2005 Global Dressage Forum

The Theoderscu's on Balance, Balkenhol on Relaxation

After quite a dry lecture by Volker Moritz, the 350 guests of the GDF were eager to see an equine in action. Monica and Georg Theodorescu were the first to give a practical demonstration in the beautiful set up indoor arena of Tineke and Joep Bartels' Horse Academy. With drapes on the wall and ceiling and lovely flowers hanging off the kickboards, the 37 x 17 m arena was intimate and cozy for the GDF demonstrations.

The 80-year old Georg Theodorescu is a legendary dressage trainer and he announced himself as a man who needs to use few words to communicate with his daughter ("My daughter knows what I want to say") and he put this non-verbosity into practice at the forum. It was great pity that Mr Theodorescu lacked eloquence and speed in his talk when he tried to explain his training principles, but the man remained witty in his remarks. "A horse needs balance, especially in the half passes. You don't want him to cross his legs like an epileptic," he joked.

The subject of the Theodorescu session was balance and Monica brought the 7-year old chestnut gelding Whisper (by Welt Hit I) as superb example of rhythm, cadence, and balance. The chestnut gelding moves like a metronome with so much rhythm and spring.

Wearing a headset, Monica explained that she developed strength and balance in her horse by riding many voltes in the corners and serpentines, changing leads often to supple the horse on both sides. Georg said that the horse's forehand is naturally heavier than the hindquarters because the horse's head and neck, as well as the rider, are carried in front. The horse needs to muscle up the hindquarters to be able to take over the weight and lift the withers.

Klaus Balkenhol, who is the United States Dressage Team Trainer, was the only guest speaker at the forum he did not make the effort to speak English and brought Volker Bromman as his interpreter.

Balkenhol was invited to talk about classical training with young horses and he stated that the training of a horse starts with foals, who have to get used to humans. Mistakes made in that stage can lead to great problems later on. He looked at two 2,5 year old horses presented in hand, analyzing the conformation and their walk and trot. He stressed that young horses (3 and 4-year olds) should not be trained as dressage horses, but approached as versatile riding horses by hacking them, taking them cross country and making them jump small fences.

As practical example, Balkenhol brought the 2002 Hanoverian Licensing Champion His Highness (by Hohenstein x Donnerhall), who has been breeding much this 2005 show season, but has been focused on sport again this summer. "It takes about three weeks to get his mind off breeding and fixed on riding," Klaus said, adding that "the best dressage stallion is a gelding. Most riders can't handle such strong personalities. If a stallion is just used as a dressage horse, it's better to geld them." His Highness, on the other hand, mainly makes his living as a breeding stallion and is slowly being trained to FEI level.

The black stallion moved with remarkable relaxation and looseness in his body, easily stretching into the bit without losing purity in his paces. He was a lovely example of a young horse being worked in the correct way without being tense or stressing out in his work. However, what I would liked to have seen was Balkenhol work horses that have not been trained by him for several years. He should have showed his techniques for creating harmony and relaxation in horses strange to him. That would have been a real test and and intriguing demonstration.

Text copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage.com, Images copyrighted Dirk Caremans -
No Reproduction allowed without explicit permission

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