often watched Jenny (Gehrke) ride, and I\u2019ve watched Jayden (Brown) ride, and to me they were on the right track. I thought something\u2019s happening here and then Jenny told me about Leonie and I went, that\u2019s the secret. I want to have a look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, I think what to me was so spot on with her, is she explains things in such a way that was like, it wasn\u2019t black or white, it was colourful. She just had this information and she will personally tell you there is something wrong, or you need to fix it, but this is how you fix it. Not like you\u2019re crap, or you\u2019re no good, but here is a weakness and this is how we fix it, we do this and we do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonie makes several points while Winchester happily cruises around the arena in complete harmony with Gary: \u201cIts not about strength or pressure, it\u2019s about training your horse to be more sensitive and to react.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t give your reins away in order to go forward, they need to learn to push up through the withers. Concentrate on riding from the back end forwards, and keep that circulation of energy going.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Keep the circulation of energy going”<\/em><\/p>\n

Leonie aims to train the horse to be a happy athlete: \u201cAs soon as we turn a horse into a robot and it loses that sparkle in its eye, it\u2019s dead, and doing that\u2019s not something that interests me. We don\u2019t want to see a horse just going through the motions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hit them or press horses that haven\u2019t been taught to respond they\u2019re going to push back harder. Teach the horse not by pulling, teach them to follow signals. You touch them, tickle them and they want to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

next we ask Gary what he got out of the clinic<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Interviewing those who participated in the clinic prior to the Dressage forum was inspiring. Their renewed optimism and excitement about the training system was infectious and Gary Lung was bursting with ideas:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor one she just made Chester so much straighter because I had issues with straightness with him. I had issues with him starting to sit and collect. He would do all that big flashy young horse stuff, but now we\u2019ve stepped up a level and the pressure\u2019s put on and that\u2019s where she came in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the way her whole idea is just getting the horse in front of your aids and up in the wither, she calls it the third dimension. You still ride them round but you must ride them up. I always thought you just do it in the transitions, just do plenty of transitions and the back will come up. But I didn\u2019t realise in my downward transitions I was actually pushing the horse\u2019s back away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary explains how he came to this realisation: \u201cShe has these Pilates bands that she uses to make you feel some different things and develop an awareness of what you\u2019re doing with your body. It\u2019s like a big rubber band and she\u2019ll wrap it around different places to teach you to stretch down, it\u2019s all about stretching into and in front of the aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now a little bit like Edward Gal where they look like they\u2019re sitting on a toilet. It\u2019s all about the chair seat which we all use to laugh about. When she puts these bands on, you ride around trying to focus on stretching down because if you don\u2019t the band retracts and you go \u2018dong\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it does is show you is what was in the wrong position to start off, with and as soon as you take them off what happens is your legs go longer and you feel like you\u2019re getting sucked into the saddle, it\u2019s fantastic. So in my transitions on one hand I was lifting the back up and on the other I was pushing it away with my seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Organiser, Jenny, and Gitane<\/em><\/p>\n

Jenny shared similar advice: \u201cIn the moment of a half halt she said to, \u2018Allow the back up through your pelvis, the way you\u2019re using your stomach is great but you\u2019re sending it through to your pelvis as well and pushing the back away. Just let it go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary confirms: \u201cWith her it\u2019s constantly ride it up and she\u2019s got no tricks. It\u2019s just like transitions, riding them up and connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The riders point out Leonie\u2019s ability to think outside the square when communicating what she wants. Jayden Brown said: \u201cHow many trainers will tell you that a good half halt is like having a pillow come up through the horse\u2019s\u00a0back and carry you along?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeonie will think of a thousand ways to tell you something until she finds what makes you click.\u00a0 She doesn’t just stick with the typical phrases like,\u00a0more active or more hind leg. Sometimes it’s just mixing up the way the message is presented that really helps the learning process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary shared some insightful expressions from his lessons: \u201cWith your transitions she says, \u2018Go up and down like a switch. It should be like turn a light on, turn a light off. Not hold a button and switch it on slowly. It\u2019s just switch it on, switch it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

