HOK Talks with 
Karl Mikolka
by Lelia Smith

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Cerha:
"Do as little as possible
but as much as necessary."

Photos used with permission from the Karl Mikolka archives. To see and learn more about Mr. Mikolka, visit www.karlmikolka.com

Issue 4, 2003

HOK Talks with Karl Mikolka
by Lelia Smith

Continued from page 1

Alfred Cerha:

Among all the teachers I've had the privilege of knowing, one stands out and overshadows all the others. His name was Alfred Cerha. When he entered the SRS in 1912, he became a student of the great Meixner who formed a direct line in his teaching philosophy to the legendary Max Ritter von Weyrother. Although small of stature, Cerha was a giant as a rider and trainer. He believed a horse should be educated to the highest level of sensitivity, suppleness and obedience and ought to be easy for everybody to ride, even by the less experienced person.

Karl Mikolka & Neapolitano Strana perform a levade at the SRS circa 1967

Cerha's horses were chosen to train the foreign students and in spite of being handled month after month by many different people, they never lost their sound basics or good manners. I once had the privilege of riding one of Cerha's stallions in a lesson where we worked on Piaffe and Passage. The movements and the transitions were so effortless and easy that I was in near shock. Suddenly, without any obvious reason - so I thought, the horse abandoned the exercise and smoothly took the left lead canter. When Mr. Cerha asked, "Why did you take the canter"? I replied that I hadn't. "Yes", he said, "you did". "You tilted your head slightly to the left and the horse responded to the subtle shift of weight". Such fine instruments were Cerha's horses. He knew how to combine practical knowledge and the finer points of scientific riding into a harmonious system that created easy to ride horses. His advice: "Do as little as possible but as much as necessary."

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