interview – Christopher Hector
I caught up with Sönke on the first day of the Amsterdam show, and the first thing anyone does right now when they know you are Australian is ask about the fires, but for the family Rothenberger, fire is very close to their emotional edge after the disastrous fire that burned through their historic stables, Gestüt Erlenhof almost a year ago to the day…
Sönke and his sister Sanneke managed to save most of the horses but five perished in the conflagration…
“It’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever had to experience. We are happy to be back home now but of course everything has changed since, the whole perspective changes, but we are happy to have our sporthorses back home and we are slowly getting everything built back up again and we are going to be roughly finished at the end of February.”
Will it be back like it was, in the historic form?
“We try to build it historically like it used to be, but for me in particular it would have been difficult if we had built the stable exactly how it was, knowing that horses lost their lives in that stable. Maybe you remember, there was our main stable and now there are some paddocks where they can go in the day time, and our main stable is next to the walking machine and we tried to loosen it all up because it was quite tight here and there because that is how it was built in 1901. Also with the hay stored on top, that is how they used to build it, back in those times and nowadays you know it causes a lot of fire when you have hay and straw directly next to the horses – so we tried to loosen it all up, and each room that has electronic parts, if it’s a refrigerator or something like that, we try to have thick concrete walls with a lid on the top basically, so if something would catch on fire there, it wouldn’t carry on.”
You can fix the buildings but are the emotional scars still there?
“Of course, it’s something that follows you every day. The pictures are horrible and they hunt you down when you have a calm moment to think about it. In everyday life when you start working you can push it to the back a bit, but it is always there and I guess it will always stay like this, it’s something you hope no-one else will ever have to experience…”
The new Grand Prix horse – Santiano
Tell me about the horse you have here for the Amsterdam World Cup?
“Santiano (San Amour / Lord Sinclair / Dukur) is a tall horse. We have had him now three years and because he is so tall he needed a long time to get the whole puzzle together. He has a lot of potential, but putting it all together was quite a task. The last few weeks went really really well and so we are looking forward to this show, I think he needs to get a lot of experience to make this whole thing more normal for him, the whole Grand Prix, but the feeling he gives me is that he has a lot of potential for everything but that’s why we are here, to get more experience.”
Is it hard when you have had such a superstar as Cosmo when you ride the other horses?
“Of course, you feel Cosmo every day then you go on another horse, of course it is different, Cosmo is one of a kind, but nevertheless I always try to put my whole energy into each horse and try to make the most of it. I think when you see a lot of the top top horses, there are few that you say, would you have chosen this horse as a young horse on walk, trot and canter? But a lot also depends on the way the horse is ridden, how well it is performed, then you say, the natural capabilities are not wow, but you can come really really far if you ride a really correct test. You have the poll at the highest point, you have a good piaffe on the spot without travelling forward, the transitions are all perfect, and I think that is a really motivating thing when you train with every horse. Okay there are one or two horses at the very top, five or ten in the world, but with that other horse you can make it quite far, if you do good training.”
How tall is very tall?
“I think he is 1.82, 1.83, but you can’t really tell because I am also quite tall.”
When you say, because he is so tall you had to work on his strength, what particular exercises were you working on?
“He had super talent for piaffe, passage, actually for everything that has the times two coefficient like the pirouette, it’s the bits and pieces in between, like coming after the one tempis then having the collection back when you go on the centre line without having him changing behind because he is really motivated… to just have him calm and relaxed for each part of the test and that is the main task I think.”
How do you work on calmness, on the mental aspect?
“I think there are different types of horses, but with him what helped is what he knows and understands, he’s calm, and if you do something new, he is quite excited at first because he doesn’t know what you want from him. What we often practised is the one tempis, then directly take him on the centre line, collect him, to give him the feeling, okay I know what is happening now, so it is not a big surprise in the test. What I do often, is I focus on one or two exercises per day, and I work on them and try to improve them, then most of the time, you can just put it together in the test because they understand, but for him it is really important the movements in between so he knows what is happening.”
Do you do a lot of outside track work with him?
“Yeah but with him because he is big, it is important to not only have the forward but also the collection, he can really sit but you always have to ask for it again and make him feel comfortable in the collection.”
How is Cosmo at the moment?
“He is really good and we are just training like normal over the winter like we did all the other years. We have a big goal next year which will be tough anyway because for every nation only three riders are allowed to compete – okay there are four with the travelling reserve, but three who are really doing the work, and of course, the dream is to be part of the team. The last three years it has worked out quite well for us to take the time and try to improve here and there.”
That has always been your policy to show at very few shows, strategically selected…
“There’s the good example of Charlotte and Valegro and before I even brought out Cosmo, I liked the philosophy that if you have a good horse you don’t have to show him every weekend, because if he is good, people will see directly he is good, you don’t have to convince anybody. He’s only thirteen this year, everybody thinks, oh he has been going since Rio and he went to every championship since Rio, the only German horse that did that, so I think that proves that what we are doing works. My grandfather used to always say a good horse is like a machine, they only have so many hours they can run – we want to keep him safe and healthy as long as possible, because probably I will only have a horse like him once in my life.”
Who is helping you at the moment?
“My parents and Jonny Hilberath, we have a whole team.”
What will his campaign be like leading up to Tokyo?
“We had the A Squad meeting on 15th of January, so we know which competitions are part of the selection procedure for Tokyo, then we have to decide which ones we go to. Basically it is the same as other years, Hagen is important, Munich, Mannheim, the German championships in Balve, and Aachen of course. Those shows will be taken into consideration, then Monica (Theodorescu), the national coach, has to decide which three she wants.”
On the podium at the Euros with Isabell Werth and Cathrine Dufour
Are you worried about the climatic conditions you are going to find in Tokyo?
“First we have to get to Tokyo! Everyone talks about the climate and there is a lot of concern, but my horse experienced Rio, which was already quite warm and humid, Tokyo is expected to be even more hot and humid, but Rio worked out fine, Tryon, a few days were quite humid and warm. I think in the end if your horse is well trained and you have a good general conditioning, then things should be fine but we will really only know once we are there…”
Does Cosmo still have areas of improvement to come?
“He has shown that every part of the test, he can do really really good. He has scored for most movements of the test, at one time in his life, a nine or a ten, so basically the task is to put the puzzle together, and get it all done on the day and that’s the most difficult…”
Putting it together, is that what happens between your ears, is that a rider issue?
“Partly yes, it is also to have the feeling how much risk can you take, and how much risk do you want to take… If you have a good general feeling then you are more keen on taking more risks, and for the very top, you have to take a bit of a risk to get the extra marks. It’s basically like the guy in the circus, spinning the plates up in the air, it’s no good working on one plate and forgetting the others, you have to keep them all up in the air!”
Breed to the sire of Sönke’s new star, Santiano. His sire is San Amour, find out more: https://ihb.com.au/product/san-amour/
Check out all our stories from Amsterdam
Charlotte on disqualification, on coming back and Freestyle’s future