Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Hassler Dressage Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium

From Friday to Sunday, November 7-9, Silva took part in the Hassler Dressage Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium

"First of all, Scott and Suzanne are doing a great job organizing these things. It was great getting trainers from around the country together to discuss ideas. Every night they showed videos of show and training, often from Germany. Of course I grew up in Germany, but it's good to see what is going on there.

"I knew the clinician, Ingo Pape, because he and his wife had horses at Rudolf Zeilingers. They breed a lot of very nice horses. At this clinic they had about nine horses a day, three-year-old's up to seven-year-old's. Jeff is seven so he was always the last to go. All three days he was awesome. Ingo helped me with the pirouettes and piaffe/passage. He really helped a lot.

“There were about sixty people watching and nine riding; all the auditors were trainers who had taken part before. This was the fourth time they’ve had the clinic and they kept it closed to trainers so that we could really talk about each horse and not worry about upsetting anyone.

“Good on Scott doing it that way, because otherwise it becomes more of a show. It wasn’t an issue for me since I own Jeff, but sometimes people guard what they say around owners and the press. There will be other opportunities for press and owners. You didn’t have to be careful saying anything here, so communication was very open. No one was bagging anyone out, it was just a very open discussion.”

-Silva

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