Petra Wägenbaur

From her early youth Petra Wägenbaur was together with horses. The riding master Theo Hansen was a strict but very good teacher for her. He gave her his horse Kess, which was not always easy to handle but highly trained and a very good teacher as well. With this horse she was able to compete regularly and participated among other competitions at the Baden-Württemberg team championship of young riders (dressage and jumping) and the German dressage championship for young riders. On the occasion of these competitions every now and then she met Fritz Stahlecker and his daughter and was astonished to see that they prepared and presented their horses in a very different way. Since then she dreamed to get the chance to train herself a foal according to this extraordinary training method. From the first horse she bought by herself, Agra, half trakehnen blood,  she bred two foals. After months of just watching, observing and learning she could bring her 3 year old mare to the stable of Fritz Stahlecker and learn directly with him how to train a young horse with the HSH-method. This was a very impressive and overwhelming experience for her. It was such a difference to all she had seen before the way she could back her horse on her own after all these months of training from the ground. And it was even more exciting to experience that what she taught the horse in hand she could ask for now while riding.

The training of the second foal she did completely on her own at the stable at home. During her training with Fritz Stahlecker he gave her all his scripts and notes and at the end the first book „Das motivierte Dressurpferd“ (The motivated dressage horse) was published.
It took her quite a while to convince Fritz Stahlecker to show his way of training horses from the ground which originally was only something he had developed for his own purposes – to a broader public. Fritz Stahlecker searched for young “raw” stallions, which were later on successfully presented in competitions by his daughter, one horse after the other. With Dürer the first real fotoshooting was done for the book, with Mataré during one year Thomas Vogel from pferdia-tv made a video that still remains THE introduction into the philosophy and the training method of Fritz Stahlecker. He hesitated but finally dedicated himself to present his training concept to the public – for the horses’ sake. Since then and especially after having retired he dedicated  his time to teach, to express his opinion in books and articles and take position for the horses.

Petra Wägenbaur started organizing HSH-clinics with Fritz Stahlecker, some of them had been filmed (see DVDs) a manual was written and in time more self help training material. The diary of the training of Dürer and a lot of articles as well as the two following books still wait to be translated.
Petra Wägenbaur supported Fritz Stahlecker in many different ways, she was gradually co-authoring his articles and books, gave technical support in his presentations, organized clinics and journeys to special events, fairs or meetings like for instance at the stable of the French Riding Schooll in Saumur, at Freddy Knie in Switzerland or with the 5 star Parelli instructor Berni Zambail with whom Fritz Stahlecker offered an interesting workshop on Parelli and HSH. And she also helps him now in his fight to get the license for the new bit he invented.

Unfortunately due to health problems Fritz Stahlecker was forced to give up teaching and working together with horses, his greatest passion, but as he is still concerned about the benefit of the horse and dedicated himself to contribute his part for a change in dresssage riding, Petra Wägenbaur took over the clinics. In his spirit and with all the experiences of so many years of close working together she continues his work. As it is no longer possible to organize clinics “at home”, where Fritz Stahlecker lives, she tries to form small groups of HSH-dedicated people and organize clinics wherever there is interest in this horse friendly method.