Photos by Kenneth Braddick and Roz Neave
What a splendid surprise it was to find German dressage champion Christoph Koschel at the Australian Dressage Championships. The 39-year-old trainer was Downunder to help student Maree Tomkinson in her lead up to the nationals, and was kind enough to sit down with me for a chat.
What brings you to our shores?
Maree asked me a few months ago if I would like to come over for the Nationals. I was traveling quite a lot this year already, so I had to figure out if I could do it. I really wanted to come to Australia again because I loved it when I was here in 2007 for Dressage With The Stars. I came here last Saturday and am here for a week.
Please tell me you’ve had time to see Sydney and not just four sides of the arena since you’ve been here!
I have! A few days ago we finished the training at lunchtime and Maree said I should go into the city. I took the train, I was my own tour guide, I loved it. I saw everything. It’s a beautiful city and I like the atmosphere there. All the people are friendly and it’s very multicultural. When I was in Melbourne I didn’t really see the city. I just had one helicopter ride among the skyscrapers which was nice, but you don’t see so much.
I also loved the trip up to the competition. I came in the truck rather than flying because I really wanted to see the nature and everything. It was great. The trip was 840kms but we did it in nine hours. That would never happen at Europe. Your country is bigger than ours, but it would take about 15 hours because of the traffic, and you’re not allowed to overtake when you are driving a truck. Driving is much more fun in your country.
You’ve had success with young horses and Grand Prix. They’re now a little bit two different sports. Do you buy a young horse for those classes or with the Grand Prix in mind?
If I choose a young one from the breeder, I always have it in my mind that I want to make a Grand Prix horse out of it. This is what I’ve done all my life with my father. It’s not so easy in Germany with sponsors as we don’t have many, so we train a lot of young horses to Grand Prix level to compete or to sell.
I saw Maree’s young horses for the first time this trip, and I must say she has some very good ones. Donna Elena is an outstanding horse. I’ve seen her now a few days in training and she has real potential as a top class international horse. She has everything and she shows real talent for collection work already, which for me is the most important thing for sure, combined with good gaits.
What else do you look for in the young ones?
To be honest, the most important thing for me with the young horse is the rideability and ability for collection. I don’t prefer the big movers because if you have a strong enough hind leg, a good motor behind, and rideability, then you can make a lot out of it. Normally these are the better ones later on for the Grand Prix. Maybe they are not so successful in the young horse classes where they want to see a big moving and very supple, easy and calm horse. That’s a little bit the problem that we have in our young horse classes in Germany because the judges still look a little too much for really supple and calm horses, and for me a young horse at ages four, five or six, they can be a little hot or a little spooky because they have to take care of what’s going on, and if they are already like a dead cow at that age, not caring about anything, they will not be sharp enough later on to be a good Grand Prix horse, or at least it’s really rare. You can see from the top 50 of the world rankings, most of them are not big movers from birth. So what I look for in a young horse is this little extra special thing; they have to be sensitive and sharp but they also have to be rideable, that’s for sure. But a strong hindleg is important also.
What age do you usually get them?
I like to have them ridden. They can be three or four, but with foals, it’s a long wait and you never know. A foal can look so nice and move well but you never really know what it will be like with a rider. I prefer them to be ridden or minimum at the lunge.
Your father Jürgen was talented at both jumping and dressage. Why did you choose dressage over jumping?
I was jumping a little bit when I was younger with my ponies. At first I only jumped, just for two years, but I found out very quickly that my talent was more in the dressage than the jumping. My father was a good jumper, but he also had to decide one day because it was no longer possible to do both at one show. You have to get more specialised. Nowadays it’s impossible to do more than one at a good level, at an international level. But my heart was always more with the dressage. I liked the training and the way you build up a horse and maybe also I had not the best eye for distance, I have to say!
You also studied law?
I wanted to have something else and I loved my time studying, but even when I was studying, half the day I was always riding and I took care of the stable at home. It was quite hard because at that time my father was the coach of the Dutch team, so he was also here in Sydney at the Olympics and I had the stable at home and my study, so that was quite a busy time. I studied perhaps a year longer than my friends and I was happy to have it.
