12/3/11 I’ve never met Kyra Kyrklund. I’ve seen her ride only once…real time… in Stockholm Stadium, during her Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special tests at the 1990 World Equestrian Games. And I’ve read, and will read again, her book. I unabashedly admire her, and am forever grateful for having enlightened and stimulated me to pursue this craft. (My gushing reminiscence in post-script, following, will explain.)
So when I read of her presentation at the 2011 Global Dressage, I hung on her every word, as reported by Eurodressage’s Astrid Appel.
http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2011/11/04/kyra-kyrklund-collecting-body-and-step
I’ve read, since, that Kyra spent her sixtieth birthday, not sunning herself on a beach, but questing onward, attending the Morning Training of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
As would I, if I could take the schoolmasters with me.
Gone surfing, I found this video of Kyra and then PSG accomplished Master 850, giving the impression of dancing around sparklers on a birthday beach. Happy Birthday to me!
Now, to reminisce:
I had ridden and studied dressage for already 30 years, seen US National Dressage tests, and World Championship dressage tests of Three Day Events here in the States and in England, and even ridden a confirmed GP horse as part of my ’87 Kentucky job. I was still not convinced of elite Dressage’s contribution to the preservation, much less enhancement, of the essential nature and nobility of The Horse. I was, and am, afterall, a Littauerite, ever aware of Littauer’s admonishment to beware of “charlatans” coming from abroad. But I had also read much of Podhajsky – who was utterly revered by my family and riding mentors – including his analysis of Olympic Dressage judging. And enlightened, spiritually elevated, enthused, by two mid 80’s performances of the Spanish Riding School in the St. Louis Arena.
So there I was in Stockholm for the first ever World Equestrian Games. To absorb all I could learn from the best of the best of all disciplines of the time. For Dressage, I was seated just to the right of, but many meters behind C. I trained my binoculars on each Dressage contestant’s ride, and made copious notes in the margins of the WEG program between tests.
And learned a lot.
I remember coming away from the GP rides thinking “that black horse and Finnish rider could have captained a winning team.” (had Finland fielded a team) And during the GP Special rides for individual medals, being impatient for Matador II and Kyra Kyrklund’s entry, elated by their performance, and disappointed that it was ever over. Resorting to coffee, I was satisfied and confident that the Jury’s scoring should have preferred the qualities of Matador’s motion, his exuberant expression, including evident delight in his own accomplishment, over the impressions of automation imposed by other riders’ determined accuracy of their horses’ tests.
Since my own awareness of youtube, I’ve been searching for a video of Matador at the 1990 WEG. I haven’t found one.
Close as I can get is this record of Kyra Kyrklund and Matador breaking the barrier at the 1991 World Cup Final Kur:
So now
41 responses to “2011 Autumn Digest: Kyra Kyrklund, Global Dressage Forum”
Doradca Hipoteczny
December 18th, 2011 at 03:41
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Christopher Hyams
December 28th, 2011 at 06:31
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February 20th, 2012 at 18:08
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Christopher Hyams
February 27th, 2012 at 08:34
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Daryl Russell Benjamin
February 28th, 2012 at 03:24
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Kim Peterson
April 18th, 2012 at 09:08
Hey Chris, my husband and I attended Cavalia recently and enjoyed it, but since I didn’t know much about what I was viewing, afterward I thought “Where can I get a review of that show?” and came to your blog. And there was a great review! Thanks! So much of this show was wonderful. I liked the dancing 6 (?) greys the best, wow, and I loved the mirror image performances by the what-I-call two princesses. Coupling the horses with acrobats was an inspired idea. This show has generated a lot of chat among our friends. I have one question: the horse with the long long mane, was that the “Warmblood?” (Kim at the Library 🙂
Christopher Hyams
April 20th, 2012 at 16:31
Kim, I am glad that you and your friends saw Cavalia, and are buzzing about it. It was with some trepidation that I agreed to review Cavalia for DressageUnderground.com. I feared that, to garner “a night at the opera,” I was compromising the mission of the site, which is to collect and curate only timeless examples of excellence of the multiple facets of Dressage. So I was relieved to discover that these are impeccable horsemen, and that Cavalia truly belongs in this collection. I am leaving the review as cover story as long as Cavalia are on Chouteau’s Pond, selfishly hoping Cavalia will develop enough support here that Odesseyo will follow sooner than later.
“Was the horse with the very long mane a Warmblood?”
Possibly…but because I am typically focused on the qualities of horses’ motion, rather than cosmetics, I cannot identify which horse you mean. Cavalia’s public relations packet calls one of the 49 horses a Warmblood. So let me explain “Warmblood”…as soon as microscopes scrutinized equine blood cells, horses were categorized as hot blood and cold blood, only. Without becoming tediously technical, I will simply say that because when a hot blooded horse is bred to a cold blooded horse, the product is ALWAYS a cold-blooded horse. Scientifically, there is no such thing as a Warmblood.
Linguistically, warmblood has come to mean horses that have any amount of hot blood ancestry, so that includes a lot of horses. Globally, there are a great many Warmblood registries, American Quarter Horse, Oldenburg, KWPN (Dutch), Selle Francais, to name very few. Good breeding practice is that every three or four generations, a breed’s gene pool is ‘refreshed’ with new hot blood. So a Trekehner or a Hannoverian may be 1/2 Thoroughbred (not to be confused with purebred) or 1/2 Arabian, and as long as the hot blood infusion was by an ‘approved’ Thoroughbred or Arabian sire.