May ~ June 2013
Summer Issue $17
Christian Ahlmann Returning to the top
Hickstead
Charlotte Dujardin Olympic dressage rider
The greatest showjumping horse ever
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COntEnts
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cHristian aHLmann
On hard times, returning to the top & perfect partner Taloubet Z
news 11 jThumper e latest news ressage news 12 d The latest news
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HarLotte dujardin 13 c Olympic dressage rider op tips 19 t How to prevent winter colic
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seconds 20 60 How 60 seconds can improve your performance Hank you Hickstead 23 t One of the greatest showjumping horses ever
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raining tips 29 t From five-time Olympian Kyra Kyrklund
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E
Without rrors there are no Victories. Without Training
there are no
Accomplishments.
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Without rying there is no Hope. Without Failing
there are no
Improvements.
E
Without an ffort there is no Pride. Without Learning to Fall
you cannot
Get back Up.
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Without a hallenge there is no Objective. Without Dedication
there is no
Passion.
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Without ill there is no Teamwork. Without Trust
there is no
Chance.
This is who we are...
We are
Equestr 3
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Christian Ahlmann – on hard times, returning to the top & perfect partner Taloubet Z Christian Ahlmann has been forced to deal with rough sea. But instead of throwing the oars away, Christian found a way to ride the waves. And as everybody knows; what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger. That was just what Ahlmann showed everybody last year. First he returned to the German A-team after over three years absence, and then in April he won the Rolex FEI World Cup title on Taloubet Z. In October Ahlmann witnessed CAS throwing the Osaka Rule in the bin, bringing him back in the Olympic contest. WoSJ sat down to talk with Christian about his ups and downs, how he has fought his way back, the support that he found in those closest to him – and of course his winning ways, Taloubet Z, the Olympics 2012 and forthcoming fatherhood. We don’t go there immediately with Christian, but let’s start this story with the hardest part. At the Olympics in Hong Kong in 2008 Ahlmann’s horse Cöster tested positive on the banned substance Capsaicin, and Christian was suspended from the Games. “What happened in Hong Kong, I have to take responsibility for. But how it developed afterwards; that was not my fault,” Christian says
of how the German Equestrian Federation decided to appeal the FEI tribunal’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and asked them to double the competition ban towards Ahlmann. The federation considered Ahlmann to have committed a doping violation rather than a medication rule violation, which again requested a far severe reaction than the one Ahlmann got from the FEI. As the other riders that had horses testing positive for Capsaicin had their cases treated as medication violations, it’s understandable that Ahlmann felt harshly treated by his own federation. First he returned to the German A-team after over three years absence, and then in April he won the Rolex FEI World Cup title on Taloubet Z. In October Ahlmann witnessed CAS throwing the Osaka Rule in the bin, bringing him back in the Olympic contest. “I was struck off the German A-team list for two years, there were hearings in the FEI Tribunal, a court case in CAS – it was a really hard time for me. And after the hearings and the court case it all came up again and again. Luckily, life has moved on me,” Ahlmann says seriously of some of the hardest years of his life.