next Nicole Tough and Dante<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s back to the forum with Nicole Tough riding the eye catching dapple-grey gelding Dante (De Niro) owned by Beau and Linda Dowsett. Leonie instructs Nicole to ride a 10 metre circle: \u201cIt\u2019s important we don\u2019t come into it and have everything fly to the outside and derail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nicole and the elegant De Niro son, Dante<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t give your reins away in order to go forward. They need to push up through the withers. It\u2019s riding from the back end forwards and keeping that circulation going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicole also participated in the clinic prior to the forum with Leonie, and after the first time working with her, was teeming with new ideas: \u201cOne was in the half halts because I\u2019ve always thought of a half halt as being half of a halt. I know it\u2019s a reconnection of energy, but I was thinking about it more from the bottom of the hind foot up over the back and into the bridle, in a circle that way (counter-clockwise).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realise in my halt halts that I was shutting him down, that it was a backward connection of energy. I always had this picture of riding the horse in a circle of energy, but Leonie changed the direction of that circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother massive thing for me was I\u2019m always trying to get them lighter in the contact. I\u2019m always trying to get them off the contact so they\u2019re not strong and she was saying, \u2018No, no, no you\u2019ve got to push them onto the contact.\u2019 Which was a really different concept for me and it means you have to ride with a lot more energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the subject of contact, Leonie said: \u201cPeople want a horse on a soft contact, but the contact is your communication. You have to have a positive pulling. The horse getting softer in the contact should be indicative of the activity from the hind legs and loading behind. Don\u2019t throw away what you\u2019ve created.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frame of a horse is always indicative of the engagement from behind. Every horse is different, and you can\u2019t force them all into the same frame. Everyone is always worried about where their heads are. Are they over the vertical? But what\u2019s more important is are they in front of the leg?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jayden and the Hanoverian mare, Dallas<\/em><\/p>\n

Prancing into the arena next is Jayden Brown on the imported Hanoverian, Dallas (Dacaprio\/Cashman), owned by Kate and Perry Wilson. The six-year-old mare is bursting with energy and Jayden tactfully directs that into the lateral work. Leonie said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this reactive energy later, but we need to teach her to cope with it. The rules are yes she\u2019s allowed to look, but no, she\u2019s not to run to the inside or away from the leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonie gives tips on riding sensitive horses in a competition atmosphere: \u201cI would do some half halts in a shoulder-in to keep her supple without losing that static. I try to use a little flexion and shoulder-in and get the horse to follow my leg. If Jayden just holds her there with his contact we\u2019re going to miss something down the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to enhance the difficult things, not hammer them. Using our skill we need to aid them to be better athletes. If they\u2019re tense, how are they going to bend their joints? An elastic horse is a healthy horse. It\u2019s actually not teaching them to put in more effort, it\u2019s about teaching them to release and be more elastic so they have a bigger range of motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

next Jayden rides F\u00a8\u00fcrst Friederich<\/em><\/p>\n

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Jayden and his ‘F’ line ride, F\u00fcrst Friedrich<\/em><\/p>\n

