The New England Dressage Association played host to Ingrid Klimke, one of Germany’s leading event and dressage riders, during NEDA’s annual Fall Weekend. As she has at previous symposiums, Klimke joined forces with Dr. Ina Goesmeier, one of the world’s leading veterinary practitioners in holistic medicine.

Like her father, the late Reiner Klimke, Ingrid Klimke has achieved international success in both eventing and dressage. She shares with her father a strong belief in the importance of cross-training for both horses and riders and that’s the message she sought to impart at this year’s symposium. Hundreds of spectators turned out for the three-day educational weekend, held November 2-4 at the University of Massachusett’s Hadley Farm.

Klimke has represented her country in the Olympics as a member of Germany’s eventing team and has also represented Germany as a dressage rider in World Cup competition. She’s widely known for co-authoring with her father two books, Cavalletti and The New Basic Training of the Young Horse, and she incorporated many of the training approaches from these books into her NEDA clinic. Day One of the symposium focused on the classical training system and the rider’s use of the seat. Day Two focused on cavalletti work and Day Three on test riding.

Throughout the three-day clinic, Klimke urged riders to “follow your horse” and explained that a sign of a good seat is the ability to go with the movement of the horse and maintain a quiet leg and quiet hands. Klimke said that riders can better learn how to follow their horses by doing a bit of cross-training themselves—school on the flat, over jumps and across country each week.

“I’m a true believer that neither the rider nor the horse should specialize too early,” she said. “Horses, especially before they are six, need to jump a little and go for a hack in the hills. This will make them stronger in all their muscles.”

One other thing Klimke inherited from her father is his sense of humor with the result that her clinic was not only entertaining for participants, but spectators as well. She clearly wanted all in attendance to have fun—and this included the horses.