Prof. Heinz Meyer has died

Prof. Dr. phil. Heinz Meyer lived in Würselen near Aachen. He was what you would call a polymath. The young Meyer studied philosophy, psychology, comparative religious studies, history and sociology at the universities of Bonn, Cologne, Aachen and Salzburg. He completed his studies in psychology with a diploma. He completed his doctorate and habilitation in sociology.

He taught at the universities in Aachen and Wuppertal and published numerous scientific articles. One focus of his work was the study of the relationship between humans and animals, especially horses. Among other things, he theorized that girls are so fascinated by horses because they experience the contrast between the large, strong and seemingly powerful animal on the one hand and its gentleness on the other. He spoke of the “big, warm, soft life” that fascinates girls.

The horseman

Meyer was closely connected to horses from an early age. There were always horses on his parents’ farm and Meyer rode successfully in dressage and show jumping competitions. Later, he also presented the horses of the renowned trainer Hans Rüben at competitions.

Prof. Meyer was considered to have a profound knowledge of riding theory and its interrelationships. He wrote about it in the literature and in specialist journals and also followed international competitions, especially dressage. From 1967 to 1970, he was editor-in-chief of St.GEORG. He then moved to the editorial department of Reiter Revue International as a specialist consultant for 15 years before the then editor-in-chief of St.GEORG, Gabriele Pochhammer, brought him back as a freelancer.

Roll cure and more

Here he published an article that was to significantly change the way riding was viewed in the coming decades. The title: “Roll cure”. The term has since passed into common usage. It was an invention of editor-in-chief Gabriele Pochhammer. However, the content of the article, which appeared in St.GEORG in 1989, was penned by Prof. Dr. Heinz Meyer.

At that time, there was no scientific debate on the subject that would have highlighted the dangers of this type of riding from a veterinary point of view. Meyer was a pioneer here – even if there had already been critical discussions about training methods in riding before him. He wrote an entire book on the subject, for which he used the headline from St.GEORG. It is still available today from KOSMOS Verlag under the title “Roll-Kur”. The same applies to the work “Die Skala und das System der Ausbildung: Eine kritische Interpretation”. Numerous articles by Meyer appeared regularly in the veterinary journal “Pferdeheilkunde”.

Thinkers with attitude

Meyer was a free thinker and as such incorruptible. Josef Neckermann once sent him a crate of wine for Christmas. Meyer thanked him with the words: “The old people’s home was very pleased.” He was not someone who allowed himself to be corrupted, not even by the general public. Where everyone admired Dr. Reiner Klimke’s Ahlerich, Meyer noted that the Angelo xx son piaffes with an upper line “like a kitchen table”.

Meyer died in hospital in Brussels at the end of January. He had been suffering from a heart condition for some time. Despite this, he was still active, traveling and always on the lookout for African antiques, another of the sociologist’s great passions alongside horses. On one of these trips, he had to be admitted to hospital, where he could no longer be helped.