Program and Principles

Jutta and Stefan Radtke work with Schneeglöckchen at Holzgerlingen, GermanyApproach

It is a truism not universally accepted that the horse determines the riding program: How long to ride in each session, what can be accomplished, at what pace progress will be made towards a higher level, and when it is time to stop. We believe this to be correct. Workingwith a horse is better than working on a horse. Communicating with the horse - and the horse with you - is better than just telling him or her what to do. Listening and sensing are just as important as giving commands and signals. Both the horse and rider must work together in harmony. And they should work up to their respective limits but never beyond. 

Accomplishing this requires patience, sensitive communication tools (responsive and not just commanding hands and a good seat), and very little force on the part of the rider.

Riding

Jutta has her own dressage horses, which she trains and works with every day. Arne also has his own dressage pony, which he trains six days a week. Beyond this, Jutta works with her students' horses on request and also trains horses for clients. She has found that the best way of working with a student is a combination of teaching and riding. Merely training a horse to a certain level will not result in a satisfactory experience for (in this case) the client. The skills of the rider should be trained and developed in parallel to those of the horse. 

Teaching

Jutta enjoys working with riders at all levels. After all, she has worked through each of these steps throughout a lifetime of riding. She enjoys the challenge of teaching and sharing the moments of discovery with her students: "Oh my! That's how it goes." "I never thought you could do it that way with just aids and not with my hands." Each instruction session is an individual time for work, with homework for the period in between lessons. And she greatly enjoys watching her students improve.

Training

In some cases, a horse can make better progress under a different rider. From her many years of experience, Jutta is able to handle and often resolve many of a horse's problems that have vexed a rider for a long time. This makes it possible for the rider to make better progress on his or her own skills once he or she is back in the saddle. 

Clinics

For many years, Jutta has had the privilege of working with some very talented trainers in Germany. Two of her trainers have agreed to come to Appledore Farm to hold clinics each year.

Arthur Kottas Heldenberg joined the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, in 1960 at the age of 15. He remained there for 42 years, rising through the cadre until he was made First Chief Rider in 1980, and thus becoming the youngest holder of this position in the school’s 400 year history. Since leaving the Spanish Riding School in 2002, Arthur has devoted his time to training and instructing riders and horses at all levels up to the Olympics. Arthur uses classical schooling methods, which emphasize the development of a strong bond of trust and respect between the rider and horse where the rider does not depend on the use of force to achieve the ease and beauty appropriate for riding dressage. 

Stephan Radtke trained as a Bereiter under Ludo Konings and Günther Fritz and worked with the Gestüt Gut Landfrieden for 20 years, where he rode under Klaus Balkenhol, who was the coach of the American dressage team until recently. He has also benefited from the instruction of Arthur and has ridden and trained horses up to Grand Prix. During his long career, he has distinguished himself as an instructor with a profound understanding of the horse and rider as a dynamic and harmonious team. All of this experience culminated in the publication of his book on dressage, Dressur, in 2004. In the German-speaking world, Dressur is considered one of the best texts on the classic art of riding. This book is only available in German and Dutch but now in translation into English. His second book, Klassische Reitkunst im modernen Dressursport, and third books on dressage were published in early 2009.