When we ask Schockemöhle how horses in the year 2020 should look, he replied: “What we need for dressage, jumping, and driving are blood-horses. We need light horses; however, the danger is that horses become too small. We can’t allow that; they have to be big enough. I believe the different studbooks are on the right path. If you compare the current sporthorse with that of thirty or forty years ago, then it’s clear that we’ve made huge progress. A lighter horse is nicer to ride, and we’ve achieved our present, lighter stock through the strict sslection standards imposed by the breeding associations, for example, rejecting stallions that are difficult to ride. A horse should be light and easy to ride, but it should also healthy, strong, and have a good temperament.”

BLOOD

Schockemöhle sees an important future ahead for breeding specialization. “Breeders still take a dressage mare to a jumping stallion and sometimes even visa versa, but that will change. Race horse breeding is far ahead of us: They’ve been specializing for decades. In 2020, our dressage horses and jumpers will have far more specific qualities. A good canter is, of course very important for a jumper: He does all his work in the canter. How well he can extend his trot isn’t relevant. Elasticity is also important, but that’s very important for a dressage horse, too. The same goes for temperament: A horse must want to do it’s job.”

Breeding lighter horses and blood-horse requires blood, but finding good blood is difficult. Schockemöhle: “As I mentioned, Thoroughbred are bred specifically to run on a racetrack. It’s difficult to use these horses to breed dressage horses or jumpers because we place different demands on these horses. In addition, these Thoroughbred stallion have to have a god temperament. I think most do, but they also have to be calm enough and have a good canter. I’ve tried 20 different Thoroughbred stallions over the year, but not a single one was truly a good riding horse. Now, I also have to say that prefer not to see Thoroughbred blood in the first generation but rather in the second or third. We have to find blood-horses other than Thoroughbreds whose blood we can use for breeding. The Holsteiner stallion by the Thoroughbred Sacramento Song xx. He passes on a lot of ‘blood’ and brings new blood to breeding. I think we need more horses like him for the future.”

COMMERCE

One of Schockemöhle many endeavors includes founding and organizing the famous Riders Tour, a series of five shows in Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Paderborn, Hannover and Munich for the best 30 riders on the FEI World Ranking List and the top ten on the Riders Tour. The Riders Tour offers the most prize money of any series in equestrian sport: The rider with the most point in four of t Schockemöhlehe five shows win € 250,000. This event receives a great deal of air time on Germany television. “You need sponsors to keep organizing world-class events, and you need to have TV coverage to make the events interesting for the sponsors. They want to be seen so that they can get a return on their investment. That’s why I set up the Riders Tour back then. A show like Aachen is big enough to attract sponsors on its own, but other shows can use some help. The Riders Tour has a formula that makes TV coverage attractive.” Anky van Grunsven’s successes have given Dutch dressage, in particular, a huge popularity boost.

Dressage is dominated by Germany, but does that make it more popular than jumping? “Things are different in the Netherlands compared to Germany. Sjef Janssen and Anky van Grunsven have been great ambassadors of competitive dressage. Germany has won almost all the team medals, and the Netherlands has always been close behind; however, I believe that dressage is more popular than it is in Germany. Jumping is more active here. Furthermore, the German shows are more of a family activity. A show has to contain several elements: Dressage, jumping, and exhibition, and it has to offer good riders and good sport. For example, the Hannover show offers child care as well as whole area with computer games and other entertainment. This allows children to have fun and parents to enjoy the horse show.”

NEW MARKETS

The whole world is expressing more and more interest in horse shows with increasingly more participation from Asian and Arabic riders, in particular. “The Japanese have been active competitors for years. I have a lot of contacts in Korea and Malaysia, where the sport is also growing fast. China is primarily known for its horse racing, but the ban on gambling has put a damper on the industry, which is perhaps the reason why competitive dressage and jumping are gaining popularity in that country. Equestrian sport are developing fastest in southeastern Chinese cities such as Peking, Shanghai, and Guangdong, where the climate northern areas, like Mongolia and Tibet, work in the south.”

“The Arabic countries have a lot of money; I think they’ll be a head of the Far East at the shows in 15 years or so. I was at the Asian Games last December, and I was impressed by how the riders have developed competitively. The Arabs buy mainly nice and easy to ride amateur horses, but some are serious riders who want good schoolmasters. There are ten or so good Arab riders, and if they want to get more experience and buy good horses, then they need to do that internationally. Arabic horse and rider combinations have even done the Sunshine Tour in Spain, so they’re already on their way.”

“Of course, China has huge population, and some Chinese riders train in Europe quite often, but I don’t think they’ll be competing against us in the near future. Hong Kong is definitely too soon for the Chinese riders, but those Olympic Games will certainly have an influence on equestrian sport in the Far East. I hope and expect that the sport will develop more in these countries. These countries do 80% of their horse business with Europe. They also buy horses from the US, but we breed excellent sporthorses. In addition even Americans buy horses from Europe. Dutch horses are especially popular; they have the biggest market share.” What kind of veterinary requirements do Asian countries impose on our horses? “That varies from one country to next. For example, Korean doesn’t accept EVA-positive horses. Of course, horses have to be quarantined; other than that, views differ quite a bit on what is and what is not allowed. We need to resolve these differences and agree on a common policy.”

THE OLYMPIC

Saudi Arabia Khaled Al Eid won the bronze in Sydney; prior to the Atlanta Olympic, he trained with Schockemöhle coached the Korean team for Athens Olympics. The team did reasonable well, finishing ninth as a country, and Bong-Gak Sohn finished 15^th individually. “Arabic, Malaysian, Chinese, and Japanese riders train a lot in Europe, which is also the only way from them to ever approach our level. If they want to measure themselves against us and what to show Grand Prix, they have to qualify for the big championships. This present a problem because the Far East doesn’t offer shows at our level, so these riders have to get their experience here. Ludger Beerbaum has a Chinese rider in training. The Chinese know quite well that they have to train and show here if they want to show Grand Prix. So they come to Europe to buy horses and get training.”

What is Schockemöhle’s vision of showing and breeding in 2020? And what kind of influence do the new Asian and Arab market have? These people are  quite a bit shorter than Westerners; for this reason, do they want smaller or different horses? Schockemöhle replies very confidently : “We don’t have to breed different horses for these new markets. We breed the best horses in the world, and they just have to learn how to ride them. I think things will change a lot at shows. I hope that more and more countries will have riders who can show at Grand Prix, and I think that will happen. That’s a good development because to have an Olympic sport you need global participation if we want our sport to remain an Olympic sport.”

Showing horses is not just an European or an American sport: Asian and Arabic countries have discovered the different disciplines and have the ambition to measure themselves against our top riders. Schockemöhle is one professional who offers training overseas and accept talent riders and their horses at his facility in Mühlen. Two riders he coached on the Saudi Arabia team advance to the individual final at the Atlanta Olympics, and the Japanese team he coached enjoyed fair success in Athens. Helping riders is only one of Schockemöhle’s many equestrian pursuits; some of his other are stud farms, breeding, and PSI action.