Working Student Seeks Trainer
If you could go and ride anywhere, and train with the most renowned trainer and the most athletic horses in the world for a year, where would you go?
This is a question I asked myself this summer. After an unhappy series of events in which I lost my job (as an athlete), my dream (the Olympics), my health (a broken collarbone), and my girlfriend, I decided I needed to get away.
Being a working student sounded like just the thing to see the world on a shoestring, work with horses, and leave all my troubles behind.
The first step: Where to apply? Of course, in what is typical fashion for me, I decide that if I'm going to train with someone, I’m going to train with the best. The best of the best. So my first step is deciding who is the most experienced, accomplished, renowned, celebrated, prominent trainer in the world? Who, in fact, is legendary? And how do I get a job there?
It’s actually not as easy as it sounds.
Now, before I go too far, I should clarify a little what I’m looking for. I want to take two things away from this: first, the experience of living somewhere completely different, second, the chance to improve my horsemanship. At first, by not choosing a particular discipline I think I have made the task of finding a trainer easier. But actually, as with any good dessert menu, I find that more choices can make the decision immensely harder.
The first step when making a decision like this is to talk to people who know people. (Because for someone who has grown up around horses, I quickly find that I am almost totally ignorant of who’s who in the equestrian scene, especially outside of showjumping. A friend of mine was totally shocked that I had never heard of Mark Todd (which actually is kind of embarrassing as a quick google reveals he was named equestrian athlete of the 20th century by the FEI)). Once I started asking around, suggestions that were at first welcome, come like a storm, and I am quickly overwhelmed and confused. Let me give you an example.
Johann Hinnemann is indeed a legend of classical dressage. Besides winning a bronze medal for Germany at the World Championships, he has trained horses and mentored some of the best riders in the world for almost half a century. He has been National Team coach for Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. More recently he wrote The Simplicity of Dressage, a book that clearly explains the structure and program needed to bring along a dressage horse (think rhythm, suppleness, contact, straightness, impulsion, and collection). To some he can do no wrong; my parents in particular, both dressage enthusiasts, praise his horsemanship and riding to no end. But when I asked another local dressage instructor about him I was shocked to by her answer: “He rides ok, but I don’t think you two will get along well at all. You should go to Kyra Kirkland. I hear she’s training in England now.” Everybody has an opinion about where I should go, where I shouldn’t, who’s hard to get along with, who’s good, who’s cruel, who’s overrated, and who’s not.
A friend of mine did have some clever advice though: Check out www.eurodressage.com, where ads for working students are posted. This makes my search for a trainer seem infinitely easier. Ten minutes later I find that Ludwig Kathmann, Katrin Bettenworth, Nadine Capellmann, and Leslie Morse are all looking for riders. Even though I have never heard of any of them I immediately send off my resume, along with a three minute clip of me riding. (I am unsure of the video, but everyone assures me it will be fine: “Trainers aren’t looking for perfection. They are looking for potential”).
My long list of places to go is almost overwhelming and I have to start eliminating names rapidly and ruthlessly. My criteria become clearer as I go: The place must be in a central riding location, the trainer must have a deep understanding of the classical foundation of training, the stable must have a “horse first” attitude, and they must be a leading rider or trainer in whatever discipline they practise. (Although I am tempted to include western trainers as well, I decide to limit myself to the three Olympic disciplines).
The hodge-podge list of riders and trainers that have made my short list include: Ian Millar (how could he not be top of the list for a Canadian bred young rider?), Johann Hinnemann, Mark Todd, the O’Connor’s, Kyra Kirkland, Leonie Bramall, Andreas Helgstrand, Leslie Law, the Whitaker’s, Beezie Madden and all the trainers who advertised on eurodressage.com. In retrospect this might seem like an incomplete and unsatisfactory inventory of top riders and trainers. Obviously there are a lot of talented and illustrious riders I haven’t mentioned, or probably even thought of. However, this is my adventure, and I am giving myself no marks for research or comprehensiveness, only for originality and perseverance.
The next step is to send off applications. It soon becomes clear that I have underestimated how tricky completing this seemingly simple task will be. For many trainers I cannot even find an email address. Some addresses I find on the internet, and others I find through friends and connections. The first day I am able to send off about five emails. I am nervous about what kind of response I will receive. And it turns out to be not an unwarranted worry, as many trainers do not even bother to respond.
The first reply arrives the next day:
“hello! great to hear from you! unfortunatly we don't have any spots at present for working students... however i will deff. keep you in mind and if i hear of anything i'll get right back to you! take care! Leslie [Law]”.
I am undeterred. I read the second response. It is from a Leonie Bramall. Someone who I added to the list because she is Canadian, she trained with Hinnemann for 15 years, went to the Olympics, and is now one of Europe’s top trainers. Although she lives in Germany, she grew up only blocks from where I live. I thought the personal connection would definitely swing me an invitation; however, her answer is succinct and foreboding: As things look with us we are full until the end of the year... Not many decent stables are interested in taking working students.
But my third and fourth replies are much more promising. Johann Hinnemann and the O’Connors are both interested and they want to see a video of my riding. I send a movie clip by email to Germany, and a DVD of my jumping, dressage and cross country to the O’Connors in Virginia. Then the waiting game begins.
I don’t hear anything for a couple of days, and then I get two invitations, within hours of each other. Johanne Hinnemann is the first to respond. (Actually it is his secretary – he has 35 horses at his stable, so I’m sure he has more important things to do). I read and reread the letter. Although I tell myself to wait and see what offers I get, my hands type out an enthusiastic reply: “when can I come?” The waiting is over, I find myself in a trance, almost involuntarily saying yes, like a girl who says she is waiting to see what offers she gets to the prom, but then says yes to the first boy who asks. I feel caught unawares, I am honoured. I am humbled, yet delighted.
Right on the heels of answering Hinnemann, Leslie Morse, who has quickly become one of America’s top dressage riders, offers me a job in California. I immediately wonder if I made the right choice. Despite her warning that it is a sun-up to sun-down job for the committed only, my mind starts conjuring images of sunny sandy coves and margaritas by the pool. And with the Beach Boys’ song, California Girls, running though my head I have an epiphany: going to only one place will not be enough. If I’m going to make this year worthwhile I need to make it a tour. (And yes, I do understand the value that staying with one trainer for a year would offer; however, advancing my horsemanship is only one of my two criteria – the other being experience).
Hinnemann will be my first stop. But why not train with three trainers, each one for four months. The first stop will be a dressage barn; but why not make the second a show jumping stable, and the third an eventing centre? Well why not? If I’m really serious about improving my riding and seeing the world, there can’t be a better way.
