Agreed. Some of mine that have passed away.
Istvan Sorenyi-Sander - deceased
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/obituaries-100804/
Gabor Foltenyi - deceased
Francois Lemaire de Ruffieu - deceased
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Yes, because who pays his fees, the horse? Or the rider? And if the pumped up rider feels like sheās a great rider, the BNT made her feel so, will she pay for more training? Recommend him to others? Maybe even buy a horse through him, because hers isnāt that good (he told her!)?
As I have written elsewhere, 1. This industry isnāt regulated, and manipulative, unethical behavior is rewarded, and 2. When money can be made off animals, the animals lose out.
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Do they have students who are carrying on the tradition teaching and training that you know of?
Can confirm- I groomed for them for a while after college and they are truly kind and lovely people to both horse and rider.
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I wanted to like him. I saw him do an Expo with his stallion at Indoor Brabant and I noticed he was just doing Natural Horsemanship. I talked to him about it afterwards and talked about my WB nut, who was in NH training at the time, and he really had nothing to say because āhe hadnāt seen the horseā. Sorry, dude, but you just gave an exposition stating how NH (under the guise of his brand) can fix all horses but you canāt say anything about American NH or the approach with my horse?
He took NH principles and applied it the the $$$$$$$$$ dressage crowd. I had a sour taste after talking to him in person. He kind of seemed all about the money. Just my impression.
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George Morris would approve of that automatic release and beautiful position. Seemingly, thatās not favored anymore.
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She is a very kind person. I remember her when she was riding for a Friesian breeder in TX and their ads featured her in beautiful dresses riding those Friesian stallions. I met her several times at shows and she was very kind to a groom at our barn in a way that was very meaningful to him. Heās now a professional rider.
I would not recommend Dr. Heitmann, DVM, married to Alice Womble who sponsors her and buys the horses. He was my vet and did a pretty poor job of being a horse vet. Heās all about politics, not the horse in front of him. He canāt be trusted.
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Whereas Iāve seen her be notably unpleasant to a perfectly same clinic participant.
I guess everyone has bad days.
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Istvan Sorenyi-Sander was a marvelous instructor. He was very supportive and kind, with firm, clear instruction to horse and rider.
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That seems perfectly reasonable for a professional trainer to say. He hasnāt seen your horse, only heard your explanation, and often times the two things are very different. He could give you an answer based on your perception of your horse and subsequent description, and it could be totally off base because you misrepresented the horse. Or he could bite his tongue and wait to see the horse and make an accurate judgment for himself. I think heās wise to do the latter.
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The sad thing is before the Charlotte video, she likely would have made the list (though I always thought her talents lay in riding and not so much teaching)
I will have to say no to Betsy Steiner, at least as she was 20 or so years ago. I audited a clinic and she was all about push-pull. More spurs and whip! Hold the front end! She got on a couple of horses and all she seemingly accomplished was getting both of them rearing and frazzled. Any āresultā was full of tension and anxiety.
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I spent a lot of time in my previous job driving the two of them back and forth to airports and they were hilarious
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Thats awesome! I had dinner with Morton and a couple of people running the clinic! He had some great stories!
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I was coming on here to mention Francois Le Maire de Ruffieu. I had the pleasure to ride with him a couple times. He was always about the horse. ALWAYS.
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The late Walter Zettle. A friend rode in his clinics regularly in the last few years he was traveling to teach, and I was fortunate to watch a number of times. I would have loved to ride too, but didnāt have a horse at the time who was ready to take.
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I get that. But honestly, if you went up to a hunter trainer who just gave an exposition, and said you had a horse in professional hunter training but she was spooking at the flowers, do you think that hunter trainer would say nothing more than āI havenāt seen your horse, I canāt commentā? I would expect something like āwell, I canāt comment on a horse I havenāt seen, but Iāve helped horses who spook at flowers doing what I was talking about in the middle part of my presentation, or x,y,zā. That is standard for people giving public presentations about their method of training. Certainly, clinicians would never say to an auditor asking a question about their horse āI canāt comment, Iāve never seen your horseā. That basically never happens. IME
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Winklerās student Tatiana Schwarz rides and trains in Germany. Formerly of Ukraine, where he started teaching her.
He also taught/trained a couple of Russian riders and rubbed elbows with Lazelle Knocke, who thought highly of him. There may be a few people on the East Coast who still subscribe to his kind methods.
De Vargha and von Benenstamm have been dead a long time. De Vargha returned to his native Hungary in the late 1960ās or early 1970ās.
For many years, Colleen Root (Colorado) was a disciple of von Benenstamm and another German trainer whose name escapes me now. I do not know if sheās still active. She could be abrasive to humans but kind to the horses.
Bridget Milnes (Colorado) also rode with von Benenstamm. Donāt know if sheās still active or not either.
All I can say is, the closer you can get to the old cavalry type approach, the better.
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I have ridden with JJ Tate many times over the years and my mare who I lost to EMS/Laminitis this January at 20, was started in JJās barn. That mare was always amazing and her metabolic issues were so sad, but I did manage that severe IR for about a decade.
I used to go spend long weekends at her place in Chesapeake City, when she was located at Riveredge in MD, Iād take one or two horses and sometimes get lucky enough to get a lesson on her old Schoolmaster.
I really enjoy JJās teaching but with her Academy and popularity, it is now nearly impossible to get into a clinic as a rider.
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Absolutely. These are people that come from the tradition of training horses to take men to warā¦not to āpranceā in a 20x60 manicured arena
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Iām glad to see JJ mentioned several times - I am a big fan of her mentor Charles de Kunffy.
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