Trainers from around the world don’t come to Australia with a revolutionary training method, but they do shake things up. Each time I go to a clinic I’m reminded of the basics – the scale of training, the connection from the inside leg to the outside rein, the principles we all know…yet these are the areas we need to work on most.
So how do trainers manage to keep things fresh year after year? Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to make you realise you aren’t pushing your boundaries, you’re settling for less, and with a bit of coaxing you realise there’s a little more expression there you didn’t know you had. By breathing life into tired methods, visiting clinicians air out what has gone stale and shed light on dark places we’d rather not visit.
Hubertus Hufendiek is a humble and dedicated dressage rider. He may not have a startling reputation of Olympic medals and World Cup performances, but he has impressed some of the most respected riders in the world and he certainly has a knack for explaining the often-bamboozling art of dressage.
Hubertus took up the reins at ten years of age: “I was not interested in dressage at all. When I was young I played soccer and I don’t know why I started riding but I really enjoyed it.”
It might have had something to do with the family farm: “My Grandfather bred horses for farm work, but at the beginning of the last century we started using tractors instead of horses. We stopped breeding work horses and started breeding them for dressage and jumping, performance horses.”
Both of Hubertus’s parents went on to ride at Grand Prix level dressage and his father, Peter, even visited Australia many years ago to give dressage clinics in Victoria. It was Peter’s influence that saw Hubertus succeed in dressage from a young age: “I had lots of hard lessons with my Dad from the beginning. I think it’s important to have a good start in riding when you’re young. It’s not enough to have a good natural feeling on a horse, you have to be disciplined and hard working as well.”
When Hubertus was just 14 years old he started training with Olympic medallist Hubertus Schmidt: “Schmidt was working as a Bereiter for a good friend of my family, so I was able to go there in the school holidays. I worked ten hours a day for one lesson at the end, which was great for me, and somehow Hubertus really liked me.”
Two years later, when he was 16 years old, Hubertus stumbled upon his first Grand Prix mount: “I was so lucky to get this horse. The rider couldn’t handle him, he was so strong and stubborn, but somehow I found a way to ride him. He took me to International competitions and we had a lot of success in the Junior and Young Rider ranks. It was just a matter of getting the right horse at the right time.”
After finishing school, doors opened for Hubertus that led to a riding career: “I wasn’t sure what to do or what to study, and I already had an offer from Hans Max-Theurer in Austria. So I thought okay I’ll see if I can do this. I went there and they paid me as though I was already a qualified Bereiter, which I wasn’t. So the money was good and there were plenty of nice horses to ride. Riding for eight or ten hours a day is a little different from doing it as a hobby, but I enjoyed it.”
When Hubertus Schmidt had two bereiters leave his stable, Hubertus got a call: “The bereiter position is very important because International riders are often going away for the big shows or giving clinics in other countries, so you have to have a reliable person at home. My advantage was that he knew me and how my riding is and that I was reliable. It was great for me and I stayed there for five or six years.”
Now a qualified Pferdewirtschafts Meister, Hubertus has his own barn with 25 horses. His specialty is the FEI work: “I’m very interested in the Grand Prix, more than working with the young horses. There are many people in Germany who are very good at starting young horses and I don’t have to do something that a hundred other people can do. I’d rather do something other people struggle with and I learnt to ride Grand Prix with one of the best trainers in the world, so I feel this is my expertise.”
This presents the challenge of training horses already set in their ways: “I get the problem horses because if you want to make money in this you have to get a horse that’s cheap and fix it up. I grew up with always having to ride the horses that were just there, I couldn’t say, ‘Hey dad I need another horse.’ So I learnt to make the best with what I had. Everybody can see when a horse is super moving and well trained, but these horses are super expensive, so it doesn’t make sense for me to buy and resell them.”
The challenge for every professional is keeping the ride on a talented horse to realise their dreams: “I try to train as many horses to Grand Prix as I can and hopefully have a special one that I don’t have to sell. For most professionals, if they have a good horse, they work hard for their money, and then the owners sell it. That’s why my goal in riding is not to go to the Olympics or anything like that, I just want to make a good living out of this because I enjoy working with the horses.”
Hubertus values achievements in training over competition: “I want to keep improving my riding until I get as close to perfection as I can, so the horses enjoy the work and I refine my communication with them. It’s not so much competition focused, but I think you can be just as proud of a normal horse who you’ve gotten to do something amazing for their ability.”
Recognising the limits in both horse and rider determines Hubertus’ teaching goals as well: “My job is always to make it better, to get the best out of horse and rider. Sometimes you must say, ‘Okay it’s not going to work, we’ll leave it like it is.’ Others you can really push and make a difference with.”