But that was the time we also decided to have our own barn. My father had always rented boxes before, even though he had been forty years in the sport. After my study we decided to build our own barn, which is why we moved from Hamburg to Hagen and found a place there.
Christoph riding Rostropowitsch NRW in the victory gallop after winning the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle in Florida December 2015
How big is your operation?
We have a barn with 34 horses and we don’t want to make it bigger so it’s not possible to take care of everyone, because we have a lot of international clients at the barn. I train clients from ten different nations at the moment so I’m travelling a lot to different shows. It’s still great that my father and I can help each other. When he was travelling, I was at home, and I’m travelling more with clients now, so he’s more at home.
How many horses would you ride a day?
I ride around ten a day. If I take the young ones out, I can do a little bit more. If I’m only riding the Grand Prix or Advanced horses, then I ride up to eight horses.
What do you prefer, training horses or people?
I like both. My father always did it too. It’s totally different. I think over time things have also changed. Germany was always the country that had the best horses and the best trainers; the best always came out of Germany. We have not so many trainers anymore. The old school trainers like my father, like Klaus Balkenhol, like the late Herbert Rehbein, and many others, they are getting older now and the younger generation is not so much into training anymore. We have a lot of good riders and horse trainers, but I think now they are more interested in riding the horses and selling them quicker than before, and training the people is not so much the idea.
What do you think is going to happen with that?
We have to take care that there are enough people coming up who are willing to train people, not only the horses. But I grew up doing both because my father always did. He loved to ride, but he also loved to train and I’m the same. For sure it’s great to be at a show as a rider, but also as a trainer. Often I combine it, I have horses at a show and my clients as well.
You and your father are very well known for your classical approach to training but there are so many different “systems” out there now…. German, Dutch, Danish… Do you think the way needs to change for the modern sport, and the more modern shape of horse or do you think the old principles are still the way?
There are so many discussions about that. I think you have to find the way for each horse. What I learnt is to pick the best from everything, and find the best for your horse. I stay only with the classical training, but maybe it doesn’t fit with that horse. I believe it has to be classical in a way; it has to look good, it has to be effective and it has to be fair. That’s the most important thing. But I think a general system for every horse does not exist. A good rider can find the right way for a special horse.
Christoph and Portugal’s Ricardo Wallenstein
The breeding has changed and we have different types these days, and for sure we have to take care more about the health of our horses because they are lighter and they have longer legs whereas years before they were stronger. I think the breeding is in the right direction, but we also have to take care of them as they are a bit more sensitive now.
How do you alter you training and management for the newer types?
To be honest I’m a big fan of alternative training methods. I’ve been holding a lot of speeches about that in Germany. They are sponsored by Mercedes Benz. They have quite a few dressage and jumping riders who hold speeches sponsored by car companies and that’s a really nice thing for the general public. I mean they have something to do with riding in a way, but they are not all top dressage riders.
The theme that I am talking about is alternative training methods in dressage, so I’m really into this. I think for a dressage horse, the most important thing is that they stay happy in the daily work, and so if you ride exercises in the same arena everyday, they get bored and it’s not very good for them. You have to find lessons like going into the woods and going on the racetrack and keep your horse busy with other things. Then you train in different conditions and they get so much better in the head.
Do you do other things like massage work, ice boots etc?
Yeah it’s getting more and more in this direction, but we are still not that professional in my stable. There are some people and they are already crazy with all the technical stuff you can have, but we are still a little old-fashioned. For sure, we have ice boots and physiotherapists come sometimes, but some stables have all the equipment you can possibly have.
To be honest, a horse is a horse and it has to stay a horse. For sure, nowadays the sport gets tougher and they do deserve to get the best help, but I think sometimes you just leave them a horse, and it’s better to put them out in the field as it’s more natural. It is always possible to put a horse on the field. They grew up on the field, so why should you stop putting them in the field because they are ridden? Ok, so sometimes with a stallion it’s not so easy and some horses like to destroy themselves, but most of them, you have to maybe close your eyes for the first ten minutes, then normally they like to eat, so if there’s enough grass, it’s fine. I’m not a big fan of putting them on the sand paddock because there they jump around maybe a little bit too much, and then they hurt themselves. On a really nice grass field, it’s perfect. You just have to keep on doing it, then they are quiet, they’re nice to ride, and they see something else rather than sitting in a box for 23 hours. So, most of my horses go in the field, otherwise they get walked in hand and get grazed for sure. It really helps.
