I was privileged to be invited to attend the General Assembly and some training with the International Group of Equestrian Qualifications (IGEQ) at the Spanish Riding School, and the top equestrian centre in Vienna, Austria.
I spent three days at the Spanish Riding School and a day at a state-of-the-art equestrian centre owned by the President of the Austrian Equestrian Federation, Dr. Susanna Kleindienst-Passweg.
At the Spanish Riding School we got to watch the riders training their horses. Spanish Riding School riders are amongst the best in the world. They start off by being lunged for a whole year. Then they continue riding without stirrups as they are trained, for another year. Their system of training is so complete that even after they graduate with the simple title of ‘Rider’, they frequently ride without stirrups anyway, as they just didn’t seem to need them.
There was a lot of work on long reins. Watching them train their horses in passage and piaffe, levade, courbette and capriole, I was struck by how little they trained. Once their horses knew the work, it was exercise in those gaits or movements, just once or twice per movement, if the first wasn’t perfect.
Nothing was ever drilled. If it was good, it was done. That is how they believe training should be.
The Social License to Operate (SLO) was one of the major themes of the IGEQ conference. How we handle with social media in a world where work with animals is sometimes misconstrued is a topic we have to be careful of. No photos or videos were allowed to be taken. The Spanish Riding School was very strict about this.
At Dr. Susanna Kleindienst-Passweg’s Equestrian Centre Austria, I was delighted to see stables each with an outdoor yard. What surprised me was that some of these yards were intentionally tarmacked, so that horses stabled there could still go outside to be close to their friends, but that they would get a firm footing there, as opposed to a sand yard or a bedded stall.
At the Equestrian Centre Austria, we got to watch Arthur Kottas work with a horse and rider in passage and piaffe. Arthur Kottas was for 40 years Head Rider at the Spanish Riding School. It was a wonderful experience watching a maestro at work.
Our training there also took a couple of jumping lessons, and a talk on nutrition. IGEQ found it worthwhile to educate all the trainers there on the benefits of feeding extruded feeds and stablised rice bran – exactly what Zack’s Tack Polo Mix is! I was delighted to tell the meeting I have been feeding this type of feed to all my horses since 2007. They were stunned that Malaysia was so ahead in this regard.
Getting to know the other trainers there was a pleasure. We had a German Olympic Gold medallist, the director of Equine Studies at Hartpury University, two Fellows of the British Horse Society, the FEI Solidarity Director, and the top coaches from 24 countries – a true cast of equestrian luminaries.
As I said, it was a true privilege to learn from and network with these amazing coaches.
Related Link:
IGEQ Conference
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