The Xenophon society (The Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Classical Riding Culture)first press release was a bit cryptical, announcing that Gerd Heuschmann, veterinarian and founding member of Xenophon, had stepped down as deputy chairman at his own request because of irreconcilable divergences in substance. Shortly afterwards, he resigned from the society altogether, thereby forestalling a possible exclusion procedure. At the origin of the fierce criticism of Heuschmann is his way of riding in his clinics.
Xenophon chairman and Olympic Games winner Klaus Balkenhol is far from happy with the situation: “These past months, complaints about Gerd Heuschmann’s way of riding have been heaping up at the society.” For some time now, the vet and book author Heuschmann has been offering clinics that include not only his lectures on the biomechanics of the horse, but also a practical riding session. Heuschmann, who also completed a training as “Bereiter FN” (assistant instructor of the German riding association), corrects the often badly ridden clinic horses himself, trying to “make them fit by riding”, in loose interpretation of the Xenophon motto “Good riding suffices”. To achieve this, he uses elements (but not the complete systematics) of the methods of Philippe Karl (high hand) and Anja Beran (yielding of the haunches on a circle) and tries them out on the clinic horses. “During these ‘corrective riding sessions’ it came to ugly pictures, which gave rise to the complaints to our society,” Balkenhol says. In extensive one-on-one interviews with Gerd Heuschmann, the Xenophon chairman tried to dissuade him from riding the horses himself in his clinics – to no avail. Balkenhol went to see Heuschmann several times and had long talks with him: “Gerd achieved so much with his excellent lectures on biomechanics. It’s simply sad that he is now ruining all this with his way of riding. But unfortunately I couldn’t convince him.”
As a result of these discussions, Heuschmann resigned from his office as deputy chairman at the end of May.
Two weeks later, he is holding a clinic near Mainz. The vet climbs into the saddle of a Friesian horse which apparently is not permeable to the aids and accepts neither leg nor rein aids. Professional photographer Julia Rau documents the 25-minute ride with her camera and a large telephoto lens. Heuschmann does not let himself be bothered by her and “corrects” the Frisian. The picture series and the timestamp on the photographs show it very clearly: these are no accidental snapshots.
When asked about the photographs by the editorial staff of the German horse magazine St. Georg, Heuschmann first showed contrition: “The error I probably made was to ride this horse in the first place,” he said meekly.
But on the day of the publication of St. Georg, the vet declared via his website: “Since mid-June, I have been the focus of critical reporting. This witch-hunt has various motives, about which I don’t want to say anything here. I made no mistake and will therefore carry on my work unperturbed. For this reason, there is no need for any justification. Only the short advice that ugly situations can occur every day and under every rider when working with horses that need to be corrected.”
Without making a fuss about it, the German FN cancelled the cooperation with Heuschmann completely, so that his clinics are not recognized as official further education courses for instructors any more. In future, he will thus probably not have his say any more, neither at the FN nor the FEI level.
When asked for comment on the accusations and pictures by Dressur-Studien, he first invited us to a clinic – only to inform us just a few hours before it was due to start that taking pictures was forbidden and that he would not ride anyway.
The questions we sent him per email remain unanswered so far, but maybe he simply had no time to reply: in early August he started a three-week “USA tour” on which he is offering clinics – with practical riding sessions. (cls)