Gustav Rau – The Formation of Equestrian Sport in Germany
The question that is often asked is why Germany is the world leader in equestrian sport?
Obviously, many factors are involved in this success, but it cannot be denied that one man, Gustav Rau, was not only responsible for the brilliant horse breeding program, but also created the system of riding clubs that spread throughout the country and is the backbone of equestrian sport in Germany.
.
.
To continue this story, my friend and colleague Thomas Hartwig, who was responsible for press relations at the German Equestrian Federation for 14 years and is now known as an expert on the history of German equestrian sport, joins us: The Gustav Rau phenomenon – without structures, everything is nothing Any country that wants to be successful in horse riding needs visionary and enthusiastic breeders who breed suitable horses in large numbers, experienced trainers, and talented riders.
But what we often forget is that for lasting success, more is needed.
Structures and organizations are needed that can combine the skills and efforts of breeders, trainers, and riders in the best and most effective way possible.
The person who had the greatest organizational talent in horse riding and breeding in the 20th century was Dr. Gustav Rau.
As a broker and official, Rau influenced sport and horse breeding in Germany for more than 40 years.
It is no exaggeration to call him the father of organized horse riding sport in Germany.
Gustav Rau was born on February 28, 1880, in the French capital, Paris.
His father was a former officer in the Württemberg army, a small kingdom in southwestern Germany that existed until 1918.
He worked in Paris as a representative of a photographic art company.
Gustav Rau’s ancestors were farmers and foresters in the Schwäbisch Alb region, a high and rugged area in southwestern Germany.
When Gustav Rau was twelve years old, his father died, and his mother first moved to Switzerland and then to Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg.
After graduating from high school, he began his commercial training in a grain store.
After that, he worked on a farm for two years.
At the age of 21, Rau began working as an editor at the newspaper Sport-Welt, the most famous magazine for all kinds of horse riding and breeding, in Berlin.
At that time, racing sport was much more important than the early dressage or jumping competitions that were still developing in Germany during this period.
Rau attended lectures at the Berlin University of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture.
He first wrote articles about the breeding of warmblood horses and then about the breeding of Thoroughbreds and trotters, as well as horse shows.
His articles were mainly critical, but very analytical.
In a short time, Rau was accepted as a complete observer and commentator in all areas of horse riding and breeding.
Gustav Rau on the right in a light jacket during the approval of a stallion in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
Even today, the puzzle remains of how the young Rau acquired such extensive knowledge about horses and their breeding.
At that time, horse breeding in Germany did not have a good image, and some German breeders forged the papers of their horses in order to present German horses as foreign horses, because foreign horses were much more popular in Germany.
Rau wrote books about horse breeding and traveled to various countries such as Britain, Austria, Russia, Hungary, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium to study horse breeding.
Later, he became a member of the Prussian government commission for horse breeding.
In early 1913, Rau was appointed secretary general of the German Olympic Committee for Equestrian Sports (DOKR), which was to organize the equestrian events of the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin, but they never took place because of the war.
In World War I, Rau served as a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment and was wounded three times.
After World War I, it was a very bad time for horse breeding in Germany.
The army, the most important buyer of Warmblood horses, was reduced to 100,000 soldiers, and therefore demand for horses fell by almost 90%.
Also, despite the significant economic developments in Germany at that time, the first tractors and trucks were put into use.
To understand the importance of horse breeding in the early 20th century, in 1900 in Germany an average of seven horses worked per 100 hectares of agricultural land.
In East Prussia, which was part of Germany at that time, this average was eleven horses.
Rau's inspiring vision was to create a new job for horses.
He encouraged people, especially in rural areas of Germany, to breed Warmblood horses not only for agriculture and transportation, but also for riding and sport.
Gustav Rau and Tora.
The mare Tora with her rider Kurt Hasse won two gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
She spent her retirement at the former cavalry school and later DOKR headquarters in Warendorf and was allowed to move freely in that area.
She died at the age of 30 in the same year that Gustav Rau died.
To this end, he promoted the establishment of public riding clubs.
His motto was that every village in rural Germany should have its own riding club so that the children of farmers and breeders could learn riding and handling horses.
Especially in the western and northern regions of Germany - the traditional horse-breeding areas - this initiative met with great success.
Hundreds of clubs were founded in the 1920s, and during this time many horse shows and breeding shows emerged.
This was also a period when new people outside the army or the upper classes found their way into equestrian sport.
It is an old myth that at this time all farmers were good riders, but most of them had good experience in handling horses.
Today there are almost 10,000 clubs, serving everyone from interested children to serious competitors.
Even the most famous elite riders must be members of their local club.
Many riders keep their horses at the club and enjoy the social life as well as the convenience of stabling there.
Gustav Rau and Dr. Willy Busing, who won bronze and silver medals in the eventing competitions at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki.
