The German A-team gathered for a three-day training seminar held behind closed doors at the headquarters of the German Olympic Equestrian Committee (DOKR) in Warendorf, on 27 February - 1 March 2012.
The German A-team includes Isabell Werth (El Santo, Don Johnson, Warum Nicht), Matthias Rath (Totilas), Ulla Salzgeber (Herzruf's Erbe), Monica Theodorescu (Whisper), Kristina Sprehe (Desperados), Helen Langehanenberg (Damon Hill) and Anabel Balkenhol (Dablino) and from this group the German Olympic Team will be picked in July.
The training seminar started on Monday with an open training session supervised by team trainers Holger Schmezer and Jonny Hilberath. In the evening the riders listened into a presentation by David Stickland on score analyses of dressage tests.
Stickland's Global Dressage Analytics is working with the German DOKR and the A-team riders to track their detailed performance and offer additional advice to riders and trainers on optimizing scores. "Last Monday was a session with all the riders together to go through how to use the system and identify with each of them the first results of the analysis," Stickland told Eurodressage. "The tracking and analysis is ongoing, and each rider has a private GDA login to work with their own data."
On Tuesday all the riders had to ride a test which was videotaped and discussed. O-judge Peter Holler, chair of the dressage committee Röser and team trainer Holger Schmezer helped for each assessment and commented on the rides.
"The video analysis was very good," Anabel Balkenhol told Eurodressage. "We could watch (the footage) right away and improve the movement right away
On Wednesday a final training session took place, which was also recorded and discussed.
"The atmosphere was very good," said Balkenhol about the week. "Dablino is in good shape and they (the selectors) were happy with how good he looked! I think it was a good idea to do such a training session! I have to say it was a lot of fun!"
After the seminar, the South German based Ulla Salzgeber has stayed in Warendorf to prepare for the CDI Dortmund with Holger Schmezer. She will be joined in competition by Werth, Theodorescu, Sprehe, and Langehanenberg on their top horses. Anabel Balkenhol will be making her show come back with Dablino at a small local show first before competing at the CDI Hagen.
© Astrid Appels/Eurodressage
Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games
