Finnish Equestrian Federation Ends Contract with Team Trainer Rien van der Schaft

Dressage

Finland

The Finnish equestrian federation has ended its contract with Finnish national dressage team trainer, Rien van der Schaft. His contract was intended to run through the Olympic year 2024.

Contract Ended Prematurely

"The Finnish federation has decided to not continue the coöperation with me as their dressage team coach," Van der Schaft told Eurodressage. "I had the impression that the collaboration with the riders went very well and their reactions confirm this when I notified them of the news. The communication with the federation has never been up to the quality I wanted and that was also confirmed by the announcing of the ending of our collaboration was done by email."

The 68-year old Van der Schaft was hired as Finnish team trainer in January 2019. His first contract was for a year and then extended until the Tokyo Olympics. It was re-extended until the Paris Olympics."

Results

During Van der Schaft's time as team trainer, Finland was 13th with the team at the 2019 European Championships, 6th at the 2021 Europeans, and 14th at the 2023 Europeans. They were 11th at the 2022 World Championships.

On an individual level, Henri Ruoste was 15th in the Kur at the 2019 Europeans on Rosetti. With Kontestro DB, Ruoste qualified and competed as individual at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and at the 2021 Europeans they finished 6th in the Kur Finals. At the 2022 World Championships, Emma Kanerva had the best result, placing 24th in the Grand Prix Special on Greek Air. At the 2023 Europeans no Finnish rider was able to move into the Grand Prix Special.

Five Years

Van der Schaft, who served as Dutch team trainer before accepting the job in Finland, worked five years for the Finnish equestrian federation.

"Last year at the Helsinki Horse Show several board members told me that the financial situation was not so good, so I agreed to change my stipend but wanted to continue with the same intensity and regularity of training, because, aside from the nice atmosphere amongst the riders, I noticed the progress the Finnish based rising Grand Prix riders were making," said a disappointed Van der Schaft. "I wish the Finnish dressage riders much success and I hope to see them often perform successfully at international shows."

No Olympic Team Qualified

Jutta Koivula, sports manager for the Equestrian Federation of Finland, confirmed that the change in structure is due to financial reasons.

Finnish delegation watching Yvonne Osterholm
compete at the 2023 European Championships

We have had good cooperation with Rien van der Schaft over several years with the best result being 6th place in Europeans as a team. We want to thank him for his good work. However, the economical situation is now more challenging and we needed to do some changes in our system," Koivula told Eurodressage.

"The funding of top sport in Finland is getting more and more difficult and as our riders are spread around Europe, the job has included a lot of travelling and the costs of travelling have been rising a lot in recent years. As we didn’t qualify a team for Paris, we need to start to develop a stronger team towards next Olympics trying to help riders in their own training systems."

When asked if Van der Schaft will be replaced, Koivula replied, "we are not looking for a new team trainer."