Your Dad has obviously been a major influence. Has anyone else?
For sure I’ve met a lot of trainers in my life and as a young boy I was always watching all of them. But most of the time I was riding on my own with my Dad. I had a very good time also with Holger Schmezer, the former German team coach and it is sad that he died. He trained me as a junior and young rider and later he was my senior coach as well. He came with us to Kentucky and Toronto the year after. He was a nice man and a very good trainer for me. Maybe he was not one of the most famous trainers, but I really liked his way and the way he was thinking about horses.
To be honest, I never really had the time to go somewhere else, though I did think about it. First I helped my father in our stable when he was flying around the world, then I was studying and then we started our own stable… But even now, I learn so much from my father.
You also learn a lot from watching and I watch the other riders a lot or when they give a lesson to somebody, I like to listen. At the end, you find your own way over time.
Do you like the way dressage has is going. Is it on track?
There has been a lot of discussions about that as well, but I think overall, we still see the classical dressage. We have sometimes pictures that are not so nice maybe, and everyone talks about them, but overall I think we are still on a good way. Everyone talks about the judging, but I think we had all this before. Nowadays with the media, it is easy to see the differences. You go on the internet see what the results were even if you are in Indonesia!
The sport is definitely getting tough, but what I see and what I like is that so many nations are in the top sport. And also for us Germans, the sport is much tougher and we don’t win every time like we did before, which is great, I love it, to be honest. The Germans didn’t like me so much for that comment! I was asked in Kentucky if I was sad we didn’t win the gold medal but I said it is the best thing that can happen for the sport, that the nations now come so close to each other. It’s real sport now. Over the last few years it’s become really tough sport for the individual and team medals and it’s really interesting.
Also the individual riders from different countries get a lot stronger and even if they don’t have a top team, there are many, many nations with top horse/rider combinations so that’s great for our sport. The percentages are getting higher. When you see the difference from Hong Kong to now, it’s just seven years, how much has it changed? There we had Anky and Isabel. Anky was winning, Isabel was second and Heike Kemmer won the bronze medal with 71%. Nowadays you have to ride 71% to get into the first 30 to enter the Special…and that was the bronze medal seven years ago! It’s not that only the marks are higher, the sport is better, and that’s exciting!
You spent a lot of time in America this year?
I did. We went there for 10 weeks, for the season. We took clients and I rode myself. I loved it because it’s a great opportunity to ride a lot of international shows in a row. I think that’s why Wellington has a big future because in three months you have seven CDIs. They have very good quality competitions there. Next year they have four CDI-Ws, a five star, a four star and a Nations Cup. We stay with the horses at the showground. It’s a little bit like here. It’s harder here though because you don’t have as many riders and it’s very expensive to keep that going for three months. You need a lot of riders and sponsors. The Americans are very lucky to have a lot of sponsors for all the competitions.
We will be there from the beginning of January to the end of March. I have two people trying to qualify for the Olympics as individuals and that’s only possible if you ride enough shows because the entry day is already in March, as opposed to the team riders, which is July. That’s quite difficult to ride enough shows in Europe to go up in the world rankings because you only have the big World Cup indoor shows in our winter time. If you don’t have enough World Cup points in January, then you’re not even invited to the bigger shows and it’s also a lot of travelling. In Wellington, you can stay in one place and show seven to eight times in a row.
How many horses did you take to America?
We took ten client horses and I had two Grand Prix horses of my own, Rostropowitsch, who has now been sold to Japan and Tiesto who I still have. I got him just before Wellington and he had a nice season there getting quite a few placings. He won enough prize money to pay for the trip! That was good! My clients had fun and my impression was that everyone who went wants to go again next year. And if they go I have to go with them, or else my stable is empty! It’s very nice.
Are you going to try for Rio yourself?
Ok, for the German team it’s always very hard. I have a few good young ones. I’ve done WEG and the Europeans, but right before London Olympics I sold my horse. (Donnperignon).
Christoph and Donnperignon at the 2010 WEG
That must have been hard.
It was, but otherwise it would not be possible to run my barn. Only from the training you can’t stay alive!
