by Julia Wentscher
Photos by: Bernd Eylers (19), Werner Ernst (1)

"On the wings of Olympus" "bred strictly according to the golden recipe", "a sire of the century". The eulogies to this brilliant black horse sometimes cross the boundaries of pompousness. Such high sounding praise is justified however. A stallion like Rubinstein, who departed from the equestrian stage in June 2000, aged 14, much too early, did not only deserve it, he also proved it, not once, but many times. He had 40 wins at Grand Prix level, was a member of the 1996 Olympic team, sired 89 state premium mares and 66 approved stallions and was the father of top auction horses and Grand Prix winners.

"A youth without a tail", remembers Gudula Vorwerk-Happ, was the first impression of the three-year old Rubinstein. The black horse was standing between cows and other young stallions in the entrance hallway of Herbert de Baey, his breeder. Still a bit thin and youthful then, certainly not the star of a horse that he would later be, when he would be at the centre of everyone's attention. Still he had his own way of making an impression. Even as a foal, Rubinstein was a horse that was noticeable due to his handsomeness and above all, his uncomplicated manner. He was almost a little too nice, so that people didn't notice that he was a stallion. In the herd, he preferred to stay out of trouble's way rather than becoming involved in aggressive behaviour. Everyone was able to handle him, remembers his breeder Herbert de Baey.

This quiet Westphalian man with a considerable amount of slyness in his nature succeeded in terzetto, what others didn't even manage to achieve once. He bred three Olympic dressage horses, that became a legend: Ahlerich with the unforgotten Dr. Reiner Klimke, two-time team Olympic champion of Los Angeles and Seoul, as well as individual gold medal winner of Los Angeles.

The double world champion and fourfold European champion was the world's most successful dressage horse for a long time. His full-brother Amon also took part in the Olympic Games three times (if one includes Rotterdam in 1980) and was the most successful dressage horse of the Netherlands under Annemarie Sanders-Keyzar, where he was considered to be unbeatable for a long time, gaining the Dutch Championship title seven times. In October of 2000, Amon passed away at the ripe old age of 32 years. Then there is Rembrandt, the elegant dancer, who with Nicole Uphoff glided through the big dressage arenas of the world, enchanting the public with his fantastic agility. He won individual and team gold with his rider twice, making her the youngest Olympic champion of all times, breaking the sonic barrier of the magic 1500 points delimitation in 1990 and becoming world champion.

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