For some dressage trainers, a sabbatical in Europe becomes a lifelong investment in their profession.

Why would a young professional give up a business in the States, put her normal life on hold, and move to Germany? What could she learn from German trainers that she couldn’t learn from trainers in the United States?

Casey Dornan, who has trained in Vechta, Germany, for 10 years, said, “You can really learn to ride. To be a Grand Prix rider and a top trainer, come to Europe. It could be Germany, Holland, Denmark, or Sweden–you need that international experience.”

Renee Carter, who just spent eight months working in Northern Germany, agreed: “If you’re going to be a serious professional in this sport, you have to come here and see what the sport is really about.”

Dornan and Carter have learned that until you live the German system day after day, you won’t truly understand dressage as practiced in Germany.

“It’s a culture,” said Dornan. “If you want to be like the Germans, you have to be with the Germans.”

These young women have dedicated themselves to work behind the scenes in the business of dressage. Along with two other trainers–Kelly Chlebowski and her trainer, Britta Johnston–they’ve experienced the hard physical labor the sport requires. They immerse themselves into this occupation to absorb all aspects of dressage.

Total Immersion
Dornan trains at Turnier-stall Haddad in Vechta. Origi-nally from South Haven, Mich., she met Catherine Haddad while both were riding with the late German trainer, Bodo Hangen.

“I came here in August 1996, to help Catherine get her stable on its feet,” said Dornan.

Although Haddad is a U.S. rider, she’s lived and trained in Germany since the mid 1990s. She was a student of the late Willi Schultheis, and she now trains with Rudolf Zeilinger. She’s trained in the German system for 18 years. (Haddad stands in the top 100 ranking of dressage riders, with Maximus JSS.)

Dornan described her job as “barn manager, top bereiter–basically I’m the right hand to Catherine. I ride, show every weekend, and run the stable,” she said.

Vechta is a horse-oriented town in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), where Dornan has access to top German-bred horses. She also competes at local shows, riding against famous names and trainers who are known for their expertise at developing young horses.

Dornan has acquired an equine education that she’s convinced couldn’t be matched in the United States. “I came over here because, in general, the horses and the riding are years and miles ahead of America,” she said.

Dornan’s bought, trained, and sold several young horses. Currently, she’s training her own Le Charmeur, a 7-year-old son of Lord Sinclair, who she’s brought to the Prix St. Georges level.

Haddad considers this horse Dornan’s crowning achievement. Haddad saw the bay gelding at a show as a 4-year-old and suggested Dornan try him out. “Catherine said, ‘This is the right one.’ I tried him and bought him the next day,” said Dornan.

On The Job
Carter, previously a crime scene investigator in Florida, changed careers to focus on horse training. Now based in Marshall, Va., she was one of the trainers accepted to participate in the Young Horse Trainers Symposium at Hilltop Farms (Md.) in 2005.

She moved to Nieder-sachsen in August 2005, placed at Marten Hillmann’s barn through Johnston, a trainer in Hume, Va. Johnston is German-born, and in 2005 was herself a student in Germany (see sidebar).

Hillmann has a master’s degree in horse breeding and management and runs a breeding and training barn in Bassum.

“With Marten, I learned about young horses–pulling them out of the field and preparing them for presentation at the Hanoverian Verband in Verden,” said Carter.

Working in a dressage barn follows routines set by generations of horsemen. “I find this is a very traditional country,” added Carter. “You see a tradition in everything.”

Chlebowski worked at three different barns over six months: Hillmann’s, the Hanoverian Verband and Turnierstall Haddad. She’s now returned to Florida from Germany, where she’s resumed her college studies and also teaches dressage.

Chlebowski said the hardest part of living in Germany was learning the language. “I would focus so hard to pick out perhaps one or two words that I knew, that I would give myself headaches,” she said laughing.

For those Americans hosted at Hillmann’s, he and his family speak English. At other barns, U.S. trainers must live on their own: find an apartment and manage a household in a foreign country.

Small towns offer limited away-from-the-barn opportunities. If the barn is outside of town, a trainer needs a bike or car. The few shops close early, and aren’t open on Sundays.

Haddad said many fledgling trainers learn more than they expected. “People come here as well-balanced, and they learn a lot about riding. Some come with emotions and learn a lot about life,” said Haddad.

