Lena Waldmann – horses need to be horses

(Photo Kenneth Braddick dressage news)

Christopher Hector profiles a genuine new star on the dressage horizon

As the world of dressage becomes increasingly dominated by obscene amounts of money, I love it when I come across a rider who has got there on the basis of talent, and it is great when that talent is rewarded by the ride on some wonderful – and mega expensive – stallions.

Lena is based at Gestüt Bonhomme, headed up by Rebecca Gutman – you may remember that Ms Gutmann caused considerable heartburn on the part of Paul Schockemöhle and Andreas Helgstrand when the top priced lot at the recent Hanoverian Stallion Auction, Confess Colour, was sold to Ms Gutman for €1,890,000, when the auctioneer ignored a counter-bid from team Schockstrand. The auctioneer has since been sacked, and the Hanoverian Verband apologised profusely for the stuff up. But at the end of the day, Lena has another super stallion in her stable!

Rebecca Gutman – she’s got an eye

But it wasn’t always like that, indeed Lena commenced her working life as a flight attendant…

For me, Lena Waldmann was the stand out new face in the big time at Frankfurt, despite her inexperience at this level of competition, she rode oh so cool, and all her horses were relaxed and correct, yes, horses, three of them, including two in the Burg Pokal!

Lena and Morricone in the Burg-Pokal (Photo – K-H Frieler)

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So how did she do it?  Trolly dolly to Grand Prix dressage?

“I started like a little pony girl in the pony club, started my career there, competed there but not at a high level. After school I wanted to travel around the world so I was flying with Lufthansa as a flight attendant, that’s why I moved to Frankfurt.”

“Then the boss of Clip-My-Horse, Mr Plönzke, offered me a job at Gestüt Tannenhof. I was riding there for four and a half years and I think I improved my riding skills a lot riding in this stable.”

Who was helping you?

“Anja Plönzke, the daughter, it was a very good time for me. After four years I moved to Berlin to Gestüt Bonhomme, a very good stallion station that offered me a job. I had a really good time at Tannenhof and I had some really good and talented young horses. I qualified Dissertation for the Berg-Pokal before he/she was sold to the Family Rothenberger and I didn’t get to ride her in Frankfurt because she was sold before the finals. I was pretty sure I was not going to stay in this stable because it was a selling stable. I had a good time and for me it is very important to improve the young horses but I want to be with them for a longer time than just a year or two. I was a bit tired of having to sell them when they were good.”

“Then I was offered the job at Gestüt Bonhomme, this was two and a half years ago.”

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That must have been like moving into heaven, a stable full of such super horses…

“It was really tough the first year because the stallions hadn’t competed much when I started working there, it was hard work to get them in line, but I always saw that they were fantastic quality these horses.”

Cadeau Noir at Frankfurt (Photo – K-H Frieler)

The three you brought to Frankfurt, Cadeau Noir, Morricone and Fiderdance, were all at Bonhomme when you arrived?

“They were all there. We buy them at the stallion licensing and then they stay in our stable until they die, the breeding stallions. That’s the reason they were there when I started working there and hopefully they are going to be there when they die.”

Who taught you? Where do you come from with your training techniques?

“It was not just Anja. After school I went to Heike Kemmer’s stable and I was riding there for three months. That was a really good time and in all the past six years, I have had the opportunity to ride together with her, even when I was not in her stable any more, that was so cool, and at the shows the same, she was helping me on my way. And since half a year, I am very happy that I train with Monika (Theodorescu). I love the style she does and hopefully we are going to have a long journey together.”

This was the first time you’ve ridden in a Burg-Pokal final – third and fifth and you were looking super cool in there…

“Maybe it was easier because I qualified really well. I think it is easier when you have more than one horse!”

But it meant you were first out every time…

“I don’t know, the whole weekend is just that we are enjoying being here. I have no pressure on my shoulders. I trust my horses a lot and I knew they are going to be cool in the atmosphere.”

(Photo Kenneth Braddick dressage news)

But Frankfurt is such a scary atmosphere, the spectators are up so close and up in the air on the first floor…

“Yeah but we had a lot of time to let them be used to the atmosphere. Maybe it’s good for me because they are all breeding stallions and for them it is much easier this atmosphere because they are used to crowds of people and they know big arenas at the stallion shows.”

But aren’t stallion shows a way to send horses crazy, flat out over the top trot down the centre line while the audience stamp their feet and clap…

“That’s right and that’s what you have to tell them, that a competition is not the same as a stallion show, but basically they are used to a big atmosphere.”

Morricone – the coolest…

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Are they different people your three stallions?

“Completely different. Morricone, he’s the youngest but he is an unbelievable horse, I love this horse to the moon and back. He is seven years old and I took over the ride one year ago, just one year, and I’ve had him at six or seven shows, not more. I started competing him last winter, then this season I took him to three or four shows, not more, and he is the coolest of them all.”

Yet people say that the Millenniums are crazy…

“I cannot say that, not at all. I have another Millennium, he’s four years old, Maracaná, he’s a special stallion as well and he is so well behaved. He’s the same – he’s completely different to Morricone – but he behaves so good. And I have to say, Monica loves this horse as well.”

Maracaná – another stallion son of Millennium

“I cannot ask for more with Morricone, I cannot ask for more with this horse, he is always listening and he is always trying the best for you. He always wants you to look good on him, it is a present to me to ride this horse and he has the talent for the Big Tour, he can really piaffe…”

You’ve been playing with it?

