How to prepare your horse for the next big competition

Usually he just goes in the sun’s rays in Wellington in Florida, but since June he has, the stallion Leonberg and his Danish rider Mikala Münther Gundersen been in Europe to prove themselves among the European elite. The couple has through the winter been very successful in the U.S. and has therefore been a natural candidate for a seat on the Danish national team.

The couple did a super figure in Rotterdam and with Danish expectations for a similar success in Aachen. However Leonberg got a small stomach pain just before the event in Aachen and this affected of course their effort. Leonberg is again in super form and horse2rider spoke with Mikala Gundersen who is looking forward to her first Danish championship, where both family and friends turn up to give their full support to Leonberg and Gundersen.

On the couple’s European tour Leonberg is stabled at Gestüet Tashof in Neumünster, where they train with Ernst Hoyos, who has been Mikala’s permanent coach over the past 10 years to the extent is has been possible. In the U.S. Leonberg and Mikalas is trained by Lisa Wilcox. Besides the daily dressage training Leonberg is being walked for 45 minutes and of course trained on horse-gym band.

During the competitions here in Europe both the national trainer Rudolf Zeilinger and Ernst Hoyos are on the sideline which Mikala obviously appreciates. Since the seats in the Danish national team still are fairly open, there is a certain pressure to pull the longest straw in order to get to the European championships next month. But Mikala is very grateful to have the opportunity to ride such a lovely horse as Leonberg is, and welcomes their future together.

When training is over, there is always time to be a horse – in the good way. Enjoy these pictures which tells everything.