Retired international dressage judge Heinz Schütte celebrated his 90th birthday on 12 January 2017. Schütte judged two Olympic Games in Los Angeles and Seoul.
Heinz Schütte was a very celebrated equestrian athlete before becoming a judge. He is one of the few riders who competed in all three Olympic disciplines: show jumping, dressage and eventing.
He was a dressage judge from 1973 till 1998 and officiated at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, as well as the 1980 Alternate Olympic Games in Goodwood, five World Championships, and numerous European Championships. He co-developed the format of the World Cup, was an member of the German dressage selection committee and got decorated with the Rider Cross in gold.
In a book on Equestrian Sport in the Wolfsburg area from 1966 till 2004, Schütte described what a good dressage horse should look like: "secure in the rhythm in all three basic gaits, loose, steady in the contact with the bit, swinging with an active hindquarter and with a supple back, through the body and with expression." A good judge, according to Schütte, requires "experience by having ridden himself in the classes he's judging."
Schütte was renowned because as president of the ground jury he was the one who sent home American show jumper McLain Ward from the 1999 CSIO Aachen, when steward Hansi Wallmeier detected that Ward had tacked his horse Benetton with spiked boots. Ward was banned "for life" from the CSIO Aachen, but that actually means in Aachen four years.
Source: Dieter Ludwig - Photo © Elisabeth Weiland
Related Links
Scores: 1984 European Pony Championships
Scores: 1985 European Young Riders Championships
Scores: 1990 World Equestrian Games
Scores: 1999 CDN Bad Honnef
DOKR Dressage Selection Committee Elected at 2013 FN General Assembly
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