Interview with Daniel Bachmann

Where did you learn to ride?

I started in the local riding club like most people. My mom started riding again after having 3 children and I could come along. I was always fascinated by animals anyways. I did a little bit of showjumping but mostly dressage. I always had this fascination for training a horse – make it stronger, better, more able to carry the rider, make the horse a real athlete – which is basically what dressage is about. I like shows as well but shows are a reflection of your training. If you have your horse really good in training, you can go to any show in the world

Which trainers did you learn how to sit from?

I learned a lot from Rudolf Zeilinger: how to be loose in the seat, how to swing with the horse, how to balance myself in the saddle. He learned me to ride mostly on the seat and not so much with the legs and the hands. He always said: ideal is 80% seat, 15%legs and 5% hands. Working 80% with the seat doesn’t mean that you have to ride hard with your seat. It means that you’re aware of what your seat does: it can hold, it can push, it can let go.  It has so many functions.  Of course we can’t always be ideal,  but we try to ride with that in our mind. It is a healthy way of thinking.

I learned to sit loose on a flat saddle without any support, if you squeezed the nose you fell off. He also said in the beginning you have to learn to sit like a bag of potatoes on a horse to learn how to follow the movements of the horse, get into the horse. Then it came naturally. In the previous years I also started training next to the horse with balls and exercises for stability and elasticity and running. I hadn’t done that before but it made sense. Together with my feeling it got even better

It’s not enough to sit straight and follow the movement. You have to  make the positive tension with your seat, legs and hands. You do that by getting the feeling how much you have to drive with your leg and seat and when you have to give in. When to time it, is a feeling. You cannot teach that. If you hold too much you get negative tension. If you only let go you get no positive tension, no suspension. But when you reach that level where you time it correctly, it is golden.

I have 4 positions in the saddle. A drive position, a hold position, a neutral one, and a loose position. Loose position is like when you do light seated, which is very good sometimes. The neutral is where you sit and the horse has to carry your weight and you swing with the horse. Than the holding and driving is where you rotate your pelvis more (without squeezing). Like sometimes when a horse tries to pull me forward, I hold against, so when she pulls me I go deeper into the saddle. The moment I feel the horse collect, I let go (switch to neutral position). It is quite complex

Who are examples for you in the way they sit?

I have always been a fan of Isabell Werth. She has extreme body control. She can really sit on a horse. She also has the ability to always sit in balance on a horse, never falling around. Jessica Werndl is also very good, Charlotte Dujardin has unbelievable balance, Catherine Dufour is also amazing. What stands out is that they are all short persons. When you are a short person it is much easier to find your balance. It is a lot harder to find your balance when you’re a taller person.

A lot of men are stronger than women. Which is a benefit if you use it smart. You cannot just ride on strength. It is a good way to say that you have to think like a guy but ride like a girl. Women can’t ride with strength because they don’t have so much. They have to do it on technique.

You named Jessica, Charlotte and Catherine as great riders. Is it a coincidence that this new wave of amazing riders all are doing a lot of training next to the horse?

It is not a coincidence at all! It is because we benefit from it. We see the difference in the strength and the feeling in our seat. You see it in other sports already for a long time. Horseback riding has been very old fashioned and slow to progress into that physical training. We have done so much for the horse but we have never thought about the riders. That has changed in the last 10 years, due to social media. When I was at Blue Horse we trained every Tuesday. We trained strength, stability, mobility, balance, endurance. I remember a lot of core training, like with a TRX and with a big ball. Since I’m independent I struggle to find the time to do it, but I should. I’m planning to start again with badminton or padel. Because it trains your reflexes, so that you are quick to correct a mistake before a mistake happens.

Do you still feel like you’re improving?

Every time I sit in the saddle I find out something new. Over the years I feel like I keep getting more feeling for when I should do what. And I’m hungry to get more feeling, to become a better version of myself. I don’t try to become better than the others. I try to become the best version of myself. I have no control over what the rest is doing.

Is there more than one way to sit good or does the perfect seating position exists?

It should always be individual from horse to horse: the way you sit, how you sit, what you do with it. I always try to form myself after the horse, not form the horse after myself. I make them follow me too sometimes, but I’m trying to follow the horse mostly. I’m a guide, I have to let them do their job. Sometimes it means loss of control but I know I can always get it back in one stride. Most dressage riders are scared of losing control.

Daniel explained me some of the exercises he’s done to improve his core stability and seat. If you are interested to hear more about this, you’re always welcome to contact me.