Donata von Preußen - her heart beat for eventing, Holsteins and thoroughbreds

Great. That’s a big word. One that needs to be used with care. For Donata of Prussia, it’s not just a word you can use, you have to. Donata of Prussia, whose father Karl – German Lord Master and Protector of the Order of St. John – was a grandson of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, has died at the age of 73. With her goes an equestrian journalist who wrote about horses with as much expertise as heart.

Donata von Preußen, a heart for versatility

Donata wrote about athletes and horse breeding. Eventing was her favorite subject. She knew her stuff like no other. I remember how she gave me the tip several years ago that I should take a look at Malin’s gray horse. In her opinion, the two were a couple for the future. The success of Quidditch and Malin Hotopp-Hansen speaks for itself. Once again, Donata was right. As she always is. When you got a tip like that from her profound mouth, you really had to drop everything to see for yourself. I can’t remember ever having an opinion of Donata that I didn’t share. She loved and lived the sport of eventing. She lived in a neighboring town to Luhmühlen for many years. She spent her last months in Salzhausen.

She knew pedigrees from Germany, especially Holstein, from Great Britain, the USA and Australia … You could talk to her for hours about relatives of eventers. She was also always up to date when it came to two-legged athletes. Her network was as great as she was as a person.

In the saddle: German Youth Championships

Donata knew what she was talking about and what she was writing about. Her father always had a few horses in Holzminden, where her parents’ house was located. She rode a home-bred and, as she modestly said, “probably self-trained” Maigraf xx son up to the German Youth Championships in dressage. “He would certainly have made a good eventing horse too,” Donata recalls. But she lacked the courage for the bush.

At home in all saddles

Which is not to say that she hasn’t tried things out. For a while, she worked at the Directorate for Thoroughbred Breeding and Racing, the umbrella organization for the sport of galloping. She was allowed to ride thoroughbreds in training with trainer legend Hein Bollow, even in training gallops. She could rave about polo horses and hunts in Ireland. In the USA, she spent time at Willow Run Farm in Cleveland, Ohio. It was there that she had sold the Trakehner Haiduck that she had bought at auction in Kranichstein.

Donata was straightforward, she didn’t beat about the bush. But she was never emotional, rather sober – Prussian virtues. She was reflective and interested, and could also be politely aloof at times. On the other hand, she could also be enthusiastic. She could enthuse. “What a magnificent horse” – the word magnificent, the way she pronounced it, had everything in it at that moment: power, admiration for the creature, respect for the performance of rider and horse, passion.

Internationally respected

Donata von Preußen has reported on the Olympic Games, World and European Championships. But also from badminton, Burghley and the national championships. Barcelona 1992, Herbert Blöcker and Feine Dame, or the Olympic victory of Marius with the “Flying Dentist” “Hinni” Romeike in Hong Kong 2008 – highlights of her journalistic career with a Holsteiner background. Years later, she could also vividly recount rides by Cumano, Corradina and Lambrasco at the World Championships in Aachen 2006 and Kentucky 2010.

Horse breeding and sport conceived as a unit

In the 1970s, she started an internship at Klosterhof Medingen with Eugen Wahler, the grandfather of eventing team world champion Christoph Wahler. A few weeks, which were intended to give her a taste of the office and organization, turned into several years. Burkhard Wahler remembers well how his father Eugen and Donata von Preußen liked to have a cup of tea after work, “or sometimes a glass of sherry” and talk about horses. Such conversations could last for hours.

A gift for Holstein

As an equestrian sports journalist, Donata von Preußen spent four years on the editorial staff of St. Georg magazine. It was during this time that I got to know and appreciate Donata. I was still a student at the time and was editorially responsible for Oldenburger Sportpferd, the publication of the Oldenburg Verband at the time. It was Donata who gave me the tip to ask photographer Jacques Toffi for photos. Another great tip! What a valuable first contact – Donata was able to “network” in her own reserved way at a time when the verb didn’t even exist yet.

Separating work and family, that was Donata too. We were only just able to talk shop together about the best way to ride Coffin before she asked about the family, the children. Always when no one else could hear. With a certain sternness, she was able to point out at these moments that a father of young children doesn’t have to spend every weekend gallivanting around the world. Thank you, Donata!

Editor-in-chief in the land between the seas

Her heart also beat for show jumpers. She was responsible for press relations for the Holsteiner Verband for many years. At the same time, she supplied the land between the seas with a monthly regional magazine for equestrian sport and breeding that set new standards. Her “Aufgalopp”, the editorial on page 3, was a must-read. From 1992-2017, she was editor-in-chief of “Pferd & Sport”. In 2018, she received the “Meteor Prize” for her commitment, putting her in the same league as Holsteiner legends from sport and breeding. This award, which was in fact a tribute to her life’s work, meant a great deal to her.

Together with Gabriele Pochhammer, Dr. Thomas Nissen and Joachim Tietz, she published the book “The Holsteiner Horse” in 2009. A standard work for all those whose hearts beat faster when they come face to face with a large-framed bay mare with few markings and lots of neck in a windy pasture or cheer in Aachen and then still know what strain 18B1 is all about.

An alert mind until the end

Donata of Prussia and her health was a topic that became increasingly important in the last years of her life. She could become grumpy, knowing full well that it wasn’t just ailments that kept forcing her to stay in hospital and undergo rehabilitation. If you spoke to her on the phone, you would get a brief update, only to satisfy her hunger for knowledge. Via Clipmyhorse, Donata was there everywhere she would have loved to be live. And her alert mind didn’t let her weakening body get the better of her. “That’s the same grandfather as …”, or, “wait and see where they’ll be in two years’ time…”.

I will miss these tips and this great person. Not just for me personally. But the entire horse world.

Thank you, Donata!