Ellen starts her pirouette at the Bremen Grand Prix. Notice the engagement of the hind legs as Donatha S lowers her croup. Ellen doesn’t interfere with the pirouette by using too much leg, or worse yet, too much spur. Too much spur will cause the horse to cramp its belly muscles thereby stopping its hind legs.  As the level of engagement increases, so must the lightness of the aids. The balance and coordination between horse and rider must become more fine-tuned; this becomes easier to disturb with harsh aids. A rider must be capable of sustaining the proper level of relaxation and concentration in order to execute collected movements well. This type of focus is critical for all elite athletes---not just dressage riders.  As the renowned philosopher Joseph Campbell said, “The athlete must find a place of inner peace”. Note Ellen’s expression.

...in the following 276 pages (including 172 photographs), these masters shared a few of their key points of wisdom including a valuable glimpse into their philosophy and paradigms that evolved as they achieved their considerable success. These four trainers are responsible for significant contributions in the training and teaching of horses and riders which together won an incredible 90% of the Olympic dressage gold medals in the last four Olympic Games. During this period, the German dressage squads won 18 out of the 20 individual and team gold medals awarded. This is an unprecedented achievement in the history of equestrian sports---a 90% win record in a sport/art in which very few countries have even won one of these coveted prizes. These few masters have taught students who won more gold medals than entire nations---Sweden ranks behind Germany in the gold medal count with a total of seven, followed by USSR with four. Additional gold medal winning countries are France, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Austria (German jumper riders are also well known for a system of training that is based on dressage. This is a major contributing factor to their success. German jumping squads hold the record for most Olympic show jumping gold medals).

The most important aspect of the great master’s success, for the purposes of this book, lies in their uncanny ability to produce successful horse and rider pairs---to communicate their knowledge to others. Great trainers, great instructors and great riders are three separate but related categories. As is often witnessed, success in one does not guarantee success in another. These masters are the people who stand behind the scenes at world-class competitions. They help others to achieve success...

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