Meteor (horse)

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meteor
1952OG-Thiedemann-Meteor.jpg
Fritz Thiedemann with Meteor at the 1952 Olympic Summer Games in Helsinki
Race: Holsteiner
Father: discus
Mother: Competitor
Mother, father: Foghorn
Gender: gelding
Year of birth: 1943
Year of death: 1966
Country: Germany
Colour: brown
Equestrian: Fritz Thiedemann
Prize amount: 177,112 DM

Infobox last modified on: June 20, 2008.

Meteor (born May 12, 1943 , † August 26, 1966 ) was one of the most successful and famous show jumpers of his time. Under his rider Fritz Thiedemann , Meteor successfully took part in the Olympic Games three times.

Life

Meteor was a brown gelding that came from the Holstein breed of the farmer Otto Dreeßen from Nindorf (then the district of Süderdithmarschen ) and was born there on May 12, 1943. He was initially called Moritz and was used as a work horse on weekdays. On Sundays the horse was trained by Ernst-Otto Dreeßen, the farmer's son, and occasionally used in jumping competitions in the vicinity. In March 1950, Ernst-Otto Dreeßen and Moritz took part in a high jump competition in the small riding hall in the neighboring village of Meldorf , where the gelding took first place with a 1.80 meter high jump and impressed Fritz Thiedemann . Two days later, Moritz was bought by farmer Willy Brandt from Sönke-Nissen-Koog (at that time the Husum district ) as a jumping horse for his daughter and renamed Meteor. At Fritz Thiedemann's insistence, the German Equestrian Olympics Committee acquired a 50% stake in the horse in the same year.

Meteor was then used by Fritz Thiedemann in numerous jumping tournaments and was his best horse. Thiedemann did not own the horse. It was only relatively late, after the horse was supposed to be sold on a trip to the USA, that he bought half of Meteor. Although Thiedemann, a well-known rider in the post-war period, was also successful with other horses, his name remains inextricably linked with the jumper Meteor .

At the team competition of the 1956 Summer Olympics , however , Meteor was in the shadow of Hans Günter Winkler's mare Halla . Winkler started as the last rider of the German team. Although he was injured, he managed a flawless ride with Halla . This ride became legendary and brought the team the gold medal. Winkler auf Halla was individual Olympic champion. Thiedemann on Meteor came in fourth.

Meteor, also known as “the fat one” due to its weight of 13 hundred pounds , took part in numerous other tournaments and won prizes that were unusual at the time. His achievements were already legendary at the end of the 1950s and he was then considered the most successful show jumping horse in the world. On July 1, 1961, he won the Nations Prize of the CHIO in Aachen under Thiedemann (one of the most famous jumping tournaments). A day later, Thiedemann announced his retirement from professional sport, and on July 3, both had their last public appearance at a farewell round. Meteor died on August 26, 1966 at the age of 23.

A life-size bronze monument was placed in front of the Kiel State Chancellery in Düsternbrooker Weg, the horse Meteor . The statue was created by the Kiel sculptor Hans Kock in 1959. Since December 2009, there has been an information board about the memorial on the roadside. At the Holsteiner Stud in Elmshorn , a memorial stone commemorates Meteor . In addition, several streets in Elmshorn are named after Fritz Thiedemann's horses, including the Meteorstraße.

The German Equestrian Association (FN) has banned the name Meteor for horses competing in competitions as a special honor .

The general view of the statue of Meteor by Hans Kock in front of the Ministry of Agriculture (1957), today's State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel
Memorial stone for Meteor in Elmshorn

successes

Olympic Summer Games
  • 1952 in Helsinki
    • Bronze in jumping (individual ranking)
    • 5th place in the team ranking
  • 1956 in Stockholm (Olympic Equestrian Games)
    • Gold in the team ranking
    • 4th place in the individual ranking
  • 1960 in Rome
    • Gold in the team ranking
    • 6th place in the individual ranking
European championships

1958 in Aachen 1st place

Further

1951 1st place in the German Spring Derby

Web links

Commons : "Meteor" (Hans Kock)  - collection of images

literature

  • Fritz Thiedemann : My friend Meteor. The most successful show jumping horse in the world. Limpert, Frankfurt am Main 1957 (several new editions).
  • Rickert Friedrichsen: "Meteor": a horse legend began 50 years ago in Sönke-Nissen-Koog. In: Between Eider and Wiedau: Home calendar for North Friesland. 2002, Husum 2001, ISSN  0514-8413 , pp. 210-214.

Individual evidence

  1. Prices according to plan . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1966, pp. 123 ( Online - Oct. 31, 1966 ).
  2. ^ Thiedemann: "The fat man was more than a horse" , Hamburger Abendblatt , August 27, 1966
  3. ^ Fritz Thiedemann: A piece by Meteor - The most popular German rider turns 65 , Aloys Behler for Die Zeit , March 4, 1983
  4. ^ Nindorf municipality, Helmut Robitzky: Fritz Thiedemann and Meteor, two stars in equestrian sport - a fabulous symbiosis between a show jumper and his horse , accessed on June 22, 2019
  5. KUNST @ SH: Description, location, photos of the sculpture Meteor , accessed on February 20, 2018