Riesenbeck International experienced a very special international dressage tournament this weekend. Not because the weather was so wonderfully summery and the facility was in perfect condition, but because a very special aggregate of the activity of sport between man and animal was revealed at the equestrian center. At the international 3* Para dressage tournament, which was held for the first time, the visitors experienced on closer inspection what a unique partnership 39 international riders and their 43 horses can form with each other - always when one realizes that the other is dependent on him.
The degrees of handicap in para-dressage are divided into classes I, II and III for severe and mostly visible handicaps and IV and V for those impairments that the spectator can hardly see during the rides. These active riders sometimes compete in the higher tests of the regular sport. For example, US rider Kate Shoemaker, who won all three Grade IV tests with her eight-year-old mare Quiana. She says she hasn't ridden at a facility quite like Riesenbeck International, which is otherwise frequented mainly by show jumpers. "The permanent stalls, the space, the parking facilities, the professionalism of the organizer, it's unique - word will spread all the way to America," the veterinarian and dressage horse trainer is certain.
In Class I, due to the severity of the rider's handicap, the horses are ridden exclusively at a walk. Here Laurentia Tan from Singapore presented herself as unbeatable in all her three tests. With two horses in each of the tests, she could rely on two grooms, a trainer and an accompanying mother to assist the young woman.
Julia Porzelt (Grade II) showed with her ten-year-old chestnut stallion Bruno what great willpower and physical effort is necessary to ride correct lessons when one or even more parts of the body are out of order and thus the teaching of the different types of aid working together cannot be implemented. The 27-year-old industrial clerk from Chiemsee, Bavaria, whose most obvious character trait is an engaging smile, confidently trusts her riding skills and Bruno's ability to think along. Curiously, stallions and mares are probably better at this than the geldings, as a glance at the starter lists and the affirmation of various riders showed.
Julia Porzelt convinced the judges with a beautiful seat and correct riding despite the severe handicap she was born with. At the age of three she started with hippotherapy, a kind of physiotherapy on horseback, at the age of nine she got a taste of regular riding, to which she is still faithful and rides competitions in L-dressage with her second horse - and has already won. She wears prostheses on both legs, which she takes off when riding, and cannot rely on five fingers on each hand, but masters her tasks with three fingers each and a remarkable self-confidence. Since she does not have the aids that riders without handicaps can call on, nor does she have much strength, Julia Porzelt uses her seat, voice, two crops and the reins. A clever and sensitive horse knows what its partner in the saddle wants and plays along. The young woman says, "a horse you've convinced will do anything for the rider." For example, this: Even if the animal has been prepared in training by a rider in all gaits walk, trot and canter, it knows exactly that in the arena - depending on the class of the rider - it may only walk or walk and trot. It has been sensitized to this.
The young lady, who has not yet had an international victory to her name, won all three competitions (Individual, Team and Freestyle) over the weekend and was carried through the show on a wave from day one. She couldn't get out of her permanent grin. Her goal is now to compete at a championship such as the European Championships, the World Championships or the Paralympics.
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Modern technology also helps the athletes, who are often not good on their feet: electric scooters, bicycles and wheelchairs could be seen all over the course, with dogs and children whizzing around. Only in the case of the specially brought climbing aids, riders and supervisors relied on commercially available folding ladders and solid blocks, so as not to sink into the sandy soil. One is prepared for all eventualities.
Riesenbeck prepared itself with the tournament as a test event for the European Para Dressage Championships, which will take place in September at the same time as the European Dressage Championships in regular sport.
Nico Hörmann, the head of the German equestrian team, who used to be a successful western rider himself and has strong nerves, is quite pragmatic about the question of whether the special clientele of the para riders should also be given special attention by the organizer, who is inexperienced in this respect: "Everything is wonderfully organized here, and the new facility has already been built to be handicapped accessible. If the organizer puts as much thought into it as he has done so far, nothing can actually go wrong." His protégés would not have to be handled too much with kid gloves. "If there are no stairs to the press conference, then we just carry the wheelchair up."
Jan Holger Holtschmit, chief judge of the tournament and chairman of the board of the German Curatorship for Therapeutic Riding, is also enthusiastic about the spaciousness and the conditions for the para-dressage riders and looks forward with anticipation to the upcoming European Championships: "This facility is perfect for us. I already told Ludger Beerbaum two years ago that this facility would be perfect for hosting our tournaments." His wish has now already been fulfilled once.
To the sport:
The Dutch team won the team classification ahead of Germany and France.
The results for the individual competitions, the team competitions and the freestyle at www.results.riesenbeck-international.com/2022/riesenbeck-international_16/.
