When the late Christian Thiess visited Dr Schulten Baumer in 1992, Herr Doctor and a young Isabell Werth were working with Gigolo. Isabell told us:

“We do a lot of rising (trot) to relax their backs. We cannot afford any tension in the back, because to get rid of it is very difficult.”

“When Gigolo is in the relaxation phase, you can see that between this relaxation, we get him to swing into the passage in a loose manner, followed by a relaxed moment again.”

Gigolo was a 17.3 hands Hanoverian chestnut gelding by Graditz, out of a three-quarters Thoroughbred mare by Busoni. At the age of only eight, Gigolo caused a sensation when he won the European Championships, outclassing the fantastic duo of Nicole Uphoff and Rembrandt by 25 marks!

Busoni, a successful racehorse from the Hyperion line 

Gigolo’s dam sire, Busoni, won some of Germany’s most prestigious races, including the Oppenhein in Köln. Busoni’s dam was imported as a foal from England. Her grand sire was the legendary Hyperion.
Gigolo’s sire Graditz, is line-bred to the Hanoverian stallion, Duellant, who is recognised as a top dressage sire.

Gigolo was successful at Novice and Elementary levels and reached Medium level at the age of five, when he was bought by Dr Schulten-Baumer Jr. As a six-year-old, Gigolo was taken over by Dr Schulten-Baumer Snr, and then ridden by Isabell Werth until he was retired.

Isabell said at the time, his strong point was his athletic build: “Rembrandt goes with a lot of charm, Gigolo is more of a sportsman. Rembrandt is always impressive, especially the ease with which he does the piaffe/passage tours and the transitions in and out, I think Gigolo is just as good, but more than that, I believe he has more expression than other horses in the piaffe/passage, and in the Grand Prix Special, the piaffe-passage tours are a determining factor.”

At the beginning of 1991, Isabell and Gigolo caused an upset when they beat Nicole Uphoff and Rembrandt in the Grand Prix Special for the first time – at Dortmund. As well, they won the German Championships for ladies in Munster (the German championships, somewhat anachronistically, had separate titles for ladies, men and professionals).

Gigolo was described by his owner, Dr Schulten-Baumer Snr, as ‘a horse who has a very good temperament and possessing a high level of intelligence, who has incredibly good paces, especially a very elastic trot.’

Gigolo and Isabell won Individual Silver and team Gold Sydney, Individual and Team Gold Atlanta, Silver and Team Gold at Barcelona, and Individual and Team Gold at Rome WEG in 1998.

 

Using Gigolo’s athleticism, Isabell was able to create a Freestyle that took the level of difficulty to unprecedented heights with extended canters from one end of the arena to the other and quarter pirouette turn arounds…