Rudolf Zeilinger developed his passion for horses growing up on his parent’s farm. In 1982, he went to work with the former national team, Willi Schultheis and Rudolf spent the next ten years learning from the modern master.

One of his most important successes was certainly when he won the German Championships in 2001. Parallel to his own riding career, Rudolf Zeilinger established himself as coach, and besides successful individual riders, he first coached the American team and then the Danish national team. In 1993, Rudolf Zeilinger took the plunge into self-employment and founded the Zeilinger Pferdesport GmbH.

Here’s an interview with Rudolf, that featured in the March 2012 issue of THM:

Rudolf is a legend in his own lifetime, as a competitor and a trainer, but he is also the best known graduate of the school of one of the great trainers of all time, Willi Schultheis… But his story started before that, as the son of pony breeders:

“I started riding ponies from the same time as I started walking, it was only for fun, my parents were pony breeders. My real riding career I started when I was 16 or 17 years old with a German bereiter education. After two years, I had the big possibility to move to Willi Schultheis and so all my dressage knowledge and career really started. I must say he was my big mentor and it’s built from him. I spent ten years with him and then during the last three or four years with him I also did my own business with 15 horses in training. In 1992 I finished working with Willi Schultheis and made my own business, and then from there on it grew up from 25 horses to now having 40 horses in my stable in training. Since five years I have my own place, my own training facility with two big indoor riding arenas.”

Thinking back to Mr Schultheis, what would you say was the essence, what’s the main thing of his way of training and riding horses?

“He was a natural artist/talent. His way of riding was more art than a craftsman. He had a big feeling to think very quickly into a horse, to see what is the point, the problems there. The great thing was through the influence of his riding, he could moderate almost all horses to work on his side. He loved especially the Thoroughbred or Trakehner horses, horses that were a little bit more hot in their temperament. But remember that our Warmbloods are much more different to the horses they were riding in the 60s or 70s. Our breeding now is so much influenced with the Thoroughbreds and much lighter and more refined than the warmblood horses then.”

If Mr Schultheis came out and competed today would he look competitive or would he look old fashioned?

“Ok, everything develops, the whole sport developed, the breeding developed, but I still think those old masters  would be the best ones. If you only see the pictures from 40 years ago and think, that’s only how they rode then, that’s a little unfair because it looks old fashioned. But they were so great they would ride today’s horses. Also if I see horses today, I see how much easier they make it for us.”

Today’s horses are easier because they’re better bred?

“Exactly. They have much more capacity, much more from the conformation, much more basic rideability. So for training it’s much easier than those old masters.”

So have you had to change your way of training much from the way than Mr Schultheis trained?

“I don’t think you change it too much, you go with the time, you want to be competitive, you look at what other ones are doing, you look at top level of the sport and you continue, I mean if you stand on your same level, it’s a step back, you always have to look forward and to think what’s new and to put new ideas in the whole system but not the basic way of riding.”

So it’s still the same?

“Yes, absolutely.”

And what are the new things?

“The new things for me are a lot of things with horsemanship, welfare of the horses, feeding of the horses, veterinarian points, it was harder to train the older horses, but we have now different problems. The horses back then were much harder than the horses are today. Maybe one reason is today’s horses have more capacity than the horses then, the strides are now higher, bigger, much more the cadence, and that is harder for the bones. Plus if you want to ride on a top level, you have to score around 75-80% or more so these horses must be really on the limit of their possibilities. So we have little different problems to what they had, but in those times the horses has less movement so it was harder for them than it is today.”

“But the basic things like the schedule of training with the six points we have, the seat of a rider, the training of the rider, the training of the horse – these have not changed so much.”

Do you think at Rotterdam at the European Championships we saw a move a little bit away from spectacular  to more softness and harmony in the judging?

“That’s hard to say, I mean I don’t know if I can see a line after Rotterdam… Maybe we have to follow it a few years more to see if there is a judging line. We have discussions with judges sometimes and they say that there’s too much spectacular work, too much circus that they want suppleness and softness… but in the top spot for me, it has to come together  – we want the basic okay and then we want the horse also with big movement. So both, the really top horses have to have everything together.”

“It also is sometimes a little bit discussion of who is right now the top horse. Like, if you think back to Edward’s ride Totilas then you can say, ‘oh they want to see this now’. On the next one, you say ‘now they want to see more suppleness and harmony’ so I don’t see such a judging line as that, it really  depends on the horse that is going the best.”

Was it a hard decision for you to become a trainer rather than a competitor rider, do you ever really want to get out there anymore? It’s a long time since you competed?

“That’s right, I think my last year was five years back, but I must say for me I was ten years in the German group, I was German Champion, I was in several World Cup finals… okay, I never rode Olympics by myself, but I don’t think I missed anything. All my career I did a lot of training, besides my own riding. If you want to really be competitive on the top then you really must decide what you want to do – you can’t be a trainer for a national team, coach 10-15 students at home plus be competitive in the sport. So I have done it long enough, I think I have the experience, I showed it, it helps now for my coaching and my training with my students. I really miss nothing, I have my students – if I can support a young student and he’s doing good it’s for me the same for my ego as if I was out there competing for myself.”

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