TPT Sterner - More than Just Horse Boarding

TOTAL SPORTS QUINTETPT STERNER 28 EQUESTRIAN EDUCATION CENTRE

More than Just Horse Boarding

By Total Sports Quinte

Jeannette Sterner, owner of TPT Sterner Equestrian Education Centre in Roslin was Just three years old when she discovered her absolute unconditional love of horses. From the beginning, Jeannette started with vaulting to find the correct balance and had her first riding lesson at the age of six. At seven years old, Jeannette received her own pony named Schwalbe, a gift from her grandma. Jeannette was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and came to Canada in 2010 for personal reasons. The plan was to be in Canada for what she thought would be just a brief visit. She fell in love with the country and the people and wanted to raise her son in this beautiful country.

The name, TPT is the German short form for Animal Physiotherapy, which Jeannette actively practiced in Germany. She is a licensed Physiotherapist in Germany. TPT Sterner first and foremost is about the care of the horse and the proper riding techniques of the rider. The focus is to keep the horse healthy and fit; to develop horse and rider to their fullest potential so that riding becomes effortless and enjoyable for both. Jeannette says she keeps a close eye on the horses muscle and movement and teaches her students how it feels when the horse is using its body correctly so that they can recognize if something is wrong. The earlier the rider can address muscle or body problems, the easier it can be corrected. A horse is an athlete and needs to be treated as such.

Jeannette has quite the history of Equine achievements that include some of the following;

At the age of 5 years old - Winning the regional championships in Germany with the vaulting team. Just 11 years old - Her greatest emotional achievement was winning A-Dressur equivalent to 2nd level dressage regional championships, with her pony Schwalbe, who was by far not a great mover, but they rode correctly and harmoniously. At the age of 14 Jeannette competed in the 1.35 Show-jumping 1999 - 2008 - Competing up to Prix St. George in dressage and 1.45m in show jumping. 2012 - Her first show year in Canada in the A-Circuit show jumping - successful in 1.15m and 1.25m. 2017- Successful in the 5 year old show jumper class. 2019 - Becoming Ontario and Eastern Canada Champion with a client’s horse in first level dressage.

Many people have influenced the career of Jeannette Sterner. Jeannette says that riding is like a jigsaw puzzle that you will never be able to finish, but the picture gets clearer with every piece you add from various coaches. “I have been fortunate to have had Ingrid Klimke, Olympian Gold Medalist in Eventing and Helen Langehanenberg Olympian Silver Medalist in Dressage as well as Sabine Becker and Claudia Graff National Grand Prix rider as mentors for dressage; Jochen Schneider, National Eventing rider, Lars Meyer zu Bexten trainer of the German junior show jumpers and Volker Schmidt FEI level 3 course designer as my mentors in jumping and course design” says Jeannette. She goes on to say, “Becoming a physiotherapist for horses in Germany was a huge influence to my career.” To be able to understand muscle function and how it connects to riding enabled me to fully understand what good riding and bad riding is and how it affects the horse”.

Learning from Eckart Meyners (Professor of Sports Physiology and Body Movement at the University in Luneburg/GER) how to analyze and correct a riders seat through ground exercises, improved her coaching skills tremendously in helping the rider to sit relaxed and correct on the horse. Horse and Rider become a unit. Another puzzle piece was brought to her by Tristan Tucker’s methods TRT. His program taught her how to handle and correct horses with anxiety and behavior issues. Anxiety or behaviour issues can get dangerous for both horse and rider.

Jeannette says, ‘to teach a horse WHAT to do when they are scared is the road to success’!

Jeannette’s phrase:

The Will of a horse is controlled by trust, Not fear. To Carry a horse in your hand, you need Mutual Respect!

TPT Sterner offers training and lesson boarding programs. The barn stalls are 14ft x 13ft and their deluxe outdoor stalls are 12ft x 14ft with attached sand and grass paddocks for individual turnout. TPT is very proud to have 2 outdoor sand riding arenas (80’ x 200’ and 120’ x 250’) and 1 grass-jumping ring.

As an exciting addition, TPT Sterner will have a new indoor arena built this fall, small but pretty 60’ x 120’.

Jeannette offers a customized training program for horse and rider.

Most important for Jeanette is that a rider learns HOW to give the proper aids; WHEN to give the aids and HOW it feels when the horse responds to those aids.

The will of a horse is controlled by trust; Not fear. To carry a horse in your hand, you need mutual respect.

The rider can make many mistakes when the aids are not correctly placed or put into practice. This will cause confusion to the horse and will end up in a stressful workout for horse and rider. Riding needs to be easy for both.

Nutrition is the first thing to achieve improvements in your horse. “We are proud to feed all horses in our care Cavalor grain” says Jeannette. Cavalor is an international premium feed from Belgium and TPT became an official FEI partner in 2019. Jeannette says, “I stand behind Cavalor with such conviction that I became an official retailer of their products”.

Jeannette goes on to say, “this grain has no comparison to any other North American product and allows you to tailor a feeding program to each individual horse”. “From the look, to the smell, to the taste, you want to put it in your own cereal bowl. Cavalor grain keeps your athlete healthy from the inside out”.

Blanketing and booting is a given as well as feeding supplements as needed. TPT stalls are cleaned twice daily and they feed hay as much as they need 24/7. “At our night check at 11pm, every horse gets his goodnight treat”, says Jeannette.

Jeannette Sterners vision is to build an established Equestrian Education Centre, providing continuous learning. “We will be offering several clinics with internationally recognized clinicians and myself for Dressage, Show-jumping and I will be giving Horse Muscle clinics and Movement clinics for riders in the style of Eckart Meyners” says Jeannette. TPT will be hosting schooling shows and organizing an annual charity show to support the Breast Cancer Association, which is important to Jeanette, to support her friends who have been ill to the disease.

Feedback from clients is that the care of their horse at TPT Sterner is exceptional, with the overall atmosphere heartwarming and the education they receive is beyond what clients have experienced in the past. Another statement she often hears; “Everything Jeannette explains makes sense and now I know what I’m supposed to do. Riding becomes easy with Jeannette”.

Jeanette concludes by saying, “I think my variety of expertise and equine passion makes TPT Sterner a special place like no other”.