At the 1928 Olympic Games, Germany's dressage and eventing riders won their first medals since 1912.
Only show jumping riders failed to win Olympic medals.
Rau's response was the establishment of special stables at the riding school in Hanover.
In a short time, the riding school in Hanover trained a large number of excellent riders and trainers.
Many successful trainers and riders after World War II began their careers at the Cavalry School in Hanover.
In 1933, Rau was appointed head of the Prussian Horse Breeding Department and thus became the highest official authority over all state studs in Germany.
Only a year later, after a disagreement, he lost this job, but shortly afterward he was appointed to organize the equestrian elements of the 1936 Olympic Games.
In this role, he carried out his work completely and to the best possible standard.
First Lieutenant Heinz Pollay with Kronos, who won the individual and team gold medals in dressage at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Rau writes in his book: "Wide trot movement in the arena.
A high degree of energy.
Perfect balance of the horse.
Perfect coordination between rider and horse.
" The 1936 Olympic equestrian games were the pinnacle of quality in the history of equestrian sport, and the German riders won all six gold medals.
About this event, Rau wrote a book titled "Die Reitkunst der Welt an den Olympische Spielen 1936," which is still considered a classic.
But Rau was not only proud of his German riders; he said about Captain Isaac Kitts and American Lady: "Passage.
Beautiful and almost majestic movements of the horse.
The best coordination between rider and horse.
The horse’s hind legs could have followed a little more.
" In the same year, he wrote another book titled "Beurteilung des Warmblutpferdes," which is still one of the best books on evaluating the conformation of riding horses.
After the German army’s attack on Poland in 1939, Rau was commissioned by the German army to reorganize horse breeding in the occupied parts of Poland.
In this context, it is necessary to mention his role during the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945.
It has been proven that Rau was a completely apolitical figure and was neither a Nazi nor a member of the NSDAP Nazi Party.
However, it must be acknowledged that in dealing with the Nazi regime, he was clearly opportunistic.
If there were advantages to realizing his ideas about the development of sport and horse breeding, he flattered the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler.
Rau supported the idea of the Führer principle, because in organizing his sport and horse breeding he was also something of a dictator.
Thus, in the German equestrian world, he was a rather controversial figure.
Rau was not impressed by the Austrian rider, Major Alois Podhajsky, who rode the horse Nero, and said: "Piaffe.
The horse is too short and its steps are too hurried.
It is not supple enough through the loins.
" As Colonel Podhajsky, he was director of the Spanish Riding School from 1939 to 1965.
It is interesting that after the end of World War II, Rau received very positive reviews from the Poles for his work from 1939 to 1945 in Poland.
He was a strong leader who always demanded 100 percent commitment from his employees, but at the same time he himself also made more than 100 percent effort.
Personally, he was indifferent to his own comfort.
For example, if Rau had to travel for work, he tried to do it at night so that he would have the day for work.
In 1943, the University of Bonn awarded him an honorary doctorate.
Hans Günter Winkler after World War II, he rebuilt the DOKR at a time when Germany was still largely in ruins.
After several attempts to establish the DOKR headquarters in other cities, he came to the small town of Warendorf in Westphalia in 1950, where he found favorable conditions for training DOKR in a former cavalry school.
In a short time, he gathered a group of riders in Warendorf — such as a young man named Hans Günter Winkler, the farmers’ sons Alfons and August Lütke Westhues, and the pupil Reiner Klimke, who in later years became highly successful riders in all three Olympic equestrian disciplines.
Reiner Klimke in 1952, the Germans were allowed for the first time after World War II to take part in the Helsinki Olympic Games.
Despite many difficulties and setbacks, the German riders succeeded in winning one silver medal and three bronze medals in eventing, dressage, and show jumping.
.
.
In 1954, Rau arranged a highly successful trip for Hans Günter Winkler, who had won his first world show jumping title.
Accompanied by some other German show teams, they traveled to the United States and Canada.
This was the first time German horses had been transported by airplane to another continent.
Only a few days after returning to Warendorf, he suddenly died at the age of 74 while sitting at his desk in the DOKR office.
The funeral in Warendorf for Gustav Rau funeral Gustav Rau for nearly half a century, Rau was responsible for organizing equestrian sport and horse breeding in Germany.
He developed many of the structures that are one of the secrets of the Germans’ success in the equestrian world.
The town of Warendorf also owes him a great deal, because he laid the foundations for its worldwide reputation as the town of horses and riders.
This memorial stone was erected in 1957 by the town of Warendorf and was later placed on the grounds of the DOKR and the German National Equestrian Federation (NF) in northern Warendorf.
Thanks to Thomas in his book, Die Reitkunst der Welt an den Olympischen Spielen 1936, Rau dedicated a chapter to suggestions for modern equestrian training based on the German classical tradition.
