Today is actually a quiet day – relatively speaking. 4 p.m. and Anja Rietbrock is standing in the cold barn mixing disinfectant. But there are also completely different scenarios in which the Sottrum native takes center stage. Then the master of equine management negotiates on the international stage, passes on her knowledge during courses in Vienna, Munich, the USA and Italy or sits in the saddle and rides in high-level tests. “Being on the international stage is fun,” she says.
At home in Sottrum, the 51-year-old and her mother Kristin Rietbrock have been successfully running a seven-hectare training farm for show jumpers and dressage horses with a focus on riding for 30 years, all of which was completely renovated and refurbished in 2015. The combination of young horses and young people is something rare, says the woman in the orange cap. This is because the training of both show jumpers and dressage horses as well as the training of horse managers is not very common in this form. There are only a few companies that still offer training. One or two apprentices regularly complete their training as horse managers with a focus on riding at the Sottrum facility. There is only one boss and one line at Sottrum, which distinguishes it from companies with riding clubs. “And they are all sport riders and not teddy-bear-lift-up riders”.
WORK
In addition to the training business, An der Weide 41 in Sottrum also slowly grew into a boarding business. Maintaining the profitability of their business was the driving force. After all, the astronomical rise in hay prices last summer pushed many a farm to its economic limits. Anja Rietbrock also phoned Poland and France in search of good hay, which she has been sourcing from the Bremen Blockland for many years.
“Trump has managed to reduce business with the USA,” she states soberly. Another reason to diversify. Nevertheless, she has managed to retain customers from the USA and Canada for many years. Many of these contacts date back to her father’s time, she reports proudly. Retaining customers in the long term works because she backs the right horse with quality and honesty.
Business has become more difficult. Nowadays, buyers’ ideal is more like a horse with a “joystick”, where everything works the same, is easy and comfortable. In her experience, very few people want to really get to grips with the horse.
FUN
“Finding, training and releasing them into the sport, that’s what I enjoy,” says the Sottrum native, who obtained her riding license in 2018, even after 25 years. In the industry, the master of horsemanship is more of a lone wolf. She describes herself as a “horseman from the ground up”. And so she thinks less of Google knowledge. “Nobody can do proper grooming anymore,” says Anja Rietbrock, who learned the old school from real horse people like her parents, at the State Riding School in Hoya, from Hans-Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen, Dr. Uwe Schulte, Fritz Ligges, Peter Luther and Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer. Her apprentices benefit from this. In contrast to her own training period, when her day began at 6.00 a.m. and ended at 10.00 p.m., the Sottrum training stable is like a “pony farm”. That’s what she tells “her” girls. Anja Rietbrock makes sure that the prospective horse managers have fun at work. Even today, girls are still in the majority in this profession. During the entire 25 years, she has only trained three male apprentices.
Idealist
You have to be a great idealist to work with horses, the master of equine management states matter-of-factly. Anyone who weighs up the work, effort and income would quickly come to the conclusion that they should switch to another profession. On her father’s advice, she spent a year trying out “sensible” professions such as decorator, interior decorator and florist. “That’s not it,” she realized very quickly. At that time she was already riding at the Verden auctions. This made her professional development increasingly clear. “Every day is new and every horse is a challenge,” she says, describing her daily routine. But she always has to stand her ground in her profession. Despite all the idealism, it is no longer fun to stand in the riding arena even at temperatures of around minus 6 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, even after so many years, she still loves to feed. “The nibbling of hay and oats is a super sound for me”. Because it was so relaxing, she didn’t need a “ringing sound massage”.
Wednesday is the day in her week that she describes as rather quiet. Nevertheless, Anja Rietbrock is in demand in every corner of the stables and riding arena. Whether it’s a horse that she takes out of her stable manager’s hands or a malfunctioning light in the tack room of the renovated stable wing, she is the person to talk to.
*Source Regionales Wirtschtsmagazin*
