Dressage judge and educator Christoph Hess returned to the 2013 Melbourne International Three Day Event to be President of the Ground Jury but he also conducted one of his popular masterclasses. THM was there to witness one special interaction:
Going into the latest version of the Christoph Hess travelling masterclass, I must confess I was wondering if I would find anything new to write about, but relax, the guy is an endless fount of knowledge and insights, and thanks to clever programming by the organisers, it ended up being the best masterclass EVER…
Christoph Hess is about the most enthusiastic person I have ever met, and he was delighted that event director, Ute Raabe, had provided him with three such different horse/rider combinations: one of them London para gold medallists, Joann Formosa and Worldwide PB.
“It is exciting for me to work with very different riders and very different horses. When we school, we don’t school to teach tricks, we school to reach the full potential of the horse. I like it in Australia, I work with riders with so many different breeds of horses – in Germany the horses are all Warmbloods. Here each horse is a challenge for each rider: Friesians, Connemaras, Lusitanos, Andalusians, Stock horses… In Australia you have to find the special key to school this particular horse.”
Readers of the July 2013 issue of THM will have already enjoyed a feature with Joann Formosa, her trainer Manuela McLean and the remarkable stallion, Worldwide PB, and like us, Christoph found the London Para gold medallist, inspiring:
“To beat Lee Pearson, that is unbelievable – Joann is a megastar, and our goal today is to explain what we can learn from para riders. We can learn a lot when we watch para riders because they have to be very sensitive. I was reading the article on Courtney King-Dye in The Horse Magazine, and she says that now – after her accident – she is a better trainer because she is more aware how sensitive the horse’s reactions are. So often when I go to the warm-up rings at an ordinary competition, there is a fight between the horses and the riders. This 19-year-old stallion is a perfect horse. This is the spirit of good riding. This is what we can learn, we use long whips and spurs, working against, not with the horses, and at the end of the day, that is cruel. It is cruel not to listen into the horse.”
It is a rare treat for us. Joann rides the freestyle that took her to Gold at the London Olympic Games… and I guess I wasn’t the only spectator who had to wipe away a tear. They truly are an inspiration to us all, and Christoph agrees:
“This is a wonderful example of harmony between horse and rider, this is work for a 10. This is a happy athlete, look at the mouth, the eyes, the ears, look at the muscles of the back, look at the tail. The rider can sit into – not on – the horse.”
“The horse is always stretching, always in the same silhouette, this is world class sport, we can learn 100% from Joann, and her horse and the harmony.”
And so say all of us, as the big crowd roars its appreciation.
We are so proud of Joann’s success with “our Stallion Vollrath Worldwide P.”
WWW was purchased as a 2 1/2 yr old in Germany and shipped to New Zealand, where he was educated to PSG with Jutta Rosenblatt and consequently sold to Clair Wickins, Australia.
At Vollrath we have wonderful ‘base-mares by WW which pass on without fail his beautiful temperament regardless which stallion these mare go to.
From this angle we are not surprised that Joann under the teachings of Manual surface at the very top at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Our most hearty congratulations to Joann and Manuale!
Berny & Jutta