Belarusian junior Varvara Paulenka and her Holsteiner gelding Banavur became the triple crown winners in their division at the 2013 CDI-W Wroclaw on 13 - 15 September 2013. By winning the team, individual and Kur test, Paulenka broke borders and put Belarus on the map at this well attended World Cup qualification event in Poland.
The almost 17-year old Paulenka posted strong scores of 68.604%, 65.705% and 70.792% on the board and was "very glad" with these results. "My horse is very young, as he is only six, so he really performed the tests very well," Varvara told Eurodressage. "The highlight for me was the second day. Frankly speaking, we were not ready to be the first to compete but the result of the first day made us responsible for future results. When you understand that you can be at the top this feeling is difficult to overcome and it can disturb you very seriously. Thank God it didn’t disturb my horse and Banavur was ready to win. Unfortunately I made some mistakes at the end of the individual test and we were very close to lose but we didn’t."
Finishing the third day with a stand-out freestyle, Varvara felt the music test was easy, as she believed 100% in herself and her horse. "Banavur was in good condition and was very prepared for this competition, so we didn’t fail in the test," she stated.
Varvara started her equestrian training at age 10 after her father had taken her the Republican Centre of Olympic training for Equestrian Sports and Horse Breeding in Ratomka, Belarus. Within a year she chose dressage as her focus. "To this day I ride the Grand Prix horse, Ditrich, that belongs to the very centre I started at and I participate in different competitions with Ditrich as a member of the Junior National Team of Belarus. With Ditrich I was awarded my first medals and cups, but never before have I achieved such results as those I got in Wroclaw."
Varvara owns the 6-year old Banavur herself and she describes him as really clever and talented.
"He understands me very quickly and is ready to study," she said. "It seems that it is fun for him to study new elements. We are very similar: we are both young and we face the same problems, the main is patience. Probably, this problem is more mine than his. Thank God my coach has enough patience for both of us."
Trained mostly by Irina Zukova, Varvara has been with this coach from her very first days in dressage and along with the help of the National team coach, Svetlana Evshchik, she feels she is in good hands. "They are both great coaches and they have really raised the profile of junior dressage in Belarus. Both of them are riders as well and I train with them at Ratomka."
Varvara joked that her main training goal is simply "hearing the coach and trying to do everything as correctly as possible." The ambitious rider works on controlling herself and learning to be patient. "As soon as I became a member of the Belarusian Junior Team I was interested in modern, progressive methods of training and I was lucky and honored to have the help of the talented German coach Johann Hinnemann, and my chief coach Svetlana."
In fact, Varvara received a very special training lesson in August-September 2013, just before the competitions in Wroclaw and defines the moment as the best lesson in dressage that she has ever had. "I had never met before a man, a rider, who can feel the horse and understand the horse as well as Mr. Hinnemann. He helped me to understand Banavur better, to get a better contact with him and he deeply changed my mind, as well as my technique of riding. I’m more than sure that my results in Wroclaw are the result of his work with me and I want to use the possibility to say “Mr. Hinnemann, I’m very grateful to you!”."
Born and raised in Belarus and proud of it, Varvara says her country is very beautiful. The people are very friendly and hardworking and it is fun that sometimes people ask her where in the world Belarus is?
"When I tell people that it is between Poland and Russia they are deeply surprised," she laughed. "
We are small dressage nation and we are not as experienced as Germany, or Holland and it is difficult to compete against the more advanced nations.
But we will not stop!"
On a serious note, Varvara feels that being from Belarus does have some difficulties; the biggest being the borders and the customs between Belarus and EU. "Sometimes it takes 20-24 hours to pass the border with the horses. We, as people, can stand it but it is not friendly towards our horses! Exactly this situation happened when our team travelled to the European Junior/Young Riders Championship in Berne, Switzerland in 2012 and coming back from Wroclaw, Banavur spent 14 hours at the border."
Despite the hurdles, Varvara thinks dressage is really popular in the country with many children coming in to start training. She hopes the nation will have the greatest sportsmen in the near-future. "My own short-term plans in the sport are to show good results on the National Junior Team of Belarus. As for long term plans, I hope to prepare Banavur for the Grand Prix, gain my higher education and then determine that other big question as I'm still not sure what education I want to choose and where to study."
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
Photos © Katarzyna Broda - Astrid Appels
Related Links
Scores 2013 CDI-W Wroclaw
Photo Report: Krinke-Susmelj on Form at the 2013 CDI-W Wroclaw