Christine Traurig is stepping into a new role as the U.S. Equestrian Federation Young Horse Coach this spring, and she’s bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm.

Traurig’s equestrian career started on her parents’ farm outside Verden, Germany. She trained and rode sales horses at the nearby Elite Hanoverian Auction where she trained under the auction director’s wife, Helga Koehler, and then with the National German Trainer, Holger Schmezer.

Traurig moved to the United States with her then-husband, show jumper Bernie Traurig, and she rode the young horses that he imported to resell. She returned to Germany to work with Johann Hinnemann, and she rode Etienne on the U.S. team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where the team won bronze.

Now based in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., she owns and operates Christine Traurig Dressage Stables. The Chronicle caught up with Traurig to talk about her lifelong love of developing dressage horses and her comprehensive vision for the young horse program.

How does it feel to be named the USEF Young Horse Coach?

It is something that takes great importance in my life right now. All my life, I was so passionate about developing and training horses, not just riding the ones that knew a lot but also the ones that you bring along from the days when they first have a saddle on their backs. I think I have a lot of experience with that, and I’m so looking forward to sharing that with riders and owners of young horses here in this country.

Can you walk me through the path you took from competitor to coach?

When I trained in Germany for the Olympic team with Etienne, I started riding young horses over there again while I worked with Johann Hinnemann. I rode a horse named Limited Edition, who I competed at the Bundeschampionat at Germany three years in a row, and we placed in the finals when he was 4, 5 and 6, so that was really, really, really fun.

I think that my passion to develop the young horses comes also from my teaching, so therefore I have developed a reputation for how much I love it, and I think I’ve always expressed interest in contributing as a coach at the national level.

What are your goals as the new young horse coach?

My dream would be that here in this country I can contribute to horses being trained from the beginning all the way up to the international sport to where they hopefully someday make a team. I also believe that as we are training to develop the best horses this country could have in the world for our teams that we also will come across the fact that not all horses make it; there’s always three or four horses on the team only.

My hope is that the other horses contribute to improving the standard of the sport and the riding in this country due to the fact that we also supply top horses to juniors and young riders as well as ambitious amateurs. I find that very, very important—that we go for the top, but that the quality of the training and the development of the horses that don’t make it filter down to the other levels that feed into the quality of the sport.

What I find personally very important is that the young horse program becomes more prestigious in a way that the riders who want to specialize in riding young horses are promoted and get a reputation, just like in Europe. Helen Langehanenberg, before she became a Grand Prix rider, was a very famous rider of young horses. She started with Damon Hill when he was very young at the Bundeschampionat, and that goes for other riders as well. The riders that ride young horses well, they have to be promoted just like the riders of the Grand Prix horses.

At the same time, it is very important that talented riders learn to ride young horses, especially when they don’t come across a sponsor right away that can supply them with an FEI-level horse. I think it is very important for every rider to really learn how to produce a horse and develop it, not just learn how to ride the exercises.

How do you plan to promote the riders and ensure that they get this education?

First of all, people have to know that they can approach me if they have the intention to do so and they feel they have the ability and the talent. For example, I as a coach have great knowledge of breeders and owners of young horses that I would direct a good rider to should they look for one.

And at the same time, I need to encourage the riders of talented young horses, for example, to feel that they can approach somebody to be put in positions where they are mentored by other good riders. And that could very well be our high performance riders. I think also what I find very important is our juniors and young riders. If they are finishing in that division, for example, and they say, “OK, now what?” that they feel just because their Grand Prix horse is not coming around the corner right away that there is a great career in riding young horses under proper guidance and mentorship.

And I just have to make myself very approachable and very open to helping people individually as far as their immediate plan is concerned as well as their future plan.

What are your thoughts on the current young horse program?

I think Scott [Hassler] did a fabulous job! I think it is off to a very, very good start. All the coaches are going to work together because what in the end we are trying to produce is horses and riders to be able to make teams, and that’s for the junior and young riders as well.

Of course we would like to be able to produce horses that we can win medals with; at the end of the day, that’s what we are trying to do. And like I said, it is most important that the young horse program get a lot more prestige. It needs to be highlighted at the horse shows. The owners need rewards and year-end awards.

Everybody involved in the young horse program needs to be highlighted: horses, riders, owners, breeders. I consider the young horse program a high performance program as well because we are working toward a very targeted goal: top quality international horses. And all of us, the coaches, are going to work very closely together so that we really educate breeders, owners and riders what we are looking for and how to develop it is.

There is already a great deal of talent in horses and riders here, but I think the consistency in the guidance and the regularity in it so that people have frequent clinics and frequent training sessions, I think that’s really important.

What are the biggest challenges you think you’ll face?

I think it is always that the country is so big. It is so different from the Netherlands or from Germany or from Denmark, for example, where everything is close. That means that sometimes you go to parts of the country where people are not exposed to the quality that you can find in California or to the quality that you find in Florida; that is a challenge for sure.

How will you balance this position with your business, Christine Traurig Dressage Stables?

I think just fine. My business at home is not that big. I kept it that way on purpose because in the past I have done a lot of clinics, and I will continue to do clinics, but of course this position will take up a lot of my time and therefore I have to sacrifice in that respect a little bit. I realize that.

I will put my heart and soul into this program for sure. I still want to compete myself because I find it very important that people can see that I can do what I preach. It keeps you current, and it keeps you on your toes, and I think it’s really good. It’s very important for the coaching too that the coach keeps riding.

What horses are you competing right now?

I have one horse that I’m competing. His name is Louisdor, and he has started in the Intermediaire II. He is a little more challenging than what I expected, but I get great reward out of riding him because when he’s good, he’s really good.

What advice do you have for people who are interested in getting involved in the young horse program?

Contact the coach—me. Everybody will have my contact information out there. Call me and talk to me so that I can guide you. After having a conversation with that person about where they are located, where they want to go, do they want a horse, I can guide them into different directions to make it possible for them to develop as a young horse rider, or young horse-and-rider combination.

There will be a program established that will give guidelines to every rider, owner and breeder of young horses outlining the criteria to meet the requirements for a horse/rider combination to emerge into the top group of our young horse program participants, similar to our High Performance Program shortlist and long list, with the yearly goal of National Young Horse Finals and World Breeding Championships.