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Christian & Taloubet Z “He is a strong horse, and normally he never gets tired – he can jump for seven days in a row and still be fresh,” Christian says of his partner. Photy by Jenny Abrahamsson
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Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson
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So, how come Christian decided to go back on the German team after all this? “Well first of all, I stayed off the team for another year after my suspension. I didn’t want to go back at that time. Then I was asked to come back. I had a few meetings with Otto Becker [German Chef d’Equipe] where we talked a lot and openly together about what had happened. I started to think that I couldn’t stay angry for ever – it doesn’t do any good,” Christian says. “Then I also considered all the people who had supported me through these rough years; all the people who work for me and my sponsors who stood behind me – and I thought that me returning to the team would be a good result for them as well. Now it’s a good situation for all of us, and I’m very happy about that as times have been so rough not only for me but everybody around me,”
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the German rider says of the past and the present. And Christian made his team proud; four months after his return he won the World Cup title on home soil in Leipzig on Taloubet Z. Talk about bouncing back. “Winning in Leipzig was great! Taloubet is made for shows like that. He is a strong horse, and normally he never gets tired – he can jump for seven days in a row and still be fresh. There is no distance or fence where I’m worried that he can’t do it. There is normally no situation that he is not able to handle,” Christian explains of the Galoubetstallion. While we are on the subject of Taloubet, we ask Christian to tell us more about his famous partner. “I’ve had him for three years now. Judy-Ann [Christian’s girlfriend] rode him before me. I
was actually training went from jumping a few 1.30 classes her, and helping her to winning a Grand Prix in Hannover. out with Taloubet – but So I had to take a few steps backwards it wasn’t really working with with him after that and build him up the two of them and I took him on again for a second time, he explains. for a few weeks to help her out. But it “Taloubet also led me to start working worked so well between Taloubet and with Zangersheide. When I finished my me, so he stayed on,” Christian smiles. contract with Sprehe I moved on – and “The special thing about Taloubet is here we are.” probably his power! He has a bit of a flat canter, and I often have to put in a Christian still has his base at his family’s stride more than the other riders. But yard in Marl in Germany, but travels to Taloubet can jump from power only; it Lanaken once a week to train. Christian doesn’t matter if the fence comes right and Judy-Ann live together in Germaout of the corner and he has no canter. ny, but Judy-Ann’s base is in Lanaken. The only problem is that sometimes “We’ll see how this works when we have the power goes straight forward, and the baby in August,” Christian smiles not up,” Christian laughs. “So, I have knowing that a few things might be to get it right!” changed when an addition to the fam“Everything went really fast with Talou- ily arrives. bet in the beginning, maybe a bit too fast,” Christian says. “The first year he
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There is no distance or fence where I’m worried that he can’t do it
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sand. It went quick from the beginning with him; we started off in a 1.40 in Mannheim, then we went to Linz where he was clear and then it was Nörten-Hardenberg where he won twice. There are no problems with him, he is just so easy to handle.” “I’m lucky to have two top horses, and I will aim both of them for the Olympics. Codex One will still have to show a little more though, so he’ll go to Doha and then to Lummen after the break that he has had. Taloubet on the other hand has showed a lot already, so I can go a bit easier on him,” Ahlmann explains of his plans towards London.
Codex One is a horse Christian rates high! Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson “My yard at home has just gotten better and better over the last years and I really like it there; now we have two indoor schools and great outdoor training facilities as well. Everything is nice and new! We have about 80 horses; 40 of them are competition horses from the age of four and upwards. I have a few riders employed; one of them is Judith Emmers. She mainly rides the younger horses, but we also have three to four horses for the bigger classes for her,” Christian lets us know. “We also breed a lot, so there are many youngsters around,” the 37 year old adds. “My sponsor for the last 12-13 years has been Marion Jauß, and she has been of great support to me!”
But before London comes up it’s the World Cup final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and when we ask him about his plans Christian replies smiling; “I’ll try to take a double. If Taloubet is in the perfect shape and has the right weekend, it could happen! He’s had a long breeding season now – about five months, and after that he usually does not jump so good and needs a few classes to get going again. At the first show I went to with him in January, he did not jump one clear round,” Christian laughs. “But then on the next show he had three down in the first class, and then he jumped clear in the next. It’s hard to believe it’s the same horse when I start him up again after the breeding season, but give him a few rounds and he’s back to his usual self!”
At home in Christian’s stable is another super star; Codex One. The stallion hit it big time last year, and won the Grand Prix classes in Nörten-Hardenberg And when Taloubet is his usual self, he and Christian and Frankfurt. When we describe Codex One as can be very, very dangerous competitors. Watch out Christian’s second horse, he quickly replies that they ‘s-Hertogenbosch! are A and B, not 1 and 2 – something that says a lot about how high Christian rates this horse. “Codex One was a lot easier from the beginning than Taloubet. The feeling that Codex One gives me is that he can jump everything – really easy. It doesn’t matter if we are outside, inside, if there is water, grass or
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I’m lucky to have two top horses, and I will aim both of them for the Olympics.
