The Canadian Eventing Committee hosted the 2009 National Coaching Symposium on November 21-23. The symposium returned to RCRA on the outskirts of Newmarket, Ont., where, in 2004, the duo of George Morris and Olympic gold medalist Leslie Law were invited as guest clinicians.
This symposium again featured legendary U.S. show jumping team coach George Morris, as well as 2008 German team gold medalist Ingrid Klimke and Canada’s National Technical Advisor and Olympic gold medalist David O’Connor.
The 150 coaches from across Canada were treated to three days of exemplary riding, training and coaching skills from these three masters. The attending coaches were the focus of the clinicians during each presentation, which included a young horse class, using cavaletti as a training tool, training for the FEI dressage tests, riding technical questions on today’s cross-country courses, gymnastics and riding show jumping courses.
During Day 1, David and Ingrid took turns with warm-up sessions for dressage groups and alternated with a live commentary during the test riding. While the delivery of their presentation was sometimes in contrast, as Ingrid said, “All roads eventually lead to Rome.”
Ingrid delivered her teaching methods in a modest and gracious manner, often recalling her early education with her famous father Reiner Klimke.
David finished the first day with an excellent class of advanced riders (all wearing beautiful ECOGOLD saddle pads generously supplied by this company) who rode a challenging and highly technical course of cross-country fences.
George Morris arrived for the second day as attendance rose to more than 200 enthusiastic trainers, all anxious to witness this rare learning opportunity. He worked on the basic fundamentals of training, the leg, impulsion, attentiveness to the aids, the balanced seat and rider position over fences.
George often privileged us with fascinating snippets of history recounting the great riders and prominent trainers of the past—Klimke, Winkler, Neckermann, Pessoa, Le Goff, de Némethy—and he always included a mention of some of our Canadian greats, several of whom were in the audience.
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His clear and articulate teaching delivery demanded respect and attention from everyone in the room; there was always silence during his riding demonstrations as most were awestruck with his perfect style over fences and fascinating narrative of everything he was doing and feeling while in the saddle.
George interacted with David and Ingrid constantly with a fascinating dialogue on training ideas. These three were a fabulous team and showed a strong sense of mutual respect and admiration for one another.
The evening welcome reception sponsored by BFL Lorenzetti Insurance and Horse Sport magazine featured our three presenters and Canadian Show Jumping Chef d’Equipe Torchy Miller. This panel gave eloquent and memorable accounts of their experiences at last year’s Olympic Games in Hong Kong: the road to Ingrid’s Olympic gold; the thrilling jump off for gold between Team USA and Canada’s show jumping teams and the associated coaching strategy as told by George and Torchy.
Demonstration riders were chosen from high performance-listed event riders, talent squad members from Jump Canada and Ontario Young Rider grant recipients sponsored by the Ontario Horse Trials Association, also a major symposium sponsor.
In his closing statement, symposium project leader Peter Gray thanked Omega Alpha and Muriel for their generous sponsorship. “What a memorable and historic occasion this had been for Canadian coaching,” said Gray.
He added how proud he was “to have presented three of the world’s premier teachers, internationally acclaimed competitors and renowned horseman.”
