Katherine Mashbir organized and Massar Stables of Arlington, Tenn. hosted a dressage clinic with Kevin Kohmann the weekend of July 12-14, 2019. The clinic helped riders and horses prepare for the upcoming National Dressage Pony Cup, which took place the following week, July 17-19, in Wayne, Illinois.
Kevin is a German-born dressage trainer, competitor, and show judge based in Wellington, Florida. Since 2014 he has been co-trainer at Diamante Farms with Devon Kane. He trains horses and students of all levels, from beginner through FEI. He has excelled in dressage competitions from the Young Horse levels through Grand Prix. And he is a certified dressage judge through the German National Federation. At the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in 2015, Kohmann won the New Schule Bits Best Hands Award.
Katherine, a Grand Prix rider, as well, and trainer at Massar, has known Kohmann since she was in Virginia and worked with him there. “Everybody needs eyes on the ground,” she said speaking of the need for every rider to have someone to train with. “Everybody who rode in the clinic, except one, was my student,” she said. She believes that her students should also train with the person with whom she trains. Katherine says that she and Kohmann work well with each other. “He is not ‘cookie cutter.’ He has a really good eye and is intuitive about the horse. He’s classically German, but also open to new techniques. He does what works best for the horse.”
At the Massar clinic, Kevin listened to what each rider had to say about the horse’s way of going and the rider wanted to work on. He didn’t have to watch the horse warm up very long before he had a plan to help the horse (and rider) improve. Whether it was the horse that did not perform the movements as well on the right side as the left, or the horse was anxious in canter on the right lead, he quickly ascertained the exercises that the rider could use to help better balance the horse and overcome the problems.
Katherine Mashbir was riding/training a horse, Cosmos, for a client. He had her ride the horse down the long side shoulder in and then change to haunches in, still on the long side. In finishing her lessons, he walked alongside her horse to help him improve in passage.
With the horse not going as well to the right as the left, he advised, “Start with the easy side and then go to the more difficult; set it up for success.”
“If the horse gets anxious (about a movement) at the beginning, once he understands what to do, then he says ‘I can do this.’”
For every rider, “You have to ride with feeling and reward,” Kohmann said
For Kathy Massey, preparing her mare for Pony Finals, he had several exercises such as halt-trot transitions, then halt-trot transitions in shoulder in. In trot, “ride forward and collect,” he coached. Then he had Kathy do leg yield, shoulder in transitions, and then canter halt transitions.
Regarding giving the aids properly, he said, “It all starts with the leg; then we talk about the rest of the aids.” In giving the aids, one should expect an immediate response from the horse.
Jamie Lawrence brought her PRE (Andalusian) Val to ride with Kohmann at Massar Stables. Jamie wrote, “Val is totally my spirit animal, which is why training her is sometimes a puzzle for me. She was a bit tight, but still performed and was relaxed enough to get a few good [lead] changes. It’s taken some time to get this girl confident in them, but the journey has been so rewarding! Kevin gave me some helpful tips on my position in the mediums [gaits], as well as the positioning of her frame in the changes for the future. He helped me secure a bit more honest right bend in her right shoulder in. Thank you to Massar Stables, Katherine Mashbir and Kathy Massey for being hospitable, as always!”
Katherine plans to have Kohmann back to Massar for more clinics this summer before the Florida shows start back in the fall. Contact Katherine through KLM Dressage.com. Find more information about Massar Stables at: http://www.massarstables.com and on facebook.
(from Dressage Daily, Nov. 2, 2014)
In fall 2014 Kevin joined Diamante Farms as co-trainer with Devon Kane
He’s a German dressage trainer, competitor, and show judge. Kohmann has a passion and talent for training students and horses of all levels from beginner through the FEI. The young German-born competitor has excelled in dressage competitions himself from the Young Horse levels through Grand Prix, and is also a certified dressage judge through the German National Federation. He has worked with such dressage masters as Franz Martin Stankus and Dieter Bruhn. Kohmann’s specializations in training include his ability to work horses in hand and on the double-longe to train the piaffe and passage.
Kohmann will be operating his Kohmann Dressage out of Diamante Farms, adding his wisdom and skills to those offered at Diamante. “I am very excited that this year I will have horses and riders in almost every level from the FEI young horse levels through the FEI Grand Prix,” Kohmann continued. “I am so looking forward to great success both in the arena as a rider and on the sidelines as a coach. Personally, I hope to partner with some talented horses to hopefully move up the levels, with my sights set on competing alongside the best of the sport.”
