Spanish Riding School, Training the Riders

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The Spanish Riding School of Vienna

Spanish
Riding School

Only 1 trainee (eleve) is accepted each year.

Trainees start when they are 15-16.

About 80% quit or are dismissed.

The record time from Eleve to Chief Rider was 20 years.

Eleves start as grooms

Training of the Riders at the Spanish Riding School
by John D'Addamio

In this article, I will explain what it takes to achieve the various titles of riders at the School. First, let's review the titles:

1. Eleve (from the French word élève which means pupil) – These are the trainees at the School.

2. Assistant Rider - The German title is Bereiter Anwaerter which literally means Apprentice Trainer. I will use the term Assistant Rider because that's how the School translates the title.

3. Rider – Bereiter is the German title and it means Trainer. These are the journeymen trainers at the School. They can train horses and riders to FEI competition levels.

4. Chief Rider – Oberbereiter is the German term and literally means Senior Trainer. These are the master trainers at the School. They can train horses and riders to Grand Prix level and in the Airs above the Ground.

In the following outline of the training and requirements for promotion, I will generally use masculine pronouns because it is simpler and no young women have been accepted for training yet.

To become an eleve, a person who is a citizen of an European Union (EU) country, has finished mandatory schooling, and about 15 or 16 (Austrians finish their equivalent of high school at 15 or 16) may apply to the Spanish Riding School as a candidate. The candidates are put on the lunge and given a little instruction. Very few candidates are accepted and even fewer survive the training. On average, only one candidate a year is accepted to become an eleve at the Spanish Riding School. About 80% of those who are accepted either quit or are dismissed before they complete the training required of an eleve. The eleves are paid during their training but the salary is not known to the public. No living quarters are provided for them so they must either continue to live with their families or find a room in Vienna.

The eleves begin working as grooms in the stable. Riders are expected to instruct their groom and correct any mistakes. So first, they have to learn the job. They are also given a lunge lesson with neither reins nor stirrups every day. In the beginning, the lessons focus on seat and legs. After the trainee's seat develops a little stability, he will be allowed to take the reins so he can begin to learn the rein aids too.

After 6 to 8 months on the lunge, an eleve will begin to get lessons on a "professor", a horse trained by his teacher. The eleve continues to get daily lunge lessons and attend classroom lessons on riding theory and the management of horses. Sometimes, an eleve may be dismissed within the first year because they are not making adequate progress.

In the second and third years, the eleve still gets daily lunge lessons but will also be expected to ride several horses a day. He will receive daily lessons from his primary teacher but, whenever he is riding, any Assistant Rider, Rider, or Chief Rider who sees an eleve make a mistake will correct him. As one eleve put it, "Everybody corrects me. I have many teachers."

After three years of training in the arena and classroom, an eleve must lunge a young stallion and start him under saddle. He must train this stallion in what is called "calm forward straight" riding to the point where he can be ridden in the Young Stallions section of the performance. This is similar to US Second Level in terms of the suppleness and collection required but there is no lateral work in this stage of training. Training a young stallion to that level may take two years. Of course, the eleve is under the supervision of his teacher while he trains the young stallion.

The eleve must also successfully memorize the Quadrille movements and ride them in a performance on a fully trained horse. The Quadrille lasts a little over 20 minutes. Imagine memorizing a 20 minute dressage test that you had to ride with 7 other horses simultaneously doing the same movements! The Quadrille includes practically every kind of movement found in the Grand Prix dressage test. The only things missing are piaffe and tempi changes. So, by the time an eleve is promoted to Assistant Rider, he has had four to six years of intensive instruction behind him and he is quite a good rider. If the eleve cannot ride a trained stallion in the Quadrille or cannot train a young stallion through the "calm forward straight" phase, he will be dismissed.

To become a Rider, the Assistant Rider must learn to teach riders and train horses to the level of the Quadrille section of the performance. The Assistant Rider is required to teach eleves on the lunge. He will also continue the training of a young stallion that has completed the "calm forward straight" training. He is required to train this horse to the point that he can ride the stallion in the Quadrille. This does not include piaffe or tempi changes but does include passage, canter half pass, trot and canter zigzags, canter pirouettes (half, three-quarter and full pirouettes at different times), etc. This training will take another 3 or 4 years and is performed under the supervision of an experienced Rider or Chief Rider. If the Assistant Rider does not succeed with this horse, he will be given a second chance with another horse. Even the experienced Riders cannot guarantee that a horse will make the Quadrille level. Some get stuck at a point comparable to one of the lower FEI levels and simply cannot move past it. However, if the Assistant Rider fails with the second horse, he is dismissed from the School. An Assistant Rider may also be dismissed if he is deemed to be unable to teach riders in the tradition of the School. As you can see, it will take a minimum of 6 to 8 years for a 15 or 16 year old candidate to go through the training program and be promoted to the rank of Rider. It may require as long as 10 – 12 years!

When an Assistant Rider is promoted to Rider, he is already a very capable rider but somewhat inexperienced in riding horses in the performance. So, several of the experienced Riders and Chief Riders will transfer horses to the newly promoted Rider. This gives the young Rider experience in various sections of the performance and with horses of different temperaments and tendencies. It also serves to provide what a sports team would call a "deep bench." This way if one horse and rider pair cannot perform due to illness or injury, another pair can replace them at a moment's notice and do a good job. For example, Rider Seiberl now trains Favory Plutona who was trained by Chief Rider Hausberger to do the Long Rein solo in the performances. Chief Rider Hausberger normally uses Conversano Dagmar in the Long Rein solo but, in one performance while we were in Vienna, Rider Seiberl and Favory Plutona did this solo. After promotion, the Rider will spend at least another 10 and more likely 15 to 20 years perfecting the skills necessary to become a Chief Rider.

One requirement for the promotion to Chief Rider is that the Rider must train stallions to the point where he can show them in the All Steps and Movements section of the performance. This includes piaffe and single tempi changes. It is possible that an Assistant Rider can be promoted to Rider without being able to train piaffe. If the Rider does not learn to train piaffe correctly, he will never be promoted to Chief Rider. He can remain at the School but such Riders sometimes leave the School when they see younger Riders pass them on the way to Chief Rider.

To be promoted to Chief Rider, a Rider must also be able to train Assistant Riders to the point where they get promoted to Rider. I have not heard of any Rider failing this requirement.

A Rider must also be able to ride and train at least one "Air above the Ground" to be promoted to Chief Rider. This is the most common reason a Rider does not get promoted. The Airs require an extraordinarily good seat just to ride them. To train a horse to do them is even harder. They first train Airs above the Ground in hand so that the horse knows what to do and gradually develops strength. For example, it takes about two years to train a horse to do Levade in hand. It takes another two years to train the stallion so that he is strong enough to show the Levade under saddle in a performance.

Finally, the Rider must be actively involved in dressage outside his duties at the School and be recognized as an authority on training horses in the classical manner. Since all the Riders and most Assistant Riders teach outside the School, meeting the first part of this requirement is no problem for them. But, to become a recognized authority requires national and international involvement in teaching and competitive dressage. There are many ways that the Riders and Chief Riders share their knowledge: clinics for judges, coaching Austrian Young Riders, competing themselves, international clinics, judging competitions, etc.

As you can see, it requires quite a lot of time and experience to become a Chief Rider at the School. The fastest promotion to this rank in the history of the School was 20 years from eleve to Chief Rider! It is more usual to take 25 to 30 years!

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