After some wonderfully expressive laterals Jayden moves onto his next star this season, F\u00fcrst Friedrich (F\u00fcrst Piccolo\/Anooschka), who he found at Leonie\u2019s barn last year. Leonie draws on the talented combination to demonstrate the medium work: \u201cFlying changes do not get better by doing millions of changes. We need to go back to increasing the quality of the jump and collection in the canter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonie works on collecting the canter: \u201cRide with the quarters in down the long side. Now do some transitions on the circle, now a working pirouette. You don\u2019t teach them to collect by sitting them down and blocking them. You\u2019re extending and collecting. Closing the horse, but keeping the joint\u2019s mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonie points out some common mistakes: \u201cPeople get so stuck on getting the change that they forget about the rest of it. That\u2019s not the point of the exercise, you have to keep the quality of the pace. The horse should be up in front of you in the wither and you\u2019re getting sucked into the seat. There\u2019s a big difference between being up from the underside of the neck and being up over the wither.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnhance the rhythm with half halts before the change. You have to do your homework and set yourself up for success. Because whatever you program into them, you have to re-program if there\u2019s mistakes. Rather than just trying to get a change, work on fixing the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayden shared the process of teaching flying changes with Dallas: \u201cLeonie got us to approach it quite differently to the work we did with F\u00fcrst Friedrich because she is a lot less established at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to manipulate her body much more to allow her to change correctly. We use a lot of\u00a0counter canter on the 20metre circle and then add travers to the mix.\u00a0 So she is essentially bending in the opposite direction to her canter lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce she is reliably straight through her body then the changes just happen. But if I allow her to lean into my leg or become crooked through her shoulders, it doesn’t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perfecting the half halt was also a feature of his lessons with Leonie:\u00a0\u201cWe did a lot of work to make sure that when I ask for a half halt,\u00a0the horses don’t compromise their frame and the activity of their legs.\u00a0 Quite often the horse thinks the half halt is just slowing down, or even just stopping. But to get them to keep the activity and also maintain the same softness through their body is a little more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonie reflects on this at the forum: \u201cJo Hinnemann always used to say, \u2018If you\u2019re losing the quality of the paces in the movement you\u2019re doing something wrong.\u2019 The horse should change positively with work. They need to keep working from behind without shutting them from the front of the withers, they must stay open and engaged from the hindquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

This brought the forum to a close and rather than feeling weighed down by so many concepts, I left feeling positive and ready to approach riding in a more tactful way. Leonie has been a breath of fresh air on the Queensland dressage scene and I can only hope the clinics will be opened up so the rest of us may benefit from her teaching.<\/p>\n

Getting to know Leonie\u2026<\/h1>\n

Growing up in the horsy neighborhood of Southlands in Vancouver, Canada Leonie was able to indulge in several disciplines: \u201cI went to pony club and had to do western, jumping and the whole works, which gave me a really good base because you get a good feel for a horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dressage eventually became her concentration and she enjoyed numerous victories as a young rider, including being a member of the gold medal winning team at the North American Young Riders\u2019 Championships in 1981 and at just 15.<\/p>\n

At 18 Leonie became restless with the dressage scene in Canada: \u201cI grew up there and I had the same issues and problems that you guys are having. So I was living off clinicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJo Hinnemann was the coach for Canada when I was a young rider and he came for a clinic and I went, \u2018Wow this is it, this is for me.\u2019 I felt like I was on the right track and I\u2019d been to a lot of clinicians and tried lots of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1984 she made a life changing decision to train in Germany at Hinnemann\u2019s barn. Leonie summarises her trip: \u201cI planned to stay for two years, then bought my mare and went to the Olympics. I just had to slog it out. I was a working student and I didn\u2019t have the ability to pay for it. So it was a long haul and I sometimes think, \u2018Wow, you know, she managed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The combination debuted in their first season of Grand Prix, not only in a foreign country but also with the likes of Reiner Klimke in the class. They went on to become a member of the Canadian team at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as well as the World Championships in 1994.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an extraordinary feat and certainly rare for an 18-year-old to buy a three-year-old horse and, eight years later, take that same horse to the Olympics in dressage: \u201cI think back now and I\u2019m like oh I was so lucky because usually they go lame or something goes wrong, but I think I made it happen because it was my only shot, and there certainly wasn\u2019t going to be a second chance there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Leonie, Jo and Gilbona<\/em><\/p>\n

Leonie remembers the exceptional Oldenburg mare, Gilbona, and their time together: \u201cI mean she was very difficult, she was very full on, very hypersensitive and non-functional as a young horse. So it was a journey with that horse and she taught me so much. I wish I had her now because I think I could have really done her more justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was amazing how she helped me because a lot of it was self learning. I didn\u2019t have someone standing there ever day giving me a lesson. I had to really get my head around concepts and things and ask why isn\u2019t it working? How can I change my riding? What am I doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Leonie and the stallion Rohdiamant from the famous Vorwerk stud<\/em><\/p>\n

