Above – Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Checkmate in the KL Grand Prix…
Interview – Chris Hector & Photos – Roz Neave
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum perhaps more than any other rider in the world combines quite literally, the jumping approaches of the United States and Germany… Meredith came through the equitation ‘style factory’ and was coached by that doyen of American stylists, George Morris before she came to Germany to ride with great success, and achieved personal happiness married to German jumping star, Markus Beerbaum.
And with Shutterfly at Aachen
Meredith really is the ideal person to discuss the relative merits of the two national jumping styles…
“Both worlds have their own positive high points and I have been able to successfully combine them. The American style of riding is a lot freer, the horses are a lot more forward, they use a lot of pace. And the German style of riding is really concentrated on control, and being very exact at the distances – and that is really important for the technical courses at the top level. A combination of both systems is not bad.”
“I think the German style of riding has also changed over the last 20 years and become a little more similar, not to the American style, but maybe the Germans have picked up this free, forward riding and combined it with the control, and that has made for a really strong system.”
Is that because the Germans are riding horses with more Thoroughbred blood?
“Over the past 15 years, the breeding in Germany has really changed. Horses have a lot more blood, and they require a little bit of a different style of riding. They used to be very heavy horses that required a lot of leg, and a lot of support. Now they are lighter horses, more agile, and they respond better to a freer way of riding and the Germans have actually transformed their system to accommodate the blood horse.”
Did you change your approach to flat work when you got to Germany?
“I definitely learned how to get a horse more broke, to use German dressage to get a horse way better under control, way more attentive to the rider. The German dressage worked really helped and I think that is something that is a little bit weak in the United States.”
Looking at your working sessions, what proportion are you doing on the flat, and what proportion over jumps?
“In general, I’m not a huge jumper at home. I try to jump my horses as little as possible. Enough so they stay fit and their muscles and ligaments are right for competition, but when they get to a certain point, they don’t need to be trained about specifics, then I try not to jump them at all.”
“Young horses obviously require more training because they are more green about fences, courses, combinations, and they require a lot more jumping – but in general, I am not a big jumper.”
Shutterfly in Las Vegas
How complicated does your dressage work get?
“I think my dressage work is very very simple – it is not complicated at all. It is just about asking the things that are required in the course: that the horse goes forward when you ask him to, that he comes back when you ask him to, that he turns right and he turns left. It is very very simple.”
So you are not working on laterals, that sort of fancy stuff?
“In general no. I maybe use some lateral work to help a horse that has a problem. A horse that hollows in on one side, a specific problem like that, but generally my flatwork is very basic.”
“I think I have adopted my own system over the years. Learning from people like George Morris but also learning from the Germans. Now I have my own system and I can’t really say it’s copy of anyone’s – it is definitely unique.”
Your horses seem to go in a very similar way?
“Some people say that. I work them all to respond to me, so maybe I work them in a similar way and they have a similar balance and way of carrying themselves. That’s possible, I’ve heard that many times.”
Meredith and Shutterfly…
“I don’t feel that they are all similar. Shutterfly is much easier to ride in some ways – maybe not as easy in other ways. Shutterfly is a horse that is extremely adjustable. On technical courses it doesn’t matter at all what the distances are, he can always shorten and do one more, or lengthen and do one less. It is never an issue, he is like an accordian. Basically, he can do anything and he has a super mouth. He’s fabulous to ride but he is also spooky and sensitive, and that makes him hard to ride in some ways than Checkmate.”
“Checkmate is a lot stronger, he has a more difficult mouth. I can’t ride him as precisely as I can Shutterfly. On the other hand, he is a different personality – he is way more aggressive. He is an unbelievable talent, he can jump from all sorts of distances. He can go really fast and not get flustered. He has a super mentality. His freshness is his eagerness and his excitement about his job. He is a horse that loves to jump, so I don’t try to work him down to get him quiet because I like to use this energy, that’s what makes him so spectacular over his jumps…”
Two horses with different styles, two schools of jumping style but it all adds up to one enormously stylish – and successful package.
This pic is has George Morris endorsement – it appears in his autobiography, Unrelenting
This story originally appeared in the December 2006 edition of The Horse Magazine