But don’t you ever think, this one horse, even if I have to sell my kids, I’ve got to keep this horse. This is my chance. (I’m joking about the kids, by the way!)
For sure, but it was great for me to go to WEG and win a medal there and go to the Europeans. I’m young enough, I can make the next ones. But from the financial side, I want to have my family safe. I was thinking a lot about that and for sure there would be a chance to keep the horse, but it’s hard when you don’t have a sponsor behind you and also our federation is not sponsoring so many riders. The mentality in Germany about sponsoring riders is a little different to America, or even here where you have a lot of horse owners and the riders normally ride the horses of the owners. Most of the time, I was always riding my own horses, ones we made ourselves, as well as a few client horses.
It’s hard for sure but for me it was great because the horse was having a lot of success with the new rider, the Danish girl (Anna Kasprzak) so for me and my reputation as a rider, it was a great thing. She did another four championships with that horse so it’s perfect.
Maybe you don’t have the luxury to do it, but are you really picky about who takes your horses?
Normally yes. It should go to a good stable for sure.
So, if it was between Anna or me, would you sell it to me because I’m nice or would you sell it to her because you know she’s going to take it to all the championships?
Oh no that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t go to the top sport. The rider must be nice. That has to fit. If somebody happened to buy Donnperignon and decided to only take him hacking, but it’s a nice person, then I would sell him to that rider. It’s not about the success so much, but if you would get a professional and they were a little bit of a tough rider and maybe he’s not so nice to your horse, then I would not prefer that. It’s not so much about success. I think if you make a horse and you are together for a long time and its a real bond, it’s like a family member, the most important thing is finding a nice person.
You have two sons. Are they going to follow in Dad’s dressage footsteps do you think?
Yes they are seven and nine. They are interested a little bit, but I’m not pushing it, to be honest. They don’t have a pony. Also at that age I didn’t have a pony. My first one I got when I was ten. That was the time I started really to ride. Before that I was also just playing around and I was more interested in other things. But then I had a short pony time, and then when I got my first big horse everything went very fast. No my boys are more interested in tennis and soccer. The young one I think is really talented, but I don’t push it. It doesn’t matter.
Chris Hector interviewed you a few years back and you were talking about even if the horses don’t do any movements but just relaxing work, they get more powerful and the movements get technically better from that. Can you expand on that a bit?
This is also some kind of alternative programme that you don’t think always about the exercises. I’m very picky with throughness so for me the most important thing is throughness and strength. It’s the same with a human. You can only perform well if you are strong enough and have good body control. With the horse as well it is also the throughness and so I’m not a big fan of riding exercises if I think my horse is not prepared for that; from the body and from the mental side.
So you wouldn’t think, for example, the horse is tight here so I’ll do travers or shoulder in or some other lateral exercise?
I love transitions. I play a lot with the speed, riding them forward. It can be an older Grand Prix horse, but treat them like a young horse. Ride them forward and then play with the speed; a lot of transitions between walk, trot and canter. I don’t like so much the lateral work all the time because this is not so natural. I like to do natural things with the horse because the most important thing is to keep them healthy.
So for sure some riders prefer to do a lot of half passes, leg yielding and all that stuff but if you do that everyday, I’m a little worried you get some problems with the legs. I think most of the horses in our sport, when they get a problem, it’s extended trot and half passes because these are not very natural movements. When you watch a horse in the field, it would never do a half pass on it’s own and it would not prefer to do an extended trot. It would instead go into canter and it would not do some counter canter through the corners, it would like to change, which is why I also do not prefer these young horse classes with a lot of counter canter. I normally leave that out and go directly to the changes even with the younger horses.
They have the five-year-old classes, you are only allowed to do counter canter. So first, from four to five, you teach them not to change anymore, because naturally they like to change, so then you tell them no, don’t change. Then they get to six and they need to change and then you push them to change again and they’re like hey, you taught me to counter canter. So this is a little bit against the nature.
So in the training I like to do things that you find in the nature. Bring them on the hindleg, get them away from the front leg, get them carrying, get them in self-carriage. I think when this all works out you have also better exercise. Especially with the older horses when they know all the exercises, never do them at home. Instead really work on the basics and make the gaits better and make the strength better.
