Andreas Hausberger: Chief Rider, The Spanish Riding School, Vienna

This is one of the most fabulous interviews I’ve had the privilege of being part of. Andreas Hausberger. He’s a chief rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. He is beautiful, friendly, learned, generous and has a great sense of humour. His passion is infectious. Andreas is a genius with work in hand and is in high demand from some of the top riders of today to help with the high school movements of piaffe, passage and pirouettes. In this all encompassing interview, Andreas talks about the history and tradition of the School and what it has to offer the modern sport. He starts with his journey up the levels of the Spanish Riding School and we get deeper into the flexibility of the School, the masters who went before and their influence….there’s a lot of fascinating history in this. For years Andreas has worked with German dressage royalty: the Werndls and Rothenbergers and he gives us some insight into this work and talks a little bit about Cosmo and Dalera. It’s reassuring to know the top riders have their ups and downs as well! Andreas emphasises the importance of patience, consistency and having good eyes on the ground; the importance of the rider’s seat; taking the fear out of training, not forcing the horse and seeing the horse as a partner as well as focusing on doing the exercises correctly. We go on to discuss Classical versus Rollkur as training methods as well. All I can say is…listen to this podcast! Due to travel restrictions, it was conducted over WhatsApp rather than face to face so the quality isn’t as great as I’d hoped for. You might have to sit down and pay close attention, but that’s hardly a bad thing.