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Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson
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JuMPEr nEWs
Photo by The Associated Press
Well Bob Ellis composed a relatively
straight-forward course with little technical difficulty. So naturally, it weeded out the usual suspects. However, there were some surprises…. Peter Charles (GBR), Christian Ahlmann (GER), Lisen Fredricson (SWE) and Beezie Madden (USA) were unable to qualify for the Second Round of the Individual Jumping. So even though, these three riders will still compete tomorrow for the Team qualification, Peter, Christian, Lisen and Beezie will not be in contention for an individual medal after today’s results. A concerning turn of events for Australia’s Matt Williams, whose horse Watch Me, stopped 4 strides from the water. The 9 year old gelding would not venture anywhere near the wide oxer with the water tray underneath. This should prove as somewhat of a concern for Team Australia going into Round 1 of the team Competition. This is especially surprising for Beezie, who won Individual Bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with her horse Authentic. Christian Ahlmann looked thoroughly disappointed after his stallion Codex One had troubles with the final double after sliding to a stop into the last fence. Lisen was thrown from her horse Matrix, who looked troubled from the moment they entered the ring.
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Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson
Simon Delestre with Qlassic Bois
Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson
It was Harrie Smolders and Re-
gina Z (Rex Z x Savoy Hanover) who took home the Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Nights 2013 this weekend. Harrie and the feisty mare had one of two double clear rounds, and were 0.5 seconds faster than Maurice van Roosbroeck and Calumet (Jouyeux Ardent x Ircolando) in the jump-off. Third came Wouter Devos on Tonik Hero (Ogano Sitte x Elegant de L’Ile), who had four faults in the jump-off- but the fastest time of the day..
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Margot (L’Arc de Triomphe x Galoubet A) took a popular home win in the Grand Prix Land Rover in Bordeaux after a very close jump-off. Four riders were inside the same second! Marcus Ehning with Plot Blue (Mr. Blue x Pilot) came second ahead of Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Quintero La Silla (Quantum x Chamonix). Kevin Staut and Silvana HDC (Corland x Widor) secured fourth place. Course designer Uliano Vezzani had build a course consisting of 13 fences 16 jumps. Also today’s big class had a lot of faults and seven riders chose to retire. But in the end 11 riders still went on to the jump-off where eight of them once again produced clear rounds. The double clears included Maikel van der Vleuten who celebrated his 25th birthday today with a 6th place aboard Kisby (Kaiserwind x Loberg). Congratulations!
DrEssaGE nEWs
Photo by Ken Braddick Photo by Ken Braddick
Totilas, the superstar stallion
ridden by Matthias Alexander Rath of Germany is taking a break from training and breeding, the rider told Ridehesten. com. The pair has not competed since the German championships last June, one of only two shows for all of 2012. The other was the Horses & Dreams at Hagen in Germany Matthias said that the viral infection, mononucleosis, made him too ill to ride at the Olympic Games in London last summer. Then he switched to training with former Dutch coach Sjef Janssen at Erp, the Netherlands, with Totilas and other horses. The 13-year-old KWPN black horse (Gribaldi x Lominka x Glendale), Matthias told Ridehesten, sustained a minor injury while breeding recently. But the horse was now on a break so it was not interfering with training. Matthias made his remarks at the Vechta, Germany stalion show where he showed off Fürst Romancier and Bretton Woods. No plans have yet been made for the outdoor season but he said he definitely wants to go to the European Championships in Herning, Denmark in August.
Vejer De La Frontera, Spain, Feb.
Photo by Ken Braddick
Cornerstone Event Management, organizer of several top California international dressage competitions, on Tuesday announced a partnership with Markel Insurance to launch a Young Talent Search for horses four, five and six years old on the U.S. West Coast. The Markel/Cornerstone YTS will offer more than $10,000 in prize money and awards for each age division in Training, First and Second Level tests, respectively. “Differing from the national young horse program, we have chosen to utilize standard dressage tests to evaluate performances and reward some of our outstanding young horses,” said Glenda McElroy of Cornerstone.
“There is so much talent here on the West Coast, and we need more opportunities to showcase it. I think this program will do just that.” Horses can earn an invitation to the YTS Finals in June with two scores of at least 65 per cent in designated classes at spring Cornerstone shows–Mid-Winter Dressage Fair CDI3* in Burbank Feb. 21-24; Festival of the Horse CDI3* in San Juan Capistrano Mar. 27-30; Woodside Spring Dressage in Woodside May 17-19, and Dressage at Flintridge CDI1* La Cañada May 23-26.
