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“As a small tour horse—nobody looked twice at him at the small tour. At Grand Prix, suddenly the reactions were, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ So don’t evaluate so strictly so early. You don’t have all your information yet. If you have a good eye for the quality of the horse, or a good background in training horses, you can see what’s going to be there.” As her training develops a youngster’s body and


mind, she watches for the horse’s readiness. “The six- year-old test is difficult. They have to have their wits about them, and they have to be fit,” she remarks. This year she left a six-year-old home because she felt he lacked the maturity for that test. “We’re still growing as far as the education is concerned. He’s doing the changes, but he’s not quite mature enough in his head. And he’s still growing physically. So I chose to hold him back, but I’m not holding him back. It just means he will be that much further along when the next season starts.” Part of that maturity is handling the travel demands of competing. The annual Young Horse championships and Developing Horse championships are held at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, Illinois. From South Florida to Chicago is a 24-hour trip on a van. “It’s more difficult here than in Germany. We never had far to go,” she notes. For the year-end championships, Lisa says that she prefers aiming her emerging stars for the Developing Horse Prix St. Georges (for ages seven to nine) and Developing Horse Grand Prix (eight to ten). At the USEF National Dressage Championships in 2011 and 2012 at Lamplight near Chicago, she won first the Developing Horse Prix St. Georges and this year Developing Horse Grand Prix. Each was the first year the championship was offered.


COMPARING THE U.S. AND GERMANY “I received my education in Europe with Ernst Hoyos,” says Lisa, and then describes the progression. “We went through every level, first from three-year-olds through four-year-olds. I showed Royal Diamond as a four-year- old in a Materiale class. We brought him from four all the way to Grand Prix. There was an education that was there, a solid system that we followed with one particular horse all the way through.” In Germany, these classes are popular with breeders


and trainers. The prestigious national championship show for young horses, the Bundeschampionat, attracts 3,000 spectators each year. These young horse winners often go on to compete


at the highest international levels. Two 2012 Olympic team medalists came from young horse ranks. Damon Hill (ridden by Helen Langehanenberg of Germany) placed fourth individually; he won as both a five-year-old and six- year-old (2005 and 2006) at the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) Young Horse Championship. Desperados (ridden by Kristina Sprehe of Germany) was eighth in London; he placed third at the Bundeschampionat (2004 and 2005). In North America, young


Lisa schools the flying changes, aiming for lofty changes that show thoroughness.


horses compete in the USEF National Dressage Championships at Lamplight in August. Numbers and the quality at the event continue to improve and a larger percentage of domestic-bred horses compete each year. In 2012, in both the four- and five-year-old championships, a higher portion of the horses were bred in North America (11 of 15 and 8 of 14, respectively). The new USEF Developing


Grand Prix Horse program compares with the German Young Grand Prix Horse classes, where the finals award the Louisdor Prize. In Germany, classes are for horses eight to ten years old, who compete in Intermediare II and the short Grand Prix test (now the FEI Young Rider Grand Prix test, slightly more difficult than the USEF Developing Grand Prix test). About the Developing Grand Prix test, Lisa believes the


test is perfect. “It’s like it was timed for Cerro and me. It’s wonderful to offer something like this. I’m glad, because they do it in Germany. It’s a perfect way to move into what I call the adult Grand Prix.” The training Lisa follows is a careful, thoughtful


program that nurtures talent. She adheres to the classical system of masters of the art of dressage. Lisa and Ernst demonstrated that system at the 2003 USDF Symposium, where he coached her through a morning of riding several young horses, just like they did at her barn in Germany. “You need to see the mistakes that happen, and what the trainer does to correct that,” says Lisa. “It’s important to learn how you go about a correction without disturbing the horse, or without irritating or frustrating the horse.”


Warmbloods Today 25


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