Reprinted from the USDF Connection, March 2006, p. 47.
Rondo
1997 Chestnut 16.3 hand Westfalen gelding
Sire: Rhodos Dam: Sabrina
Breeder: Albert Ronne
Rider/Owner: Jennifer Hoffmann, Carlsbad, CA
Median Score: 72.334%
 Photo by Candice Dymek |
When Rondo arrived in the barn of California horsewoman Gay Walker, the gelding was five—and, says trainer (and now owner) Jennifer Hoffmann, neither she nor Walker felt sure where his suitability lay. Not long afterward, Hoffmann—a certified Bereiter whose husband and coach, Reitlehrer Jürgen Hoffmann, imported Rondo for Walker—rode him in the FEI Six-Year-Old test. He scored well, but Hoffmann recognized that “he was very immature; he needed time to grow, mentally and physically.”
With Walker’s assent, Hoffmann kept him home for most of the next three years. There she came to see that he was “a very hot, sensitive horse, a little more difficult than your normal warmblood”—but also that “he had a really good mind and a big heart, which you need for upper levels.”
Last May, Hoffmann decided to bring Rondo out again. For his first show, “all I wanted to do was get on, get him around and stay in the dressage arena.” They did two Third Level tests “and ended up with a 75 percent and the high-point award.”
About that time, a couple of potential buyers came to try Rondo. Hoffmann realized, “I was worried about him; I’d grown really attached to him.” Then Walker stepped in. “She told me, ‘You know, you should have Rondo’—and she made it possible for me to buy him. She was very generous, and I am very grateful.”
Hoffmann is also grateful that Walker let her give Rondo “the time to grow into himself, doing nothing but strengthening exercises and basics. That’s what’s made him as strong as he is. Now, when I go to do upper-level movements, they’re very easy for him. If he’d been pushed, he might not have come so far.”
Jürgen Hoffmann is “always very constant about correct riding,” says his wife. “Before I start any movement, the basics have to be 100 percent. And if something happens, the problem is always in the basics somewhere. Fix that and you can come back and ask for the movement again.” She adds, “The most important thing he’s taught me is that everything you do is for the horse. If something’s not working, he says, ‘Take a break, think about the mistake, and then let’s go to work again.’ That’s made me a better rider for these hotter, sensitive horses.”
Confirmation for Hoffmann’s work with Rondo has come from U.S. dressage-team coach Klaus Balkenhol. “He told me that the horse is mentally and physically ready for the FEI work; he’s strong now, I can push him a little more. Klaus said the horse has everything he needs for a good Grand Prix horse: the perfect gaits, the perfect mind, absolutely no problems anywhere. So it’s my job now to take that and form it into a beautiful Grand Prix horse.”
This year, Hoffmann plans to do “a little bit of Prix St. Georges/I-1; do a couple of tests to see what we need to work on. Then, if all goes well, I’d like to ride Rondo in the USET qualifiers at PSG and I-1 for Gladstone. I’ve been playing a little with the upper-level movements, but not drilling . One-tempis, full pirouettes, passage—nothing’s a problem for him.”
--D.J. Carey
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