{"id":9481,"date":"2012-10-23T14:01:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T03:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=9481"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:29:15","slug":"talking-dressage-with-matthew-dowsley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2012\/10\/talking-dressage-with-matthew-dowsley\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Dressage with Matthew Dowsley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For most spectators there\u2019s a moment in time when a rider passes by and grasps your full attention. It may be the straightness of their back, the softness of their hands or the seemingly easy way they sit to an elevated extension. One rider who possess all of these traits is Matthew Dowsley and I can only wonder how many riders he\u2019s inspired to pursue Dressage in the hope they could one day achieve similar heights.<\/p>\n

Matthew\u2019s interest in horses was sparked early in life by growing up at his parents riding school in the Blue Mountains. Beginning as a five year old he helped with many of the 37 horses: \u201cWe jumped and barrel raced. It was fun and a great way to start riding. We had five kids in our family. They were probably a bit more talented than me, but I stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time Matthew was 14 he knew Dressage was for him: \u201cI started doing some gymkhana and jumping events. Then I saw Dressage in the magazines and it was pretty small here then. But I saw Judy Dierks riding around and it was so elegant and I thought, I want to do that. And you can always learn more, everyday you learn something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite his parents being in the horse business they were never competitive riders themselves: \u201cThey\u2019re really proud of what I\u2019ve done, but I think they see how much work I put into it, so they kind of expected me to be successful in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together the family also ran a hairdressing business that imported and exported salon equipment: \u201cMy elder brothers and sister were right into that, but I was always just obsessed with the horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew formed the foundations of his training with Judy and Clemens Dierks where he rode for a few years from the age of 16. It wasn\u2019t until 1997 that he was given the opportunity to train in Germany: \u201cI\u2019d been to buy horses there but my first riding experience was when I went over with Argentille Gullit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gullit was purchased by Brian Silvia of Val D\u2019Argent Warmblood Stud as a three year old colt from The Netherlands. The Dierks helped Matthew produce the horse and he went on to win State and National titles from novice through to Grand Prix. They were then selected to train and compete in Europe for three months. The start of his European tour saw Matthew train with the late Herbert Rehbein: \u201cI was really lucky to be given that opportunity just before he died. He didn\u2019t speak a lot of English but what he did say I really learnt a lot from and watching the good riders. Just seeing the difference in what they ask of the horses, you don\u2019t see that here. It was a great experience.\u201d It was at this stable that Matthew saw legendary horses such as Donnerhall and Walk on Top being trained on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

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Despite many riders having their share of nightmarish tales from foreign training barns, Matthew didn\u2019t find his first German experience daunting: \u201cYou just feel like you\u2019re in your element because you\u2019ve worked the whole time towards that and then when you get given that opportunity it\u2019s just fabulous. I never went overseas and just worked. I was always under the impression that you make horses a little bit here in Australia, and then when you go over there with a horse you learn a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many young riders go to Germany to work, Matthew believes going over to campaign a horse provides a more valuable learning experience: \u201cI think it\u2019s totally different to my generation, we all banged around here and made the horses and then we\u2019d go over there for the competitions. But I think now the next generation is different. I\u2019ve had a few kids here that showed a bit of talent and they\u2019ve gone, straight to Europe. They haven\u2019t even got a horse. I think gee they\u2019re game, but people grow up a lot quicker these days. I wouldn\u2019t have had the confidence to do that. It\u2019s good if they can stick it out and they find a good trainer who can help them. But they\u2019ve got to work. It\u2019s not like here where you slop around and do a few stables, you\u2019ve got to work a lot harder. It is good though, it\u2019s good to be where the sport is. You know, here it\u2019s nice and it\u2019s a lovely pastime but they\u2019re very serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1998 Matthew and Gullit were selected to tour Germany again, this time vying for selection for the World Equestrian Games in Rome. Unfortunately they were named as the reserve combination for the WEG team. Gullit was sold soon after to a client of Carl Hester\u2019s and then represented Great Britain at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Cinderella began the next chapter in Matthew\u2019s riding career and is still remembered as Australia\u2019s favourite Dressage mare. Purchased by Claudia Harper in 2000 from the Hanoverian Elite Auction in Verden and eventually campaigned by Matthew. Due to her fiery nature, the combination made an impression on Dressage enthusiasts all over the world: \u201cShe had such, not just expression, but personality. She was a naughty little thing and we trained her here and Bimbo used to say to me, \u2018I don\u2019t understand why you don\u2019t win everything with that horse.