12–Daniel Martin Dockx and Grandioso posted a personal best score in winning the Sunshine Tour CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle Saturday, a day after capturing the Grand Prix in the first performance for the pair since competing for the Spansh team at the Olympic Games in London last summer. Daniel and Grandioso, a 14-year-old PRE stallion (Adelante x Grandiosa x Sevillano IX) owned by Hampton Green Farm of Wellington, Florida, scored 74.825 per cent. Their previous high mark for the freestyle was 73.900 per cent at this same competition a year ago. Fellow Spaniard Eduardo Mellado Murga and Piconero IV placed second on 70.000 per cent with Great Britain’s Anna Ross Davies and Pegasus MK who were second in the Grand Prix, placing third on 68.050 per cent with Maria Moura Caetano of Portugal and Xiripiti third on 68.277 per cent. Daniel and Juan Manuel Munoz, the rider of the gray Fuego that was a star of the 2010 World Equestrian Games, will be in Wellington for the PRE-Show party at the Global Dressage Festival grounds on Feb. 13.
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Charlotte Dujardin - from stable hand to Olympic horse whisperer Dressage gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin’s relationship with horse Valegro has been described as ‘telepathic.’ Five years ago, Charlotte Dujardin was an aspiring jockey who had never even ridden a dressage horse. Then she asked Carl Hester for some help. Hester, one of the country’s most successful horse trainers, was hardly short of youngsters looking for work and training in his Gloucestershire stables. But Dujardin, then barely 20, caught his eye and he took her under his wing. To say the sporting partnership they formed was fruitful would be something of an understatement, for yesterday, pupil and teacher were part of the British dressage team that won gold at London 2012. Not just any gold either. This was the medal that took Team GB’s total to 20, overtaking the tally in Beijing in 2008 and giving the cyclists the opportunity to take the overall score into uncharted territory later in the day. Nor was it 45-year-old Hester, with all his experience and accolades, that sealed the victory in the dressage. Under a slate-grey sky at the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, the master was left looking on as his 25-year-old student brought home the victory with Britain’s final round. London-born Dujardin’s near-perfect poise and control not only saw off a strong German challenge but gave her a score of 83.286 per cent, topping even Hester’s 80.571 per cent. At the end of the final, the two British riders had the highest scores of the day Dressage, sometimes derided as “horse-dancing”, is
arguably one of the most technically demanding disciplines in Olympic sport, demanding utter precision and an understanding between rider and horse than can only come from hundreds of hours of practice. In some Olympic sports, victory is clear when an athlete crosses the line, scores a goal or lands a blow. Team GB’s dressage glory was secured yesterday when Dujardin sat bolt upright on Valegro as the horse skipped gently on the spot, a stationary canter known as a piaff. That final exercise, as neatly executed as the rest of her round, confirmed that Dujardin and Valegro would score highly enough to secure first place for the British team. Indeed, her eventual score was above Hester’s or that of the third member of their team, Laura Bechtolsheimer. That was perhaps not a surprise. Dujardin and Valegro – described by some as the finest dressage horse in the world – last week broke the Olympic record by more than four percentage points in an earlier round. But what was remarkable was the consequence of Dujardin’s 83.286 score: Britain’s first ever Olympic medal of any sort in a dressage event. It was also the second equine gold of the week, following Monday’s team showjumping victory. Hester said he had never doubted that his protégé would be the one to secure victory for the team, but was coaching her to the last minute. “I told Charlotte on the way down here that some people wish it would happen, some people think
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it will happen, and you’re going to make it happen,” he said. “She just goes in and does it like the true professional.” For all that professionalism, however, the dressage team are no stranger to jokes. “I always love beating him,” Dujardin said of trumping Hester last night. However, she added: “No, seriously we’re very supportive of each other.” One of the most experienced and decorated dressage riders in Europe, Hester said he had suffered from nerves before yesterday’s final – unlike his younger female colleagues. “Both those girls are cool customers,” he said. “I am not like Charlotte, who is loving every moment and sleeping like a baby. I was up at 1.30am thinking about the task ahead.” Bechtolsheimer, from Gloucestershire, is the 27-yearold daughter of Britain’s foremost dressage trainers, who gave Hester is start in the sport. The close bonds between the three riders have made the Olympic experience more enjoyable than stressful. “It has been really good fun,” she said. “Charlotte and I compete for the dumbest blonde title and Carl patronises us.” Dujardin said she was still struggling to absorb her meteoric rise to Olympic triumph: “ It’s all so surreal. It’s the ultimate dream just to get here, to ride here and now to get a gold medal.” She credited her performance to Valegro, “a once-in-a-lifetime horse.” The dark bay