It is incredible that his recommendations were written 80 years ago, as if Rau were writing about the current dressage scene.
.
.
Did he, when he argued strongly that the future of equestrian sport must be based on the past and on “the constructive work of many generations of equestrians” and warned against “speculative destruction,” warn against the Rolkur method?
He said: “Disturbance through speculative destruction in the structure of German equestrian sport must be prevented.
” Again Kronos, and even through the gloom of old black-and-white photos, you can see calm in the horse’s body.
.
.
Rau comments in his book: “Spiral movement.
Circle in outer gallop to the right.
The best type of execution, determined, with long and regular strides.
.
.
” Rau assured his readers that any deviation from the old German way would only be temporary — like the method by which Rolkur was eventually discredited and banned — but it was still a threat: “Temporary departure always occurs after exaggeration of what has been inherited, because there is in holding horses with excessive hand influence, suppression of the natural stride, exaggeration of artificial balance.
The reaction against tradition takes the form of exaggeration in the opposite direction.
” Caprilli – brilliant riding, flawed system.
.
.
He attacked Caprilli and his “genius-inspired impulses.”
He said: “Caprilli wanted to keep the horse in its natural balance by carefully adjusting the rider, who balanced himself carefully with the horse.
Softness should be achieved through gallop and a lot of jumping.
” The Caprilli system has no theoretical-scientific basis.
It is a system based on personal skill and therefore, at best, is not suitable for widespread use.
The personal skill required to successfully carry out the Caprilli method is granted only to a limited number of riders.
This system requires high sensitivity, exceptional balance, and even extraordinary skill in order to correctly recognize and execute all degrees of mechanization.
.
.
.
An equestrian system can remain sustainable in the long term only if it fulfills all the requirements for using the horse for different purposes.
The Caprilli method, because of its one-sidedness, cannot be compared with a comprehensive equestrian system.
It was Bertelan de Nemethy and his distinguished student George Morris who combined German principles with the Caprilli seat to create, with a little French influence along the way, the doctrine of show jumping that today governs the world.
Reading Rau, one of the problems here is that we have become accustomed to using German principles, even if in some cases unconsciously, so it is hard to imagine someone seriously offering an alternative.
But there were other dangers for the German system as well; Rau also introduced James Fillis, born in Britain and educated in France: “The Fillis method was entirely tailored to the riding personality of its creator, Fillis.
It is not a real system, but the constant expression of the personal skill of an outstanding rider.
The Fillis system was one-sided, because it paid attention only to producing a school horse.
With high collection, you cannot ride in the field.
Fillis left behind some weak students.
His system died out with the extinction of its founder.
From the moment Fillis could no longer demonstrate and execute it himself, it was doomed to death.
” Fillis – another threat to civilized riding.
.
.
To understand the difference in the Fillis system, you should take a look at his book Breaking and Riding.
The description of the complex system of flexibility before mounting the horse occupies many pages, and for the first ride the horse is equipped with a double bridle and is trained in a school walk, a slow collected trot, and a very stylish canter – of course, remembering that Fillis was known for training horses for canter backwards.
In contrast to Fillis with his collected form, Rau argued for a longer and more natural approach in the early stages of training the horse: “From the gradual development of dressage to the increase of the horse’s physical exercises, based on the various needs for which the horse is to be used, this is a logical structure, a system that will remain as long as the conditions of the people of Germany are rideable.
” A system that can always meet all needs and includes the seed of preparing the horse for any kind of use — for training the horse for specific purposes, such as outdoor riding, show jumping, and dressage tests at all levels.
No special system is needed that one-sidedly meets specific needs; rather, the overall system in its various stages provides a degree of “development” and consolidation for horses for any purpose.
The traditional German riding system, with gradual gymnastic exercises for the horse, creates the foundation for future specialized skills.
Kronos and Pollay again, the product of gradual gymnastic training.
Rau stated: the performance can be called a complete Piaffe.
Kronos shows great suppleness.
He trots in place.
A marvel of balance.
He performs his task with the invisible aids of his well-seated rider.
Rau emphasized the fluidity of form: “The form of the trained horse can be lengthened more, the horse’s neck can be longer and freer, the guidance by the rider lighter and freer.
A highly trained school horse must, as soon as the rider gives him motivation, return to his natural state again and should not be shortened all the time.
Just as he should not always be bent, but should always be completely straight.
Even the highest level of dressage should not, like the first level, lead to a permanent shortening of the horse in front of the body, especially in the neck.
This depends on greater suppleness and the possibility of lowering the hindquarters of the body, because the joints gain greater flexibility.
The horse should never be forced into a shape by the harsh action of the rider.
The outer form must arise solely from complete lack of resistance in the horse and complete suppleness.
As long as there are tensions in the horse, resistances that have not been eliminated through suppleness, progress toward collection and the pursuit of a posture that the horse cannot easily accept on its own is not permitted.
