Mourning for riding master Heinz Lammers
The Westphalian equestrian sport mourns the loss of a formative personality
Dates (fn-press). Westphalian equestrian sport mourns the loss of riding master Heinz Lammers, one of the defining personalities in Westphalian equestrian sport, whom he helped shape and supervised as state trainer for dressage for almost a quarter of a century. He died on February 8th at the age of 92.
Heinz Lammers was born in Greven, Westphalia, in 1929. He discovered his love for horses and riding when he was a schoolboy, around the age of ten. He later completed his training at the Vornholz stud farm, almost 50 kilometers away, where Willi Schulheis took care of him and significantly shaped his riding development. He learned from a number of outstanding masters of their time and his other instructors included General Niemack, Major Paul Stecken and Colonel Winkel.
Before he finally committed himself to dressage, he was extremely versatile and celebrated successes up to the highest classes in dressage, but also in jumping and eventing. Almost without exception, he rode horses he had trained himself and had more than 120 victories in class S up to Grand Prix.
Heinz Lammers was no less successful as an instructor and trainer. Initially working as a riding instructor in the Saerbeck and Greven clubs, he became self-employed in 1967. His tournament and training stables in Olfen were well known far beyond the borders of Westphalia. His students included, for example, the Olympians Eva Maria Pracht, Pia Laus and Edith Master. He trained numerous grooms, including his sons Heinz-Holger and Hartmut Lammers, Marion Wiebusch and Alina Röhricht.
Heinz Lammers worked for the Equestrian Sports Association of Westphalia for almost 25 years as a state trainer and was able to win around 100 medals at Westphalian championships, German championships and international championships with his protégés during this time. His students knew him as a reliable companion who was always available and there for them.
In 2002, the Equestrian Association of Westphalia honored the work of Heinz Lammers with the Golden Plaque of Merit. In 2013, he received the Stensbeck Gold Medal for his services to the training of professional riders. "No other riding master has shaped the Westphalian dressage sport as much as Heinz Lammers," said Martin Plewa, himself a riding master and former head of the Westphalian Riding and Driving School, during the laudatory speech. On this occasion, a sentence was also addressed personally to Heinz Lammers, which referred to the general mood among his students, who had once described themselves as a “strong troop”: “Your troop became strong because you made each individual “strong”. , encouraged everyone to the best of your ability and responded to everyone's personality."
PV Westphalia/Voss/Hb
