One of the amazing features of the German equestrian scene is the depth and knowledge, and talent, of its members. Christopher Hector recalls and enjoys the successes of one of his favourite riders, from afar, a few days ago I saw that she had placed third in the Grand Prix at Herzlake, with a score of 70.39 with Soiree d’Amour, a horse she has brought all the way through the ranks….

Kira and Soiree d’Amour – Jacques Toffi photo

The first time I really became aware of Kira Wulferding’s special talents when we were visiting another good friend, Wolfram Wittig, back in 2009. The day we visited, there was Kira working with two very talented stallions, Revan and Rubinero. Both Rubinstein sons were owned by Gedula Vorwerk of the Vorwerk Stud, which sadly no longer exists.

 Kira and Rubinero

Rubinero is very much a Vorwerk product. He is by Rubinstein, perhaps the most famous stallion discovered by Gedula, and out of a mare by the half-blood, Ex Libris, and in turn out of a mare carrying the blood of the two stallions that made her father, Georg Vorwerk famous, Furioso II and Inschallah.

The stallion starts out showing his wonderfully clear walk, before Kira seamlessly slides into the collected work, piaffe and passage. Sure, the movements are not perfect every time, but the rider keeps quietly asking, and every now and then, it comes, and then it is wow! It is the same in the canter work, collect, collect, collect, the stallion practically cantering on the spot before trying some half pirouettes, coming out and holding the counter canter through the corner. I remark to Wolfram how boring it is, that good trainers just keep doing the same old things over and over…

Wolfram tells us:

“If a horse is four years of age or fourteen, it does not matter, every day you have to train the basic work. It is the most important thing. Once you have the basic work, then you can improve with the exercises later on. If the basic work is not well done, then you will have problems with each new exercise.”

Kira and the other Vorwerk stallion, Revan, a full brother to Lisa Wilcox’s Medal ride at the 2002 WEG,, Relevant

It was interesting in the exercise with the half pirouette, holding the counter canter through the two corners of the arena, when the easy thing would have been to do a flying change – is that important, to keep control of the side of the horse?

“If we train the half pirouette in that way, then we do four or five to each side, and not every time changing to the other lead. We have to make sure that this pirouette was okay, and then you start the next exercise. Because if the first to the left is not okay, and then you do the next to the right, for the horse it is quite difficult. First make sure that on the left it is really good, and then do it to the right, and when that is good, you can do one left, one right, then that is it – just to test.”

You don’t do anything special with the horse’s frame, it is all in a very natural position…
“That’s how it should be. I like to work the horses with a normal snaffle bit in a normal frame. The horse has to carry the weight, not the rider. We are not here to carry the neck or to carry the head.”

With a very professional rider like Kira, then it is easy?
“Yeah, it is a nice job, the rider is very talented, and very willing, then it works together, we are very definitely not the enemy of the horse.”

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Fast forward to 2017 and the Christmas Frankfurt Horse show and share a conversation in the stands with Susanne Miesner, who is not only a Grand Prix rider, and a top trainer, but also an acute observer of the dressage scene. Susanne summed up Kira’s qualities perfectly:

“We have a problem with the English word, ‘looseness’, it just means loose, it can have the meaning of sloppy, asleep. Then on the other side we have ‘tension’ – jammed. No matter if you are a horse, a rider, a dancer, or even a tennis player, tension is your enemy. I think suppleness is the correct expression, suppleness, not looseness. Suppleness means that the muscles contract and de-contract, and this has to go through the entire horse, it cannot be blocked in the middle of the back, and it also has to go through the rider. We were talking about Kira Wulferding, and she is one of those riders who really sits supple, she is not loose, she is not tense, she is supple – the movement of her horse also goes through her body and vice versa, so suppleness is really contraction, de-contraction.”

Kira and Soiree D’Amour in the Burg Pokal in 2017

“You ask, how can we recognize suppleness? Well we all know the horse’s tail has to be carried, it should swing in little waves through the back, and there is an old saying that the tail is the last part of the back, it actually belongs to the back, so in most horses – if they don’t have an injury – you can see from the tail what the back is doing. You can see suppleness by observing how the rider can sit on the horse and not on top of the horse.”

Kira and Soiree D’Amour 

Of course Wolfram was at Frankfurt 2017 where three of his team were starring – Kira, Marcus Hermes and Matthias Bouten.

It’s hard to reproduce on paper (or for that matter on a screen) what talking with Wolfram Wittig is like, there is a wicked gleam to the trainer’s eye as he refuses to take the world too seriously. He got me into serious trouble one time with Isabell Werth, who he was working with at the time. When I arrived at her home for an interview, there on the table was a copy of THM, opened to an interview with Wolfram, and with his statement that ‘dressage is like a peep show, it doesn’t matter how it feels, as long as it looks good…’ in vain I pointed out to Ms Werth that the words were Wolfram’s not mine, she was not amused – but he is, amused that is, and most of the time!

Kira is a fabulous rider, she has this quality of softness but effective softness, she’s not a dolly rider, she gets the job done, but you never see never a rough move. Was she always an exceptional rider – or did she have to work on it?

“She works, she had a very good training from her father, but she is always interested in updates, and she is always working 100% professional. That’s what I like about her – and she is even a very good rider for difficult horses.”

Wolfram at home with the stallion Breitling

But now she has been with you for over twenty years, would you like to see her with a competitive Grand Prix horse, team horse?

“Yes, absolutely, but we are never focused on the team, our job is to be as good as possible and in a very fair combination with our horses, that’s the main goal. Now the next step for her, should be the Grand Prix and let us see – we are not in a hurry, we are not under pressure. If it works, good, if not…”

Kira and Soiree D’Amour in the Burg Pokal in 2017

And THM comment on the test:
The frame gets better – longer – when Kyra opens up the trot, and the rhythm has been like a metronome. A lovely long engaged walk and nicely back for super half pirouettes. The canter keeps that rhythm and is oh so light to the ground.

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Kyra and Soiree D’Amour, now competing successfully at Grand Prix level in 2021
Image Jacques Toffi

THM asked Kyra in 2018, Do you prefer working with young horses or with the Grand Prix horses?
“More with the young horses, it is interesting to me, the younger horses.”

Do you still have the ambition to be a Grand Prix star?
“I hope in the next year, I will do well in Grand Prix… I hope next year to do Grand Prix with the ten-year-old, the San Amour mare, Soiree d’Amour, she was here last year in the Nürnberger Burg-Pokal.”

And that is just what she did… Enjoy more pictures and words about Kira and her rides…

Kira and Brianna placing at the Bundeschampionate 

Kira Wulferlding has ridden many horses at the Bundeschampionate over the years and it shows. When she rode the Bvlgari/ Rohdiamant mare Brianna 9, Kira showed such amazing feel.

Christoph Hess pointed out in his commentary on the test Kira’s skill before the first lengthening, “Look, she waited for the hind leg to come rather than push and over ride.”

Kira and Brianna at the Burg Pokal 

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Chris Hector talking to Christoph Hess who was commentating:
Today, I was standing out the back watching Kira Wulferding warm in one of her horses and I thought this was worth 30 hours travel just to see how beautiful a warmup can be with a wonderful rider and a beautifully trained horse… There could have been a thousand people videoing on their mobile phones and they wouldn’t have found one frame they could use on the social media to criticise the rider…

Christoph:
“I agree 100%, and Kira is a good example, she can ride during the test with a long rein, she can give the rein, re-take the rein. When she had finished her test, I said that I loved to watch her, and I could watch her every day, every minute, because I love the way she trains her horse.”

Kira and Bonita Springs in the Burg Pokal – here’s the caption from the report