The more through and stronger your horse is, the better you can perform in the ring. This is part of my programme as well and this doesn’t have to be inside in the 20 x 60 arena. I go hacking, but work them as well a little bit or go on the racetrack. We have luck with our neighbour Kasselmann as we can use his racetrack. It’s perfect! It doesn’t matter how old the horses are, they love to work there and you can do so much. It’s all about health, strength and thoroughness, and then you have the complete athlete.
Christoph and Don Bettino at the 2011 Bundeschampionate
Your Dad once said in an interview that the breeding of the horse is sometimes better than the riding. Do you agree?
Haha. It depends, you know. For sure also 20 or 30 years ago the horse comes to the wrong rider or wrong trainer. That happens. In our young horse classes at the Bundeschampionate, you see a lot of good horses and you think there must be a lot more up and coming Grand Prix horses when you see so many young ones, but it’s a little bit like what I said in the beginning, the training methods of the people, more taking care of big gaits and having them prepared for these young horse classes instead of maybe going one step backwards and thinking about collection and maybe later on the Grand Prix stuff because, and this is what we found out a lot of times, if you push a young horse too much going forward and going big, it’s very hard later on to tell it to come back and on the hindleg and do some kind of piaffe work. So, it is still a very big difference between making a Grand Prix horse and selling a young horse.
A lot of the breeders in Germany like to sell early. They breed horses that are big moving and nice looking when they are young. There is a good market for these kinds of horses and they can sell them quickly. At that age you sell a lot of hope. Many people, including a lot of the top riders, can’t really tell with the three year old if it will piaffe later on. You can feel it a little bit for sure if you are experienced, but most of them not, and we have more amateurs in the sport than professionals. You see some of the bloodlines, they don’t produce the young horses, but they produce the Grand Prix horses but these are not the stallions who are used most.
De Niro is a good example. There was a time from the top 100 in the world, 30 were De Niros, father or mother line. These De Niros are very strong horses. They are a little tight when they are young, they have a lot of body tension which is good for later on, but maybe not so good for the young horse classes where they love to see them nice and moving and loose in the body. But loose in the body later on is not what you need. For sure the horse should not jump around and spook around, but if there is a little bit of body tension, it’s what you need for every sport. Even in human sport, if you are really loose in the body you are sure not good.
So, we have to know what we want in the end. For sure we also breed a lot of horses for the real amateur sport, good riding horses for people who just want to hack or do very small competitions. We need these kinds of horses as well, but if we think about top sport, we have to come back to the fact that we need really good bloodlines that are producing Grand Prix horses.
Do you have a favourite line?
I have a favourite and that is for sure everything that has to do with Donnerhall blood. My Donnperignon was a direct Donnerhall but to be honest, if you compare Donnerhall to Weltmeyer or Sandro Hit or Florestan, the most famous bloodlines we have, when you see which stallion and his sons produced the most Grand Prix horses, it was always Donnerhall; fatherline, motherline, combined maybe with Weltmeyer on the motherline, all good. There has to be some D blood in and I’m happy. But if there’s too much S blood in it, you don’t see so many of these. You see them a lot in the young horse classes, but they don’t like to collect. They have a big moving front leg but not a carrying hind leg.
This is an example when you look at them when they’re five years old, and think wow, and then you don’t see them anymore. Even at Prix St Georges, you just see very few and then the next step to the Grand Prix they are all gone. I think Donnerhall has been dead for 14 years and still the D blood is so much in the sport. And for sure the cross over to the Dutch bloodline is really good.
You don’t think the Dutch are a bit flashy in front with not much behind?
Um yes for sure, but there are still some very good bloodlines. They are very strong behind and combined with the big movers from the German lines, I think it works out very well.
If you had a test tube and you could produce the perfect horse…
That’s hard to say. It would for sure have something of Donnerhall and maybe on the motherline some Dutch breed such as Gribaldi or Ferro or something like that. They also made some very good horses. I rode a few very good ones of these two. It could be a nice combination from Donnerhall and Ferro blood I think.
Do you have an all time favourite horse?
