The Joern Kubelke School

[Jenny]

Hi All,
Well I've just got back from two days of Joern Kubelke clinic and I am pleased to say he was great.

Very classical, very patient and definately getting results. I did get to play with the passage and piaffe and even discovered that Magma can do "ones" with people watching. He was able to pick the exact problems with each horse and just work away until there was a clear improvment.

Joern takes each horse calmly through a string of 'gymnastisizing' exercises to get them all more light and in front of the leg. He had a ride on Magma today and the horse is the ultimate test. No fighting, and tantrums, just calm ulltra good riding. Very refreshing to see such classical stuff getting such exciting results.

Joern is a quiet man. Don't expect to see a Pirelli type showman teaching for the audience but he said to those on the side lines that they are welcome to ask him any questions during the walk breaks or during his breaks.

Get yourself up there to watch if you can. There is a fee but this is only to help cover the costs of airfares. No one is making money out of the clinic and there is a lot to be learned from watching. I think Alex and Victoria are riding up there tomorrow along with others on the A and B and YR squads. Enjoy!

[Judi Ruffo]

wow, i was going to go but after Maryborough my horsey was a bit sore, sounds like he was worth the money.

[Dean]

Yes Jenny must agree.

Have had two lessons and looking foward to my third tomorrow. There is a definitely theme to his training methods. Having the horses over tha back and swinging through. Nice to see that all horses are improving. Would certianly be worth getting down for a look if people can!!!!!
Many thanks to Linda for getting effort to get someone of his calibre out to help with our riding and training.

[Schmerglatt]

I ended up having 5 lessons on my boy Monet! And 1 on a young horse. Mum organised the clinic with Joern so that is why I was able to have so many because I could have them at home aswell! He really is a terrific trainer. Not only that, he is also a very nice man. I couldn't believe it, he always helped me down at the stables if I wasn't finisished, like giving out feeds, sweeping, brushing horses for me! I just couldn't believe how humble he was! Joern rode Monet on the last 2 days of my lessons. I was really impressed by his riding aswell. He was strong in all the right moments but new when to soften in all the right moments too. (Monet looked amazing!) He was teaching him to do the flying changes. One of his most important things about his training methods is keeping them very active behind and over the back and to the contact. (And keeping your hands very soft and low.) His methods and excersises were just so simple and classical and it all made sense. I thought that my horse was working correctly like this until Joern started to teach me and then I realised that the expression in my horses movement and the way he worked could improve so much more. And using the exercises and methods he told me to do really influenced the horse to work beautifully. Monet has never felt so amazing! Joern believes very much that you cannot force a horse to do something but to gain the horses trust and then they will want to do it for you.
Let's just say we were very impressed! I just hope he will come out again.

[Zephyr]

Sounds great, I wish I'd been able to go :(

[Jytte]

Yeah, sounds fantastic!

[Nichole]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to send a huge public THANK YOU to Linda and Mel for arranging for Joern to come to Australia, I know first hand that this excercise was not only an enormous expense for Linda but also took many hours, email and calls to organise. Thanks heaps as the clinic ran really smoothly and was a fantastic experience I can not wait until he comes back! Joerns clinic was great for Queensland Dressage as a whole I believe.

I was lucky enough to have a few lessons myself and also stay with the Schmergaltts and Joern, so I got to see first hand how he trains the range of horses from young to Grand Prix, as well as getting to know him over a beer or two.....

I agree with Mel, he is so professional when teaching, starting slowly and then before you know it he is asking more and more from you and the horse. Many times I wanted to give up as it would have been easier to just pull on the mouth to contain the movement instead of sitting it, but Joern offered little tips at the right moments which helped to ease my frusterations and to break through the problem to get a bigger and more expressive movement than I have ever got before. He was willing to "break" the established movement or rhythm in order to get a better one at the other end.

He showed that it is possible to make an ex-race horse think that he was a riding horse and that he did not need to be worried about his own shadow all of the time! He also made me very aware that I was in no way working hard enough - I think this was a message that most of us got!! We all left the arena red faced and sweating more than the horses.

I am so lucky to have had this experience and even more lucky to have a great trainer and friend in Linda to help me to keep what we have learnt going. I dear say that all Lindas students will see a tougher Linda in your next lesson! :-) Bring it on! Thanks again.

Nic

[tmayhew11]

Joern believes very much that you cannot force a horse to do something but to gain the horses trust and then they will want to do it for you.

Sounds fantastic!

Happy.........training!

[Carole Lok]

Tracey Round Asked me to post for her as she can't get access to the all of the internett at the moment.

She learned heaps and really enjoyed her lessons, she is hoping he can come again.

To speak for our family we are hoping he can come again and that we can manage some lessons.

Carole