With a mix of cavaletti exercises and sound instruction while working through a rainstorm, German Olympic medalist Ingrid Klimke offered a multi-dimensional Masterclass as a highlight during the fiftieth anniversary of Kingsview Partners Dressage at Devon.
The Thursday evening session, presented by Capital Square, was punctuated by a fierce downpour. Despite being drenched, Ingrid ignored it and continued teaching, as thousands of spectators stayed dry watching from the covered grandstands at the showgrounds in Pennsylvania.
In addition to being a dressage star, Ingrid is a world-class eventer, and as we all know, eventers ignore the weather while pursuing their goals.
She was totally soaked when she arrived at the after-class reception, where she was brought a warm shawl and went right to work greeting people.
When I asked Ingrid what she had hoped to convey during the class, she said, “That we as a rider are responsible for giving the right questions so the horse can give the right answers. We must be very patient and really step-by-step build them up, trying to have the poll the highest point, the nose in front of the vertical and make it very simple for the horse.”
Ingrid, who is also a show jumper, emphasized that “the riders (both eventers and dressage competitors) were so good from their position (to) the way they gave the aids. It was superb and the horses so lovely.”
The trainer had a good, encouraging connection with each of the riders, who came to the ring in pairs, enabling one to take a little break while she worked with the other.
Her connection extended to the spectators as well; she took note that “the audience was clapping all the time, so they realized we were really on a good way. I think even with the rain they kept listening and enjoying it.”
Silva Martin, who earlier in the day won the four-year-old dressage test with Valballa and the seven-year-old final with Farouche, was aboard Zaphir for her masterclass ride, where she was paired with JJ Tate.
Always the horsewoman, Ingrid noted the left hind wrap on JJ’s horse had come loose, so she bent down and removed it. When the same thing happened with the right one, she did it again.
“I don’t want any accidents here,” she explained to the audience.
Chatting afterwards, Silva noted that like Ingrid, she was raised in Germany, “where all the people I worked with (emphasized)` basics, basics, basics’ and that was exactly what she was trying to get across.”
Ingrid Klimke keeps an eye on Silva Martin during the Masterclass.
She picked up a good tip from Ingrid for the pirouettes, where Zaphir “always wants to lean to the left a little bit with his haunches. Silva said Ingrid told her, “`just keep turning the shoulders’ and that really made a big difference.”
Ingrid, the daughter of dressage legend Reiner Klimke (who was also an Olympic eventer), was named by the FEI as “Best Athlete of the Decade.”
She really demonstrated the link between dressage and good riding over cavaletti. Eventers Hannah Sue Hollberg and Isabelle Bosley took their horses over several different configurations, including a bending line of four cavaletti in an exercise that encouraged the horses to bend and flex.
Hannah Sue Hollberg over the cavaletti as Ingrid Klimke instructs.
After the jumping, Ingrid asked the riders to trot their horses on a loose rein so they could stretch and lengthen their necks.
Another dressage pair, Lauren Chumley and Shannon Stevens, focused on pirouettes and flying changes. Noting that Shannon’s horse needed encouragement in the second part of his pirouette, Ingrid advised that she should refresh with her seat and aids at that point. When he added some passage in his collected canter on the way to a lead change and Shannon patted him, Ingrid said, “don’t pet him, please, because he gave the wrong answer.”
Shannon Stevens picked up pointers during her ride in the Masterclass.
Anne Moss, president of Dressage at Devon, noted that Ingrid had worked individually with the riders the day before the class and presented “really helpful intuitive, suggestions of how to improve those horses.”
As she recounted her impression of the class, Anne (a dressage competitor herself) said, “I loved how she was encouraging the riders to ride more forward with softer hands and to put more forward-thinking of flying changes and to continue to rebalance and support the horse through the pirouette work. It was really quite beautiful.”