Equestrian journey
I had my first riding lessons back in 1990. But it took further 15 years until I got in contact with classical dressage.
In 2005 I was looking for a horse-sharing-option and at that occasion met my horse Zascandil and his former owner, a student of Brigadier Kurt Albrecht (Spanish Riding School of Vienna).
By then I have always rated myself as being a quite delicate rider, who doesn't force anything and is capable of controlling his body parts. But very quickly I had to realize that I obviously applied far too much pressure for Zasca.
I felt deadfully sorry for stressing him so much that he was drenched in sweat after just a few minutes of riding. Looking back at that time nowadays, I truly believe the only reason why his owner let me train on with Zasca was that I had the absolute will to learn how to ride Zasca in a way he feels comfortable with.
Pretty soon I could improve my riding abilities and above all my awareness for correct work movements and the right way of giving aids enormously. Thereby even high level dressage exercises came into reach. It was an incredible feeling, when Zasca started reacting to mere thoughts, performing naturally and with absolute ease. And today I'm still kind of addicted to that.
After I had bought Zasca in 2007 and moved to another stable, I was trained by a long time student of Philippe Karl and this way got in contact with the French Légèreté (Lightness). That was completely virgin territory for me, but Zasca didn't have any problems to adapt to this new way of riding. His reaction was proof for how comprehensible this training method must be if a horse can understand it straightaway.
In 2009 I was forced to realign my riding, as I stopped using bits when working with my horse. Since relaxing the horse's jaw by using a bit is fundamental to the system of Légèreté I had to look for an alternative. In search of a new orientation I received a lot of rejections by trainers, who didn't want to work with a horse that was ridden bitlessly. Klaus Schöneich was the first to say, that his training system - Anatomically Correct Horsemanship - was also applicable to those cases. So I started visiting his clinics and tried to implement those new techniques to my training at home. Certainly I didn't manage to set up everything perfectly, but still I realized, that Zasca's back started swinging upwards more than it ever did before. Therefore I started my apprenticeship to become an Equine Straightness Trainer at the Center for Anatomically Correct Horsemanship and passed my tests successfully in 2013.
Still I'm not only fascinated by the positive development of a horse being trained after this system, but also the look at it in its entirety. Other than the different riding philosophies I was engaged in, it is not just about training horses on the ground and from the saddle. The horse as a complete system is always in the focus of interest, including a proper equipment, hoof trimming and dental treatment.
Anyway even today I keep my mind open for new ways of schooling and dealing with horses.
Today I'm therefore familiar with various techniques and methods, which I can combine according to specific requirements to help riders and their horses best.
