Teaching and learning with horses

(Oliva) The Spanish Autumn MET, which began on 20th October, is now into the second of three tournaments weeks taking place on the Mediterranean coast. Perfect time then to take stock. While the numbers involved – 150 more horses at this year’s Oliva Nova MET – are cause for celebration for initiator Carlos Borho, those taking part are also highly satisfied with the progress their horses are making. Show jumper and trainer Rene Tebbel is amongst those giving the first week of the Autumn MET top marks.

In fact it is the tour for young horses, aged five to seven years, which dominates the first few days of each of the tournament weeks, and which is a major focus for the National Trainer for the Ukraine and former German Champion. “Nowhere else gives you quite the same opportunity to do such intensive work with young horses”, says Tebbel. “Normally you’d only take one or at most two youngsters to an international tournament, while the instructors at home take care of the young horses. Here you can concentrate fully on these horses, even with big international events on the programme for the weekends”.

And this is evident in almost all the horses, even after just a week. Tebbel: “It works on different levels: One benefit is that you have the chance to compare your youngsters with other horses of the same age in all the events. You can really focus your work on learning progress and then test the work you’ve done in the events on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  You can often see real, quantitive progress in the space of a week, the learning takes place in short intervals. In the normal context of tournament life and training work at home, that is not generally possible”.

The 45-year-old professional rider who won a silver medal with the German team at the Stockholm World Cup, came second in the 1999 World Cup Final and has won a total of three German Championship titles, is keeping an eye on the Ukrainian delegation in Oliva Nova, as well as focussing on his own horses. In January 2015 Tebbel transferred to the Ukrainian team and has since been responsible for supervising and coordinating the team’s sporting activities, while continuing to live in Emsbüren. At the start of week 2 at the Autumn MET, Tebbel and his colleagues have also been impressed with the training jumping on the big sand course. The organisers arranged for a 1.45/1.50m training course to be constructed, and it has been used extensively by the older horses.

The Equestrian Centre offers training, competition and relaxation to both horses and riders in equal measure. There is the chance for galloping on the beach or riding through the water, which is great for the horses, and Rene Tebbel’s German colleague Lars Nieberg (Münster) is in agreement with him about the benefits of the series The brilliance of the “complete package” offered by the Autumn MET to the youngsters on four legs is also evident in the results of the first day of competition in week two. In the international competition for five-year-old show-jumping horses (1.20m), 35 of the 49 pairs taking part completed the event with no errors. In the six-year-old show-jumping horses’ (1.30m) competition, 59 pairs took part and 35 of them remained error-free, while in the competition for seven-year-old horses 27 of the 60 pairs avoided mistakes. This highlights not only the quality of the show-jumping horses, but also the teaching and learning progress that Spain’s Autumn MET makes possible.

Further details of the results from the MET are available at www.horse-timing.com. Information about the Autumn MET and what it offers is available online at www.mediterranean-equestrian-tour.net.

Source: Press release