In Stride

Ingrid Klimke: Building Strong Foundations in Dressage and Eventing, One Step at a Time

In Stride

Show Notes

This Week on In Stride Sinead Halpin-Maynard welcomes Ingrid Klimke to talk about growing up in a family that put horses first, the classical training principles that shaped her career in both eventing and dressage, and why patience is the foundation of developing a horse.

Meet the Guest: Ingrid Klimke Ingrid Klimke is a German eventing and dressage rider and the daughter of dressage legend Reiner Klimke. In eventing, she is a five-time Olympian, having won team gold in 2008 and 2012 and team silver in 2016. She has also won World Equestrian Games team gold in 2006 and 2014 and individual bronze in 2018. At the European Championships, she took individual gold in 2017 and 2019. In dressage, she won two FEI Dressage World Cup qualifiers in 2022 and earned team bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Herning. She was named FEI Best Athlete in 2019, and in 2012 she became only the second woman to receive the German title of Riding Master.

In This Episode, Sinead and Ingrid Discuss: Growing up in a family where the horses came first, and what she learned from her father, Olympic dressage champion Reiner Klimke How a classical approach and varied training, from cavaletti to hacking out, keeps both dressage and event horses happy and healthy Why going step by step matters, and how to decide when a young horse is ready to compete How she balances the discipline of dressage with the freedom and bravery of cross country

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