An Australian's overview of a Philippe Karl clinic held in the south of Germany.

Part 1 ~ Seeing the Master in Action.

Have you ever had a dream that you just knew would one day become reality, but you really had no idea of how, when or what to expect? Well the trip of my lifetime occurred in August, 2008 after my husband said yes I could go to Germany! Travelling alone with my focus intently on the one man on the planet who I believed to be the Dressage trainer I'd been searching for my whole life, I flew the twenty hours it takes to get from Perth, Australia to Frankfurt, Germany.

After travelling south from Frankfurt on a high speed train in the middle of the night for a few hours, I ended up in a little train station in Stuttgart where, not only was I still an hours drive away from my destination, it was 3:00 am. Exhaustion was setting in and twenty German taxi drivers, all men, were waiting to make some money…  It really did NOT help that I'd forgotten to bring the crucial address I needed to put my head down in the hotel I'd booked into over the internet, so a detour to the closest hotel afforded me two hours much needed sleep and the opportunity to Google a map and order the taxi that took me to where Philippe Karl was teaching.

With no idea of the landscape, I followed my nose to Susanne Lohas' lovely indoor arena in a stunning part of Stuttgart where I was witness to four fascinating days of intense lessons with horse and rider combinations learning the next leg of the Philippe Karl system in their three year Teachers' Course.

Mesmerised from the moment I laid eyes on Philippe Karl, it was a joy to listen as he spoke such definite, clear common sense and I had to pinch myself several times in the first day to make sure I was actually sitting on the sidelines watching such a master.

I was happy to sit and listen to his fabulous French accent all day long and asked a few of the friendly spectators I met along the way what certain phrases meant. Philippe Karl had a translator, turning his English in German, but interestingly enough he would teach in French if the student was fluent. The group of riders were such a lovely bunch of people.

Talented, passionate and completely natural and easy with their horses. Obviously attracted by the calm and very centered Susanne Lohas, who had previously done what I was doing, sitting on the sidelines searching for the truth, Susanne Lohas was so inspired by Philippe Karl's methods that she organised a group of like minded riders to become teachers and holds these clinics in her well set up indoor arena with ample seating and internal stables for the horses.

Luckily for the group of riders and listeners, the Hotel zum Heurigen catered for lunch, dinner, drinks and accommodation. So while the sun was shining and Philippe Karl was resting in the two hour lunch break, friends were made and conversations held about the hot topics of the horse world.

My trip of a lifetime was rapidly becoming a very sharp learning curve into behind the scenes lives of professional Dressage horses. On the edge of one's seat, I learnt about unspeakable tortures horses in the competitive arena are subject to and after meeting Isabella Sonntag (publisher of Piaffe magazine), felt relieved that the combined efforts of Dr Gerd Heuschmann, Philippe Karl and Isabella Sonntag's production company, a DVD was being made to show how horses muscles really work over the back and how damaging hyperflexion is in this new-age modern Dressage scene.

But I digress, those in the know, know what I'm speaking of. Those uninformed would be shocked and horrified by the stories of broken jaws, kissing spines, tendon damage, irreparable neck and back damage and the incredible amount of superb horses being sent to the 'butcher'.

This clinic in Stuttgart shined a light on all of this for me, but out of the darkness came the brightest star of all. He stood, in the middle of a 40 x 20 metre arena, nurturing, caring, changing, helping, correcting, adjusting and fine tuning the horses who had been saved from the butcher. Showing the riders who knew that Dressage didn't have to be forceful. Skillfully training the horses who were bred by those for temperament, who were lucky enough to start their careers in Philippe Karl's Philosophy of Ease. And spreading the word to the audience about the simple fundamentals of balance and lightness in training, whether it is Jumping or Dressage that you do.

Even though my seat bones had drilled holes in the hard wood surface of the viewing platform, my heart and soul soaked up the truth, logic and sheer brilliance that was humorously imparted by Philippe Karl. Philippe Karl shares his knowledge in a perfect learning environment ~ calm, confident and real.

The amount of calm enveloped the whole place and due to the lack of tension in the horses, they confidently learnt new exercises to develop carrying muscles and suppleness to bring them to the Grand Prix movements. Never before have I seen such a downhill built quarter horse step in perfect piaffe with clever hocks and a well sitting croup. Susanne's little brown horse shone in lightness. It was effortless and beautiful to see the synergy develop. This is classical Dressage, this is real!

So by literally writing every word Philippe Karl said down, I out rightly asked him one morning at breakfast if he could come to Australia. "NO" was his very abrupt reply, as if he'd been used to the question, and he was used to it. I was a little taken aback but began asking then which students could come to our great land "down under". I was sure and certain that Australians would love the pure correctness that this training was.

