Born in Vienna, Franz Mairinger entered the Austrian cavalry in 1935, and was selected to train at the famed Cavalry School of Hanover – where the main emphasis was on showjumping and eventing, and these, with steeplechasing, were Franz’s first equestrian loves.

He became more interested in dressage when the Spanish Riding School gave a performance at International Horse Show in Hanover. The horses were stabled at the Cavalry School and the Spanish School director, Col Alois Podhajsky, who had seen Mairinger ride, asked him to ride one of his Lippizaners. Suitably impressed, Podhajsky offered Mairinger a position at the Spanish School. He was at the School for eighteen years.

He had married Ernestine Wilhelmine Pracan in Vienna in 1940 but they lost most of their possessions during World War II. To save money to migrate to Australia, he gave private lessons in Switzerland in 1951 before he was sponsored by R. M. Williams who had taken an interest in Australia’s entry into the FEI and international competition.

Franz arrived in Adelaide in 1952 and worked first on Williams’s sheep-farm, then as a labourer in Elder, Smith & Co. Ltd’s wool store, and in the upholstery factory of A. J. Higgins, who owned a stable of show horses. Soon Mairinger was buying and training horses for Higgins and winning prizes at the Royal Adelaide Show. Higgins lent him the money to bring out his wife and two children in 1953.

He was appointed the first trainer of the Australian team, in 1955. In 1956, the Australian eventing team was fourth at the Olympics, four years after that, they took gold at Rome. He trained a total of six teams for the Olympics, and was training his seventh at the time of his death. He gave schools all over Australia, and was instrumental in introducing a logical, classical system of riding. He died of cancer in 1978.

Publications:

Horses are made to be horses (published in 1983, based on his notes and lectures, prepared by his wife, Erna, and Kay Irving)