Ingrid Klimke to focus on Equine Fitness and Health

You don't want to miss this one!

The United States Dressage Federation's (USDF) 2006 National Dressage Education Symposium, scheduled December 1-3 in Kansas City, MO, is bringing two-time Olympian and World Champion equestrian, Ingrid Klimke of Warendorf, Germany to the Midwest as a clinician.

A popular competitor among world-class eventers, Klimke also ranks among top international dressage riders. As a nationally certified riding instructor and daughter of the late six-time Olympic gold medalist, Dr. Reiner Klimke, Ingrid Klimke has starred in numerous German, European and World Championships. Last year she captured individual bronze at the European Championships in Blenheim, Great Britain and placed second at the 2006 Badminton Horse Trials in Great Britain.

Training with some of the world's best equestrians since 1999, Klimke placed fourth overall on Sleep Late in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and, again, in 2004 with a sixth place overall in cross country and eighth place in dressage at the Athens Olympics.

Klimke's topic for the USDF symposium is equine fitness. She will focus on the importance of cavalletti exercises as detailed in her book, Cavalletti: The Schooling of Horse and Rider Over Ground Poles.
"It is the variety, dressage, jumping, hacking, that builds up different muscles in the horse, making him strong," she explains. "Classical training is always multi-faceted, and fitness is the one result."

Klimke's approach to training follows the classical training pyramid. She is especially concerned with starting young horses and developing them into champions, much like she did with Sleep Late, her then seven-year-old World Champion eventing horse.

"Until the horse is six, I do not specialize them, instead choosing to build up the muscles needed to become an athlete," she says. "By using different training techniques such as cavalletti work, gymnastic jumping, free jumping while hacking out, and hill work for strengthening the hind and back muscles and increasing overall condition, the horse improves step by step, growing and building a personality that is motivated to learn and give the best."

Klimke is equally concerned with the development of the pony rider, young rider or adult rider. "Whether the discipline is dressage, jumping or crossing country, I want my students to try hard and give their best at every level." She began her own formal competition career while still in her early teens, and graduated with the highest possible marks on her national examination.

Joining Klimke during the event, also from Germany, is PhD veterinarian, Dr. Ina Gosmeier, who is an excellent dressage rider in her own right and who will address homeopathic medicine for the equine. Dr. Ina Gosmeier promotes horse health using alternative techniques such as Chinese herbs.

Gosmeier served as the official equine vet for the German team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, as well as the 2002 World Horse Games in Jerez and the European Championships of Eventing in 2003. Her specialties are acupuncture, chiropractic and kinesiology. She teaches and has published three books on these subjects.

As a Grand Prix dressage rider, Gosmeier concentrates her practice on sport horses.

"Acupuncture is a regulating therapy, meaning it does not address the affected organ alone, but treats the whole individual," she says. "Therefore, the task of acupuncture is to solve the underlying imbalances and blocked energies with the goal of bringing them back into harmony."

For more information on Dr. Gosmeier's approach to equine health, visit www.goesmeier.de.

Tickets for USDF's 2006 Symposium, in conjunction with the annual convention, go on sale in September. Riding schedule for the clinic is not yet determined and will be advertised later in the year.

Contact Kathie Robertson at 859-271-7877 or krobertson@usdf.org for more details.

Founded in 1973, the United States Dressage Federation is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to education, recognition of achievement, and promotion of dressage. For more information about USDF membership or programs, visit www.usdf.org, email usdressage@usdf.org, or call (859) 971-2277.