“In 1975, I had great luck to get Woycek. He was my best horse. He was nine years old and started his first year in Grand Prix, but the owner needed money and had to sell, and that was my chance. I found a sponsor who bought the horse, and had five very successful seasons with him. The best was at the ’76 Olympics with a Silver medal in the individual and gold medal with the team.”

“The following years I was a member of the team in the World Championships and twice in the European Championships – and the European Championships were his last, he had an accident, and after that his right hind leg was not very good. Some weeks he would be very good, and then he would be a little bit lame, so that was the end of the career of Woycek – and that was the end of my riding career too.”

What made Woycek such a good horse?

“First his temperament. He was for a dressage horse of the best temperament. When you asked him to work, he worked and gave his best. He was so relaxed when you walked with him through the fields in the days after a horse show, the next week at a horse show, or training, he works again. He was better in the arena at competition than he was at home. He had a very good walk, very good extended trot, good canter. He could do piaffe, passage, pirouettes. It was not a problem for this horse.”

Granat and Christine Stückelberger, with trainer, George Wahl, a Chief Rider at the Spanish Riding School

“The horses we had, who were winning, like Granat and Woycek, they were heavy weight like hunters, and very dynamic.”