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Well she\u2019s a little bit different when you take her to a competition.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the beginning she was tricky to train but once she got the general idea of what we wanted when she was coming towards Prix St George she was great. She knew the Grand Prix work basically then. But if it didn\u2019t suit her then she didn\u2019t want to do it on the day. She\u2019d squeal and run away and pig root and leap through the air. I used to say this to Ulla and she said, \u2018Well you must get really nervous.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Well I do because I know what\u2019s going to happen!\u2019 But she said, \u2018Just get on with it, go to the competition and ride her like you do at home.\u2019 And then she saw and she said, \u2018Oh my god she is difficult isn\u2019t she\u2019. Then we started to put the pressure on each day in the training for the competitions. We\u2019d train her and then do some test movements and then rode the test everyday until I think she just got a bit sick of being naughty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sad end that came to Cinderella\u2019s dressage career has been well documented. She was humanely put down in July 2007 after the tumor vets hoped to have removed from her right eye continued to grow and spread. But Matthew no longer wonders what could have been: \u201cI mean you can look into it like that, but then also I\u2019ve had a lot of talented horses that haven\u2019t gotten half way up the levels. You can always sit back and wonder, but I just think how many people had an opportunity to do what I got to do with that horse? And it was just lucky you know the owner just loved the sport, loved the horse. I remember her saying to me, \u2018If that horse gets to Grand Prix I\u2019ll send you to Germany\u2019. And I said, \u2018Can\u2019t we go now\u2019 She said, \u2018No if it gets to Grand Prix we\u2019ll go\u2019 and she stuck to the bargain and it was wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew still hasn\u2019t come across a horse to fill Cinderella\u2019s shoes: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to compare any horse to one you\u2019ve done something like that on. I mean, it was a fairy tale. We went to competitions in Europe and I remember being at a competition in Austria when the crowd screamed and yelled after my Kur. She was winning and my partner Rodney and I just looked at each other and went, \u2018They must think we\u2019re Austrian not Australian\u2019. But they really embraced us and I\u2019d think how can someone do that from so far away? She was winning with 73% or something and I was just elated. But there were about two horses to go and then up in the secretary\u2019s office they were all panicking because they didn\u2019t have an Australian anthem! And I thought don\u2019t put on God Save the Queen \u2019cause that\u2019s not our bloody anthem. In the end a Russian girl beat me, but it was still fabulous. In Germany too they were really good. If they see you really trying and you get some good work and if you do the right thing by them, they hold you in high regard. Because they all know how hard it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew cites his time in Europe with Cinderella as the most influential period in his Dressage career: \u201cClaudia was good enough to give me the opportunity to train with Siegfried \u2018Bimbo\u2019 Peilicke and it really helped me produce Cinderella here. But then the intense training I had with Ulla, every day, was just fabulous. It was just the best thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life. Sometimes it was a little bit hard but you learn and you get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently based in South Maroota on 25 acres Matthew is looking to relocate closer to Sydney and onto a smaller property. It\u2019s here Matthew is able to indulge his two loves of the sport – training and coaching: \u201cI love training the horses everyday, just chipping away at it. Even now just coming out every morning and helping Rodney we just gradually bring the horses along from three year olds and take them up to the higher levels. It\u2019s lovely to see them be produced. Sure you have bad days but you get through it.\u201d