During this time Leonie was also given the opportunity to train several notable horses including Rohdiamant, Relevant and Inspekteur, as well as Fosbury who she rode to win the 1992 German National Championships for young horses.<\/p>\n

Leonie has now been living in Germany for over 30 years and operates a training facility and breeding station with her partner Volker Dusche in Gest\u00fct M\u00fchlenort located centrally, close to Hamburg, Hannover and Bremen.<\/p>\n

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Since 2006, Australian Development Squad rider Jenny Gehrke has trained regularly at Leonie\u2019s barn. But in 2008 she sat down with another one of Queensland\u2019s competitive riders, Kate Wilson, to discuss how they could bring the German training experience to them:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a conference and said, \u2018Well if it costs us $10,000 to go to Germany for two weeks aren\u2019t we better to spend that $10,000 and get Leonie here for two weeks?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try not to think about it as a per lesson cost. Not because it\u2019s too disturbing, but because it\u2019s not about the cost of a coach per hour, it\u2019s about having days with her and immersing yourself in her system which is really on the German training scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it\u2019s the work-shopping with each other and the discussion of our lessons and if you just say the whole experience cost me a couple of thousand dollars, it\u2019s money well spent. You wouldn\u2019t get that kind of experience on a short trip to Germany because you\u2019re not on your own horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since introducing the clinics to Australia, instead of going to Germany for a refresher, Jenny has been concentrating on what she calls \u2018dressage nut camp\u2019: \u201cLeonie comes into Australia for three or four days, flies out to New Zealand for ten days, then comes back to Australia for three or four days.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe get two clinics each time she comes, so we get to go and flounder a little bit, and then she comes back and says yes or no, and tells you if you\u2019re on the right way. She comes twice a year so we actually get four clinics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than opening the clinic up to all Queensland riders, the group focuses on a few people who have a few horses each. Jenny said: \u201cQuite a few of us are coaches as well so we\u2019re able to pass on what we\u2019ve learnt to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Results at the Australian Dressage Championships over the last three years show a vast improvement in Queensland riders. When I look closer at Leonie\u2019s Australian based students I find these are the same names featuring in the championship titles; Jenny Gehrke, Jayden Brown, Nicole Tough, Victoria Welch and Gary Lung. So could Leonie be their secret weapon?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Gary Lung said: \u201cI certainly think she\u2019s adding to Queensland dressage. I mean we had the likes of people like Tor Van Den Berge coming in to set the standard and we\u2019ve gone, \u2018We\u2019re going to have to lift our game.\u2019 So the standard in Queensland is just getting higher and higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think us as riders, we\u2019re starting to look at resources like Leonie with skills and experience to help us develop, and all of us who\u2019ve had lessons with her who are coaches, will pass on what we\u2019ve learnt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny is impressed with Leonie\u2019s love of teaching: \u201cShe\u2019s very passionate about communicating a message across to you, it\u2019s amazing. We\u2019ve had Leonie teach 12 lessons, and then come inside and we\u2019ll hand her a glass of wine, and I\u2019ll be sitting down in another section of the house watching a video of my lessons from the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019ll come and join me and she\u2019ll end up sitting there for three hours watching people\u2019s lessons with them and talking about it. She\u2019s not like other guys who come from overseas and they\u2019re like, I have another life I don\u2019t want to talk about horses, she does. She likes talking about horses, and she likes doing other things as well, but you know she\u2019s really, really passionate about it, and I find that so refreshing for someone who\u2019s done the slogs in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, 12 hour days, seven days a week for 20 years. She\u2019s done the slogging and she\u2019s still passionate about it and I think she really enjoys that about us, that we\u2019re riding for the right reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I sat down with Leonie to get her view on the Australian dressage scene:<\/p>\n

