/p>
FOUR LEGS
MOVE MY
SOUL
FOUR LEGS
MOVE MY
SOUL
The Authorized Biography
of Dressage Olympian
Isabell Werth
Isabell Werth and Evi Simeoni
Translated by Lena Rindermann
First published in the English language in 2019 by
Trafalgar Square Books
North Pomfret, Vermont 05053
Originally published in the German language as Vier Beine Tragen Meine Seele by Piper Verlag, Munich
Copyright © 2018 Piper Verlag, Munich
English translation © 2019 Trafalgar Square Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer quoting brief excerpts for a review in a magazine, newspaper, or website.
Disclaimer of Liability
The authors and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the authors can make it, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies.
Trafalgar Square Books encourages the use of approved safety helmets in all equestrian sports and activities.
ISBN: 978 1 57076 956 6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019937924
Design by Tim Holtz
Cover design by RM Didier
Index by Andrea M. Jones (www.jonesliteraryservices.com)
Typefaces: Veljovic, Cantoria, Blair
eBook design by Prabhati Content
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of
Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer
Contents
12 Allow Yourself to Be Carried
Appendix I Isabell Werth’s Most Important Horses
Appendix II Isabell Werth’s Greatest Successes
Do you love the dance? The horse is a dancer in your hand: a dancer into eternity. From the momentum that you communicate follows effortlessness, follows floating. You feel all power unite under your saddle. The land falls behind you. The world flows past you. Your dancer carries you away.
—From German writer, poet, and horse breeder Rudolf G. Binding’s Equestrian Hymn for My Beloved, which won a silver medal in the art competition at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
1 RHEINBERG
Those who look a good horse in the eye do not need any explanations. A horse is a horse is a horse. The beauty of the horse lies in him being a horse. He looks at us, attentively and calmly, and we see ourselves anew in his dark gaze. We smell his lovely aroma—tangy grass and grain, the cozy warmth of the barn, the sweetness of apples and carrots. And what else? Wanderlust? A longing for closeness? With a satisfied crunch, the horse bites into a carrot while holding our gaze.
The horse allows us to touch his nostrils—so soft, comparable to the skin of a baby. His nose wrinkles when he collects a piece of apple from our hand. He breathes out with a snort.
When the horse slowly moves forward in the field, step by step, eating grass constantly and carefully, he radiates peace. He gives us a sense of quiet presence. When he canters up a hill, he transforms into a cloud of speed and oxygen.
Horses can captivate us, never to let go again.
With hardly any other living being can a human connect as closely over so many years as a rider can with her horse.
The rider takes care of the horse, grooms and brushes him, allows him to rub his nose on her shoulder. She mounts the horse, enfolding him with her legs, sometimes for hours. She follows the fascinating mechanics of the horse’s movements with her body—rocked, swayed, tossed, and caught again. The rider does not move her horse, but is moved by her horse. The horse is willing to carry her.
But why are horses so interested in us? Why are most of them motivated by the desire to please us humans? To do right by us? Why do so many of them have the need to be led by us? It is a gift they give us, and one for which they have paid a high price over the course of the centuries. Still, they stand by us persistently.
The connection of the rider with the horse is always mutual, physical, sensual. And, ideally, two souls from different worlds correspond in one time and place that only they call their own.
Gold-medal-winning Olympic dressage star Isabell Werth’s passion for horses does not start with ambition. She is living a long love story. It is, however, part of this love story that she asks a lot of her horses, that she works them intensely. For her, as an athlete and entrepreneur, discipline and self-criticism are self-evident. The many tears she has cried on all possible winner’s podiums during her unparalleled career show exactly this when the performance pressure finally eases off. Euphoric happiness hardly ever waits for her up there on the podium. Up there, she feels pride, gratification, reassurance, satisfaction…and relief. When she does experience perfect moments of happiness, it happens quietly, at home, without an audience, when she is just with her horses in the here and now.
Imagine winter is over, spring is close, and everything is starting to turn green and