Monday April 21, 2003

2003 National Dressage Symposium with Kyra Kyrklund

Jane Cleveland and Kavalier

Last year Jane was the highest-scoring American at the World Breeders Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany riding xxx. She rode Kavalier at the Symposium, her first experience under Kyrklund’s tutelage. Having watched Kyrklund’s series of videos a number of years ago, she had some idea of what to expect. Cleveland also rode in the Schumacher Symposium last year.

“What’s neat about her is that she’s not constrained by ‘what the book says’,” said Cleveland about Kyrklund. “She uses the leg where it’s effective, not where it theoretically ‘should be’.”

Cleveland said that she didn’t discover any new problems in her horse over the course of the weekend, but did learn some new tools that were quickly effective for helping her horse. Kavalier was the first horse of the weekend that Kyrklund actually rode herself, and Cleveland said that it was helpful to watch him being ridden by Kyrklund. “I was proud of him because he was really good with her,” she said. “I knew what she was feeling because I’ve felt it myself so many times. I could feel the problem as she described it and I could watch her solve it,” When she re-mounted, Cleveland said that her horse was more through and had a better sense of self-carriage.

“You get used the horse when you ride it every day yourself and it’s valuable to have someone with a fresh perspective ride them,” she said. “She has high standards and it helped me realize where my horse should be.”

Comparing this symposium with last year, Cleveland said, “[Kyrklund and Schumacher] are both equal caliber, they just have different styles. He was very exercise-oriented, giving us different exercises to work on, which was fascinating; we suggested he write a book because he kept coming up with new ones. She approaches it more from a training and riding tools position.”