They breed them tough in the Klimke family.
A week after her father’s funeral, daughter, Ingrid was back in the saddle, winning the Bad Roddenberg 3DE. For Michael, his father’s death has only added to his determination to break through that last barrier – a place in the mighty German dressage team. Over the past ten years, Michael Klimke has come within a hair’s breadth of making the team, now with two exceptional horses, he feels he has his best chance ever, and has his eyes firmly focussed on Sydney 2000.
An interview with Chris Hector
“Now I am ready to concentrate on my riding with my studies out of the way. I finished my university Law Studies in 1996, and I have been a lawyer since August last year. I now spend half a day in the law office, and half a day I ride. I am concentrating on my two good stallions: White Foot, who was third in the Grand Prix at the German Championships this year – and Navarino, a seven year old Swedish stallion. I think I now have two really good horses and a real chance in the sport.”
“I won my first Grand Prix in 1988, and I’ve had a lot of good horses since then, but now I think I have two really top horses. Now that my studies are out of the way, I can take the time and concentrate on dressage.”
“I’m not training other riders now. I did that a little bit to finance my studies, but now I want to concentrate on my own competitive career.”
“Next year to make the German team for Sydney will be very difficult – but on the other hand, I finished in seventh place in the team try-out at Verden, and two of the horses above me, Souveraen and Livijno, I think I can beat them with White Foot during the winter, then you never know what might happen to one of the top four.”
“Navarino is perhaps a little too young at seven, but he can do every movement of the Grand Prix, and I want to start competing him in Grand Prix in January. I think this horse is really good enough to make Sydney. He is the last licensed son of Bellini – Louise Natthorst rode Bellini up to Grand Prix.”
“It’s an accident that I am riding two stallions. Scott Hessler of Hill Top Farms in the United States bought Navarino when he was only four years old, just broken. They breed with him in the United States and I am allowed to compete with him here.”
“It is again by chance that White Foot is a licensed stallion. He is not breeding – I first want to ride him in the sport, then we’ll see about breeding later. He is owned by a Japanese lady, who also owned Raikito, the horse I took to the World Cup Final in 1996. He was sold to Switzerland last year, then she bought White Foot.”
Was it inevitable that you would become a dressage rider?
“It just happens in our family, you really have no choice, no chance of not being involved in horses. I jumped with ponies but from then on I rode dressage. For fun I like to hack around a little and do a little gymnastic jumping. Sometimes when the horse is really tired of doing dressage, then we jump a little – but when I jump the horses it is dangerous for the horses and for me.”
Your training system follows on from your father?
“Yes, my father was always my number one trainer. I trained with Herbert Kuckluck, Albert Steinken, with Harry Boldt. Now I train with Klaus Balkenhol every two weeks, since he became German team coach. He’s a great help but of course my father is the one who influenced me more in my training and really helped me a lot.”
And it is still exciting to start with a new horse?
“With a new horse it is always very exciting. That’s really the fun at home, to work with young horses, to bring them on – sometimes for me that is more interesting than competition. On the show circuit you are dependent on the five judges, and there is a lot of politics involved in the last step. You need not only good riding, but also good people who support you. You know it yourself, you sit there and watch a class and you think why is this one second and not fifth? It is politics in the sport, and that leaves you two options: either you get angry about the judging every weekend you compete, or you ride and give your best, and the result is not in your hands. For the winner, you don’t need judges, even the spectators can normally see the winner, but in Germany it is always the fourth spot in the team that is the centre of discussion.”
“I was quite close with my Russian stallion, Chan; I was close with Entertainer, but I never made it into the team. I hope now that I have enough experience and with these two horses, to prove that I am not just the son who rides a little bit, but that I can make it to the team. That’s my aim.”
“I prefer to start with young horses. I’ve also had some older ones, but it is more fun to start with the younger ones. Now I have a girl who rides the young horses for me, because I don’t have the time to ride all the young horses. Navarino ,I rode myself from the age of four – and now I have a really good five year old that I ride myself. He is a really good mover, by May Sherif, the sire of Andiamo and Matador, but this horse looks totally different, he is an elegant chestnut, but super trot and very good hindleg action. For a five year old he has a lot of talent for piaffe/passage…we’ll see. Right now he is five, making half passes and flying changes, you never know.”
You quite enjoy training?
“I enjoyed it. I had the Japanese team before Barcelona and Atlanta, and I trained them. I go to the States every year to give clinics – but you have to decide what you want… you cannot be dealing a little bit, a little bit teaching, a little bit law office, a little bit sport: that doesn’t work.”
“They are professionals in dressage now – Isabell, Monica, Nadine – they are really professionals. When you want to be better, you must have time just to concentrate on the sport, and that is what I am trying to do now.”