My Motivation
It's the fascination for horses that drives me. It's no different for me than for a passionate hobby rider or a breeder who can't and won't stop thinking about horses. That I compete at the highest level and demand performance from my horses is beyond question. But what drives us riders to the stable every day is the unconditional desire to engage with horses anew every single day. This never-ending interest in their characters, their peculiarities, and talents is the origin of everything.
And even the experience that horses repeatedly plunge me into deep doubt and sometimes even despair doesn't change that. That's part of it all. I immerse myself in observing a horse and developing a vision of its future possibilities. I can't let enough horses impress me; I'd love to sit on an orange crate for days and just watch horses. That's how it always was and always will be, even when one day I'm no longer competing.
Success is the culmination of it all. It makes me proud that I have been able to successfully bring more than thirty horses to the highest level of sport. These are the fruits of my work and my passion. But the joy derived from it is the most important thing.
My Family
I was born on July 21, 1969, the day the first man walked on the moon. However, I would describe myself more as down-to-earth. Like my entire family – farmers for generations. On the farm in Rheinberg, which I took over from my father in 2003, we live as a close-knit family. At its best, four generations lived here: My grandmother, who lived to be 102 and only became seriously frail in her last two years. My parents. My partner Wolfgang Urban and I with my son Frederik. And my older sister Claudia with her family.
As girls, my sister and I naturally grew into riding life. A large part of our youth was spent at the Graf von Schmettow Eversael riding club, not far from the farm. The first cigarette was smoked behind the riding hall. The first apple schnapps was had behind the embankment. Three times a week, my sister and I appeared with our ponies for riding lessons, twice for dressage, once for jumping.
On weekends, we went out riding with ten or fifteen children, with backpacks on our backs. We played games, rode skill courses, played Indian games, ring jousting, carnival riding. The horses had to wear hats, hearts, glitter, and shimmer; they were dressed up as imaginatively as we were. We chased across meadows and swam with the horses in the Rhine.
Our mother drove us to our first competitions and supported us as much as she could. She said: If you just want to go for pleasure rides, we don't need to put in all this effort. But if you want to compete, then do it intensely. Then we do it properly, no fooling around. I studied for school at night. Much like I later did with my law studies.
When I was a child, our father cultivated the 22 hectares of land almost entirely by himself. He practiced classical mixed farming, which had remained almost unchanged for centuries but is now almost extinct.
My sister and I grew up surrounded by all the animals. As a child, you approach things without prejudice, without overthinking. The horse is there, the dog is there. And you don't inherently develop fear; instead, the animal is part of daily life, almost part of the family. You go to the stable in the morning, the animals are fed, it's a rhythm, it's simply responsibility, and you grow up with that.
Growing up closely with all these different animals gave me the opportunity to develop a natural relationship with them. The dedication that began then is the key to my joy in life with horses. And thus also to my success.