\nMatthew is 44 years old now and is the first to admit his routine isn\u2019t as strict as it once was: \u201cI come out…a lot later than the others\u201d, he laughs. \u201cI say I\u2019m old now, I\u2019ve done my time, I\u2019m not getting out here at 7 in the morning anymore. Rodney starts at some ungodly hour, like 6.30 riding horses before he goes to work. I\u2019ll come out at 8 at the earliest, but not very often. Sometimes I eat breakfast out here and help Rodney, then I\u2019ll ride a few and then teach a little bit. I usually finish the horse work by 2 o\u2019clock, then I have a break and then sometimes I might teach after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One rider who demonstrates the benefits of Matthew\u2019s training is his partner Rodney Martin, a former hack rider who is now one of the most competitive dressage riders in Australia: \u201cI teach Rodney everyday, he has to put up with it. He used to yell and scream at me, but now he\u2019s got a very nice young horse, Falstermeyer, we bought him as a baby when I bought San Jose and he\u2019s doing very well. He\u2019s a six year old gelding, and he\u2019s a very big horse, he\u2019s nearly 18 hands and we\u2019ve taken our time with him so he\u2019s just done exceptionally well. He\u2019s got over 70% scores in novice and now we\u2019ll start some elementary to see if we can get him into Nationals for both levels. Then we\u2019ve got to compete against each other though, which is a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new face at the Dowsley barn is 25 year old Brett Davey. Brett is an accomplished Dressage rider but has since joined the eventing circuit with much success: \u201cBrett just rides a few horses then he goes off and rides some for other people. He\u2019s the first rider I\u2019ve had working for me here, but I did have a very good German boy, Andreas Schoeffner, for a while, who was a very good friend of ours, but I was a bit spoilt with him. He was a bereiter so he helped me and gave me lessons. He knew a little bit with the piaffe, passage and he did his training with Wolfram Wittig who trains Isabell (Werth). We used to work together a little bit in Europe and he became such a good friend he would come over for holidays, and then he wanted to come out for a few months this year. He helped me and then he left and I thought, \u2018look at all these horses, I can\u2019t ride them all\u2019 and Brett was looking for work, so I thought well we\u2019ll try this. But I usually ride five, Brett will ride three or four and Rodney rides a few. We have 12 horses in full work at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the backround of my interview with Matthew was Brett riding the 13 year old Lusitano Stallion, Que Craque. \u2018Q.C\u2019 has been at Matthews for a few months and is owned by Katharine Howard-Olsen. Matthew kept an eye on Brett and provided some valuable insights into his training: \u201cRide him a little bit more forward, you can think a little bit cadence but not too slow. He\u2019s got to come more from behind and more over the back. When he blocks against your hand, flex him and push him through with your inside leg. Now get his neck higher, the higher he sits up and the lower the hind legs come under, the more you bring him into collection. He can\u2019t go around hanging down, he\u2019s got to start carrying himself and that\u2019s where you ride forward and back so many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew informs me: \u201cUsually I ride this horse but it\u2019s good for Brett to feel, and it\u2019s good for the horse to have someone different on him. That way there\u2019s not so much pressure on them everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This stallion looks like a mirage that\u2019s been conjured straight from a fairy tale and with a talented rider like Brett in the saddle, showcasing this horse\u2019s beautiful freedom in the shoulder, I found it difficult to concentrate on questioning Matthew. I quickly recovered and enquired about Matthew\u2019s enjoyment of teaching: \u201cI\u2019ve been coaching for years and I do enjoy helping people more when the horses live here, because I get to see them more often. Brett only started yesterday, but he\u2019s got a really good feel and he\u2019s already riding better today. But then you\u2019ve got the girls who, which fair enough they can\u2019t afford it, only come once a week. In Europe it\u2019s not like that. You go somewhere and you train everyday, or someone oversees you so you don\u2019t get into a bad habit. That\u2019s a great way to do it. Here it\u2019s hard we\u2019ve got all these big distances to cover and someone will get a lesson once a week, or once a fortnight, and half the lesson you\u2019re just correcting what you corrected the week before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re seamlessly interrupted again with more words of wisdom from Matthew imparted onto Brett: \u201cTo get him to the next step in his collection, you\u2019ve got to get the feeling from medium trot, and then into a passage that he closes more and keeps the same tempo. When you make the contact secure, it\u2019s easier for him. You have to keep the contact and push him uphill. You give when you have a good feeling, not when everything\u2019s going wrong. If you have no contact, you have no communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