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gelding, known as Blueberry in his stable, is partowned by Hester, and he would within his rights to ride the horse himself in competition. However, such is the bond his pupil forged with the horse, he has insisted the Dujardin ride Valegro. Will Connell, Team GB’s equestrian director described the bond between the two “telepathic.” He said: “Valegro and Charlotte have developed together. The two of them thrive under pressure and are on the verge of becoming superstars.” Although Dujardin’s rise has attracted most attention, Connell insisted that the victory truly belonged to Hester. He said: “Not only has he won gold, but has also produced another gold medallist in Charlotte Dujardin. He is the consumate professional and such a nice man.” If British equestrianism is having a magical week, it is not yet over at Greenwich, it is not over yet. Today Nick Skelton will compete for individual gold in the showjumping. On Thursday Britain will now have hopes as more medals as Dujardin and Hester compete in the individual freestyle dressage final – which is set to music. Looking forward to that contest, Dujardin could not resist another jibe at her teacher. “We will be competing again in the freestyle and I will beat him again,” she promised with a smile.
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Valegro and Charlotte have developed together. The two of them thrive under pressure and are on the verge of becoming superstars. – wiLL conneLL
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My horse’s feet are as swift as rolling thunder He carries me away from all my fears And when the world threatens to fall asunder His mane is there to wipe away my tears – bonnie Lewis
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tOPtiPs
HOW tO PrEVEnt WintEr COLiC The autumn/winter is a time of lovely colors,
family get-togethers and winding down the busy show season. However, this time of year is often a time of increased colic calls to veterinarians. While not all colic episodes can be prevented, paying attention to equine management can go a long way to decrease the incidence and the suffering of episodes. Colic, which is actually not a disease itself but a sign of stomach pains, can be caused by many different factors so it is well worth every horse owner’s time to learn all they can about prevention of this syndrome. John Williams, MRCVS, is an equine veterinarian who has been in practice for many years and has seen many horses for episodes of colic during this time. “A lot depends on the weather as the temperature swings can result in frozen or ice-covered water,” Armstrong says. “This can result in horses drinking less water. At this time of year, they are also shifting from a high moisture diet (grass) to a low moisture diet (dried hay). Make sure the horse has (fresh, thawed) water available as sometimes the water may freeze during the night and not melt until late morning.” Paying attention now will help you prevent impaction colic from developing as a result of diet and weather changes and the lack of water intake. A few additional points to keep in mind for colic
prevention: Watch out for poisonous plants. Ingestion of poisonous plants could be a higher risk in the fall as hungry horses are looking for grass that is diminishing. They might start eating other plants such as red maple, and others. Pay attention to what your horses are eating, to ensure they are getting adequate forage from either the grass or the hay. Take the time to inspect your pastures and clean out weeds to reduce risk. Increasing forage intake and changing forage sources. The fall is a time of change from moisture rich summer pastures to dried hay. Try to make this transition in a gradual manner without sudden changes to the diet. The horses guts need about two weeks to shift over to different forages to reduce the risk of colic. Always have fresh, clean water available. Water needs might increase as a result of the dry grass and increased hay being consumed so make sure there is lots of fresh, clean water available 24 hours per day. Observe your horses’ behaviour to ensure that all horses are able to access the water, as sometimes in small paddocks one horse could prevent other horses from getting to the food and water sources. Check water temperature. Keep an eye on the water, and provide heated water buckets when the temperature is dropping rapidly. Monitor the amount of water consumed so that you can act in a preventive manner if there is a decrease in water consumption. Monitor hydration.
