I'm heading to Germany soon for a few weeks and was wondering if anybody knows of a good riding school where I could take some lessons on an advanced dressage school horse? I'm competing at level 3 here in New Zealand, training level 4, and would like to fast-track my learning.  Any contacts or people's experiences would be much appreciated.

Hey,

 whereabouts in Germany are you gonna go to? It's not such a small country, you know? ;-)

And can you explain to me what kind of dressage exercises are part of level 3 or 4?

 A good thing would be to look up all the tournament associations in Germany, you might find info's about them on the page of the German federation (FN). The homepage is www.fn-dokr.de, but I don't know if they provide the info's in English. So just let me now where exactly you are gonna go to in Germany and I might be able to help (I'm in Germany and German myself).

Greetings,

Motte   

 Hallo Motte,

 Thank you for your reply. I'm German too and am going to visit places all over Germany, so I'm very mobile and will be able to travel ANYWHERE in Germany for the opportunity to train on an advanced school horse. I'm fluent in German, so language is not a problem either.

I'm currently competing movements such as shoulder in, travers, 10 metre circles in trot and canter, half-pass in trot and canter. Working, Collected and Medium paces established, Extended not quite established yet. I've had a play with single flying changes on my horse with my trainer, but I'm finding these hard to ride and train my horse at the same time (all the above moves I self-trained my horse to do over the last few years).

So what I am looking for is the opportunity to have a lesson on an advanced school horse to get a better feel for the flying changes, some REALLY good half-passes, and extended paces, and maybe even a brief glimpse at a passage or piaffe. Hope you can help me find such a place.

Ok, let me think. A good thing to try would be the Landesreitschulen or Landesreit- und Fahrschulen, e.g. the "Landesreit- und Fahrschule in Hoya" (close to Hannover) personally but I know that they have a great instructor Herrn Meyer zu Strohen. You can look it up on http://www.landesreitschule-hoya.de/lehrgang.htm where you actually find the data when courses take place.  If you google the term "landesreitschule" you get about 8 to ten different names.

Another good thing to try are the state stud farms such as the Haupt- und Landgestüt Neustadt/ Dosse (they have nice horses there, mostly even stallions, I've been ridden there once on a student riders competition)(close to Berlin, East-Germany), the Haupt- und Landgestüt Marbach (Southern Germany), or the Haupt- und Landgestüt Moritzburg (close to Leipzig, East-Germany).

And of course you could try Warendorf, where the "Bereiterprüfungen" take place. They have quite a number of well-trained horses.

 Just look around on the Internet and if you've found sómething that you like just contact them. Hoya and Neustadt/ Dosse are probably the best to try.

Of course you could try some private stables, too, but they normally take really a lot of money. In the Netherlands some of the really good riders offer these kind of lessons as well (e.g. Anky van Grunsven or Academy Schellekens-Bartels), they are more advanced in these kind of marketing activities but I belief you don't want to pay around 500-700€ for two lessons, do you?

 I hope I could be of some sort of help. Just contact me, if you need more infos, ok?

Greetings ;-)

 

HI, I saw your response to the other lady and thought I would try to contact you. I have been searching for days all over the web and stumbled on this blog. I don't speak German, so I guess it limits what I can find. Anyway I will be traveling to Amsterdam in May for 10 trip. I am very flexible on where to go, I defenitley will go to Warendorf at some point. I am a FEI rider. Needing help in tempis and piaffe/passage. Taking this trip to hopefully get some great training. I can also go to private farms if you can recommend some. Any thing will help. Thanks.

Hi Rhada, I personally don't think it will be a problem for you finding a stable in which English is spoken and in which you can take lessons in English as well. When you are going to the Netherlands anyway, why don't you contact the "Anky Education Center" (from Anky van Grunsven) or "Academy Bartels" (Tieneke Bartels)? I think that would probably be the best try... Both are situated in the Netherlands and you should find them on the internet. There you will definitely get same great training! Otherwise take a look at my earlier responses, I already listed some possibilities there. Don't be afraid to contact them in English ;-) I hope I could help, success with your search, greets, Motte

Motte,