She considers the barn work an important part of a dressage education. “Many have to learn to work, before they learn to ride, Haddad added. “Bodo told me, ‘Before you learn to ride, you learn to sweep.’ “

Chlebowski added, “There was a lot of sweeping.” (And sweeping demands mastery of the traditional German stable brooms.)

Unique Lessons Learned
Like U.S. Olympic team veteran Michelle Gibson, who lived and learned in Germany for many years before returning to the United States, these trainers will bring back knowledge to share with their future students Stateside.

Carter said she’s improved her teaching and riding skills. “I’m learning how to use my seat and leg together with the reins, and how important it is to have quiet hands and my elbows in front of my body–so you have freedom in the connection and you can give in the half-halt.”

Haddad noted, “A lot of riders ask to come here and learn. If you really want it, you have to immerse yourself to learn a physical language. It depends entirely on the individual. Everyone takes something different away from working here.”

Each trainer expressed awe about the quality of German riding, all using the word, “humbling.”

Chlebowski said, “I would look at German riders, even novice riders, and be absolutely spellbound at how they looked practically sewn into the saddle.” Carter added, “The best thing is seeing the better horses and riders.” As a show groom, she’s accompanied Haddad to several CDIs. “It’s incredible watching them. You become better yourself, just watching the better riders.”

And to compete with those top riders is a test of confidence. Dornan recalled, “At first it was, ‘I’m not good enough.’ But you get used to seeing them every weekend. It’s the same kind of pressure you’d feel in the United States, being in the same arena as Debbie McDonald and Brentina.”

The German system emphasizes the connection with horses: physical and mental.

“Horses are our friends, but they are also athletes,” said Chlebowski. “I have learned to be objective with my horse’s training and to treat him as if he is an athlete and I’m his coach. Our relationship is much closer, because there is more respect.”

Carter also noted the professionalism she experienced in Germany because training horses is a recognized profession.

As an example, she said that weather doesn’t impede the training routine. Even the indoor riding halls are frigid in the north German winters. The cold seeps into a rider’s bones, and frostbite is a common complaint. “We go out and ride every day. Nobody says, ‘It’s too cold.’ That’s the difference between professionals and amateurs,” said Carter.

U.S. riders do face scrutiny and must display their devotion to the work. “Come here with an open mind,” suggested Carter. “You have to prove you are here to work and learn.”

Dornan shared advice to any serious trainer who seeks German dressage knowledge. “The first year or two is hard. After that, it opens up into a whole new world. People take you more seriously.”

She added that a riding vacation or even a few months only gives you a taste of the glamour. “To really see behind the scenes, commit to more than a year,” she said. “Commit to more time, to really see Germany.”

An Incredible Opportunity
Growing up in Northern Germany, dressage trainer Britta Johnston, Hume, Va., learned to ride in the German system. She said it’s very important that young trainers study in Germany, and she arranged the opportunities for Renee Carter and Kelly Chlebowski.

Last August, Johnston invested in her own career, beginning eight months training with Rudolf Zeilinger. As a customer at his barn, she rode her 6-year-old mare, Wedgewood, under his training.

“I look on this as an incredible opportunity,” she said. “I’m not a client who rides and then goes home. I’m part of the team.”

She pitched in, working six days a week. All of the riders spend six hours in the morning doing barn work and riding, have two hours off for lunch, and then return for afternoon riding, feeding, and cleaning stalls and tack.

Wedgewood was working third level when Johnston started with Zeilinger. Now her mare is doing canter pirouettes, half-pass trot and canter, and the flying changes.

In the afternoons and evenings, when she wasn’t at the barn, Johnston taught lessons to 30 clients in Emsbueren. And in her spare time, she researched her network of German agents and breeders to locate horses to export to American riders and breeders.

A Typical Day In Germany
The work demands long, toiling hours. Kelly Chlebowski described her average day:
—Wake at 6:30 a.m. and feed horses. Nothing but oats and grain; no added supplements.
—Breakfast at 7 a.m.
—Bed stalls: This is the most cumbersome job I’ve encountered. There is this enormous roll of straw that has to be “unrolled” down the aisle. A large pitchfork is used to pull strips off, and the straw is blanketed over the bottom of the stall. At the end of the month–with a majority of the barns– the dividers of the stalls are slid across into the hallway and a tractor runs through removing the old straw. The process begins all over again. Shavings are rarely used.
—Ride horses, tack up horses, groom.
—Lunch is around noon, usually a two-hour break.
—Finish riding or sweeping.
—Groom horses.
—Pass out.