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Photos by digital-reflection.com
HOW 60 sECOnDs Can iMPrOVE YOur PErFOrManCE “If I told you that 60 seconds of focused thought could dramatically improve your dressage mark or showjumping round, would you try it? The truth is, you probably already know how to.” To illustrate this, place a bin across the room from you, screw up a piece of paper and try as best as you can to get the paper in the bin. Try it a number of times with the same piece of paper to see how good you can get. What do you notice happening just before you throw it? Most people will pause for a moment while they ‘collect their thoughts’. This is a vital part of your performance as it is preparing the brain (albeit very quickly) to coordinate your movements; this is a very quick form of mental rehearsal – the quality of which may well influence the outcome. Importantly, you often take longer for mental rehearsal when: 1) the skill gets more difficult (try moving the bin further away), and 2) getting a good result means more to you (try competing against a friend for money!). As you know, performing well at dressage or showjumping is far more complex than throwing a piece of paper into the bin. It probably also means a lot more to you,
which is why we might find ourselves thinking about an upcoming competition days in advance, even weeks. Importantly, this process is our brain’s natural way of dealing with a significant event. Unfortunately we often interfere by “trying not to think too much about it” before the event itself. This creates a tension between one half of our mind which is trying to do something in the present (i.e. tack-up or groom) whilst the other half of our mind is trying to jump ahead to the event itself. This can make us out of character (i.e. anxious, scatty or even bad tempered), otherwise known as having ‘low coherence’. This is particularly prevalent in riders that have to deal with external interferences such as a cramped warm-up arena or difficult owners! For anyone who has come to any of my Equestrian Psychology events you will have seen how coherence can be measured scientifically in riders and has been shown to have a huge impact on horses’ behaviour and therefore performance at the competition.
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At least three days before the competition:
1. Recognise exactly what challenges
you will be facing during the competition and the simple goals you want to stick to (i.e. staying relaxed, controlling your breathing, maintaining the rhythm, decisive transitions, hitting your markers accurately...). Pick two or three and write them down.
2. Close your eyes and imagine what
it would feel like to be world class at each of these attributes in turn – as if you were actually there performing. The more you practice this the more vivid it will get.
3. Rather than aiming to achieve a certain score in your test, simply set yourself the goal of re-creating the feelings associated with these key challenges just as you have imagined them (world class). Recognise that as simple as it seems, you will have to concentrate really hard to achieve this when you are actually doing it.
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The 60 Second Focus
The technique
Photos by Clark Davis This exercise will dramatically increase your coherence whenever you perform it by relaxing you physically and preparing you mentally. Take five slow deep breaths, relaxing your neck and shoulders with each and every out-breath. Think about nothing else but doing this well. This sounds easy but you will have to concentrate really hard on competition day! Now imagine doing a small chunk of your test (decide which part beforehand) by focussing on ONE of the key challenges above and doing it world class in the arena with everyone watching. Keep it slow in your mind (we naturally tend to rush our thoughts when under pressure). Stop decisively when you have finished that chunk. It doesn’t matter if you don’t do this for the whole test or round – what matters more is that you can maintain the quality of concentration for small periods – the rest will follow naturally. Get into the habit of doing this regularly during training as well as before and during competition so that it becomes second nature. The emphasis here is on quality – you needn’t give yourself too much or too long. Stick to it and notice the changes when you reflect back on your competition!
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Thank you Hickstead 1996-2011 The amazing stallion Hickstead will go into history as one of the world’s greatest showjumping horses ever. During his fantastic career with Eric Lamaze he achieved unbelievable good results – he was truly a horse of a lifetime. This is our tribute to a wonderful and beautiful horse who have created some of the best showjumping moments in history. Hickstead came to Eric in 2004 and stayed with the Canadian rider up until his sudden death yesterday. Already at the WEG in 2006 Eric Lamaze was sure he had a fabulous horse as he said; “He’s a great horse and a very good competitor. He’s got a great personality, and he’s a fun horse to ride because I know him so well. He’s feisty, he knows why he is out there, and he knows that knocking down a rail is not good! Some horses just don’t get it.” In 2007 Hickstead’s collection of medals began; he won team silver and individual bronze medals at the 2007 Pan American Games. This was also the first year that the stallion won the $1 million CN International, at the 2007 Spruce Meadows “Masters” Tournament. In October the same year Hickstead went through colic surgery, and was off for four months before he re-appeared on the international showjumping scene in February 2008.
