to discuss their development as professionals and also allow- ing them to network, build and evolve long-term friendships,” he explains. Since it is difficult for trainers’ own businesses to handle
all aspects of training, coaching, riding and competing of every type of sport horse on their own, another goal of the symposium has been to provide an opportunity for them to network. “That was always the message,” Susanne says. “It’s been about training horses the right way and not the quick way, but also recognizing that there’s a community to reach out to. It’s about sharing, integrity, trusting one another and working together to achieve a greater goal.” “In the early years of establishing the YDHTS,” Scott adds,
“it was very important to demonstrate our belief that creat- ing true friendships among professionals in the same indus- try is hugely important and valuable. I’ve always chosen true friends to conduct the annual symposium with me, which has proven to have a great, extremely successful impact.” The main objective of Hassler Dressage’s training tech- niques has always been to guide each horse toward a posi- tive thought pattern so that it can optimize its talents with- out compromising its well-being. “It’s important to be clear about what path is best for each horse,” Susanne continues, “and to have a tactic for each one because that path, which includes the Young Horse tests versus the national tests versus preparation for FEI levels and developing PSG tests, is a huge, systematic road to travel.” Susanne admits that the original plan for the YDHTS was
to work with just a few riders. “That first year in 2005 we put the word out there to apply to the new program, and we ended up hearing from 340 applicants from all across North America who each submitted information and videos. It was crazy!” With such a strong outpouring of interest resulting in a large applicant pool, the Hasslers decided they would reach out through word of mouth for new applicants to keep the program small. “The aim was to always limit our YDHTS to somewhere
between 40 and 60 participants,” Suzanne says of the symposium’s early days. “Quite honestly, it could have easily exploded to well over a hundred each year, but we were committed to keeping the focus more personal. With too many participants, though, that would have become impos- sible. The first year we had between eight and ten riding participants as well as thirty or so trainer participants. We included the very earliest phases of starting a young horse under saddle and worked with a three-year-old from Hilltop’s Raising Program. After sufficient preparation, we backed that horse right there at our first symposium. Since then, there have usually been eight to ten riding participants and the horses have ranged between three and nine years old. For the tenth year event anniversary in 2014 we had the most alumni participation—seventy-five participants.”
Design of the Program The initial YDHTS schedule called for it to take place Thurs- day evening, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it was soon
34 November/December 2015
Top: The conductors of the symposium in 2014, from left to right, Scott Hassler, Anne Gribbons, Ingo Pape, Oliver Oelrich and Michael Klimke. Bottom: The seven training grant recipi- ents awarded at the end of the 2014 ten year anniversary celebration.
discovered that it was better to do a half-day on Thursday and all day Friday and Saturday. “Two-and-a-half days made it better for the west coast group and for everybody to leave their businesses and really be able to put their focus into the event,” Suzanne explains. Each year, the theme of the YDHTS varied to align with
the type of horse, its development and the best way for it to reach the upper levels. In the symposium’s latest format, Thursday started with identifying the strengths and weak- nesses in the participant horses, addressing the training plan and sending the participants home with evening assign- ments to prepare for the next day’s training activity. “The riders actually had homework each night,” Suzanne contin- ues. “We wanted our trainers to be invested in making this event productive. Scott would always encourage them to see it as ‘their’ event so they would make the most of the opportunity to ask questions, seek answers and learn. Our trainers were always quite invested in the symposium right off the bat.” Scott and the renowned Dr. Ulf Möller and Ingo Pape were
the original trainers, also called conductors. As time went on, they would come to include such luminaries as Anne
Both photos by Richard Malmgren
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 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92