Gigolo FRH

“THE combination of the 1990s,” is how Harry Boldt, in his iconic volume The Dressage Horse, describes the partnership formed by Isabell Werth and Gigolo. “The ‘90s belonged to Gigolo.”

A list of the liver chestnut’s achievements, however impressive, isn’t enough to explain the full impact the horse had on dressage, a sport that his then-unknown young rider – who would in time become the world’s most successful dressage rider – helped shape.

Impressive isn’t the word Isabell would have chosen when she first set eyes on the gelding in 1989.

“I was already training with der Doktor, and riding his horse Weingart,” she says, referring to her trainer and mentor Dr Uwe Schulten-Baumer. “One day, der Doktor told me that his son, Schulten-Baumer Jr, felt he had too many horses to juggle with a busy job as a hospital doctor, and that I could choose one for myself. So