In 2008 Hickstead and Eric wrote history when they won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. Hickstead was well on the way to becoming the King of Showjumping, and was certainly turning into the world’s most popular horse! In 2010 they followed up with a bronze medal in the individual competition at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. At the WEG Hickstead was the only horse managing four clear rounds with the four different riders in the final. Hickstead was named the Best Horse of the discipline. On the question on how he felt about Hickstead being the best horse, Eric Lamaze said that he already knew Hickstead was the best and “now these riders know as well”.This year Hickstead was runner-up in the World Cup final in Leipzig. He won the second day of the competition; showing off his amazing jumping skills with two clear rounds.
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“He’s a great horse and a very good competitor.” Photo by Dirk Caremans
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“It’s great to do well, and to add this day to Hickstead’s career was very important to me. A fantastic moment,” Eric said after his win. In September the fifteen year old won the CN International Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows for a second time; one of the most prestigious classes in the world. After the win Lamaze said; “When you’re riding the best horse in the world, it makes a big difference!” The two were truly the Kings of Calgary; this year they had several wins at Spruce Meadows. In May Hickstead won the Grand Prix in Rome and in La Baule. After their win in Rome, Eric said; “What can I say about Hickstead - he’s not really a horse, he’s a machine! To be honest I don’t think it would have been possible to go any faster than he did today - he was amazing!” The Grand Prix wins this year were some of many; Hickstead had countless victories – he also won the Grand Prix of Aachen in 2010. After the win in Aachen, Lamaze said: “He’s a horse of a lifetime, and arguably the best horse in the world.” In 2008 he was honoured with the title “horse of the year” in KWPN, and in 2010 Hickstead topped the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses (WBFSH) final FEI Word Ranking List for Jumping Horses. The WBFSH ranking is a highly prestigious title to Photo by Dirk Caremans be honoured with and include competitions over a
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Art of Equestrian
January - February 2013
year. This year Hickstead was number two overall on the same ranking – proving his consistent results! Hickstead was born in 1996, bred by Jan van Schijndel in the Netherlands. Hickstead’s original name was Opel, but his name was later changed when he got approved as a stallion and his name had to start with the same letter as his father Hamlet. The stallion was out of the mare Jomara; his dam sire was Ekstein. These bloodlines have proven to be very successful in the past. His sire, Hamlet had several good international results in addition to great success in the breeding. This stunning brown stallion was licensed and approved in several breeding associations; Hanover, KWPN, Oldenburg, Springpferdezuchtverband Oldenburg-International, Westphalia and Rhineland as well as all Southern German and new German State Verbands. He was also admitted to the Hanoverian Jumper Breeding Program. Hickstead will now live on through his offsprings. Hickstead was a horse who wrote showjumping history every time he entered the ring. He was pleasure to watch; always fighting and always wanting to win. He belonged in that environment – always wanting to do his best. The world of showjumping has lost one of its greatest horses, but his memory will live on forever.
Photo by Dirk Caremans
January - February 2013
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Art of Equestrian
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Photo by Dirk Caremans
January - February 2013
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A good rider lives on the small number of good steps and he builds on them. He forgets about the bad things. Inexperienced riders think mostly about the bad things.
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There are many roads to the top of the mountain, but the view is the same from the top.
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Never work a horse until he is sour ... especially young horses in the arena.
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When you train at home, do one thing at a timepirouette one day and half pass another, so you have time to do each thing with quality. You might choose canter work on one day and trot work on another.
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Using the Fillis method of holding the reins of a double bridle, you take the bridoon as if you were driving. It will make the muscles of the lower arm soft and it is easier to use each bit separately.
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Horse-and rider-combinations are a bit like a marriage. You have to find the horse you can work with. I like energetic, hot horses for myself.
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Every time the rider uses a hand or a leg aid, the horse must respond. Even a bad response is better than no response at all.
traininG tiPs
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With transitions, horses find their balance by themselves. A horse has a memory shorter than a dog-which might be three seconds. You must reward immediately.
Don’t bother with shoulder-in or any other movements if you are not able to influence the length of the horse’s steps. There is no hope in hell until you can.
– kyra kyrkLund
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art of equestrian
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January - February 2013
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