Harm Thormählen followed in the footsteps of his father Rheder, who made Hof Thormählen one of the most important sport horse trading stables in Europe within just a very short time. Riders such as Fritz Thiedemann, Alwin Schockemöhle, Hans Günter Winkler and Hartwig Steenken were among his customers.

Harm Thormählen placed in the German Championships for young riders at the age of 16 and competed in his first Grand Prix at the age of 18. His ability with difficult horses was well known, even though his father taught him to ride with just three comments: “good, lousy, forwards.”

However, the farm was for selling horses, if they were successful, they were sold, and more and more, Harm’s focus turned to breeding, an interest aroused by Hartwig Steenken and in-depth meetings with Werner and Alwin Schockemöhle. However, once again, his father, Rheder had established the basis, buying some of the top jumping mares as they came out of the sport.

Harm Thormählen took over the farm in Langenhals near Kollmar in 1973 as a trained farmer, by then he and his father had already been greatly successful in modern sport horse breeding.

Together with his wife Ingela, Harm Thormählen has turned the operation entirely to breeding, raising, training and selling sport horses  – and riders and sponsors from all over the world are among his highly satisfied customers. Harm Thormählen has bred many Olympic Games and Championship winners. Harm chose to breed exclusively with the lines 104 A, 3615 and 173 and his stud produced well-known champions such as Capitol, Retina, Come On (Ludger Beerbaum, Ralf Schneider, Princess Haya) and Cera (Otto Becker).

His expert advice is also much appreciated: Harm Thormählen is a member of the licensing committee of  Springpferdezuchtverband Oldenburg-International (OS) and Studbook Zangersheide and he is a replacement commissioner for the Holstein Verband.

The legendary breeder and former competitor Harm Thormählen expressed his criticism of the younger generation of riders in an interview with the Dutch publication De Paardenkrant: “So many young riders are not willing to improve, they are not riding enough and they are reluctant to learn.”

Harm criticizes that the young generation is often incapable of adequately training young horses that have a bit of blood. The more experienced top riders don’t have the time left if they are competing up to four days a week.

Modern performance horses are sensitive, intelligent and sometimes a bit quirky, putting the onus on a quality education and training to further their talent and bring them into the sport. But Harm believes that most young riders just don’t want to deal with potential problems, “Their families have too much money, the kids cannot be bothered with training their horses or spending time with a difficult mount, they want to compete and win prize money, immediately.”

Harm mentions his former employee, Alwin Schockemöhle as a prime example for an exemplary attitude. Alwin was constantly striving to improve his riding; he was always motivated and eager to learn and not too proud to muck out the stables in between. Harm also hosted the Swedish riders, Jens und Peder Fredricson. Their riding was only average to begin with, but through hard work and diligence they eventually competed at Olympic level.

“The whole world demands intelligent and modern sport horses with a bit of blood, but hardly anybody has the capacity, the nerve and patience to work with these horses on a long-term basis.”