Dressage debut for a show jumper
- Daniel Winkler
- Jul 25
- 2 min read
Surprising change of scene at the Schlossparkviereck: German show jumper Helmut Schönstetter, who has been the trainer of Austria's number one show jumper Max Kühner for many years, made his dressage debut at the four-star tournament in Achleiten – and with great success.
In the young horse tour, the 40-year-old master horse trainer presented the five-year-old stallion Papillon in the FEI preparatory test for five-year-old horses. The performance was awarded a score of 76.4 percent. The judges praised the horse as “wonderful, elegant, and promising.”
“It was just for fun”
“It was actually pure coincidence,” Schönstetter explained after the ride. “I bought the horse at an internet auction when he was two years old – just like that. And he developed really well.” The experienced show jumper takes his debut in the dressage arena with humor: “It was just for fun. But I enjoyed it so much that I said, ‘This is a new challenge.’”
It is no coincidence that this debut took place at the renowned Max-Theurer family tournament in Achleiten. The connection was made through Max Kühner: “Mrs. Max-Theurer asked Max if he would be interested in training Cardi MT, a mare born in 2018 who is a descendant of Conthargos. The chestnut mare has incredible jumping ability and has become a real friend. The collaboration is working great.”
Schönstetter, who trains around 15 to 20 horses for Kühner at his parents' farm near Altötting, close to the Austrian border, greatly appreciates the Austrian tournament system: “We travel to Austrian tournaments a lot because the whole system is simply better than in Germany.”
“Learning a dressage test was difficult”
Despite solid basic training in dressage – “as a master of horse management, you have to be able to ride up to M level anyway” – the switch was a challenge for the show jumper: “A course like this is no problem, but learning a dressage test was really difficult. I had to ride through everything at home for a week to get the lines into my head.” He also had to improvise with his equipment: “I ride in jumping boots – they're new and still look neat. But I can't keep doing that in the long run.”
About Papillon, whom he trained himself to his current level, he says: "He's a Dutch stallion with a lot of energy. I've been training him myself for three or four years now. There is a lot of interest in him – many people have already asked about him. But he has become a member of the family, a really friendly fellow, and I wouldn't actually sell him.“ At the same time, he remains realistic: ”Up to dressage horse L – that's possible. But I can't train him any further. You have to keep things in perspective."
Whether Schönstetter's dressage adventure will continue remains to be seen. But he is motivated for the final of the 5-year-old horses on Saturday – with a new task that still needs to be learned: “I'll take a closer look at it today. Otherwise I'll mess everything up.”
Friday, July 25th N°05 FEI Young Horses 5yo Preliminary Test Result here