COMMUNITY OF THE EQUESTRIAN SPORT’S TRAINERS, RIDERS GROWING HERE
November 13, 2011 12:00 am • Patty Machelor Arizona Daily Star
Early on a humid August morning, Wynona cantered slow, rhythmic figure eights as rider Rise Grover listened via earpiece to trainer Sabine Rijssenbeek. The tasks included flying lead changes requiring Wynona to switch – in midair – which leg leads her stride.
As with most dressage exercises, it takes time and patience.
And so begins many days for Grover and Rijssenbeek, who are part of Tucson’s growing community of dressage trainers and riders.
Compared to Tucson’s other equestrian sports, such as barrel racing and calf roping, dressage is relatively unknown here.
A French term, the word means “training.” The goal: To develop the horse’s natural athletic ability while also teaching the animal to be supple, at ease and attentive to the rider.
In what might appear to be a shift from the poetic discipline made famous by the Lipizzaner Stallions, there are now Western riding dressage associations.
Riding instructor Jerry Petersen said that’s not a surprise. Dressage, he said, is not just about beautiful movement and well-dressed riders. Instead, it is a critical foundation for all disciplines, integral for any rider who wants to truly know a horse and experience it at its best.
Before the downturn in the economy, it was the fastest-growing riding discipline in the country, said Joyce Sanford, a local rider and one of 140 Tucson Dressage Club members.
“Part of it, I think, is the graying of the riding population in general,” she said. “You don’t have to have jumps, you don’t have to have cows, you don’t have to have miles and miles to do your cross-country riding.”
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In the Netherlands, where Rijssenbeek is from, riding horses after school is as common as playing soccer is in the United States. Rijssenbeek has been riding since she was 9 and has 30 years of training experience. She was once short-listed for her country’s Olympic equestrian team, and she holds a master’s degree, from the Netherlands, in dressage and show jumping. Rijssenbeek, 56, came to the United States about five years ago. When she’s not teaching riders in California or Minnesota, she instructs at Blue Banner Farm, a dressage facility on Tucson’s northwest side.
“She’s really one of the best riders in Tucson,” said Kathie German, 57, who bought the place after her husband died of cancer a few years ago. “We needed a place for Sabine to train.”
Grover, who is in her 60s, started riding in high school, but rediscovered dressage shortly before meeting Rijssenbeek.
At the time, Grover was retraining a retired race horse and said Rijssenbeek helped them move quickly to higher competitive levels.
“I started taking some dressage lessons with another trainer in Tucson and then Sabine came along,” she said. “She moved me up the levels fairly quickly. It’s been quite a journey.”
Tucson instructor Ellie Stine-Masek said riders interested in learning dressage will find a number of good instructors in Pima County.
“We have a very good foundation,” she said. “People can really get good training here.”
And some riders, young and old alike, are learning dressage without even realizing it.
Trainer Jeanna Hernandez, owner of Sunkist Stables, 9811 N. La Cholla Blvd., said that’s true of all her riders.
“I don’t care what saddle these kids are riding in, they are learning dressage,” she said. “If it looks pretty, it’s because it’s being done right.”
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Horses aren’t cheap and those bred for dressage competition often epitomize this.
For example, there’s the Dutch-born Moorlands Totilas, an ebony stallion that recently sold, in Europe, for $11.6 million.
Moorlands Totilas’ sale price is unusual, but the next tier is far from cheap.
Rijssenbeek has imported four horses from her homeland in the last two years. The animals cost between $50,000 and $150,000, with another $10,000 tacked on for the flight here.
“It is all about breeding,” she said. “The U.S. is moving forward to catch up. But for me, it is easy to go home and use my network. It is all based on trust and openness.”
But horses don’t have to cost that much to be enjoyable dressage mounts.
Hernandez said while one of her students competes on a horse imported from Germany, others are learning dressage on adopted mustangs.
Connie Holiman boards at Sunkist Stables and has owned Khalie for nearly 13 years. She bought the grey Anglo-Arab mare for $3,000 when Khalie was just six months old.
“She’s like one of my kids,” said Holiman, who started riding when she was 6. “She’s been with me through three pregnancies.”
Holiman’s daughters are now ages 10, 8 and 3. Holiman said all of them love horses, to her husband’s dismay.
“Sometimes I end up having to work more to cover the costs of owning a horse, which means even less time to be (at the barn) or to be with the kids,” she said. “If I had it my way, I would be there every day and wish I could start all over with a career with horses.”
But no matter how difficult it is to pay the bills and afford the horse, the family never considers selling Khalie. The horse and dressage training have been a tremendous help for Holiman’s oldest daughter, who has learning disabilities.
“The riding has helped her with her coordination and her confidence,” she said. “I always tell her that if you can ride a horse, especially if you can stay on and canter, then you can do anything.”
On StarNet: See a video of dressage in action at azstarnet.com/video
‘You don’t have to have jumps, you don’t have to have cows, you don’t have to have miles and miles to do your cross-country riding.’
Joyce Sanford
Tucson Dressage Club member
If you go
• What: Tucson Dressage Club Fall Festival and Arizona State Dressage Championships.
• When: Gates open at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and next Sunday. To check riding times, check online at www.tucsondressageclub.org.
• Where: Pima County Fairgrounds, 11300 S. Houghton Road.
• More information: www.tucsondressageclub.org
Common dressage terms
• Half-pass: The horse moves equally forward and sideways away from the wall or track, with the horse bent around the rider’s inside leg and flexed in the direction it is traveling.
• Flying change of lead: A flying change is when a horse changes leads at the canter by switching the leading legs without a downward transition to the trot.
• Cross-canter: The horse canters on one lead in front and the other lead behind. Same as “disunited.”
Understanding dressage and horses
• Teamwork: In dressage, the less you see the rider do, the better, because that means he or she is communicating with the horse quietly, the horse is responsive and the pair are working as a team.
• Equine geometry: Circles are round and lines are straight, a precept true in geometry and dressage. A 20-meter circle should go from one side of the arena to the other, a 10-meter circle only half way across. A horse should not weave on a straight-line movement.
• Beat and rhythm: Rhythm is the repetition of footfalls. A sound dressage horse has three correct rhythms – a four-beat walk, a two-beat trot and a three-beat canter. Tempo is the speed of repetition of the strides. Every horse should have a consistent tempo throughout the test that is controlled by the rider, a tempo so obvious you could sing a song to it.
• Stress management: During a test, the horse needs to remain calm, attentive and supple. A tense horse gets rigid through in the neck and back, which can exhibit itself in stiff movement, ears that are pinned back and a tail that swishes constantly and doesn’t hang arched and quietly swinging.
• Foam: When a horse is relaxed in its jaw and poll (the area just behind the ears), it releases saliva and observers might see white foam around the lips and mouth. That’s a good sign. It means the horse is attentively chewing the bit and is comfortably at work. The amount of white foam varies from horse to horse.
• Nervous Nellies: Horses have strange aversions, so use caution at horse shows and think before making noise, opening an umbrella or putting on and taking off plastic rain ponchos or blankets in the stands.
• Quiet, please: Focus is important during any level of dressage test, so be courteous and follow the rules by staying about 45 feet back from the competition ring. Remain as quiet as possible during the rides.
Information courtesy of the United States Dressage Federation.
Contact reporter Patty Machelor at 806-7754 or pmachelor@azstarnet.com