Willi Schultheis

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Willi Schultheis (born March 6, 1922 in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten , † July 24, 1995 in Warendorf ) is considered one of the best dressage riders and trainers of his time.

Life

Willi Schultheis was born in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten in 1922 as the son of jockey Karl Schultheis. At the age of eight he already gained experience in the saddle and wanted to emulate his father as a jockey. However, it quickly became clear that this career would be denied to him due to his weight. During his training as a rider at the Tattersall Tiergarten , he was only fourteen years old, he noticed Otto Lörke , who had come to Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games . In the following four years he was able to complete his training with Lörke, among other things with the dressage Olympic champion Kronos as a teaching horse. After his training, Schultheis was called up for military service, which after a short time brought him back together with Lörke, who had become head of the school stable there, at the Krampnitz Army Riding and Driving School. The large school quadrille set up there by Felix Bürkner was set up again by Schultheis together with Albert Stecken and George Theodorescu for the 1972 Olympic Games .

After the end of the Second World War, Schultheis and Lörke went to Gestüt Vornholz near Warendorf . It was not until 1954 - after eighteen years together with his teacher Otto Lörke - that they parted ways. A very successful time began for Willi Schultheis. He went into business for himself in the Talihoh stable in Düsseldorf and due to his reputation as an excellent trainer and rider, he quickly received a large number of good horses, including the Hanoverian mare Doublette , who still holds the record of 165 dressage victories that is still valid today. In 1955, at the instigation of Axel Springer , Schultheis moved from Düsseldorf to Hamburg, where he won the German Dressage Derby eight times in the following years . He also trained Rosemarie Springer , who won the title of German dressage champion five times , won the German dressage championship in 1952 and 1954 to 1962, and the German dressage championships, which were held for the first time in 1959, from 1959 to 1961.

As a professional rider , Schultheis was not allowed to take part in the Olympic Games, but horses and riders trained by him were involved in the 1956 Olympic Equestrian Games in Stockholm and the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome . One of the first highlights of his Olympic successes was the silver medal in team dressage in 1956, when his student Hannelore Weygand , together with the students Liselott Linsenhoff and Anneliese Küppers from Otto Lörke, surprisingly became the first women's team to be successful in Olympic equestrian sport. The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and the 1972 Olympic Games saw Willi Schultheis as coach of the Canadian team, which was able to achieve sixth place in both games. From 1974 to 1979, Schultheis was national trainer for dressage riding. During this time the German dressage team became Olympic champion in 1976 , twice world champion and three times European champion . Under Schultheis' aegis, Warendorf was a world center of dressage, where not only German riders trained, but also riders from Great Britain , France, the USA and other countries. For an Ariola record published in 1961, he reported on dealing with horses .

Awards

In 1975 Willi Schultheis was the first dressage instructor to be awarded the title of riding master . With this award, trainers are honored for "outstanding performance in the saddle, long-term outstanding results as trainers of top riders and horses as well as commitment to equestrian sport that is worth emulating".

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On dealing with horses in the catalog of the German National Library
  2. ^ German Equestrian Association: Reitmeister: Title for professional riders and trainers for outstanding performance , accessed on July 1, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Schultheis, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dressage rider and trainer
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1995
Place of death Warendorf