This led us to discuss the common problem Matthew finds when training riders: \u201cJust basic throughness. They make them round, but there\u2019s a long, long way from the head to the hind legs. People have got to remember that a Dressage horse is ridden from the hind legs. You know, you don\u2019t need the best moving horse, if you ride it well, and it accepts the training, and it\u2019s sound enough, you can make something pretty extravagant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew reflects on the trend to purchase horses with off-the-ground movement: \u201cSome of the big moving horses are really hard to collect. The more normal moving ones are usually a little naturally quicker in the hind legs, which is good. Sometimes the ones with the extravagant movement, the more you close them the slower they get, they\u2019re harder to put together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rhythm of Matthew\u2019s horses is often admired and considered the standout trait of his training: \u201cI like them to swing which Bimbo really instilled in me, you just didn\u2019t go more than 10 metres without making a transition within the pace. You don\u2019t just swan around like a washing machine. You\u2019ve got to keep making differences and that\u2019s how you develop the way they move. When they\u2019re on the hind legs that much, they go forwards, they come back, they go left, they go right and its easy then. You teach them to go through the body and then they\u2019re like rubber. As long as when you ask them to collect they understand the hind legs keep going, a lot of people don\u2019t understand that. They think collection means go slow but the hind legs must be active.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inspiring watching Matthew ride and when he marches his five year old stallion, San Jose, into the arena I know it\u2019s going to be good: \u201cI bought him as a two year old and his mother is a Rubinstein\/Weltmeyer mare bred by Silvia Johannsen in Germany, who\u2019s a very dear friend of mine. He\u2019s competing novice\/elementary averaging a 75% in novice and he scored 75% in his first elementary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Matthew begins all his training sessions with a lot of walking: \u201cThey\u2019re stabled so much, so I really like to walk them a lot before I start, and do a little renvers and travers before I trot.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to find a weakness in any of San Jose\u2019s paces; he has a huge over-track in walk, a ground covering suspended trot and an uphill engaged canter: \u201cI only got him because he didn\u2019t trot like this in Germany. Silvia told me when he was going into quarantine the vet looked at the horse and the papers with his breeding and couldn\u2019t believe we were sending him to Australia. She said he should be kept in Germany for the Stallion licensing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next into the arena was Broadstone Dramatik, owned by Freida Macklin and Roz Tippet from Perth. He was originally purchased in the UK and is now an 11 year old small tour horse. Broadstone Dramatik has been at Matthew\u2019s for almost a year working toward the Grand Prix with Roz flying over once a month for a lesson.<\/p>\n

Matthew starts riding in walk with different suppling exercises, travers, shoulder-in, then straight into a collected frame. This horse has a powerful build and a nice rhythmical trot. He rides shoulder fore in canter with lots of walk breaks: \u201cHow you begin depends on the horse, they will always tell you. If they want to throw their heads down low then I\u2019ll keep them up, but if they want to hold themselves up then I\u2019ll take them down low.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the horse begins with a somewhat ordinary trot, he\u2019s soon flicking his legs in the air as good as the next import. When Matthew picks him up he moves into another gear and the work is uphill with a lovely suspension. Constantly Matthew asks the horses for more and never accepts less than what he knows the horse can give.<\/p>\n

Seeing Matthew cruise through the FEI work it\u2019s easy to see where his competition preference lies: \u201cI love the young horse shows, but it\u2019s not the be-all-and-end-all for me. I mean, you can crank your horse up so many gears, but then usually you don\u2019t have anything left when it gets to the higher levels. I think it\u2019s nice here because they don\u2019t wind them up so much. The young horse shows are usually quite glamorous and the owners get to see their horse doing something quite nice. The show in Melbourne is run fabulously and the CDI young horse shows are great fun, but you know it\u2019s not my thing. I love bringing on the young ones and I love training them and showing them, but more I like to bring on the higher level ones. I\u2019d like to get another horse to a high level, but I\u2019m fussy. I don\u2019t want to go there with a normal one. I\u2019d like something that you really can work with and make it into something that they\u2019ll give you the marks for. Because it\u2019s hard, there\u2019s no point going if you\u2019re only going to get 62 or 64%, that\u2019s nothing in Europe, there\u2019s a million of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best thing about dressage is you can never be too old, well at some point you will be, but considering 67 year old Japanese rider, Hiroshi Hoketsu, made the last Olympics I think Matthew still has a couple of decades to find another Cinderella.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  For most spectators there\u2019s a moment in time when a rider passes by and grasps your full attention. It may be the straightness of their back, the softness of their hands or the seemingly easy way they sit to an elevated extension. One rider who possess all of these traits is Matthew Dowsley and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9482,"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":[4],"tags":[20,914],"class_list":["post-9481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-dressage-training","tag-matthew-dowsley"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17418,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions\/17418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}