How it all began...

Horses have fascinated me since my earliest childhood. Probably 90% of riders can identify with this statement. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to learn to ride, much to my mother's displeasure. However, we know that constant dripping wears away the stone, and so I was eventually allowed to take riding lessons. From then on, I was incurably infected with the so-called " horse virus ." The desire for my own horse didn't take long to materialize, but my parents remained steadfast on this front. Many years of riding lessons, riding holidays, and riding shares went by until my long-standing riding share had to be sold due to insolvency.

Old and sick and yet loved

The powerful black-brown gelding with the distinctive blaze from forelock to nose, bred in Brandenburg, East Germany, who hadn't exactly been gentle with his riders in his younger years, was getting on in years, suffering from navicular disease, and thus had no chance of finding a new home. His future was destined for slaughter. I, just 20 at the time, with my high school diploma in hand and a place at university in Frankfurt in sight, asked my parents if they would support me in my horse project, but regardless of their answer, I continued looking for a new stable for my future four-legged friend.

Heart horse found

Freddy was never really an easy horse. He was fundamentally unsuitable as a school horse. Bucking, rearing, and running off – he was very good at all of that, especially when he noticed that the rider was unsettled. He was one of those school horses that brought tears to the eyes of many a student. But if you were scared, you had no chance of staying on top. I can say with some pride that I never fell off him, no matter how tense the situation. What made him so attractive was his comprehensive training. He could do dressage, jumping, and cross-country. When I took him on, he hadn't been in regular school classes for some time. He had his regular riders, and above all, I was his riding partner, and we mainly went out in the forest with my best friend and her riding partner.

The best is yet to come...

It wasn't until Freddy was mine and I had gotten him back on track after a complete check-up, including dental treatment, new shoes, and a change in feed, that I realized, during the many wonderful one-on-one lessons, what an excellently trained horse I had acquired. He taught me many advanced dressage techniques that I never would have thought he would still be able to do after so many years. The former buckler had become a committed and willing leisure horse. Even at 20, he calmly carried me through my Bronze Riding Badge test. He was the reliable horse that never bolted. He trained young horses in the countryside. He was dominant in the herd but never aggressive. Even at 25, he led a quadrille performance and went in and out of the trailer on command. No matter whether it was a tractor, bus, motorcycle, barking dogs, the highway, or train tracks, he led the way fearlessly and separated from the rest of the group without batting an eyelid when I asked him to. He was also the horse who stood alone at the gate when it got too wet, too windy, or too hot in the pasture, and who everyone in the stable had permission to bring in because he enjoyed taking his afternoon nap alone in the stable, snoring loudly.

Always a horse girl

But even the fittest horse eventually gets old. In the end, it wasn't age per se, as he was ridden gently until his last day, but an unpleasant colic with intestinal obstruction that separated us completely unexpectedly. I continued taking riding lessons as usual for a while afterward, but work and family forced me to stop riding for the time being. But the horse bug still works in me, and my interest in the sport and horses has never waned.

I've always tried to incorporate beautiful objects with an equestrian theme into our interior. I'm often asked where I got this or that piece. Many are brought back from abroad, some are heirlooms or flea market finds. I could never recommend a shop where you could buy all the beautiful home accessories with an equestrian theme. That's where the idea for "The Coachman's House" was born.