As a native German, U.S. Olympic silver medalist Sabine Schut-Kery was well versed in classical dressage principles before riding in Ingrid Klimke’s Masterclass in Southern California late last year. However, hearing the German Olympian convey her passion for those principles and for the horses and riders striving to embody them never gets old.
“With everybody focusing so much today on the front legs and the neck being in the right place, I thought it was really a good reminder that the only way we get those parts correct is if the horse is ridden properly, with connection through the whole body and starting with the hind end,” Schut-Kery said.
The reality that every correct movement starts with hind-end engagement and propulsion was a recurring theme throughout the two-day clinic, held at Galway Downs Equestrian in Southern California’s Temecula. It’s true for everything from a well-executed walk, corner or halt in a First Level test to a Grand Prix pirouette. And it’s true for successfully navigating any course question or obstacle that comes up on cross-country or stadium jumping.
Focusing on hind-end engagement is one of a few training basics that must be achieved, Klimke emphasized. “If you don’t get the basics right, you get a horse that can do tricks but can’t do a half-halt.” And half-halts are one of Klimke’s most often used tools.
A patient, individualized approach to those basics comes from a wellspring of love for the horse. “I love horses,” Klimke said. “I love to work with them, to feel and listen to them tell me what they need. Sometimes I think I have a good plan, but the horse says, ‘no.’ Then you have to open your heart to feel and think what your horse needs today.”
Freely Forward
Hind-end engagement is not addressed in isolation. The horse needs relaxation, suppleness, strength and responsiveness to the aids to connect that engagement through the whole body.
KIimke is a five-time Olympic eventer who also excels in international dressage. Her resume reflects the value of classical training in all Olympic disciplines. During the Masterclass, she worked with six sessions of two dressage pairs—from young horses to those nearing Grand Prix—and one group of eventers.
Relaxation and suppleness were priorities for the horses. Riders were encouraged to be patient with their horses, clear in their aids and communication and precise in the timing of those aids.
Patient, however, did not mean letting a well-trained horse ignore aids they understood. Klimke dubbed young rider Josephine Hinnemann’s 14-year-old Under 25 Grand Prix partner, Copa Cabana, “The Professor” because “he knows the good tricks to avoid doing what you want him to do.”
“Tell him you mean it,” Klimke insisted, coaching Hinnemann to correct a lack of response with progressively stronger aids. First a squeeze of the leg, then a whomping kick, then, if needed, a tap of the whip.
“Freely forward!” was a frequent Klimke encouragement. “You need a reaction from his hind leg into your hand, letting him grow up bigger in front of you.” The image of hind-end engagement manifesting as the horse growing bigger in front of the rider was another recurring theme.
Hinnemann got that so well by Sunday’s session, the crowd of over 700 spectators applauded. After achieving the beautiful, forward trot, Hinnemann should be able to “do nothing,” Ingrid said. “Just let your leg breathe on his side.”
Cavalletti work was core to each session, used in numerous configurations to achieve various goals rooted in building
Ingrid inherited her conviction to cavalletti from her Olympian father, Reiner Klimke. Their book Cavalletti For Dressage and Jumping is now in its fourth edition (see Cavalletti to Strengthen and Supple sidebar below).
Relaxation
After rhythm, relaxation is the second component of the classical Training Scale. Klimke emphasized relaxation throughout the Masterclass. However, there was no cookie-cutter approach to achieving relaxation. Instead, Klimke suggested techniques suited to each horse’s personality.
A proper warm-up achieves relaxation and is critical to training and competition preparation at every level in any discipline. “You need to get your horse moving from behind, stretching over the back, loose, swinging and ready for anything. Picture in your mind the horse with its nose on the ground, in a forward trot with the hind leg stepping up and underneath himself.”
Klimke encouraged riders to listen for their horse’s breathing, in sync with the rhythm of their gait, as a sign of relaxation. Riders must breathe, too—literally and figuratively in the quiet position of their legs, seat and hands.
In one example of helping an amped horse relax, Caroline Hoffman’s Small Tour partner, the 10-year-old PRE Bugei VDOS, offered one-tempi changes when asked for four-tempis on a quarterline. Klimke encouraged Hoffman to breathe deeply herself while asking him to wait for her lead-change cues. She also told Hoffman to let him do his one-tempis on the other side of the arena. “He really wants to show off and do what’s interesting to him,” she said. “Thank him for presenting that to us. If this was one of my horses, now would be the time for a long gallop in the woods.”
Invisible and Effective Aids
“Try to ride with invisible aids,” Klimke counseled during the clinic. “Spectators should not be able to see them, yet the horse can feel it.” Maintaining shoulder, hip and heel alignment is the position from which the rider can execute those invisible yet effective aids.
Klimke asked several riders to remove theri stirrups, and she applauded their courage in doing so. Gaining a better feel for their horse through a deeper seat and a well-positioned, quiet leg was the objective. It’s a tactic Klimke uses frequently herself to sharpen communication with her horse. “I want you to sink into the saddle to create that positive seat aid,” she said.
She taught a lower leg at or very near the girth with the heel down and solid weight in the stirrups. The toe should point in to enable pressure from the calf, not the spur.
