by Cindy Mark
From Edmonton to Okotoks and all points in between, Alberta dressage riders converged on Trakehner Glen stables outside Priddis for a three-day symposium with Dutch Olympian Ellen Bontje November 2 to 4, 2006.
Organized by the Dressage Canada Coaching Committee, Bontje brought her competitive skills and classical training techniques to close to a dozen horse/rider combinations and over 90 auditors. They were not disappointed.
Bontje’s credentials include two Olympic silver medals, both won with the Netherlands Dressage Team. She won the first at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, and the second at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, where she also placed sixth in individual competition aboard the stallion Silvano N.
In 1998, Bontje and Silvano N were also part of the silver medal team at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) where they finished eighth individually. At the 1994 WEG in The Hague she placed fifth in the individual rankings with Heuriger, and in 1999 she placed fourth individually with Larius at the European Champ-ionships. In addition, as a member of the Dutch Team, she earned a bronze medal in 1991 and holds a total of eight team silver medals.
Like many equestrians of such acclaim, Bontje started riding when, as a child of six, her father bought her a pony. “But I really didn’t start riding regularly till I was about eight or nine,” Bontje quickly adds.
After her secondary education was finished, Bontje knew she wanted a life with horses. Her parents, on the other hand, didn’t approve of her choosing such a career, with visions of sly characters and bad business dealings ensnaring their innocent daughter. Like it or not, at 18, Bontje landed her first job working for a dressage judge. While the scenario wasn’t at all the nightmare her parents had envisioned, they still were not pleased. “My parents weren’t happy about that even, but they came to accept it.”
Three years later, Bontje was grooming for international dressage rider Josef Neckermann. Then in 1981, Neckermann, his horses, and Bontje all moved to Conrad Schumacker’s barn near Frankfurt, Germany.
“It was the beginning of the end for me,” says Bontje with a laugh.” What she means is that the move worked out quite well for all three of them, as well as the horses. Neckermann, already elderly in years, garnered an excellent stable for his remaining horses, Schumacker gained Bontje’s riding and training abilities for his horses, and Bontje was given more responsibilities within the new barn as well as high-quality dressage mounts to ride.
Neckermann passed away in 1992, and since 1998 Bontje has rented out Schumacker’s stable and maintains sole responsibility for it and the horses as Manager and Senior Trainer.
For all her success, Bontje remains grounded in good horsemanship. “It is important that you have good contact – physical and mental contact – with your horse,” she says.
“I do all the grooming, feeding, and everything for my horses, all myself. The horse has to learn to look to me as the person who will save them, who will look after them.
“The really good Grand Prix horses are the ones who are sensitive and nervous, and they need to know – more than most – that they can trust you.”
In order to maintain that consistent contact with the horses, Bontje starts her day in the stable at 6:30 a.m. She rides five to six horses a day and teaches the same number of riders, six days per week. Her nightly check of the barn starts about 9:30 p.m. and her day ends when she takes her nine-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, Dennis, for his nightly walk.
Of course, there are also the weekend clinics she teaches at nearby riding clubs, but most of them are scheduled for the winter months as she remains busy on the show circuit during the summer.
With all of that, Bontje was also under contract with British Dressage from 1996 to 2001 to train young, professional riders and coaches. She says they must be started early if they are to attain any competence in dressage.
“If you do not have proper riding training when you are young, it becomes more and more difficult as you get older. And, it is most important that you ride with a trainer, someone who can help you from underneath and can see when the haunches are in, and so on.”
So, why would Bontje take time out of her busy schedule to teach a clinic at Trakehner Glen? “When I see the same people two or three days in a row, like here, and they are better than when they started, if I notice that it helps them and they are happy about it, that’s what makes me happy.”