Teaching has always been in Hubertus’s nature: “I started to teach the neighbour’s girls when I was 14 years old because it was good for a little money. There are a lot of riders who hate teaching and it’s something you really have to learn. Just because you’re a good rider, doesn’t mean you can teach. We have amazing riders in Germany but many can’t even explain what aids they use for a transition from walk to canter.”
Hubertus believes you can’t rely on making a living from riding horses forever: “Riders have a big problem later when they get back problems or an injury and they can’t make money from riding anymore. My dad always said to me, ‘Teaching is a good way to make money without destroying your body.’ So I learnt to teach riding and I like it because I feel I can help people from the ground, I can think myself into the situation and help them.”
This was Hubertus’s first trip to Australia and he found most problems could be fixed by going back to the German Training Scale: “We had lots of issues with straightness and a lack of impulsion, horses not being sensitive to the driving aids. This leads to trouble when they get to FEI. You could see the FEI horses that were here today were working on the same thing as the young horses.”
“Whether they’re Grand Prix or five-years-old, you can’t ask for collection without impulsion. You could see the combinations that had done this had no swing, they’re behind the vertical. They need to go one or two steps back on the training scale and not try to get collection by working backwards, they need to get the horses in front of them again.”
Hubertus is excited about the talent in Australia: “It’s a nice country, nice people and good horses. I was surprised with the quality of horses that are here.”
This comes as no surprise, considering he was working with some of the best riders in Australia and on some seriously talented horses. At the new Queensland Equestrian Centre in Caboolture, Hubertus started the clinic with a session on establishing the basics: “In everyday training it’s very important every session starts with a warm-up. The goal is loosening the muscles and relaxing the brain. You want to stretch the horse.”
Getting the horse swinging through the back is the aim: “It’s the same for every horse. With a young horse, say three, four, and sometimes even five year olds, the goal of the whole session is to get a loose, swinging back. How long this takes depends on the horse, it takes as long you take to reach your goal.”
Hubertus has a clear list of priorities in a training session: “Every time you train you have to have a plan. Always start with the easier things like shoulder-in and travers, before half pass and pirouette work. When I have reached the highest level of throughness I’m ready to work on piaffe and passage. Even though they may not have as much energy at the end of the session it doesn’t make sense to train these movements if the horse isn’t through.”
With Amy Zeller and her charismatic four-year-old, Leadburn Sundance (Sunny Boy / Falkland Victory), Hubertus focussed on the early stages of dressage training: “Remember, horses balance with their neck and head. Watch a horse walk freely and you will see he bobs his head. The rider must allow with their hands, like Amy is right now, so they don’t hinder with the neck. Otherwise the walk will deteriorate.”
Not interfering with the contact allows the horse to find their rhythm: “Give them time to do this and have a feel for the natural rhythm, that they aren’t running, nor are they behind the leg. It’s important we don’t work from our hands backwards, always come with the driving aids first. The more forward you ride a young horse the easier it is for them to balance, but each horse is different and you must develop a feeling for each horse’s rhythm.”
Knowing what to accept in the early stages of training is vital: “It’s okay to let a young horse lean against the wall of the arena in the beginning, but as soon as they feel more confident work on large circles and serpentines. Young horses are like young children – they cannot concentrate for 60 minutes. If you’re riding a horse do it correctly, be strict about what you want but don’t demand too much from the horse, you need to have a feel for what the horse is capable of.”
“When the horse puts his head up, the only solution is to drive him forward into a soft contact until he comes back into a working frame. You should not immediately pull the neck down. When you watch a professional rider you will see they allow the horse to look up and keep them forward into a soft contact, maybe they’ll bring them onto a circle or flex them. But there’s a difference between a horse that wants to look around and one that avoids the bit.”
“You’ll notice with a young horse their best canter strides are always the first ones, then they start running. So if we want to build the strength of the canter we don’t do 20 rounds of the arena in canter, we do lots of transitions until the canter is stronger. Have a feel for your horse’s limitations so you know when you’re asking too much.”
Next into the arena was Jayden Brown riding San Andreas (Sandro Hit / Walt Disney) who is owned by Beau Dowsett. Although San Andreas is four years old, the work was different to the early stages of training shown with Amy’s gelding of the same age. Hubertus explained: “This horse is already showing straightness and impulsion, so although he’s only four he can work on collection.”
Developing the carrying power behind takes time: “Make sure before you collect the horse they are pushing from the hind legs. If we don’t have impulsion, we have nothing to collect. Before you take your session to the next level go through your checklist – rhythm, looseness, contact, impulsion, straightness. You can have all these right and then ask more from behind and they’ll go crooked. So you correct it and keep trying.”
“Jayden must try to work the horse to his limit everyday to improve him. If you want to do 200 sit-ups you aren’t going to get there by training ten everyday. I would rather ask for a horse’s best canter for two minutes than let him cruise around for ten minutes.”
