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The Time Will Come -Introducing Jeanne Lukito, Indonesian National Dressage Rider
By Nicolette Brata-Coolen
May 8, 2007

Meet Jeanne Lukito, Indonesian athlete, young dressage rider. Currently studies, trains and competes in the Netherlands. Goals for 2007 - SEA Games.

Jeanne Lukito started riding 7 years ago. During the long holiday Jeanne’s friend invited her to learn ‘tap dancing’ or ‘horseback riding’. It was not a difficult choice for Jeanne to make and she has never regretted her decision.

Jeanne started her equestrian journey at the cavalry in Parongpong, because this riding school was easy accessible from her house. Although she rode many horses, warm thoughts go to her early companions ‘Raung’ and ‘Maruto’. A year later, in 2001 Jeanne became serious about the equestrian sport. She was inspired by her first successes at competitions, and started to recognize her abilities for horse riding. Her father, Ronny Lukito, also identified her talent and bought her the horse ‘Jenny Rose’. Neither of them could have guessed at that time that this was a start of something that would grow into the ‘Bandung Equestrian Centre’ with stables full of horses.

At the cavalry Jeanne’s trainings involved a lot of show jumping and a little bit of cross country. Jeanne’s father started to guide her early and gave her the wise advice to focus on her dressage skills in order to improve her jumping and eventing skills. After a year, the foundation of a life long love for dressage was formed. Once in a while she still jumps with her horse, but just for fun!

In November 2005 Jeanne started studying at the ‘Fontys University’ in Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands. Many reasons influenced this choice, e.g. the Netherlands offering excellent education; a great place to improve horse riding skills and an enormous amount of equestrian competitions to join. Besides that, Jeanne thinks it’s a “nice country”, and situated in the centre of Europe “a perfect place for somebody who loves to travel”. Besides travelling Jeanne’s hobbies are eating and sharing experiences with other people. Because Jeanne doesn’t have a fixed schedule for her credit based study, Jeanne can ride every day. The study also allows her to make all arrangements necessary to join international competitions.

For the last one and a half year, Jeanne has trained at ‘Team Collins-Strijk’ in Riethoven. This equestrian centre is only a bus ride away from where she lives. If Jeanne can’t make it to a practise, her trainer Leida Strijk will ride her two horses.

Communication about the training strategies is an important part of Jeanne’s professional development. With Leida she makes use of short term planning, mostly based on a weekly program. Four riding sessions take place with Leida as her teacher and trainer, and twice a week Jeanne practises by herself. Jeanne sees Leida as a big sister and true friend, with a caring character. At the same time she describes her trainer as a strict and demanding person, who is only willing to trade knowledge and support, in exchange for extreme effort. Being trained by Leida is Jeanne’s best learning experience. The first 8 months Jeanne didn’t connect with the system in the Netherlands, but once she understood it, her learning started to accelerate. “I feel more confident with the culture, and we are a team now after one and a half year” Jeanne makes clear.

When asked to compare the training in the Netherlands with her former training in Indonesia she says that both are very much influenced by the cultures of these two countries. In Indonesia training often involves instructions for correcting in an indirect way, in a way that is slow in response. The Dutch approach is very direct and more based on ‘teaching’ than ‘training’ by explaining the problem, and in a very responsive approach aiming to try to fix a problem immediately.

While training, Jeanne keeps one common goal in mind, namely how to deal with, train and ride a horse. Strategies used to support this goal involve watching her trainer at work, observing excellent and bad riders (e.g. in the warming up area) and have professional discussions with her trainer about the observations made. Jeanne also frequently watches videos, reads books and surfs the internet to support her professional development. Last but definitely not least, her vision “practise until I’m perfect” is a strategy she keeps clearly in mind with everything she does.

Last March Jeanne had her best experience ever, when she joined the ‘Sunshine Tour 2007’ in Montenmedio in Spain. This was her first international show and she gained a lot of valuable experiences. She travelled in a truck with the horses for 3 days; groomed and tacked her horses and competed daily. Every day she had to ride a different dressage test. Everything was very professional and because the tour lasted for 3 weeks, it was a great way to assess her personal development. “This experience taught me that everything needs time and that I need to be patient. I learned not to give up, work hard and to use every experience as a learning opportunity. I had a challenging last week at the tour with my new horse, who was tired and became naughty. Together with my horse companion I learned I had to continue; the more pressure the better I became in my fight to reach my goal” Jeanne explains.

This year Jeanne wants to try to get an international qualification for the ‘Young Rider Class’ with 65% and get qualified for the SEA Games. She is very realistic about her goals and explains that if she doesn’t reach the 65% target she won’t join the SEA Games. “I don’t want to be just a player; I want to be a winner! I got a new horse, so I will have to wait and see” Jeanne explains.

Next year will be Jeanne’s last year in the ‘Young Rider Class’. She wants to exit this class with a 68% mark by joining a lot of international competitions. Of course she also keeps the National Games in mind. During the PON XVII she will try to get a medal for her KALTIM team.

Looking beyond 2008, Jeanne would like to obtain a master degree in International Business Management in the Netherlands, the USA or in China. In her equestrian career she would like to continue to train aiming for the World Equestrian Games! Jeanne feels very positive about both professional careers. She wants to be a business woman and believes everything is possible, because she knows Jesus loves her.

Jeanne’s final words during this interview are: “Never stop the fight, never stop learning, because the time will come …..”!