Have the riders improved since your first visit in 2008?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely. Now there\u2019s really an understanding of the concept of training with their horses from some sort of a base. They\u2019ve established a strong basis of communication and connection with their horses. They\u2019re also understanding what a half halt is now, understanding when the horse is in front of the leg, the frame, you know the whole base scale and that\u2019s just moved them on up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019re a lot of advanced riders here, but they were riding in a bit of a hole and they\u2019ve not been able to move on and improve their scores and improve their horses so it\u2019s been about making that happen and that\u2019s happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has it mostly been about improving the basics?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWell people try to push up the levels too quickly. They\u2019re trying to get to advanced, just for the sake of getting to advanced, without understanding the depth of the basics. You have to know about keeping a rhythm, and know what proper collected trot is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t get collection without riding from the base into the contact, and that base is what makes the rest of it all build up like a pyramid, but you have to have the foundation. If the foundation is bad, the building falls down. If the horse has a lot of talent, it can compensate up to a certain level, but if a horse learns a flying change it\u2019s not just about doing a flying change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about doing one for a 9, and you only do that by enhancing the canter, getting the horse more through gymnastically, making his muscles react better. It\u2019s like with any athlete, they all know how to do their sport, but they only get better by doing cross training. It\u2019s also about understanding their biomechanics and their physical limits, then working on expanding them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How does this compare to the work you do with your German students?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same problems in Germany. There\u2019s just a lot more riders there. It depends how you want to address the problems as a rider, and what your personal interest is. I have a lot of riders who come to me because they take a personal interest in delving into it more, and having the horse so they don\u2019t just have to push harder or kick harder, they want to have the horses reacting off signals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come to me because it\u2019s a different way of teaching, it\u2019s more of an understanding of the horse. I think more about how I\u2019m communicating with the horse, and it\u2019s usually not a horse problem, it\u2019s usually a rider problem. So if I can make a rider aware of what they\u2019re actually wanting to happen, then they can understand why these things aren\u2019t happening, and then they can start to change things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in Australia there\u2019s actually a lot more riders who take care of working on physio and those sorts of things. Where as in Germany it\u2019s like, \u2018well get on with it\u2019, so both have advantages and disadvantages. If you can get someone who works on those sorts of details, and get them to help you, that can also help. There are some extremely talented riders over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

