Ann Guptill's 2010 Olympic Dream Trip Journal

Wednesday, June 30
After our flight was delayed from Monday night to Tuesday morning, we spent a wonderful time at Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff's stable Schafhof today.

Ann Kathrin is a 1988 German gold medallist and daughter of Liselotte Linsenhof, a multiple Olympic medallist and wife of Klaus Martin Rath, trainer at the facility and father of Matthias Rath, current German team member. We saw everything from just started 3 year olds to Matthias' Grand Prix horses, including Ann Kathrin's daughter's ponies :)
Everyone- Matthias, Klaus-Martin, Ann Kathrin and their staff were very welcoming. The facility itself is a beautiful example of architecture and landscaping. The people, facility and horses are world class.  An important impression, no one rode w/o an eye on the ground. I asked each of the USDF YRs to give a word to describe what impressed them most of the day. They wrote that in their journal on the way to Munster. We then took those words and discussed how they fit in the training scale. Included were transitions, energy, relaxation, and harmony.

We will go to Michael Klimke tomorrow, Ingrid Klimke on Friday. Annie (Morris) is a great co-pilot. We had dinner in old town Munster, walking distance from the hotel we will be at for 3 nights.  We have a very fun and packed schedule, full of great horses & trainers.

Thursday, July 1
We spent the morning at Michael Klimke's stable, son of the legendary Reiner Klimke. The depth of knowledge of trainers here is immense. We have seen generations who have grown up in this culture and heritage, immersed in the knowledge of the training scale, and the discipline of applying it in daily work.

We were happy to meet Jim Koford there. Jim is an American working there now and he gave us the stable tour and kept us involved in discussions w/all the horses in training sessions. There were a variety of breeds; levels M to S, all have started in hand work for GP preparation. After 4 hours of watching the work we took Jim to lunch, as Michael had to go to the office and could not join us.  It was great to listen to an American working in Germany, he went last year on a TDF Anne Ramsay grant, and is back this year to work. After lunch we drove up to the state stud at Warendorf and the Olympic Training center. It was a quiet day there, a beautiful facility to tour, and we were able to watch the 12-horse stallion quadrille in a practice session!  To see the 12 stallions working in a group was amazing!

Friday, July 2
Today we were struck again by the fact that over here we see not only layers of knowledge about training but also generations of knowledge about horse breeding. This morning we went to the stable of Ingrid Klimke, daughter of Reiner Klimke and Olympic medallist in eventing plus a GP dressage competitor. She showed us pictures of her father and spoke of how far the breeding of sport horses has come since he was first competing. She also was very open and welcoming, and gave us a running commentary on the lesson she taught, the warm up her riders did on the stallions and watched her school a stallion. She also had examples of how to use the cavalettis in training--very fun.

All of the trainers spent a great amount of time walking the horse before and after work; fitness is more of a focus than we often see in the states. Several of the stables have galloping tracks that are used for conditioning, plus the horses go on treadmill in the afternoon after working in the dressage ring in the a.m. Often they have a gallop on the track before going to the dressage session :)
In the afternoon we went to Helen Langehanenberg's stable and saw a 3 year old with unbelievable gaits, plus got to watch her work in person the mare she used for the photos in her recent Dressage Today article, "The Submissive Horse". Helen’s horses are clearly well on her aids. After her training sessions, Helen graciously gave us a tour of the stables and grounds. This stable is very large with two indoor arenas, plus a nice outdoor. It did not have a galloping track but did have an exerciser.

Tomorrow morning we will drive north a couple of hours to spend Sat/Sun watching a horse show. TDF has arranged for us to get free tickets from the organizer and to meet with one of the judges over the weekend.  Everyone we have met has been very helpful and welcoming :)

Saturday, July 3
Had a good drive up here to Langenfeld today. We met Peter Fuss, the show organizer, this afternoon along with Christoph Hess. We stood and talked to them both during the hold for the thunder & lightening (!) Interesting to find out that Peter is on the test writing committee as a show manager, to let the judges know which tests are ridden most, the time required to run the tests, etc. We talked a bit about the training we had seen, where everyone was from, their riding backgrounds, differences between shows here and at home, etc. Again, they were most helpful and welcoming. We saw Christoph again on the way out and he will see us again tomorrow. Our group watched the FEI YR, FEI Pony, and GP warm-ups, a lot of the YR class and all of the GP. They are developing a good eye. Had a blast watching the vaulting and jumping as well! The ponies were awesome! Better quality than we see at home, wonderful gaits, great seats on their riders! Tomorrow we will watch Kurs and Rider Tests plus GP special before heading down the road again.

Sunday, July 4
Today we watched the Junior Rider Test, very interesting and Chrisptoph Hess was one of the judges, plus one other international judge and Nicole Uphoff. Nicole is the sponsor of this Jugend Cup series. The top 8 juniors rode together as a group on ponies & horses, the top 8 from the region, nose to tail, walk/trot, and changes of direction. They then cantered individually. 400 riders contested the qualifiers, 40 made the cut for this regional final; the top 8 of those 40 were determined yesterday and had their ride-off today. In the class were riders ranging from 8 years old to 15. The 15 year old won with a 9.5, and an 8 year old was second with a 9.0!
Afterwards, the Judges gives each rider an individual critique, with very constructive comments about seat & position.
We also watched the regional pony finals, like a materiale class, 3 ponies in the ring together showing all gaits, plus stretching, then the tack is stripped. We had many favorites we wanted to bring home :) Last we watched the Grand Prix Special, regional Rheinische Meisterschaften, and picked the winner. It was fun to watch the class and listen to the scores. Our German improves each day!

Monday & Tuesday, July 5-6
Fabulous horses to watch at Balkenhol’s these past two days! We were happy to be able to visit with Guenter Seidel who is on the mend from a riding accident last month.  Again, there were horses of all types and ages from just starting to Anabel’s winner of the Median Cup (for young Grand Prix horses) last year!

So nice to see so many FEI horses worked in the snaffle, and extremely generous of these trainers to allow us to watch their work and take time out of their days to spend with us.

We enjoyed the many different types of horses at Balkenhol’s. Judith, Anabel and Klaus were very helpful to us. It is clear that the qualities of the Training Scale are adhered to in every ride.  New footing had just been installed in the indoor and the installer had come to see how it was working out. At the end of the 2nd day before sending us on our way Klaus took time to give us a tour of his stables. In addition to the stabled horses in training we saw the babies turned out. All of the top trainers are very knowledgeable of the breeding of the horses they ride and many have reproduced lines they like for future dressage horses.

Wednesday, July 7
Today we spent at Hubertus Schmidt's and Herr Schmidt is a master at half pass. I have never seen so may engaged half passes on one day! The connection he & his riders have is inspiring! To watch the horses change in the time from warm up to work and the exact system with which he rides and expects his riders to use was truly educational. He also rides and trains a variety of horses, many types and many breeds.

The biggest impression made on me by all trainers was their exact adherence to the training scale, systematic approach to training no matter the level or type of horse or rider and the culture and heritage that surrounds and supports the sport in this country.
The drive down through the countryside was beautiful as well. It is very green here, the rolling hills with clusters of clay roofed homes & barns creates a colorful backdrop to the "green" new wind energy through out the land. We saw more windmills than I have ever seen before in this past week!
Off to JFK tomorrow am.