“The mistake some riders make, even at the beginning of dressage, is that they work the horse in a certain external form and posture that harms the horse and should create stiff and held horses.
The reaction to this wrong method must come with complete suppleness, so that the horse of its own accord accepts the form and posture that best suit its conformation and are therefore correct.
Dressage systems that see the achievement of the goal in a desirable external form, such as high carriage or being too deep, are incorrect and tempt the rider to work from the outset with force, to work on an external form that is unnatural.
If the art of riding, at all levels of training, remains in its task of striving for and completing the horse’s suppleness, it will perform its duty and will create no reaction or inclination toward other systems.
” He said: “Anyone who from the outset tries to force his horse into an artificial state in dressage training is always acting against the wisdom of sound horsemanship.
Whoever wants to force the raw horse from the beginning of dressage training into a school walk can only achieve a short and broken walk.
The correct school walk can only be the result of a complete walk in a loose and supple horse.
” In an article he wrote in the last year of his life for L’Année Hippique 1953/1954, Rau paid tribute to three riders — one of them was Fritz Thiedemann, who is seen here winning the Aachen Grand Prix 1953 on Aar.
The other two were Helga Köhler and Hans Gunther Winkler.
He said: “The same applies to trotting and galloping: first suppleness through reasonable exercises, then collection and thus the horse’s desired carriage and form.
Every average horse must reach a high degree of suppleness in order to be used to advantage in the lower ranks of cavalry.
However, many horses cannot reach the highest level at which they can be ridden, because they, like most people, do not have the talent and physical qualities necessary for great physical performance.
Riders must recognize such horses and their inability to perform excellent dressage, and not place them in tasks they cannot perform.
Otherwise, this leads to resistance from the horse and futile torture by the rider.
Even if such horses, with the rider’s technique and will, fulfill the required external form, there is no real harmony or the highest expression in their performances.
» Helga Köhler and Armalva competing in Rotterdam in 1953 - sweet and natural riding.
.
.
In a section titled the principles of training, Rau referred to the horse in its natural state: he said: “The young horse without a rider in the pasture moves easily and is quite flexible in its natural balance.
It has no difficulty changing the speed of its movements quickly.
It can do this faster than any movement of the trained dressage horse under a rider.
In play with its companions in the pasture, the horse shows all qualities naturally and even more beautifully than it later shows in training.
It turns, pirouettes, as we later call it.
In a state of excitement, it suddenly leaps, as in the piaffe, or moves floatingly in elevated and lofty strides, as it later will in passage under a rider.
” He said: “Its halts, its leaps on its hind legs, show its complete flexibility through the hindquarters.
The horse bends its neck to the right and left, which is often stubbornly denied by the rider.
It is able to bend its neck and spine laterally, while this bend later creates more problems under the rider.
” When we observe the horse in the pasture, we realize that it can do things that it often refuses to do under the rider and that can only be reproduced after a struggle.
In many cases, under the rider, flexibility is lost forever.
The horse does not yield and, despite all efforts to achieve complete harmony in its body parts, becomes rigid.
He said: “The rider must pursue the horse’s flexibility with respect.
Only riding with a flexible seat and subtle influence can restore the horse’s natural suppleness and then, with precise riding and precise aids, increasingly enhance the horse’s regained flexibility under the rider’s weight.
The complete riding program must be designed so that it does not collapse into an endless struggle to yield the horse’s body parts, but must from the outset strive for the whole horse to yield in all parts of the body, in all joints and muscle groups.
Absolute and constant adaptation of the rider to the horse’s natural balance, as demanded by so-called “natural riding,” is not a way to master the horse.
This adaptation to the horse’s natural balance is only useful in fast forward movement, for example in racing and in fast jumping riding, but it does not create balance between rider and horse in all movements and all situations and misses the essential need of the entire riding training process.
Therefore, during the first training, a new balance must be established between rider and horse.
Constant adaptation of the rider to the horse’s balance leaves the horse initiative, and therefore does not create obedience.
In contrast, finding the center of gravity between rider and horse puts this at the rider’s disposal and ensures the rider’s influence on the horse.
He said: “Riding is a constant shift of the center of gravity between rider and horse, which depends on what the rider must ask of the horse at individual moments.
Whenever the rider has to exert decisive influence on the horse, drive it forward in the arena or in the dressage arena, jump obstacles, change direction, they must adapt to the horse’s natural balance and facilitate rapid forward movement.
Sit in the saddle and go deeper to secure the horse, meaning you can pay attention to its suppleness.
Then the rider’s upper body becomes or reaches near vertical.
He brings the horse to the aids and can ensure its obedience.
Forward, fluid, balanced and, above all, taking into account the horse’s level of physical development, this is a system that is just as relevant today as when Rau first formulated it, a lesson that must be learned again and again…
Source: The Horse Magazine