MAIN CURRICULUM VITAE CLINIKS HORSES FOR SALE MAIL
Curriculum Vitae
I was born in 1968 into a well-established family of riders in Vienna. My great grandfather already had a big sales stable in Vienna that was well reputed among k.u.k cavalry officers for its excellent horses. My father was a member of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
At the age of 2 years I was on horseback for the first time – of course I have no memory of that. You can imagine that my father was my first riding instructor – a bit tough, but fair. The basics of horsemanship were instilled into Little Alfons. I learned it from the cradle and through hard work and training. It was not always easy to have my father as my instructor, but from my point of view it was worth it. My father set a very high value on correctly handling a horse. He had and still has outstanding skills in assessing a horse´s exterior. In my presence he was choosing a lot of horses and as a young boy I kept learning to discern quickly a horse´s flaws and defects. Nowadays this is a convenient ability when choosing horses.
But not only the classical horsemanship/ dressage was part of my schooling, but also jumping and the basic training of young horse (the adequate term would be “breaking in young horses” – but it evokes the association of violence and abuse and is therefore unacceptable for me).
When I was six people were smiling when my answer to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” always was “Rider in the Spanish Riding School!” People were amused as if I had told them that I want to be a fire fighter.
At
the age of 15 I joined the Spanish Riding School in Vienna as an Eleve;
I stayed there for 8 years to learn the classical dressage from scratch
until being ready for performances. During that time I learned a lot
from watching closely. My father used to say, “Boy, you have to steal
with your eyes.” I did that, good and proper. You may ask why I left
from there? Simple answer – it was a difficult time, the manager was a
man who was proud of not being a hippologist. Unfortunately he knew
nothing about riding, consequently from my point of view the situation
was unbearable. To keep fit I did Tae Kwon Do and earned the black belt.
My master You young Min introduced me to a Buddhist monk, I became a
Buddhist and still am nearly 25 years later.
This left a strong mark in terms of dealing with horses as well as
people. When training horses virtues like patience, modesty, calmness,
and composure are very important.
After my schooling at the Riding School in Vienna I worked as a
free-lance professional in Austria and successfully entered competitions
with Trakehners. At that time the Lusitano stallion Cartucho came to me
for further training. Initially my father bought him for his retirement,
but had gained some weight. It is his firm conviction that people should
lose weight before they start riding, so as a result of this I
“inherited” Cartucho. The fundamental training of this talented stallion
was started in Portugal already and his previous owner used him as a
trekking horse and therefore he was taught the “Toelt”. It took about
one year of basic exercises to restore the regularity of his paces.
After that I was able to advance his natural talent.
Relating to my newly sparked interest in Iberian horses and riding
styles I stayed in Portugal and Spain for more than 1 ½ years to learn
the `Doma Vaquera´ and the `Rejoneo´ (mounted bullfight).
After experiencing the practical application of the classic dressage –
after this phase of hippological fieldwork on the Iberian peninsula – I
was heading north.
In order to combine theory with my practical experiences I wrote two
books:
“Training The Horse In Hand” (Cadmos Verlag)
“Long Rein” (Cadmos Verlag)
For about 2 years the center of my professional life was a stud farm in Northern Germany, where I was schooling horses and their riders.
After my return to Austria I worked south of Vienna and frequently
travelled to different places all over Austrian, Germany and Spain for
clinics.
The death of my beloved friend and master Cartucho after 16 years was a
crushing experience. He definitely contributed his share to shape my
personality.
By late 2007 I got the opportunity of launching my own equestrian
centre.
My wife Anke, Lusitano stallion Quadril, my little Tibetan dog Nessi and
I moved to Upper Austria.
Based on the principles of classical horsemanship I worked out the schooling system `Hippolytos´ - giving riders the opportunity to strive and achieve certain goals in the course of their training that meet the well-defined criteria (even without participating in competition).
Great-Grandfather
Dietz Officer k.u.k.
Army
My
Father in Vienna after the 2nd World war
Little Alfons
in the age of two
Alfons first time in newspaper
;-)
Mounted at the Lippizan
Stallion
Maestoso Ancona - Levade
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