Our Philosophy
In our work with the horses we follow in the footsteps of the old masters. The training method that we practice and teach is shaped by our teachers, all of whom are associated either with Egon von Neindorff’s school or the tradition of the old Spanish Riding School. The writings of the great riders and thinkers of the last five centuries have also influenced us significantly, especially Gustav Steinbrecht, E.F.Seidler and Friedrich von Krane. Alois Podhajsky, Waldemar Seunig and Nuno Oliveira play an important role as well. These artists in the saddle outlined a gymnastic training path that can be customized for each individual horse. It helps each horse to reach his full athletic potential, regardless of which breed or type it is or what its day job is. Horse gymnastics is suitable not just for dressage horses, but jumpers, eventers, trail horses, and even western horses and gaited horses improve with respect to their rideability, reliability, suppleness, and soundness.
One of the main goals is to make the horse more agile, so that it can turn faster and more easily, and that it is able to shift its weight effortlessly from one side to the other and from one leg to another. The guiding question for the rider is: „What can I do to make the work, i.e. carrying the rider’s weight, as comfortable as possible for the horse? How can I guide my horse so that it can execute all turns, transitions, and movements as smoothly as possible?“ Balance and suppleness are core considerations in this context.
In each training session and each riding lesson we analyse which body parts are stiff, which ones are supple, which muscle groups are weak, which ones are well developed, which elementary demands are difficult for the horse, which requirements it can fulfill easily, which joints are limited in their range of motion, etc. These stiffnesses and weaknesses are then eliminated with specific exercises.
Riding used to be called very accurately a „thinking sport“ in Vienna. We want to teach both horse and rider to think. The rider has to learn to analyse and diagnose like a physician. One goes through a continuous cycle of observation > analysis > diagnosis > correction/therapy > observation of the result, etc. We create a data base for each horse that contains all observations that we make during the work. It contains such things as how well the horse bends left and right, how it executes transitions, how it executes each movement, what needs to be observed during transitions from straight lines to curved lines and vice versa, how the rider needs to distribute his weight on the horse’s back, among many other things. This data base is updated in each work session, as horses change and evolve over time. This way, the rider does not miss the beginning of a new trend, positive or negative. Through this thoughtful approach to training the rider gets to know his horse inside and out, because all exercises, all arena patterns, all turns, and all movements are diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic tools. They tell us what is difficult for the horse, where there are holes in the training, where its talents lie, and where its weaknesses are.
The horse, too, should learn to think as a result of its training. It has to learn to manage its balance under the rider so that it can execute each turn, each transition, and each movement without loss of tempo, balance, suppleness, or rein contact. This requires that it is aware of which hind leg is supporting or pushing at any given moment, and that it is able to shift the load deliberately from one leg to any other. It should come to be able to solve the tasks that are presented by the rider more and more independently, so that the rider can use his aids more and more sparingly.
Everything we do with the horse must serve its physical and mental wellbeing. All other considerations, such as show schedules, are of lesser importance. For how good is it, if a horse is trained to Grand Prix in record time, just to go lame permanently by the time he is 12 years old? Or if a horse wins at 3rd level at 6 years old and is then burnt out mentally and physically so that it never gets beyond 3rd level, when it could have not only gone on to Grand Prix with the correct handling and training, but would also have remained physically and mentally sound? We agree therefore completely with Waldemar Seunig (1949) who writes: “A dressage training whose end result is not preservative, among other things, has no raison d‘être and should not even be attempted in the first place.”
Everything we do with the horse, every interaction, every aid, every exercise or movement is a learning experience for the horse and makes it either better or worse. There is no middle ground. We must therefore make sure that everything aims at improvement so that we don’t inadvertently sabotage our success through thoughtlessness.
The training must make the horse more reliable and obedient, and it must tune it better to the rider’s aids, regardless of the surroundings and the circumstances. Dressage training used to be mostly a preparation for the work of a war horse or hunting horse. The rider’s life and health often depended on the quality of his horse’s dressage training. Today that is unfortunately no longer the case, and in an age where many horses only have to perform dressage tests in an enclosed arena instead of taking natural obstacles outdoors and where the quality of the breeding programs has reached a record high, many riders are tempted to merely teach their horse tricks instead of giving it an education, and the trick trained horse is not really honestly on the aids. The true test of the quality of the training consists of the way in which the horse behaves in difficult situations with many distractions.
Trust and obedience are two sides of the same coin. One cannot have one without the other.
Dressage is a systematic training process that helps the horse to carry the rider’s weight with the greatest ease, so that it moves with the same grace and freedom of motion under the rider as at liberty. The rider therefore has to learn to eliminate the negative impact of his weight on the horse’s back through the skillful management of his seat and weight, so that the horse’s back can swing as freely as possible.
Each new training step must be sufficiently prepared and explained to the horse, so that one the one hand it understands what is being asked and that it is physically and mentally ready for the task, on the other hand.
The horse determines how fast one can proceed with the training, since each learning step must be confirmed first, and the horse has to be comfortable with the demand, until it is possible to move on to the next task. „Education, not exploitation“ is the motto.
In this context it is important that the rider is aware of the horse’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and that he respects the horse’s limitations, since not every horse is talented enough for Grand Prix or high school level work. It would be unfair to the horse to ask him to do something for which nature hasn’t given him the talent.
Every exercise and every movement influences the horse’s gait and posture in a specific way, since it addresses specific muscle groups. It is the rider’s job to select the right exercises for each horse, so that its natural gaits and its posture continue to improve.
Since (classical) dressage is supposed to be nature oriented, the movements we teach the horse must be either among those that the horse shows in the pasture at liberty, such as flying changes, piaffe and passage, or airs above the ground, or they have to be gymnastic exercises that improve the balance, straightness, or suppleness, such as the lateral movements. Movements that don’t fall under either category are excluded from the training.
Movements that are ridden without any positive impact on the horse’s gait and posture are mere circus tricks and used to be called „Pudeldressur“ (poodle dressage) and have no place in a gymnastic training system.
The areas in which the rider constantly has to strive for improvement are the increasing finetuning of the horse to the aids so that the horse responds immediately to light aids, which used to be called „Sekundengehorsam“ (responsiveness within the same second), regularity in rhythm, tempo, and stride length, precision of the arena patterns, suppleness, permeability, balance, a light, steady, even rein contact, the correct alignment of the horse’s hips and shoulders on the chosen line of travel, impulsion, and the gradually increasing transfer of the weight towards the haunches (collection).
(read also Philosophical Guidelines for Classical Dressage)
