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Simon Bain Report Simon Bain is a veterinarian in Australia living about 4 hours south of Sydney. He also rides dressage with his thoroughbred at Prix St. Georges having worked a long time to move up to this level. Simon volunteered as a vet at the Horse Park for the Olympics from September 1 - 15 and then, of course, returned for the dressage. We finally met in person on Friday, Grand Prix Special day. Simon had tried to email reports from an internet kiosk but the emails didn't go through. Here is his first report and he will be rewriting and emailing further "insider" reports from home. I tried to send 4 emails from Sydney but it seems that either the antiquated machine or my shocking lack of knowledge of IT procedure prevented that from happening, so I'll get a brief summary of 2.5 weeks of working at the equestrian venue off to you now. I have to say that it has been the greatest experience working around those who are currently the great riders of the world. The work schedule was pretty busy but I did take out an hour each day to watch dressage horses working. One's mind blows at first when one sees the great names of world dressage. When Anky rode past me the first morning I was there I nearly knelt down and kissed the ground. I've watched both her and Isabell working most days. Anky and her partner Sjef work together often in an arena where up to 12 other horses are working at the same time. She works principally in the double with Bonfire's chin close to his chest (ie bent 45 degrees behind the vertical) with Sjef shouting instructions with great prolificacy. It's a system unique to them and would take a lot of watching to begin to understand. Isabell on the other hand mostly works Gigolo in a snaffle, long and low with very light contact. For much of the training she has been very much working on basics, for example, concentrating on square halts following a few strides of alternating trot and canter. Dr Schulten-Balmer has been tuning up the combination for the last 2 weeks. The US team work very much together with Robert Dover helping out the other 3 some days and then Geunter Seidel filling the role on other days. They have operated very much as a team, as have the Dutch, although the Germans seem to do their own thing. I have particularly liked Beauvalais (Spain) ridden by Beatriz Ferrer-Salat. He'd be one of my take home horses (they pretty well all would be). Well, the last 2 days of dressage were just superb. The Germans absolutely put it together on the day. The clincher was Nadine Capellmann on Farbenfroh. He was right on the edge of a blow up, but instead worked 20% better than his schooling of the last 2 weeks to seal the gold medal for Germany. Have to say the US also really pulled it together on the day. Simon Bain George Morris You might well ask what what the doyen of show jumping trainers had to say has to do on a dressage site! Well I was eating my lunch watching Guenter Seidel warm up for yesterday's test under the watchful eye of Robert Dover and this guy with a Coke in his hand (my contribution to Olympic sponsorship) sat on a neighbouring bench around the warm up arena. We talked about how Foltaire was working and then we talked about the Olympics. As we did this I noticed that his accreditation was that of one George Morris. He said that he had been to at least 7 Olympics and was emphatic that this was the best of them. He did have a reservation about the footing in the main arena, and that was his only reservation. However that isn't the take home message of our conversation. We talked about some of the dressage riders and I mentioned that I'd watched Isabell Werth working principally in a snaffle with a very light contact. Yes he said she really is an incredibly good rider and has learnt that, as with all these equestrian disciplines, that it is the horse that has to do the work, and far too many are doing far too much. I thought of all the take home messages from the last 2 weeks and appreciated that prehaps this might be the best message of all. Simon Copyright © Dressage un Ltd. All rights reserved.
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