The Horses I Didn't Ride at the FEI World Championships for Young Horses in Verden
| August 8, 2011 | Posted by Eiren Crawford under Dressage - Competition News, European Adventures |
The difference a year makes. Me and Florentinus V out for a hack.
This weekend Verden, Germany hosted the 2012 FEI World Breeding Championships for Young Horses. This is a lovely show where you can watch horses from 3 years old until Grand Prix dressage, with young horses to Grand Prix jumping as well. The highlight of this show, for most people, is the 5 and 6 year old dressage Championships.
I’ve been fortunate to go as a spectator the last 3 years in a row, so this year I thought it would be more important to send my groom, Kathryn, to this event. If you ever want to compete young horses at that level, or simply compete in Europe, this is a very important show to open your eyes to the expectations.
After we agreed that she would take my car and I would work this weekend, I realized that two horses I used to ride were competing, and now I would miss seeing them go! Doh!
I rode for Gestüt Letter Berg, in Germany, for a few months and competed some of their lovely young stallions and sales horses. I collected my first wins in Germany riding these young boys, and got heaps of show-ring/stallion showing experience.
My favorites of the boys were the then 5 year old Ratzinger and 4 year old Instertanz; they had different characters and ways of moving, but they were heavenly. I knew going into this job that both of those stallions would eventually move to Ingrid Klimke’s barn, but it was really hard for me when they finally did. Sometimes even when you make a fully informed decision, it still sucks.
At the time, this left me with one other exciting show prospect, the 4 year old Florentinus. Now, I have never laid eyes on a more beautiful stallion; he has a face that makes you stop and check your pockets to see if you have any sugar or cookies. Drop dead gorgeous. Besides being sexy, he’s a very nice mover. So really, it should have been a good ride, right?
Well, sometimes it’s just wrong. For whatever reason, our chemistry was off. That horse brought out my worst qualities as a rider, and I brought out the same in him. I’ve ridden enough stallions, young and old, to have a certain level of confidence in how to deal with Stallion Stink, but this horse just baffled me with his antics and my resulting reactions.
- Loving the ride on the 5 year old Ratzinger V.
Our first competition out we won our class, and then came second at our next show. However, schooling at home got worse and worse until I finally had to talk to the boss. With the fear of losing my job (which I didn’t) I explained that I could not ride this horse anymore. Anyone could see it was a terrible match and we were like oil and water, just never going to mix.
Eventually I left Germany for my job in Denmark, but still kept track of what was happening at Letter Berg via their website and Facebook. When I saw that they’d hired American rider Jennifer Hoffman and her husband and trainer, Jürgen, I thought that seemed like a great move. I’ve never met the Hoffmans, but their success in America made enough news that I knew who they were.
Then I started reading about her success in the show ring with the boys. Imagine my surprise when I see winning scores and videos of Jennifer and Florentinus! They absolutely dance together! She’s qualified him for the Bundeschampionate (German National Championships for young horses), the LVM final (a prestigious regional final), and then there she goes to the World Championships in Verden!
What's going on in that pretty head of yours?
Seriously?! This is the same horse that made me want to bang my head against a brick wall? Wow!
While I didn’t get a chance to watch their rounds online, Jennifer and Florentinus finished 8th in the qualifier and 9th in Saturday’s five year old finals. She had very good scores and did her horse and her country proud. She also had great rides on Ratzinger, finishing 8th again in the qualifier and 14th in the 6 year old final after some unfortunate disobedience (that’s young horses for you!).
As a professional, I dream of representing my country in young horse competition and international Grand Prix. To know that I rode horses that went on to represent someone else’s country is bittersweet.
I’m proud of Ratzinger, I always believed in him, and I’m happy for Florentinus that Jennifer found him and was able to bring out his best qualities. Of course, there’s a part of me that wishes I could have been trotting down centerline this weekend…
It would be nice if I could always be right in my job. If I could make every horse better, if I could teach every single lesson perfectly, etc. But even though I failed Florentinus as a rider, I still think I made the right decision by stepping down and admitting this wasn’t working. I ended up where I was supposed to be, and the horses of Letter Berg got the best team steering their career.
If I could have one wish, to really get the complete lesson, it would be to watch Jennifer and Florentinus school at home, so that I could maybe see what I was supposed to do…
Until then I just give the Hoffmans a great big congratulations for doing such a great job with the boys! Good luck at the Bundeschampionate, and hopefully I’ll see you there (no, Kathryn will not be getting that weekend off!).
Here’s a video of Jennifer Hoffman and Florentinus V in April
Here’s a video of Jennifer Hoffman and Ratzinger V at Equitana 2011
