From the Archives: The Americanisation of Champ!

Ever since I saw her gallop the Aachen Grand Prix course on Starman, forward and flowing, making mockery of the fearsome natural hedges and awesome water, Anne Kursinski has been one of my favorite showjumping riders. We were lucky to catch up with Anne at Rotterdam back in 2008 and watch her school what was to be her last international jumping star, Champ…

Story Chris Hector Pix Ros Neave, Werner Ernst

For all it is true that as the world ‘s top jumping horses get more and more similar in type, and that the world ‘s top riders increasingly share an international style, you only have to watch Anne Kursinski warming up her new star, Champ, to realise that there is still something very very American about Anne’s way of schooling a horse. It is even more noticeable because the Holsteiner stallion, by Chamonix out of a mare by Coronada (that’s a cross of Cor de la Bryere top and bottom with a dash of Lord thrown in) is really a very big German style of horse.

According to Anne the ‘Americanisation’ of Champ is still a work in progress, but he appreciated the way of riding right from the start…

“Champ is new, I just started riding him in January, so we’ve come together a lot in a short time. I like lots of stretching and relaxation – he came from a big German rider and felt like he’d been in draw reins.

He felt kind of stuck

He felt kind of stuck, so I tried to get him to be looser and more athletic, and more natural and happy. I don’t like a lot of dominance when I ride, it’s more being one with the horse. Not that I don’t have discipline, and I do my basic dressage, but at the same time I like a lot of stretching and asking them to be gymnastic- not the cavalry approach, DO the exercises- keep them natural like they would be in the paddock.”

“Initially to even get him to stretch, to do a long and low naturally, took him some time. I think he is changing his muscles even though I haven’t been riding him so long. Now I’m feeling his back relax and stretch. Now he knows that it is okay. Initially he would be a bit defensive- oh no, I can’t possibly stick my head down and out, that’s not allowed, but he is getting it.

What I aim to do is establish self carriage, so they can carry themselves… I stroke them on the neck a bit, work them on a loose rein, but I want that they can still hold their shape, but on very light reins. And that’s what I’ve been doing with Champ, even though he’s a very big German horse- like Starman (Anne’s Grand Prix of Aachen winner), he was a very similar horse.”

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“He’s a heavier horse than Starman, but I think he will change a little. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t, but I think he will. I think carrying himself and going looser will help. It’s even hard for him to learn to go fast, I think for sure he’ll get it, but he has been used to always being packaged, always being contained. Yet when I tried him in Germany, at the end of last summer, when I did drop his head and let him go, he exploded. He liked it. He jumped very well that way but he is a little shy about it- ‘oh you are supposed to be doing something up there’ – and I’m saying ‘no, no, no, you are supposed to be doing it.

You can carry yourself and you can stretch your neck, and you can hold your own balance, I don’t have to do it for you.”’

Because of your success with Starman, you were one of the riders who switched American riders onto European horses and off the Thoroughbreds, do you feel sad at what you have done?

Anne laughs. “Oh no, no, no. After Starman, my next horse was Eros, an Australian Thoroughbred , who was very different of course, just the lighter the better. But when you turn a horse out on a paddock or you free jump them, they don’t have somebody pulling their head down, or jerking their head from side to side, German horses or Thoroughbred horses, or whatever- they can do it without the human being. So I think Champ will learn to be lighter and quicker, all by himself without me forcing it. He doesn’t need some big guy up there saying ‘now turn, now go, now slow down’, he can go well with more natural riding.”

Eros

You had a background riding Thoroughbred horses, was it a shock when you started riding Starman?

“No, because again, he liked the American way. Astrid Winkler who found him for me, really thought he would go well the American way, and hadn’t been so great with the previous rider who was much more of a German rider. When I dropped his mouth and let Starman go, he really loved it, he loved long reins. I think Champ will learn that too. I am toying with the idea of riding Champ in a gag. I have him in a Pelham, because he is a big strong horse, he has a big neck but he has a nice mouth – I school him in the plain snaffle and he is very nice, yet I feel like if I really kick him to the water or something, he could get strong, but I think maybe one day, I will jump him in a snaffle. Starman went in a snaffle, in a gag at the end, but he also had a nice mouth. I’m toying with getting Champ in a gag, a little more freedom, but because he is big and strong, I also need to know he will slow down.”

Starman

So it was more the European horses adapting to the American way of riding than vice versa…

“I think so. Even Meredith (Michaels-Beerbaum) – look at her today, her horses are hot- not that she doesn’t sit back and have longer reins in a sense, but she is still a little person, she is still light, and those horses have adapted to her – they are Thoroughbred types, and hot as can be. I think it is the German Warmbloods going more the American way. Of course it is a matter of finding the right German horse. I really felt when I tried Champ last year, I thought after just the little bit I did on him, that he had Olympic scope. There are some that you drop their heads and let them go, and they are completely lost, but at the jump he figured it out in a couple of jumps, and said ‘oh this is good’ and even the German who had him thought he was jumping better with my technique of letting him go and letting him gallop -just for the horse to say, ‘I can really do that, and it is okay’. He is learning very quickly. It is a bit of a shock that we made the list to hopefully go on to the Olympics. Every class we are learning.”

Champ hits the big time at Aachen

Is it becoming more of a fusion style? I watch Ludger Beerbaum school, no stirrups, the horse perfectly straight in a snaffle bit, very clean engaged, athletic work, it could have been an American rider – are the styles fusing?

“I think so. You can still see different styles to a point, but nothing like it used to be years ago. Then you could pick the Germans, the French, the Americans, the Italians… they were really stamped. Bertalan de Nemethy, our American coach, was a Cavalry Officer from Europe, but came to the States and dealt with American Thoroughbreds, the light seat and the foxhunting were our system. The Germans were riding heavy horses, horses bred from carriage horses, and they had a much deeper seat, but now I think with the horses changing so much, and again, the breeds have all changed so much – there is so much Thoroughbred in the German horse now that the styles have adapted and they are all a little closer than they used to be. And I think that is nicer for the horses…”

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Kursinski, Anne