That’s very hard to say also! I had two very good D horses. I had a mare called Davinia. That was the grey mare and she was outstanding. She could have been a team horse for any team in the world. I sold her when she was nine years old because we were just building our barn at that time and she went to Tinne Vilhelmson. I think she had even more quality than Donnperignon. She was absolutely outstanding.
That was at the time that Matine was competing with Andreas Helgstraand. I had ridden her only three times at international Grand Prix and we were in Wiesbaden. I had a very good competition and I was back to back with Matine. They looked almost the same but Matine had super outstanding piaffe/ passage but was a little bit normal in the gaits but she had much more experience than Davinia at that time. Then the people saw my mare, a big mover with really quality gaits, a strong hindleg and nearly the same piaffe/ passage and they said, “Wow, what is that?!” but four weeks later she was sold. That was hard.
But for sure also Donnperignon. I got him when he was three, and I sold him when he was 11 so that was eight years training together. But this is really a good example of what I said in the beginning when I choose a horse. He was a horse that was not a big mover. He was a great type but what he had was a super strong hindleg, really active and really the ability to collect.
There is a funny story about the World Breeding Championships in Verden. He was bred in Finland, Donnerhall out of the Matador line, so the Finnish Federation called me when he was just six and they asked, “How’s your Donnerhall going?” and I said “He’s doing great. We had some shows where he was not very successful because he’s not the biggest mover but I think he’s on a good way because he already shows talent for passage.” But then they pushed, “We have a spot for you at the world championships. We’ve got a wildcard for you.” But I was not interested in going there because he could do the exercises, but he was a very normal mover. They kept calling me because they had never had a Finnish bred horse at the world championships. “Do it for Finland!” they insisted.
Christoph and Tiesto
So I thought ok. I rode the first test. No mistakes, perfect test. I came out with a 6.1; 6 for trot, 6 for canter, 6 for walk, 6.5 for general impression. So from 48 horses I think I was 43rd or something like that. The second test I did, again a very nice test, very concentrated, I got 6.6. Again, I was far away from the top. The Finnish Federation called me and asked, “Did he make some mistakes? What happened?”
But you see, what a great example. Some of the other German riders were coming up to me asking why I was at the world championships with such a normal horse. He was pretty, a super looking horse, but when he moved, he was very flat on the ground. But you see, I had the feeling already what was inside there when he just grew up. And I told everyone, “Wait. We will see.”
With more strength he learnt to use his hindleg the right way, and then at nine he showed a big potential for Grand Prix. He was winning young horse Grand Prix classes then everyone thought what a horse. Four years later he was again at the world championships, this time as a member of the German team. I had an average of 77% at that time at Grand Prix to be on the team. It’s a super example of when you have a willing horse combined with a strong hindleg and the ability to collect, everything is possible. But he has to be willing, he has to be fighting for you.
Then, in Kentucky, I was getting nines for my extensions where earlier he was getting 6s. He learnt to open up the shoulder. They just learn it from the passage. So this is what I say, first you teach a horse to carry on the hindleg and then move forward instead of having a big mover and then you have to ride backwards all the time. Some of them, they just don’t like to collect. There we go back to some of the bloodlines; they love to go forward, but they don’t like to get back and carry. That was the difference with Donnperignon, he learnt it the other way around. He was small at first and then he learnt to carry and then he opened up his shoulders and then he was a machine. It’s always easier to make your horse and then you know what you have.
In the Grand Prix these days, it’s so technical, that if they move too big at first, it’s very hard to come around the corners. A good horse has many gaits and this was for sure the big advantage of Totilas at the time he was really successful, because he had so many gaits. He had very small trot, ok everyone was complaining about his extension, but the problem was not that the hindleg was not strong enough, the problem was that the front leg was too high, not that the hindleg was too low. But the way he did all the stuff from the technical side, was only possible because he had so many gaits. In the trot, he had about 10 different kinds of trot. It’s not so easy to train that if you have a really big mover. If they are really willing to collect, then it’s no problem, but if they don’t like to move back or if they have been taught to move big during their young horse time, then it’s hard to get them back. Why should I collect? I like to go big and forward! Too big, too early, is not good.
Also not good for the legs for sure. So, I like to keep them small when they are young and make them bigger over time. It sounds easy, but you need quality.
This article first appeared in the March 2016 issue of THM.