“You think they will come out”

FIVE horses lost their lives when fire swept through the Rothenberger family dressage yard in Germany two years ago. Among the survivors was Sanneke Rothenberger’s Oldenburg gelding Sankt Anton (Toni).

“When Toni came out, his rug had caught fire,” recalls Sanneke, who suffered smoke poisoning during the rescue. “Thank goodness he was wearing it; the top had burnt down to the wool padding, but the flames did not reach his back. But he had lost a lot of hair on his ears and neck, and he was kept in hospital for three days.”

While Toni’s skin healed and an initial cough died down, Sanneke was worried about his demeanour.

“He is normally a very fresh horse who comes out to work with his ears pricked, she says. “I was riding him and he would do his job, but it took a few months before we saw his character come back.”

Toni made a successful return to competition last year and is back on the path to grand prix, but Sanneke will never forget the struggle to free the horses trapped by fire.

“You think that when you open their doors they will come out, but they don’t,” she says. “They react quite differently. Luckily, our stables had outside doors and we were able to get most of them out like that – I can’t imagine how we would have done it otherwise.”