Interview by Christopher Hector & Photos by Jaques Toffi, Julia Rau and Roz Neave
It’s hard to believe that the glamorous German showjumping rider, Eva Bitter has been around the scene for as long as she has. The truth is Eva first stepped into the limelight in the gold medal winning German Junior team at the 1994 European Championships.
This year, she showed that she has lost none of her touch with a win in the Grand Prix of Treffen with her latest star, like Stakkato, a resident of the State Stud Celle, Perigueux.
Of course the horse she will be forever associated with is Stakkato, who carried her to victory in the German National Championship in 2003. Eva also started one of his best sons, Satisfaction, and with him won the Grand Prix of Hanover before the ride went to Marco Kutscher who took him to three wins in 2012. This year, Marco finally left Ludger Beerbaum’s yard to move in with long time partner, Eva, at her stables…
Do you remember when you first saw Stakkato?
“I surely do, it was at the Hanoverian Stud where he did the stallion licensing test when he was three years old. He was a really nice youngster, he was the first young horse that I ever taught.”
How did you manage to talk the director at the time, Dr Bade, into giving him to you?
“I think it was my trainer, Heinrich Willem Johannsman, I was training with him at the time, he talked to Dr Bade and okay when he was three no-one knew he was such a superstar, and he was not like a really special breeding stallion… he was a good sport horse, you could see that he was an amazing jumper, but he was a little bit small, not a really big stallion type. This was our chance.”
But did you imagine then that you would be riding sons and grand-sons of this horse?
“No, for sure not, but this is really so nice. I am really proud too of Satisfaction, his son, he is a really special horse. I’ve had many special ones from Stakkato.”
What are the things he gives as a stallion to his progeny?
“It’s really on the inside, they want to do good – I don’t know one Stakkato that doesn’t want to jump, one that is afraid or stopping. When you have a problem it is that they want to do too much, they go too much into the fence, they want to do too much, but this is what he gives to his sons and daughters and grand-sons and grand-daughters. They really want to jump.”
When you grew up, did you always want to be a jumping rider?
“More or less. My parents were riding, and they took my sister and me with them to the stable, and we started to play around with a pony. There was no-one behind us, drilling us, they didn’t care so much if we wanted to ride or not. I always wanted to do this, I didn’t want to play piano, I stopped with everything but the riding, I loved it from the beginning. After I left school I started three years traineeship in a firm and went to university as part of that, but I only did one and a half years – I had a special horse, Luna Luna, a Landadel mare. I went to Ludger Beerbaum’s for training and after a short while I was in the team with Ludger, and Franke Sloothaak, and Lars Nieberg, in Saint Gallen. I rode a few Nations Cups, and that with the university was difficult to manage, so I stopped.”
Horses won again…
“Exactly.”
Eva and Perigueux winning a Grand Prix and a Volkswagen
Who have been the most important trainers in developing your style?
“I think it’s Manfred Kötter… I am still training with him, like once a week, and he is a super dressage trainer. Dressage is the basis, without this, it is not possible to be a good jumping rider. Then for sure, Ludger Beerbaum, I was two years with him. He helped me with Stakkato for example, like I said, this was the first time I rode a young horse. Before that, I always had older horses, and learned from the horses, now it was the first time to ride a four-year-old horse. I had no idea, and it was really good for us to be at Ludger’s stable. Also he was a special horse, he always jumped much too high. It was exciting and I learned a lot from Ludger.”
Manfred Kötter is like the ghost, everyone talks about him but no-one sees him…
“Yeah, exactly, he’s like not really official. Even when he is at a show you don’t really see him, he is always at the warmup arena, he sees everything, but he is not really seen. He is never the official trainer, but he is riding Ludger’s horses at home for example, and helping them so much. It’s unofficial, I don’t know why, it is strange because he is a super trainer. It is amazing what he feels… he is so old now he can hardly walk, but when he sits on a horse, he shows us how to do it.”
SPOTLIGHT ON: EVA BITTER
Born: 1973
Hobbies: Gliding
Educated as an industrial clerk, now a professional showjumper
Eva started riding at the age of five, joining her parents in the stables of renowned showjumping coach Manfred Kötter, and began competing in novice-level dressage and showjumping events when she was ten. She soon switched to showjumping, and was quickly successful at advanced level. In 1994 Eva won team gold and placed individual fourth in the Young Rider European Championships. Several top placings and wins at Grand Prix level followed over the years, many of these with the stallions owned by the State Stud in Celle. Eva has a strong hold on the German Championships, securing the women’s title a record six times, in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014. In the past Eva trained with Ludger Beerbaum and Heinrich Wilhelm Johannsmann.
This article first appeared in the November 2014 issue of THM.