The firing of Andreas Hausberger, Chief Rider at the Spanish Riding School after 40 years of service is not the first 'firing' of the elite trainers at this heritage institution and most likely based on precedent won't be the last.
I was fortunate to visit the SRS when the horses still lived at the palace. Shopping for a stallion at the school I enjoyed riding stallions in the grand hall and at Piber, and experienced first hand the work of the riders and Chief Rider at that time, Arthur Kottas. In my previous career I had also worked with an earlier Chief rider at the SRS, George Wahl after he had left the now, unenviable position. That was a long time ago now - back in the days where Christine Stückelberger and Granat were the highlight ride at the yard where I trained.
The days of the classical dressage were numbered, and those last years of the 1990's were truly the end of the institutional training in the classical art. The advent of rollkür was embraced by the trainers at the school soon thereafter, as witnessed far and wide in warm up arenas around the world where the Lipizzaners were to be presented to perform their exhibitions.
Even the employment of the first non-rider as Director, in the appointment of Dr. Ouhlehla was heralded as such a significant change in the traditions of the school that many dressage enthusiasts and masters of the art shook their heads in dismay. The poor man was pulled in every direction, forced to get out and about to promote the breed he spent much time abroad and followed on the heels of the circus Lipizzan promotional tour group that truly was non-classical by the time it finished its showcase life. The Colonel Ottomar Hermann Jr. founded the troupe, but almost inevitably it too fell into 'circus' rather than authentic classical dressage training.
As a young lad, my husband Paul, like myself also a Grand Prix competitor/clinician/coach, was fortunate to be extended an invitation to complete an intensive 'retreat' training program at the Hofburg Palace, and learned much from his time there though he narrowly missed out on George Wahl and instead was under the guidance of a then Chief rider, Karl Mikolka. As Paul's UK trainer, James Belman's ( who also made taught UK dressage team rider Dane Rawlins as a young lad) mentor was Alois Podhasky, it was little wonder that such introductions could be made, and access back then was very hard to attain and available only to an elite few.
Looking back career wise, it is not too surprising that the classical works of the SRS pop up in trainers both Paul and I have worked with, and not just trainers. We have also worked with students from Hermann's troupe, Mikolka's and Kottas and Hausberger's training programs as clinicians and horses that were dispersed from their 'collection'.
Interestingly there are common themes of issues we see among the students and horses from these various programs. For example, mastering flying changes are commonly a stumbling block for some of the students from these programs. Shortfalls somewhere exist in all dressage training, and the horses that students ride and train themselves always tell the story, as do the horses you try at the palace when seeking to make a purchase of a stallion.
The theorists would express sincerely held opinions as to where things have gone wrong or right at the SRS. For us, we saw the change as it happened and determined that entering Lipizzan breeding and training was not a move we should make. In the end, we imported horses from the Elite Hanoverian auctions for many years and declined offers for horses to bring back to the USA from the good Dr. O.
(The VHW is another organization that has significantly changed, but that is another story).
We moved along to the Iberian breeds and for many years bred horses in Spain and Portugal alongside Hanoverian horse we produced here in the U.S.A. After a good decade or more in the German program breeding Hanoverians, and from intensive retreats and learning with the great Herbert Rehbein, Gabrielle Grillo and Shülten-Baumer, today our influences hail back to where we began, with a strong French influence in our training and lightness in our hands and hearts as riders.
Life is a journey and certainly training horses from start to finish in dressage is an art. The service that riders such as Hausberger and the long line of riders before him have provided to the world of dressage will not be expunged simply by the needling and imbecilic actions of the new 'industry' captains at the school removing him from their website or writings.
But sadly, although Andreas Hausberger will likely be ever more in demand than he already is for clinics and advice to dressage riders, the ones that ultimately suffer will as always be the horses. Heritage is not something that sits in isolation, it is a living entity in the realm of horses and when the ticket sales take priority over the training, the enterprise as whole is doomed to failure.
Government appointments, nepotism, political disruptions and wars have all scarred the school. In this author's opinion, the decline of the school has been going on for the last 30 years, and this is simply another nail in that coffin.
I was blessed to live in a time where visits to Piber involved meeting like minded horse folks and to experience the school's training from the icons of the past such as Podhasky, handed down with loyalty to the brief by Belman, Wahl and his like.
If you want to succeed as a dressage trainer it will be always be necessary to do your own homework by picking up a book and reading the masters words. Those you don't agree with or do, all have valuable gems to share. From Baucher, L'Hotte, Steinbrecht, Podhasky, or others.
And Paul and I will continue to strive to improve our training methods, honor the horse first and the classical methods second, third and to the last.
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| Paul Alvin-Smith riding ANCCE stallion Celesto IV |
Excerpt from article: Lightness in Dressage - "I heard the German School is dead" reprinted with kind permission of Catskill Horse magazine.
"Perhaps the famous écuyer Francois L’Hotte would be turning in his grave at the prominence of Rollkür, in this author’s opinion is an abusive method of training. According to the photos posted online, Rollkür is apparently even utilized as a training method by the renowned Spanish Riding School of Vienna (not in Spain at all). A sad state of affairs indeed and which I dearly hope will be corrected in the future. This abhorrent method of riding the horse with his head deep down on his chest by means of forceful rein manipulation is not to be mistaken for the suppling exercises of the bascule of the horse for brief periods to stretch the neck, which is entirely useful and kind to the horse..."
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