Time flies when you're having fun and before I knew it, the Stuttgart clinic had come to a close. When I realised that a perfect touch of fate had booked Philippe Karl and I on the same flight to Zurich and with the few hours to chat about his life's journey, it was very funny to find out that the first horse he ever sat on was in fact a donkey! *giggle*

Into Zurich and with the vibrant personality of organiser Sylvia Stössel there were lots of laughs along the way!  This group of horses and riders were advanced in Philippe Karl's Teachers' Course and were showing some very nice flying changes, canter half passes, piaffe, passage and Spanish walk. The requirement was also for the teachers in the Teachers' Course to show a student of theirs in a lesson with them whereby Philippe Karl would judge their capacity to teach correctly his School of Légèreté (Lightness).

I took a shine to a super bay horse, four white socks and a star ~ a free mover and a lovely, soft, supple boy. His rider was just as sweet and when she decided to take her stirrups away, the place erupted after Philippe Karl saying all the other riders would not like her from then on!  With an excellent sense of humour, Philippe Karl not only rips at the very shreds of the contradictions flapping in the breeze of modern Dressage today, he turns it upside down, stomps on it and has a good laugh at some of the illogical beliefs which defy common sense!

No horse wore a flash noseband, no horse was worked for more than five or ten minutes at a time without a break and reward for trying and no horse looked forced, tense or deadened by the aids. What I was seeing was proper, fair, kind and compassionate training. The horses were happy to work, the riders were open to learning and were so concentrated and polite, and the listeners were part of the experience with Philippe Karl, directing questions at them and involving them in the conversation the whole time. Very refreshing to see an instructor spending the time explaining the logistics to the crowd and encouraging them to be interactive with him. How else do you learn?

So what does it all mean? This lightness, balance and flexions and asking the horse to chew with his mouth by mobilising the jaw?  It means EVERYTHING!!!  It is ALL important!  It is to train horses in self carriage with invisible aids and a free swinging back. Relaxation is paramount. Freedom in the mouth means freedom in the back (compared to grinding teeth and tense backs for instance). Lightness to the hand keeps the horse off the forehand. Lightness to the leg gives the appearance of invisible aids and flexions through the neck and poll creates balance through the shoulders which in turn develops straightness as well as gymnastically suppling the horse.

The neck extension is crucial in having the horse stretch his long back muscles and the forward impulsion in trot and canter with the horse seeking the bit in a nose forward outline really frees up the movement and creates correct swing.

So it looks like Philippe Karl's fantabulous system of teaching contact, relaxation, balance, rhythm, flexion, straightening the crooked horse, impulsion and collection covers all bases of Dressage, just in a much more logical sequence.

My question of contact to the German FN's order of training is why is contact the third on the list?  It defies logic when young horses are put into a contact of side reins or draw reins on the lunge before they're even ridden... So what's that if its not contact? In fact it's the worst one because the horse would be constantly punishing itself every stride until it learnt to evade the contact, hence coming behind the vertical to get away from it. And what does modern Dressage teach to the rider to educate the horse in the mouth where the contact is such an abused aid?  Cowboy quote of old, "there are no horses with hard mouths, just riders with hard hands."

Philippe Karl teaches the rider the hand aids of which there are four basic rules.

1. Get the mouth of the horse, Cession de mâchoire. See Philippe Karl's book Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage: A Search for a Classical Alternative. There is a whole chapter on The Hand,
2. Flex the horses' neck quietly left and right, keeping the poll open. Suppling exercises, stretching and strengthening the large neck muscles,
3. Ask the poll to flex which brings the horse onto the vertical without lowering his head. No chance to overflex and certainly No Hyperflexion!, and
4. Extend the neck downward and forwards, on or in front of the vertical. This is written in ALL the classical rule books of Dressage from day dot.

The aids taught to the horse in Philippe Karl's system are kind, gentle and repetitive, so the horse understands what the hand means in every pace, starting at halt. When the forehand lifts to align the shoulders in correct posture and the foreleg vertical, (not lean forward which is the common stance of all horses), the horses' responsibility is to carry his head and neck in self carriage forward into every gait.

The importance of training lightness to the legs reinforces the leg on means go forward rule of old and the beauty of watching Philippe Karl's horses is the rider rides with the true intent of, "Hand without legs, Legs without hand."  François Baucher. Clear and simple!

How many times do we watch Dressage and see the riders legs kicking every stride (and/or spur constantly aiding), for what?  If a light horse is ridden with constant leg, technically they should end up at the winning post leading the Thoroughbreds home at the races, because leg means go!

Which brings me to part two of this story... Riding lessons on horses trained in the School of Légèreté. When you feel what I'm about to explain, you KNOW there is no other way you want to ride. This is the truth and the art of riding, the essence of oneness and the effect of less is more.

Philippe Karl Germany Clinics » Part 2

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