The first dressage day of the NIICH Groningen in Martiniplaza was a quiet day for Marten Luiten. As trainer of two riders, he stood along the track to calmly give his instructions. Today it’s different. Then he gets on horseback himself to persuade the jury to give high marks with Johnny.
Marten Luiten from Winschoten is one of the great upcoming talents in the Dutch dressage scene. On his way to the toughest class, he has surrounded himself with three top coaches: “Anky van Grunsven is able to make it very clear to me about things that I am not aware of while driving. She makes me think even more carefully about what I am doing on horseback. Isabell Werth can get along with any horse and from her I learn to control Johnny’s energy in such a way that his self-confidence grows.”
“The third, Monique Peutz, is an international jury member herself and she knows exactly how to ride my horses in the ring, not only to create a beautiful image but also how relaxed it should look. Dressage is a dance in which I lead as a rider without it being visible,” said Luiten, who tries to put the lessons into practice at home in Winschoten.
“These are three different perspectives that I throw into a mixer, as it were, and then start puzzling with them myself. I believe this approach makes me a more complete rider than if I had chosen one trainer.”
High expectations
Fynona is Luiten’s current top horse, but ten-year-old Johnny seems to be ready. “I owe a lot to Fynona, but I wonder if she is able to take me to international championships. I am quite pleased with the progress she is making in piaffe and passage, but is it enough? I want Johnny, who I will be competing in today in the Prix St. Georges, to gain a lot of experience next year. Relatively speaking, this horse has little experience and in order to achieve the highest performance, a horse must first feel comfortable in competitions.”
“I want to focus on that with him this year and luckily the owners think the same way,” says Luiten. “That is why there is no Dutch championship for us in 2024. No pressure, but relaxation and that is possible because my expectations of Johnny are high, partly due to his enormous appearance. He really fills the ring. In addition, he has three very good basic gaits and an extremely cooperative attitude. I notice that his body is getting stronger and that he is therefore increasingly able to carry the weight on his hindquarters.”
Luiten: “This not only makes it easier for me to widen the basic gaits, but also to shorten them. The latter is important because from that collection you can ask for energy-consuming parts such as the pirouettes and piaffe. In the expansions, the expressive power and therefore the appearance of Johnny comes to the fore. And combining all that in that one ride is the goal. If that works, then it is the result of the trainer mix.”