How important do you think it is for riders to train in Germany?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on where you end up. Just going to train in Germany is not what it\u2019s all about. There\u2019re a lot of bad trainers in Germany, just as there are a lot of bad riders in Germany. Then we have a lot of good trainers and good riders as well. Some people just want to go and have someone say, \u2018Yep cool, do this-and-that and you\u2019re riding\u2019. But it\u2019s everybody\u2019s own personal journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example if you do it like Jayden, he came to us for a year and we really immersed him into the system. It was just getting him riding and really understanding the concepts over that year, and explaining why we start what we\u2019re doing with a four-year-old, how that\u2019s going to help him when he is three years, four years down the road, trying to teach him to do a canter pirouette.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, you have a journey, you have to plan it in your head for the long term. That\u2019s just my system. But you can just go over to Germany and ride a bunch of school horses and ride around thinking you\u2019re important, but the riding involves so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really upstairs, it\u2019s in your head. It\u2019s really where you\u2019re at, and where you\u2019re centered, and then taking a deep breath. It\u2019s taking the emotion out of your riding and finding the center of your balance so you\u2019re really having that horse go forward with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What drives you to succeed in such a challenging sport?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a passion and I can\u2019t help myself. I have such a passion for trying to have people understand their horses better. I ride because I love horses. It\u2019s not just a job for me. I\u2019m very passionate and when I see the way everyone rode today it makes me so proud of what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo show these people there\u2019s no spur marks on these horses, they\u2019re not pulling on their mouths, they\u2019re concentrated, you can see the horse is clicking in this difficult situation and that\u2019s what it should be like. We\u2019re trying to make things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has a calling I guess and this is mine, to connect horses with their riders. The horse is always trying to tell you something, and I just say, well that\u2019s the way it is. You work through it and maybe it\u2019s just that way, it\u2019s like people, they\u2019re not all perfect, and you\u2019re trying to train an animal and make it perfectly square, left and right, and most people are completely one sided, so then they\u2019re doing their horse an injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leonie and Orion in passage<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s just making them aware of what they\u2019re doing, and it doesn\u2019t mean that they shouldn\u2019t be riding, it\u2019s just, you know, awareness is what triggers your brain and puts you into the thought process. Then they can think about their own style, and how they\u2019re reacting, and think about what\u2019s happening. I think it just makes the world more of a comfortable place for people and their horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you have to challenge them, and sometimes they get a smack or whatever, but it\u2019s putting it into the realm, and not punishing a horse who doesn\u2019t understand. That\u2019s very important, you don\u2019t need to punish them, you correct them. But doing it in a certain way, with the intensity necessary, and then immediately after the correction, you let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What do you still want to achieve in dressage?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I can. I just enjoy moving the young horses along, it\u2019s very rewarding. Perhaps in the future, when my own personal riding career goes down the tubes, which happens to all of us, going on to be a National coach for my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m still not willing to take that commitment because I enjoy riding so much myself. But helping people who want to maybe look at their training from a different angle, not just doing what everybody else does and making the technical picture happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I find very interesting and very rewarding. It\u2019s just been amazing working with this group of riders here, because it\u2019s people who are not doing anything wrong, but it\u2019s just trying to develop them and take them round the corner once and say, \u2018Look over here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all good riders but let\u2019s just look over here, maybe there\u2019s something that she\u2019s missing. Take that aspect into it, add an aspect and then get them creating their own stuff. It\u2019s not me actually telling them, \u2018You\u2019re doing it wrong, do it this way\u2019. It\u2019s just me throwing something at them and saying, \u2018Why don\u2019t you try that?\u2019 And they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh\u2019, and I go away and they play with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need that time to flounder, and if they can feel things and make things happen themselves it makes them better riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cool thing is that some of those people are coaches and are putting that into their own students. That for me is a very rich compliment because that\u2019s your own system and they\u2019re opening on themselves and moving on, that\u2019s a huge compliment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did you learn from your time with Johann Hinnemann?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat it doesn\u2019t happen overnight it takes years. I was very fortunate because a lot of times people go to Germany for a year or half a year and think, \u2018Okay I\u2019ve gone to Germany I\u2019ve done all that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to take a lot of horses from very green or very young up to the advanced levels and they all have difficulties, but it\u2019s actually teaching them to be functional good competitors and getting them out in the ring up to advanced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately once we start connecting them into Grand Prix, usually they get sold. That\u2019s just what happens it\u2019s my job. I don\u2019t have an independent sponsor, so I don\u2019t have any of those options.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leonie and Orion<\/em><\/p>\n

How often do you get lessons?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI work with Heike Kemmer a lot. I will go over to her place once a week and help her out by being her eyes on the ground, and if I have a horse, I\u2019m getting prepared for a test I\u2019ll drive over and she\u2019ll help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a regular coach in that sense so I sort of have to coach myself. I have a mirror which I use a lot but I\u2019ve always, even at Hinnemann\u2019s, I had to help myself a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut certainly your feeling sometimes does get off a little bit on the wrong track so you do need someone every now and then to have a look. Working with Heike, she works at an extremely high level, so it just keeps you tuned in and aware and gives you a little bit of a reminder.<\/p>\n

What was it like coaching Heike at Beijing?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an amazing experience. But it\u2019s not like you\u2019re coaching, it\u2019s just about being their eyes on the ground and if the riders are getting to the point, I mean they\u2019re not nervous they\u2019re good competitors, it\u2019s just that if you\u2019re thinking the horse is nagging you at one little spot you have to say, \u2018You know what, it\u2019s irrelevant. Just leave it alone.\u2019 It\u2019s all good because you know each other well enough to say that. But it was an amazing experience. Dealing with the weather and the whole situation was cool, it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s very odd. Australia currently doesn’t have a dressage coach, and yet there are a number of very talented, experienced trainers, who have competed successfully themselves and produced successful students, that EA continues to ignore and who end up teaching\u00a0those \u00a0who are prepared to go to the expense and work of organising the clinics. Why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":38593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-dressage"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38570"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38597,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38570\/revisions\/38597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}