Elizabeth W. Madlener
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We are hosting a Long Lining Clinic with Richard Malmgren at Brandywine Farm on June 21-22nd. Auditors Welcome!
1942 - 2023
Remembering an influential figure in American Dressage
Elizabeth Madlener was a well-known Grand Prix trainer, instructor and competitor, a USEF "S" judge since 1980, USDF "L" Program founding faculty member, Dressage Today contributing editor, and former President/CEO of the Maryland Horse Center. A popular clinician, Elizabeth traveled the country teaching the methods she learned from her mentors, Colonel Bengt Ljungquist, Klaus Albin and Franz Rochowansky. Elizabeth was long listed with the USET with her two off-track thoroughbreds, Jonathan Swift and Gulliver, from 1977-1980.
Both horses did well in national competitions, winning FEI classes at top shows such as Devon, and they were always listed in the top ten in national ratings. In addition to her Thoroughbreds, Elizabeth rode a number of warmbloods to national awards (AHSA, USET, USDF, USCTA) at levels from 1st to Grand Prix.
She strongly believed that "you can't train pain" and she worked closely with sports medicine veterinarians, developing a deep understanding the biomechanics of dressage, and always putting the horse's mental and physical comfort first.
"Most of the work I have had to do throughout my life has been to unravel the cobweb of anxiety that has entered the brain of the horse and to put him into a position of understanding that all he has to do is relax and allow his body to respond naturally to my body." - Elizabeth Madlener
Elizabeth’s dressage training began in Germany where her father was stationed when Elizabeth was a teenager. While in Germany, she earned a Bronze medal, a rating given to riders who pass tests in jumping and dressage as well as an oral exam. She was the first foreigner to be awarded this medal.
From 1985 through 1995 she successfully ran the Maryland Horse Center where, among other things, the first USDF Instructor Certification Examination was held. From 1992 through 1996 she was President of the Maryland Horse Council and in 1999 she was appointed by Governor Glendenning to the Maryland Horse Industry Board.
Elizabeth was frequent contributor to Dressage Today, The Chronicle of the Horse, Collections, Equus, and wrote the popular booklet “Putting Your Horse on the Bit” for Practical Horseman. For several years she was a contributing editor for Dressage Today. For many years she taught courses in expository writing at a Maryland community college while maintaining and intense travel schedule as a clinician and judge.
Written up as “The Thoroughbred’s Advocate,” Elizabeth continued to be devoted to the Thoroughbred throughout her life.
Her teaching centers around putting the rider’s body in such a balance that the aids from the rider is precise and universal to all horses. Her thinking is that in order for riders to be able to elicit a predictable response from the horse, the rider’s seat must be correct—just as a typist’s fingers have to hit the right letters on a keyboard in order to have control over the messaging. Over the years, Elizabeth taught many riders from different disciplines and backgrounds, and developed many methods for helping riders understand the exercises.
Elizabeth with Amanda Harder at the Virginia Horse Center (1998)
Remembering Elizabeth (Article)
Remembering Elizabeth (Article)
Amanda's writes about her memories of Elizabeth in the Chronicle of the Horse:
Elizabeth had a long list of accomplishments, but I knew her best as a mentor. Uncompromising in her ideals, sharp in her criticism, sparing with her praise and precise in what she asked from her students, Elizabeth lived a life dedicated to the horse and to dressage as the basic training of any horse. She believed dressage training based on classical principles allowed the horse to carry a rider with ease. At a minimum, she required the rider and horse to work without conflict or stress; her ideal was to develop a rider who encouraged the horse as an active participant.
Continued...
Elizabeth with Jonathan Swift
Training in Washington State (late 70's)
Elizabeth Competing at Dressage at Devon
Dressage is less a matter of “training” and more a matter of conditioning the horse to a greater level of athleticism. The movements are simply exercises that have evolved as “tools” to develop the horse physically. Just as dancers, gymnasts, athletes and people undergoing physical therapy begin with basic exercises and move to more demanding exercises as they become stronger and more capable so horses should progress in a methodical fashion.
When the exercises are done incorrectly, they offer no benefit to the horse. When the horse is forced to do that which it is not capable of doing, irreparable mental and physical harm can result. Often, horses that seem willfully resistant are the result of riders forcing things to happen that the horse cannot do.
Dressage tests are meant to be tests of the quality of training–how well the horse is developed to the standards set by the pyramid of training. Of course, this gets mixed up in today’s competition arenas because a good moving horse, one which is supple, elastic, powerful (but one whose power is contained), is viewed as the result of good training, and of course some horses naturally move better than others. Some horses are more athletically endowed and will reach the standard, sometimes despite the rider.
Any horse can go to Grand Prix. Some, of course, will be more competitive than others. Little things that trainers tend to overlook make the difference in determining which horses continue successfully to Grand Prix and those that end up performing a collage of separate movements. For instance, when a rider is careful to see that the horse steps through properly in the trot to walk transition, that rider will have a horse that will able to do piaffe as natural progression of strength training. Often, with the proper conditioning, the horse will offer hints of piaffe of its own accord when the time is right. Riders that are not diligent in the trot-walk transitions will end up having to take the same horse to the wall to “teach” it piaffe, and the piaffe, then, becomes something outside of the natural progression and not a part of the natural gait/pace. Conditioning the horse in such a way that movements are natural and easy is, in my mind, a foremost component of good dressage.
Elizabeth, an English literature professor, was a prolific published author on the subject of dressage training. A few of her writings are posted below:
Do you have memories or writings to share from Elizabeth? I would love to hear from you. Please reach out anytime 💙 - Amanda
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