Question:
In the report, during part of the tests Bürkner writes: "On Ten Drugi I had to show piaffe and passage including transitions, as well as à tempo changes in the collected canter on the volte,"
This was a show in 1909? Is the writer referring to changes of lead on the volte, or something else (in case the language has changed since then?)?
Answer:
It sounds like they had to ride one temo changes on a volte, although Buerkner doesn't specify the size of the volte. I had to read it twice, too, because it surprised me. Tempo changes on a circle are extremely difficult, and the smaller the circle, the more difficult it gets. Ten Drugi was one of Oskar Stensbeck's horses. Stensbeck himself was born in 1858, as the son of a horse trainer. When he was still in high school, he trained horses for the circus under his father's supervision and sold them to the various circus companies. During the 1920s and 1930s, he trained several horses for Olympic riders, and he was one of the coaches at the Army riding and driving school that had been moved from Hannover to Krampnitz near Berlin during the 1930s. Felix Buerkner was the last director of this school.
Question:
This would only be 32 years after Baucher. If Baucher, as written, invented à tempo changes , when did they become accepted in Germany - within the space of 30 years?
Answer:
I don't know the exact time frame. But you know how people are. As soon as one person comes up with a new "trick" or new feat, others have to try it, too. I'm sure that as soon as Baucher showed the first one tempo changes in public, riders all over Europe tried to do it themselves. There was probably not much resistance to the movement in the equestrian mainstream. I'm only aware of some the SRS chief riders raising objections for academic reasons, because there is no complete canter stride between the flying changes, so that the one tempo changes are almost a new gait that is similar to pacing at the canter.
Question:
Sylvia Loch writes in 'Dressage' that Steinbrecht was involved in the circus. Did he make a break from Seeger in this time period?
Answer:
What most people today don't realize is that the circus was the main job market for civilian high school trainers during the 19th century. The aristocratic riding schools were mostly closed down or at least much reduced in size, in part due to a general financial downturn in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, and in part due to the phenomenon called "Anglomania", which was a fashion trend that substituted thoroughbred racing, steeple chasing and fox hunting for academic dressage work. Steinbrecht trained and sold horses to the large circus companies all over Europe and even to the US.
As Oskar Stensbeck's career shows, there was a direct line of development from the circus to the competition arena.
As far as I know, Gustav Steinbrecht never broke with Louis Seeger. He was married to a niece of Seeger's by the way. He built on Seeger's method and developed his own system, but I don't think he ever renounced Seeger's method - and of course he followed Seeger in his criticism of Baucher.
Thomas Ritter