“Now we see he’s getting tighter in the jaw. You can try flexing him to soften, but if it’s still not working after three rounds you have to take a step back. Put him deeper in the contact to make it easier for him.”
Push the boundaries with transitions: “Watch Jayden ride a half halt, he stretches down through his seat into his heels and keeps the contact to check the horse back. Then Jayden releases and he is light. Work on getting the strides longer, not faster, so the hindlegs are pushing forward and he’s coming uphill into the contact.”
After a break it was time to work on developing collection with transitions from canter to walk. Instead of pulling the horse into walk with the hands, Hubertus uses a simple exercise: “With a young horse it helps if you put them on a small circle or use the wall to bring them back to walk. Collect the canter as you come down the long side of the arena, and then ask for walk when you’re facing the wall. It will make it easier for them to accept the transition without you pulling on the reins.”
Time for something tougher: “We can see this horse is on the aids so we’ll try for some counter canter. Just start in right canter on the diagonal, then go counter canter onto the short side, and then come back on the diagonal to the leading side. Don’t go deep into the corners, make it easy for him so it’s a positive experience. You should always be in shoulder-fore even in counter canter, so the hindleg is always jumping in between the two front legs.”
The counter canter was effortless – this isn’t always the case: “This horse is very clever and has no weaknesses in any of his paces. But with a horse that isn’t as naturally talented as this one, if you try the counter canter loop three times and each time the horse breaks into trot, or does a flying change, or disunites, you know it is too early to ask. Then you go back a step and keep working on building the strength in the canter until you are ready to try counter canter again in a few weeks.”
The next combination into the arena was the powerful eight-year-old gelding Flavio (Florestan / Wolkenstein II) and Nicole Tough. Hubertus felt they needed to work on establishing throughness: “I have been teaching these riders for a couple of days and Nicole was having trouble pushing Flavio into the bit. The horse was light in her hand, so she had a good feeling, but he was behind the bit.”
Making it a difficult problem for the rider to spot: “It feels nice when they are behind the bit because you think you have self-carriage, but later, when you push them more forward from behind to take the bit, they can’t do it, and you see we have a problem.”
The solution is impulsion: “The horse is not stretching enough. Go forward but don’t put him deeper, put him longer, make him stretch forward into the contact. We don’t have the bridge from the legs over the back and into the contact, we need to have this connection so we can work with the power from the hind legs.”
“If there’s no reaction from your leg aid, tuk with the whip to get their attention. Tuk once hard, not five times half-hearted. Even if it’s hard for us to smack the horse hard once, it’s a lot more positive to have a sensitive horse than one you are pushing all the time. Be strict, expect the horse to react, but show him he did the right thing when he does react. You cannot punish a horse that doesn’t know what to do. Be strict with your aids for three days in a row and on the fourth day you’ll find you get a reaction from a light aid, just try it.”
“To develop strength Hubertus asks for short efforts, otherwise the horse will sour: “Half halt, you can help him in the rhythm with the whip but don’t stay in it too long. The rider needs to have a good feeling to know when it’s enough, get the reaction you want and then let him out.”
The next FEI combination was the elegant Kristen McAuslen and the 12-year-old gelding BD Bellissimo (Benito / Herbststurm). Hubertus wanted to make everything bigger and better: “Before you do a flying change ask for more canter. The quality of the canter suffers if there’s no impulsion and if you try to collect from this the steps will only become short and tight.”
“Even if you risk making a mistake in the flying change we have to try for a more expressive change or we’ll never improve. The canter into the change is too sticky. Drive him into more of a working canter before the change. Risk a mistake or you’ll never get better, don’t settle for that small, safe change just because you’re scared of making a mistake. If you settle for a safe change in training, you will only every get a safe change in competition.”
Improve the basics, and you improve the tricks: “Make sure he’s really sitting before you start the pirouette, he’s not really in a pirouette canter until the third stride in and by then you’ve lost your line. Don’t wait too long, bring him back, take as long as you need to get him sitting enough to start the pirouette, then start. The second half of the pirouette must be bigger than the first half so you have control over the size, they like to loose their line in the first half and then lose the jump and spin in the second half.”
Having more control over the movement was also the focus of Danielle Dowsett’s lesson with her ten-year-old gelding Waitano (Wolkentanz): “Keep the pirouette canter, but ride a bigger pirouette, you need to keep a contact with your inside leg to keep him from spinning into the pirouette. This is a common problem and the solution is to keep training the pirouette canter but to get more control, keep the pirouette big until you have complete control.”
Riding is one craft that is never completely mastered, there’s always room for improvement and refinement, which is what makes it as alluring and maddening as it is – one thing is for certain, you can never get bored training dressage!
