The trip couldn't have started out any better! We arrived in Düsseldorf around 9am and took the train into Aachen. After arriving in Aachen we took a taxi to our hotel and immediately walked to the show grounds and began our adventure, at this point we had been up for roughly 36 hours.
We started out by observing each team as they schooled in the arena. It was so interesting watching how each team represented their own style and training tactics. Charlotte noted how observing a team of horses lets you see general weaknesses and strengths that are common among the combinations. Being able to see one team after another allowed us to notice a clear difference in every rider and horse's mentality, training tactics and overall approach.
Part of what makes this trip so amazing is the incredible amount of people we have the opportunity to meet while we are here. Yesterday we were able to speak with Juan Matute Sr. His discussion with us was particularly interesting because he spoke about buying horses. He stressed that we should always aim to buy young horses, typically around two or three years old. In order to select a good young horse, he emphasized having a good eye and a good program that the horse can be submerssed in once it's purchased. It was particularly interesting to hear how he felt there is no need to buy the most expensive horse, that partnership and development together, as horse and rider, is the most important thing to focus on; we all laughed when he said, "If you have $2 million, buy a house, not a horse"; our money, instead, should be put money towards training. After discussing when to buy horses, we wondered what we should be looking for. A a nice walk/trot and a super canter, cheap price, personality and natural balance seemed to be the most important things. When we discussed personality, Juan emphasized that the horse's personality much match the rider's in order to ensure they will be a compatable team capable of achieving success.
Later on in the day we had the opporutnity to speak with Robert Dover and Steffen Peters. We asked Steffen how he is able to maintain such incredible harmony with his horses. His reply was through suppleness. Steffen emphasized that to achieve and maintain suppleness is one of the most important things he focuses on and he is very aware not to drive his horses too much into the hand and contact and how that can ultimately ruin the element of harmony between horse and rider. We also asked him how we as Young Riders can prepare ourselves for international competitions. His repsonse was that we should do what we are doing; watch top riders, understand what the judges want to see and watch the international standard so we have a clear picture of what we should be striving to achieve.
We asked Robert what he thought the biggest mistake is in everyday training. He felt that riders tend to practice imperfect trainging when we know it's not perfect; we accept only 50%. He used Steffen as an example, a rider and trainer who has been able to produce successful horses year after year because his mentality, rules and training program stay the same. Robert's message was that our workouts do not need to be long, but the quality needs to be 100%; ultimately, it's quality, not quantity and being midnful that we are practicing good riding all the time and that we maintain a consistent program that is proving to be successful. Along the same lines, Robert emaphsized that we ensure we are receiving the best instruction possible, which leads into our discussion with Debbie McDonald.
Debbie stressed we be accountable for our program and who we are training under. Typically, she said, if things are going well and you're program is proving to be sucessful, then riders don't change anything. If the opposite is occurring, however, we are expected to make the necessary move towards fxing our program in whatever aspect necessary. We also asked Debbie about the riders who have been based in Europe for the last few months and how they have been managing their schedules leading up to Rio. She said after Rotterdam the horses had some well-deserved downtime. Now, they work five days a week, with one hack day and lots of daily hand-grazing. The horses ship to Rio on August 1st, which means around the 28th they will work roughly 25 minutes a day with a few rest days incroporated as well. The workouts, at that point, will focus primarily on refining transitions, working on corners and paying close attention to accuracy.
A few riding and training tips we learned while observing:
* We watched Katherine Bateson-Chandler school in the arena. We noticed how, when schooling her centerline, she never halted at X. Charlotte noted that this was to prevent the horses from anticipating the halt in the test and to always practice halts anywhere but at X.
* While we watched one team school in the arena, we began disucssing the rider's general hand possition. Charlotte mentioned that a rider's hand position allows you to see whether the horse is being ridden back to front or front to back; typically, how the rider carries their hands and how much weight they appear to be holding, will allow you to see how the horse is being ridden.
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