“I did before I got the message that I am able to ride in the Burg-Pokal in Frankfurt. Then I called Monica and said, I am not sure I can go to Frankfurt because I have started work on other things like piaffe and some one tempis. She said, we’ll switch back in a week, you’ll be fine with that one! And she was right because he switched back without any problem.”

Cadeau Noir – all the stallions at Bonhomme go out…

And the other stallion in the final, Cadeau Noir?

“He’s two years older but he is a completely different horse. He fills up the arena when he enters because he is much more horse than Morricone is and he really knows that he is a stallion. He is completely different but he has a lot of talent for the Big Tour as well. He’s always willing to work. That’s the most important thing as a professional rider because when you want to go on, you need a partner who wants to go with you.”

And they go out in the forest – Fiderdance at home

“My third horse, Fiderdance, he qualified for the Louisdor for young Grand Prix horses, and he is maybe something in between the other two. You need to give him a bit of confidence. Always when you enter the arena, he is a bit shy and you always need to tell him, okay, everything is fine, you do a good job, let’s do it together, and then he is a really good teacher, because I am not that experienced with a young Grand Prix horse and with him, it was really the way from Small to Big tour. From Prix St Georges to Grand Prix was really easy with him, there was nothing to complain about because he learned everything very easy and now we just need to improve – there is still a lot of space for improvement. We won some Grand Prix this year, some nationals, but to be an international Grand Prix combination, we both need to be a bit more confident, and a bit more powerful, a bit more… there’s space to improve.”

Fiderdance in the Louisdor… (Photo – K-H Frieler)

How often do you get to work with your trainer, Monica Theodorescu?

“It depends on how much time she has, how many shows I have, how many stallion shows we have. Every six or eight weeks, I come to her, or she comes to our stable.”

Tell me a little about Bonhomme? How many stallions stand there…

“We have sixteen that are breeding. It’s a lot of work but I need to say, it is the most beautiful place for horses that I know in Germany. It is not far from Berlin, thirty minutes to Berlin.”

That’s not bad, Berlin is a fun city…

“It’s like far enough away that you can work how you want to, but it is close enough to Berlin that you can party whenever you want to! I love riding for them, and love the opportunity to be the head rider there. I love to be in the stable in the evening when all the other people are gone, then I like to go through the stable and have a look at my horses, Morricone, Cadeau Noir, Fiderdance, Maracaná, D’Egalité, and they are all superstars with so much quality, there is such a great future in the whole team, in the stable and the horses, so I cannot ask for any more…”

Sounds like heaven…

“It is, it’s a kind of heaven.”

What are the most important training principles to you?

“For me the most important point is that we give the horses the chance to be horses. I love the sport, and I love to train with the horses but for me it is important that they go out, that they go to the paddock. Important that I go to the forest with them, that they canter free as they like to, that they gallop through the water, they are just… horses. In my opinion, horses are not made to be ridden, so we always need to have that in our mind, and I think it is important to give something back to them because my horses give everything for me. For sure in the training I go to the arena to do the exercises but for me, to go to the forest and let them canter as fast as they want to, is important as well.”

Whoever selected those stallions has some kind of eye…

“We have a really good team. Rebecca Gutman, she’s like the boss and for sure she has a good eye. She’s with us as the stallion shows whenever she has time, but Robert Conredel, he’s like my boss, he’s in the stable all day, he is our leader. He is at the stallion shows and has a look at every stallion and then he choses them.”

How do you keep them sane when you take them to the stallion shows? That crazy trot with everyone cheering and stomping looks like a perfect recipe for sending the horses crazy…

“There are some studs that show their stallions as much as possible at every show you can find. We don’t. We just don’t. We try that we don’t have more than three shows from January to March. Not more than three for each stallion, and I think that’s enough – then you can handle it. I always try not to take everything out from them when I go to a stallion show.”

I loved it here at Frankfurt, at the end of every test on every stallion, you dropped the rein and the horse was relaxed…

“You can teach them, it’s a big question of trust, that’s all…”

So what is the future for Lena?

“Oh, that’s a good question, maybe you can ask again in a couple of years.”

She wants to be in a team?

“Oh that’s a big question. For sure every rider wants to compete at the highest level, and for sure, the team is a big, big dream, but I know how difficult it is to do that for Germany. So I don’t actually think that much about the team, I just want to improve every day, every month, every year, then we’ll see what happens…”

“Perhaps my way is a little different, my training is a little different, because for me there is no impossible, there is a way, you will always find a way when you are searching for it. And especially with the stallions it is not always the way you want to go, but when you are searching for the right way, you will find one, and maybe it takes longer than if you just pushed them, for example, I have this outstanding Grey Flannell but he is a really sensitive horse, and I had such problems to find a way to him – it was like I rode him but I had no connection and I didn’t find any connection for a couple of months, actually maybe a year. I tried everything, I tried long reins, I tried to ride without the saddle, I tried riding in the forest, I tried everything, but finally I found a way and now he is with me and we won a three star with nearly 74% and for me, this is actually the biggest success this year because we were fighting against, we were fighting together, and now we are – I think – a perfect match.”

Lena Waldmann, remember the name, you might be reading about her for the first time, but it will not be the last time…

Lena and Grey Flanell – a perfect match