South African dressage riders were once again thrilled to have the internationally recognised Swiss dressage rider, Hans Staub, visit us. Hans came seventh in the World Equestrian Games in Den Haag, sixth in the team event in the Olympic Games in 1996 and is a three-time CH Swiss champion.

Staub is also a C-FEI judge and has a training stable in Switzerland, where one of his pupils is the South African, Johan Roodt, who has been training with him for a year on his horse, Odessa, and competing at grand prix level. Hans is currently training his own horse, De Banderas (by Donnerhall) towards grand prix.

South African standards

Having competed internationally at GP-level, he says that the standard of South African riders is improving. "South African riders are nice riders – good horse people. If you really want to know where you stand in relation to the rest of the world, though, you need to go to Europe and compete to see how far you are."

Hans teaches all over the world including Europe, Thailand, Korea, Turkey and Australia. He's been coming to South Africa to teach once a year since 1997, and enjoys seeing his regular clients improve from visit to visit.

SA Horseman caught up with him last year during his stay at Erica de Groot's yard, Glendalough Stables in Glenferness, Johannesburg, where he was teaching riders from novice to advanced level, clearly enjoying the time he spent with his pupils.

For this Swiss-born horseman, English is not his mother tongue, but he would walk up and down the arena enthusiastically with each pupil as he taught, explaining and correcting faults, even switching to German for an entire lesson with several pupils (at their request, of course!).

Spectators would ask him questions between lessons which he patiently answered, and it was clear that his teaching style focused on making sure the basics are understood by horse and rider before progressing to harder exercises.

The dressage horse

"When looking for a good dressage horse, the horse must be big enough," says Hans. "He must fit the rider size-wise so that the overall picture is correct, but he should not be so big that he's too strong for the rider. He must have an uphill build with a free shoulder, and the transition between shoulder and neck must be good, muscular and well-set. And don't forget – he needs the right temperament!"

When asked what his training ideals are, he replied that each horse needs its own training system. Regular, consistent schooling is essential, but being a good rider means being able to assess what your particular horse is capable of. You should be able to evaluate if your horse needs to work with more or less impulsion in order to combat inherent laziness or tenseness, and be able to decide when to pressure him and when to work on relaxing him in order to progress.

About movement, he says that a serious dressage rider's aim should be to ride at grand prix level later. As such, he prefers horses with a bit of knee action, soft gaits and powerful hindquarters. Many South African riders use Warmbloods and Thoroughbreds, but Hans mentions that most of the Thoroughbreds he's seen in South Africa, have their limits when it comes to dressage.

"They're too difficult temperament-wise and their conformation is not ideal. Thoroughbreds are not made for dressage – they're made for racing. Some of them have good ability, but I prefer Warmbloods," explains Hans.

During his lessons, he emphasised the importance of maintaining impulsion, collection and correct flexion, doing several exercises to increase the horse's response to the aids of the rider, and "keep his croup under him." Straightness was a top priority and any crookedness was promptly addressed.

Hans stressed the necessity to "be in balance with the horse, and then balance the horse." A favourite exercise was to practice repeated walk-canter-walk transitions on a circle, the more advanced horses doing this in counter canter, during which he'd insist on ensuring that they keep the rhythm and collection, telling riders to "think the canter transition as sitting." The horses' lightness and responsiveness clearly improved after doing this exercise a few times.

Think rhythm

The need to "prepare your movements" was also explained. "Create the flying change before you want to perform it. Then, when the time is right, you just let it out," he told one rider who wanted more fluency in her changes. A steady rhythm was always sought.

"Always think rhythm; keep the tempo," he repeated several times, whether the horses were lengthening or collecting their paces. One green horse in particular who was unsteady in his rein contact and neck position, was given the advice to move forward and find a rhythm, and then gradually "build up a contact from behind".

Hans never asked this rider to pull the horse's head into position, rather to first activate the hindquarters and then correct the horse's bend, whilst maintaining a light inside rein and riding inside leg to outside rein. "The saying 'young horse, old rider' is so true!" he said with a smile. "Horse and rider should match. A more experienced rider gives a novice horse balance and confidence. A more experienced horse helps a novice rider."

Pupils warmed up alone, after which most of the horses started with leg yielding, shoulder-ins, counter canter serpentines, and changing rein through the circle with a simple change. Then he'd build up to spectacular lengthenings, half passes at the trot and canter, and flying changes. He asked the more advanced horses to show piaffe and canter pirouettes.

Watching these obviously well-trained horses and dedicated riders alone, was a treat as a spectator, and hearing Hans's comments, good and bad, meant that the audience left with great insight and inspiration.

Next visit

We are privileged as South African riders to have the opportunity to learn from an internationally experienced competitor and instructor. I'm sure everyone who knows him looks forward to having him back again next year.

Erica de Groot can be contacted at 082 490 6763 or e-mail her at ericadeg@iafrica.com to be put on a waiting list to book for a lesson with Hans when he visits South Africa again.

Visit Hans Staub's website at

www.dressur-pferde.ch to find out more about the man and his work.