June 19, 2012 Following the Olympic Dressage Team and Individual selection process these recent weeks has been both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because it is happening everywhere, all over the world, and have been televised, live-streamed, filmed and web loaded by dedicated videographers. Frustrating because it is nigh on impossible to see all the rides of Olympic aspirants, all over the world. Even more frustrating because dedicated videographers and TV film crews focus, quite understandably, on the test rectangle itself, rather that the warm-up areas. It is the warm-up areas from which there is so much more to learn.

Although Dressage seems so temporal, if not downright urgent in an Olympic, or even World Equestrian Games year, it’s wise to remember that Dressage is timeless; the more things change, the more horses and humans remain the same.

Reiner Kilmke’s(1936-1999) horsemanship is timeless. His 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Gold medal victory, including one tempis, passage, piaffe, and extended trot with Ahlerich is iconic:

The man and horse had so captivated the imaginations of American horsemen, that we wanted more. He was invited to ride for the Madison Square Garden audience of the 1987 National Horse Show, and our good fortune was that he accepted.

Seven years he later he was back in Los Angeles, contesting the WorldCup with Biotop.

And the next year he rode Biotop at Aachen, where he was filmed in trot exercises the day before the Grand Prix. Studying this film illuminates so many aspects of excellence:

Many thanks to Bill Woods for making the effort to digitize his analog films, narrate and web-load Klimke’s and Biotop’s exercises.