Crossing The Line

Riders who compete at the very top level in more than one discipline are rare. How do they do it and what do they learn from the experience? Catherine Austen finds out

- Catherine Austen

OCCASIONALLY, someone says, admiringly, “He [or she] can do anything on a horse.” They mean that that person is such a natural, skilled and brave horseman that they would reach the top in any discipline they chose.

How often does anyone actually demonstrate that they can compete in more than one discipline at the highest level, though? Usually a career path is chosen, or stumbled upon, and along that track they stay, developing and honing the skills needed to be successful in that sport. But there are a double handful of riders who, in the past half-century or so, have shown the talent — and, crucially, have had the opportunity — to double up.

The most immediate examples are the German trio of Michael Jung, Ingrid Klimke and Sandra Auffarth. Michael is doing more and more showjumping, and rode on his first CSIO5* Nations Cup team at Hickstead this year. He and Sandra jump at 1.50/1.60m level on a regular basis, and while it is well-known that Ingrid competes at grand prix level in dressage, it is perhaps not as obvious to British equestrian fans that she has also done plenty of showjumping up to 1.50m. No wonder they have five European, two Olympic and two World Championship individual eventing titles between the three of them.

Is such cross-discipline excellence more normal in Germany that in Britain? “No — it is only us,” laughs Ingrid. “But it is normal to me — I have done it all my life.”

She says that she does much the same daily work with all her horses, regardless of their speciality.

“The dressage horses hack and do cavalettis, too.”