The late Fritz Stahlecker influenced riders all over the world with his training program – and one person who really benefitted was Sven Rothenberger, who found that his new horse – purchased from the Stahleckers – came with an instruction manual and all the movements of the Grand Prix on demand… Christopher Hector recorded this interview with Sven back in 1997

 They were the combination that has set the dressage world ablaze. Within months of their first meeting,  Sven Rothenberger and Weyden were on their way to the Olympic Games in Atlanta, where they took home team Silver and individual Bronze…

Not surprisingly Sven compares his new horse with one of the all time great Olympic athletes:
“Weyden is a little bit like Carl Lewis. He is powerful, what he is doing – he is doing. You cannot say perhaps, you have to say yes or no – and that’s perfect.”

Where did you find Weyden?

“That’s a funny story. In 1995 in August at a show in Germany there was one really spectacular horse and he was always in the training arena at the same time that Weyden was being trained by his owner, Mr Fritz Stahlecker. There were five dealers running behind the spectacular  horse, trying to buy it, and they thought I was as well. I just let them think that. No-one thought about Weyden, and I said to myself, this is a stone that has to be cut and polished. I went to Mr Stahlecker and I said please sell me the horse, or let us make a deal. I think you have a jewel but no-one sees that at the moment. No-one thought that Weyden was good – he came eighth in Stüttgart in Inter II and he and twelfth in Grand Prix.”

“Mr Stahlecker is 70 years old, he runs a factory with 2000 people working for him. He is a really straight and brave man. His daughter rode Weyden. She has three children, one of her children is handicapped, so she cannot leave her home more than 100 kilometres around. She cannot go to Wiesbaden or to Atlanta because of the situation. So I said to this man ‘Look, what is your dream? You are 70 years old. What can be your dream? That everyone in the world sees what good work you did with this horse? Sell him to me and there is a little chance that he will go to the Olympic Games. There are only a few riders that can get on a horse and go directly into the arena with success. I always show that with my horses, because I can change my way of riding to the horse, I don’t say my way or no way, and that’s why I have had success with different horses from different trainers.”

“I telephoned him two or three times and finally he said ‘if you come now we will make that deal’. I drove at night to his place and at 11 o’clock in the riding hall I said, after only three times seeing this horse, I’ll take him. He was not clipped, he had no shoes on, he never had a rug on and he was always trained in long reins from the ground – and it was only once a week that Mr Stahlecker’s daughter rode him.

“I cut this diamond, I polished it , and I gave him shoes, I cut his hair, I showed him how to breed, because we are breeding a lot of mares to him. To me he was like a young boy coming to the army. On with the shoes, cut the hair, and… lots of breeding.”

It was an instant success with him?

“Directly. I took him to the first show, I won Grand Prix. I beat Donnerhall with 80 points… next show, I beat Isabell with Antony in Grand Prix…just Anky was in front of him….”

“He is a swinging, elastic, in the basics a totally correct, relaxed horse. A super walk, he is getting 10’s for his walk. A super trot, it is very elastic. Really a good canter to make small or big – like an accordion you can go big or you can go very small. Leonardo (da Vinci, the ride of Sven’s wife Gonnelien) for example is always expressive, but he doesn’t find at the moment, the point to relax, and that is making a problem. But Weyden is soft in the hands, he is fantastic”

Gonnelien also rode Weyden later in his career – here at the European Championships in 2002

It was an interesting workout strategy yesterday. You started doing very quickly some piaffe, some half pass and towards the end you gave him more relaxed work. You galloped him in forward seat…

“Today I did it directly the other way around. Yesterday I tried to find out if I could make a cold start with him. When you saw me, I had worked him once and then I brought him back, as if I had to start to do my test with him straight away. Otherwise it takes too long again.”

“With my system it takes three to four hours for the muscles to get stiff again after you have worked the horse in. If you loosen the horse, you can wait two to three hours, take him out and do your test without him hurting himself because his muscles are still elastic.”

“Weyden, he is like a soldier. Mr Stahlecker wrote 70 pages of how to handle Weyden. And I read that book. When you go in that box and you stand with your finger in front of Weyden and you say ‘Weyden put your feet correctly together’, he does.”

“Mr Stahlecker works all the day in the office. Weyden is a stallion, and Mr Stahlecker said to handle him as a stallion, the horse had to learn if I say you do this, you have to do it. But he is confident, he is not afraid. You cannot hit Weyden, he will bite back if you do it unfairly. There is only one point on his chest where you can touch him with the stick and say Weyden ‘stop – listen to me.'”

Has this man produced more horses with this system?

“Five years ago he did also another Grand Prix horse. He is also a painter. That’s why he is called Weyden. All his horses are the name of a painter. I have asked him already to train another young horse for me. But he said: ‘No. I will look for another horse, one day I will find it’. He is not in a hurry.”

Read more about Fritz Stahlecker and his training method here.