Dressage riding lessons near Potsdam: from seat to Advanced level

Anyone looking for good dressage lessons in Potsdam or Berlin finds quickly: many providers, few continuous concepts. Eichhof Akademie in Schenkenhorst (Potsdam-Mittelmark) is built differently. We see riding lessons not as a weekly hour but as continuous accompaniment — from the first seat lesson to Advanced (S) level.

Riding lessons at Eichhof Akademie are aimed at boarders — that allows continuous, personal training rather than a sequence of isolated lessons. Outside riders are explicitly welcome at our clinics with internationally respected trainers: Karin Lührs (Grand Prix), Christoph Hess (riding clinic), Conny Faste (movement studies), Alfonso Aguilar (horsemanship) and Pia Anina Gerullis (cross-country day). The yard in Potsdam-Mittelmark is about 20 minutes from Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm.

What follows is how our lessons are structured, what we focus on, and how outside riders can get to know Eichhof Akademie too.

Lessons at the Eichhof — who and what

We deliberately separate regular riding lessons from clinics. There is a good reason: a rider who comes once a week and never knows who they will work with next learns markedly slower than one with a constant trainer team.

Our core team:

• Master Equine Manager Pia Anina Gerullis — classical riding training, focus on dressage, jumping and cross-country, trains to Advanced (S) level. She has accompanied Eichhof Akademie since founding.
• Kim Jesse — Grand-Prix-level dressage trainer, Westphalian Dressage Champion, awarded the „Goldenes Pferd” of Gestüt Bon Homme. Her philosophy: „The horse sets the pace, not the show calendar.”
• Franziska Gutsche — owner, breeder and rider. She knows many of our horses since the foal stage and brings that breeder’s perspective into the lesson.

Boarders get this consistency in trainer team. Lessons build on the weeks before, not on a tabular plan. We know what you and your horse practised last week — and what is on the agenda this week.

Seat lessons: the foundation of every progress

This is where we differ most from the majority of riding yards. Seat lessons are not something you do at twelve and then leave behind. They are the tool you should sharpen every few months — even at Advanced (S) level.

Specifically we work with:

• Seat analysis before each new training block. An experienced trainer sees in ten minutes where the pelvis is fixed, where the seat works against the horse, where aids become unclear.
• Lunge correction sessions. On a school horse, without responsibility for aids, the rider can concentrate on the body. That is the fastest path to seat progress.
• Video analysis. A 60-second video from three angles shows more than six lessons of description. We use this deliberately between training phases.

Anyone who has been through a phase of dedicated seat work rides every horse differently afterwards. That is an investment that pays off across years.

Disciplines: dressage, jumping, eventing, groundwork

We deliberately don’t teach only dressage. At Eichhof Akademie, jumping, eventing and horsemanship are equally part of the programme. The reasons are sporting and health-related, which we go into in our piece Dressage training Berlin Brandenburg.

In lessons that means:

• Dressage — from first loosening to collection; seat and aids as a constant focus.
• Jumping — on the one-hectare jumping field, with focus on canter quality and stride feel rather than height.
• Eventing — cross-country days with mobile obstacles, indoor or outdoor depending on weather.
• Groundwork and horsemanship — as an integrated part of the weekly use, not a side topic.

This versatility is also the best health management for the horse. One-sided loading produces one-sided musculature and, long-term, wear. Anyone alternating between disciplines keeps the horse elastic and mentally awake.

Clinics with guest instructors — also for outside riders

Here Eichhof Akademie opens to riders who don’t board with us. Our clinics are an important part of our educational offering — we deliberately invite outside riders, because we believe a lively riding scene grows through exchange, not boundary.

Current formats:

• Karin Lührs — dressage clinic. Grand-Prix rider with more than 80 wins at S level, judge through S level. Clinics aimed at riders looking for clean dressage work in the classical sense.
• Christoph Hess — riding clinic. Clinics from Elementary (L) level, with a clear mix of practical session and theory impulses. 40 minutes riding plus 20 minutes supervised cool-down per session.
• Conny Faste — movement clinic. Specialist in biomechanics. For anyone wanting to analyse and improve their seat. 45 minutes per session.
• Alfonso Aguilar — horsemanship. Internationally recognised expert in groundwork and equine communication. Day clinics roughly 9:00-16:30 in a group.
• Pia Anina Gerullis — cross-country day. A versatile training day in the cross-country setting, open from beginners to advanced riders. Indoor or outdoor depending on weather.

Current dates, trainer profiles and booking information are on our clinic page. Outside riders pay a 15 euro per day facility fee, in cash on site on the first clinic day.

The facility: conditions that enable training progress

Riding lessons are only as good as the conditions they take place in. At Eichhof Akademie we have deliberately invested in training surfaces:

• Indoor arena 20 × 40 m with ebb-and-flow surface — fully usable in winter and heavy rain.
• Dressage arena 20 × 60 m with ebb-and-flow — competition size, evenly elastic.
• Second dressage arena 20 × 55 m — even on busy days you have space to train.
• Two lunge rings — for groundwork and gymnastic work.
• Jumping field 1 hectare, grass — for classic gallop training and jumping gymnastics.
• Trail terrain right at the yard — sandy paths without road contact.

For more on the facility and our boarding offer, see our boarding page.

How to find us

Eichhof Akademie sits directly off the Potsdam-Drewitz motorway exit, around 20 minutes from Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm. From Potsdam you reach the yard in under 15 minutes; from Kleinmachnow or Stahnsdorf in around 20 to 25.

If you are considering boarding with us or attending a clinic, contact us for a personal pre-call. We arrange a viewing, show the facility quietly, and discuss what fits you and your horse.

Lesson formats at a glance