how much a young horse can handle physically and mentally, and today’s horses with irregular gaits, a lack of suppleness and a tempo that is too fast have no chance to score high.” Richenhagen stresses that the wrong tempo is one of his pet peeves and that he sees it frequently in suitability classes and at auctions. “While breeders, trainers and riders obviously think that they can best demonstrate their horse’s basic gaits that way, it actually makes it very hard for the judge to come to a solid evaluation.”

He adds that lengthening and extensions are the result of a fine-tuned mechanical flow of movement that goes through the whole horse. Starting with the hindquarters as the engine, the back swings elastically and the steps and strides become longer and gain ground coverage. “A beautiful extension looks unhur- ried!” And he notes, “The rider or trainer has to be able to feel or see the correct tempo.” The judge points out that riding horses is not a sport with instant gratification. “The exciting aspect of dressage is that not everybody is capable of doing it,” he muses.

Judges and trainers are communicating these essentials during seminars and clinics while the press adds an important education- al tool. “At the BuCha we say very clearly to the riders how we want to see the horses move.” He also mentions that it is impor- tant as a judge not to have favorite horses, but to stay very objective and non-emotional when evaluating the young horses. “The work of us judges is observed critically and diligently and an open discussion about performance marks and placings is an integral part of the event. Everything is about becoming even better now!”

This transparency is certainly another reason for the strong appeal of the riding horse tests he adds. “Only judges that are complete- ly objective and lend an impartial opinion without regard of rider, breeder, breed region, owner or trainer, have a chance. At the shows judges also have discussions amongst each other about different views as an integral part of the evaluation process.”

According to Martin Richenhagen, it has been proven to be a total myth and it can statistically be disproven that champions and reserve champions of the Bundeschampionat disappear from the sport scene later on. In fact, many champions have proven to be international caliber and have moved on to great successes in the show ring such as the 1999 Bundeschampioness Wahajama who became an international caliber Grand Prix Dressage horse.

He explains that in history riding horses were initially used for mil- itary purposes. Strict obedience, as well as quick reactions to the rider’s aids, was essential for survival. Further, a heavier type of war horse was needed to pull wagons in the cavalry and for agri- cultural uses. Only in the last seventy years or so were horses bred specifically with bigger gaits for the goal of performance in sports.

The combination of his international business and his love for sport horses bring this executive and judge back to Europe on a regular basis. “The Bundeschampionat is an important interna- tional benchmark and a real highlight for horsemen around the world!” We certainly expect to see Martin Richenhagen at this year’s BuCha and perhaps even at the next Olympics. WT

Trakehners Take Pride

The Trakehner Verband stands out as one of the most successful of all reg- istries at the prestigious BuCha event, despite the fact that it is one of Germany’s smallest stud books. They boast numerous championships start- ing as early as 1979 with the bay stal- lion Tümmler under Martin Plewa, who won the Event Horse Champ- ionships at what was later to become the Bundeschampionat. Windfall *Pg* was one of the first horses that man- aged to qualify in two disciplines (dres- sage and eventing) under his first trainer, Ingrid Klimke. Since his sale to the U.S., he has had an outstanding international career as a top level eventer with Darren Chiacchia in the saddle. Traditionally, the young riding horse classes are not the Trakehner breed’s strongest feature since they often take longer to mature, but the breed did celebrate its share of success stories here as well. We should also mention that at the 2009 Rolex Kentucky CCI****, the lovely gelding Seacookie TSF (pictured on page 32) and his new rider, Britain’s William Fox-Pitt, placed sixth at their very first outing at the four star level! There are many more Trakehners that have quali- fied and placed over the years at BuCha in all four disciplines.

Photo at top: The 2008 dressage Bundes- champion for 5 year old dressage horses was the approved Trakehner Imperio (EH Connery x Balfour xx) scoring an unprece- dented 9.1. Photo © www.jutta-bauernschmitt.de.

33 Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76