Johann Meixner (rider)
Johann Meixner (* 1865 ; † December 5, 1917 ) was chief rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna from 1885 to 1916 .
Life
Together with von Holbein-Holbeinsberg, Meixner wrote the “Directives”, which encompass the entire orally transmitted knowledge of the classical art of riding in the Spanish Riding School.
Among the school riders of his time he was probably the most important; A born rider with decades of training, which gradually led to a perfection of the riding technique that only very few riders were able to achieve. Then there was Meixner's splendid posture on horseback, his model seat. The image of an almost unique equestrian ability was joined by that of the most perfect equestrian propriety, and resulted in an overall effect which every rider stood before with admiration. Meixner was considered classic in his seat, posture and leadership. He was tall and still slim even in old age. Even though he was sitting up straight with his shoulder blades drawn up, there was no trace of stiffness. The upper body rested firmly and yet resiliently on the supple, flexible hips. Particularly beautiful and emphasizing the calm of the upper body, as well as its beautiful posture, were the relaxed shoulders. The buttocks weren't pushed out too far. The thighs were excellently placed, despite the rather long legs of the tall rider, not with pointed knees, but rather flat against the vertical and lying flat. Knees with the inside always right on the horse. Lower legs are soft and naturally drooping, with elastic ankles, not pulled up and pressed tight. Upper arms lying lightly and informally on the body, the fist at exactly the right height. Neither when walking, trotting or galloping nor when jumping at school was the rider's body in an unsightly movement, one could never see sudden help. Everything at Meixner went off with playful calm. At Meixner one saw the highest degree of cohesion between rider and horse, how playfully Meixner regulated every movement. His calm, constant expression on his face when riding proved that he was sure of his horses, that he could control every movement. In Meixner's productions, every step of the horse was worked out, the posture remained, the permeability remained at every moment.
Felix Bürkner expresses himself in his book Ein Reiterleben about Meixner:
“In 1908, during the first year of riding school, my Göttingen friend Allah Hattendorff invited me to Vienna for a fortnight. In the meantime he had become vice stable master of the Duke of Cumberland in Gmunden and had been sent to the Spanish Riding School and the Imperial Stables in Vienna for a year for his training for this service. So I got the wonderful opportunity to see the Spanish school in its heyday under the direction of Count Kinsky with the chief rider Meixner, the greatest riding artist of our time, in his personal work for hours every day. At six o'clock in the morning Allah's service began in the riding school, where he was trained on several horses by the various riders. During these hours in the Kogel (Kobel, ed.) I was allowed to sit in a comfortable armchair on the short side of the wonderful Fischer von Erlachs riding school, cigarettes in front of me on the round table, and look, be amazed and admire. Zrust, Pollak and Herold were still young riders at that time, but their skills were already very much recognized, even if words and corrections were never actually audible. They always talked to me amicably between their horses, and I listened when Meixner gave his calm instructions here and there after the dressage work of a single horse, and saw him from below helping with the training of the high assembly. His personal riding was an experience on each of his horses, especially when he was working all alone in the open box track (summer riding school, note). Without showing the slightest help in his deep, quiet seat, he created a momentum that made the horses soar in front of him. He developed the "big trot" from the passage, which he placed in front of the first corner of a short page with powerful expression. In the passage he also passed the second corner, then went to the diagonal, on which he conjured the first step out of the raised passage as a large step, in order to then catch his horse back to the passage at the end of the diagonal. In both passages and the large corridors themselves, the sequence of feet was absolutely pure, meticulously highlighted and so outstanding in expression that one thought it was the completion. The second passage was usually followed by a relaxed, shortened trot with stroking or even a few expressive piaffe kicks while advancing. Meixner's levade on the bay stallion Nicolo, who almost touched the ground with his hocks in the deepest knee bend and with his upper arms held horizontally, had tightly angled his ankles and hooves with his upper arms, was also unsurpassable. So he balanced himself for a long time on the upright seat of his rider with his hands low. After the morning hours in the Spanish school, Allah had riding lessons in the Imperial Stables and driving lessons there in the afternoon. "
Awards
Hans Meixner was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown , the Ottoman Medschidié Order , the Royal Bavarian Order of Merit of St. Michael , the royal. Prussian Red Eagle Order , the royal. Prussian Crown Order , the royal. Saxon Albrechts Order (II. Class), the royal. Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau , the royal. Swedish Wasa Order (1st class), the royal. Order of the Siamese Crown , the Grand Ducal. Sachsen-Weimar'schen house order of vigilance or of the white falcon , the herzogl. Saxony-Ernestine House Order , the honor cross of the prince. Schaumburg-Lippe'schen House Order , the princely. Waldeck'schen Merit Cross (1st class), the royal. Spanish Military Order of Merit , the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic , the Royal Württemberg Cross of Merit and the Grand Duke. Mecklenburg Cross of Merit in gold etc. etc. awarded.
Works
- Johann Meixner, Holbein von Holbeinsberg, Bertold Schirg: Die Urdirectiven, rediscovered handwriting of a chief rider (around 1720); The directives for the implementation of the methodical process in the training of horse and rider in the kuk Spanish Riding School. Published in Unknown from the Spanish Riding School , Olms Hildesheim 1996, ISBN 3-487-08374-4
swell
- Gustav Rau in St. Georg No. 44, around 1922
- Felix Bürkner "A Rider's Life", Kornett Verlag, Verden / Aller, 1957
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Felix Bürkner: A rider's life . Kornett Verlag, Verden / Aller 1957, p. 77 and 78 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meixner, Johann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian riding master, chief rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1865 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 5, 1917 |