She recommended saddles that have as little cushion for the riders as possible. Thigh and calf blocks that are too big can “pin you in.”
Hand position and use was part of Klimke’s emphasis on developing a horse that carries the weight of his own front end. “The weight of the reins” is the only load the rider’s hands should carry.
Klimke wanted riders to hold the elbow just in front of the hip and to maintain a straight line from the hand to the horse’s bit. “You should be able to rest a ruler on that line,” she said. A “rubber wrist” allows movement toward or away from that straight line to the bit, facilitating light, subtle communication with the horse’s mouth.
If needed, a whip should be carried with the rider’s thumb over top of the whip. Klimke discouraged holding some of the whip’s length above the hand, saying it is as a great way to poke one’s eye out if the horse moves unexpectedly. Holding the thumb over the top of the whip enables the rubber wrist.
When needed, the whip should be use behind the rider’s leg, not on the horse’s croup.
Klimke also encouraged riders to address their own fitness. She currently has six dressage and six eventing horses. In addition to riding most of them every day, she follows DressurFit®, a functional training for riders program advocated by fellow German dressage stars Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her brother Benjamin Werndl.
Although Klimke didn’t ride herself, she showed energy and enthusiasm from the first riders in the morning to fans waiting to chat or have an autograph and photo with her into the late evening. She trotted shoulder-ins and diagonal passes on foot to show the bend and body position in new exercises.
The spectators reflected enthusiasm for her passionate approach to horsemanship. All left with notebooks full of training advice and the inspiration that, even at the very top of the sport, it’s love for the horse that begins and ends every day.
Sidebar: Cavalletti to Strengthen and Supple
Ingrid Klimke described cavalletti as part of every phase of her horsemanship education under her father. “As a kid, I saw these exercises from my father and they had a huge influence on the strength of our horse’s hindquarter and back, and on keeping horses healthy and fit throughout their lives.”
She has refined the work with successive editions of the book Cavalletti for Dressage and Jumping, 4th Edition. The evolution includes creating her own cavalletti. The clinic included cavalletti at three heights in a variety of gymnastic exercises to fulfill various strengthening, suppling and training objectives.
Arranged in straight, circle and serpentine patterns and set in different distances and striding options, the cavalletti served many functions. They helped horses learn to sit into their hind quarters and develop the strength to articulate their knees, shoulders, stifles and hocks.
For upper-level horses, cavalletti can help establish the even rhythm needed for piaffe. An anxious, too-fast horse at any level can be slowed and relaxed by easy striding in a canter cavalletti. A short-strided horse can be encouraged to stretch and lengthen with longer distances.
Setting cavalletti on a curve or circle allowed horses or ponies of various stride lengths to do the same exercise. Ponies took the shorter distances on the inside track. Longer-strided mounts followed the longer distances on the outside track.
Circle and serpentine work over cavalletti helped riders prepare for turns—whether they occurred in a jump course or dressage arena. They taught suppleness and responsiveness to bend and to change that bend smoothly and on short notice. Stride extensions and collections were yet another area where Klimke’s cavalletti exercises helped participants.
On Saturday, horses were introduced to the cavalletti on a loose rein at the walk, first just one or two cavalletti, then building to sets of four placed on straight lines, curves and circles. Regardless the configuration, Klimke told riders to use their aids to ride their horses to the exercise straight and in the right rhythm, but then let them figure their way through the exercise.
Sidebar: ‘It’s OK to Have Mistakes’
Joey Emmert Evans rode her two 8-year-olds—a KWPN mare Khaleesi on Saturday and Fiderherz RTH, a Westphalian stallion, on Sunday. The Northern California professional dressage rider developed both horses herself. She knew it would be good for them and herself to ride in that “big” atmosphere of the Masterclass.
“There is some pressure to perform, and I generally love riding under pressure. I also realized it’s OK to have mistakes—to look like a bit of a hot mess in this moment,” Evans said. “It’s valuable because even though it’s a little bit of an ego hit to me, hopefully I helped the audience with their own riding. I know we all have moments where we’re in this same boat.”
Klimke complimented Evans’ quiet position and aids. Also, she dubbed Khaleesi “the Dancing Queen” for the mare’s fluid, forward gaits and overall elegance. “She’s hot to begin with and anxious and this was her first trip off our property,” Evans noted.
Letting go to achieve relaxation was Klimke’s idea that came to life for the rider. “The first day, my mare was really trying to hold it together. Ingrid could see that and encouraged me to allow her some freedom to move her body and take a breath. It was nice for me to trust the mare and myself, even knowing what we were doing didn’t look perfect, it was an exercise to make the horse better.”
Evans sensed that Klimke’s eventing experience gave her a different definition of forward movement. “I think us dressage riders can get stuck in the precision and collection. We can ‘nerd out’ on a 20-meter circle. Ingrid had a looseness that was a nice difference,” Evans said. “She had me get into a two-point and let her move. Khaleesi’s gaits are big enough on their own, so it’s a matter of getting her in the right place, relaxed and moving through her body.”
This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of Practical Horseman.
