Hans-Heinrich grew up with horses:

“My parents have a farm, a very big farm with cows, chickens, pigs and two or three horses. My father was a very keen farmer. My grandfather did a super job and then gave the farm to my father – but my grand-father had more contact with the horses. He said to me you can ride this horse a little bit.”

“So when I was about six years old I started with an older horse, a big cold blooded working horse. There was a girl working for my grand-father with two other horses, one a Warmblood, a very big tall horse, and when I was about eight, I got to ride that horse, and the girl gave me some lessons. I had a lot of fun on this horse. Then my grand-father bought a three year old Hanoverian gelding for me. He helped me lunge and break in the horse but then my grand-father died, and I had nothing to do with horses… just my friends and motor cycles.”

“When I was 17, I went to a horse breeder who had 40-50 horses, and I started to ride again and got so interested in the horses, that my father said, ‘you are too interested in horses, stay on the farm and work on your schooling’. He was very firm, so I said, ‘yes, okay father, I will do it’. When I finished school, I told my father I wanted to be a bereiter, a professional horseman, and I had a very big fight with my father.”

“He said, no, your brother would like to have the farm, and you will go in a business job. So under my father’s orders I started in the job, but in my free time I made contact with the Verden auction, and especially to Mr Köhler. At this time, Mr Köhler became like a second father to me, I left home to work with Mr Köhler, and for six months, I had no contact to my father at all. My mother was absolutely okay, she understood how I wanted to work with horses.”

“Mr Köhler taught me everything, with young horses, with older horses – to school with his horses was absolutely fantastic. I worked with him for ten years, and lived at his home. In this time I became a German Professional Rider.”

“I also had a super opportunity to go to the Spanish Riding School. The first two months were an absolute disaster for me. I had three lessons every day. First on a lunge, then on a medium horse, then on a Grand Prix horse. It was very different the walk, trot and canter of the Lippizanners, from what we had with the Hanoverians at home. In the beginning I found it impossible to find the rhythm and the feeling. You had to ride so slowly, then it was okay, and then you could develop the feeling for the half pass, the shoulder in, to go in piaffe and passage, flying changes every stride, it was then a fantastic feeling.”

“When I went home, the first time I got on a horse, I could not ride it. I’d just sit on the horse – and forget to ride! I was in Vienna for six months, and I learned a great deal.”

Hans-Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen has been the director of the Hoya National Riding School since 1986 and in 2001 he became the national dressage coach first for the Junior and later the Young Riders. His responsibilities also include training the auction horses for the Hanoverian Verband and heading the licensing commission.