It is 6.30am and Germany’s national dressage team coach, Monica Theodorescu, is beginning her day. By 7 o’clock she is in the stable, by 7.30 she is riding her first of six to eight horses. In the afternoons she gives lessons. Up until last October, that was a normal day for the 50-year-old. There is added responsibility now, though, as she sets the direction for German dressage — the first woman ever to have that role.
Monica’s affinity with horses and dogs and horse shows began as a baby. Family friends recall the Dalmatian, Holly, standing guard at shows, in front of Monica’s baby carriage or the playpen, with show jumper mother Inge and father George, the legendary dressage rider and trainer, close by.
Over the years there have been many incarnations of Holly. Today she has morphed into a wonderfully mixed dog-gang consisting of the French bulldog Frou-Frou, the fox terrier, Terry and the Rottweiler puppy, Hope. The three share the Lindenhof, the Theodorescu family manse, in Sassenberg, Germany, with Monica and her husband Burkhard Ernst. During a stroll around the stables, through the smaller and older riding hall, the new larger hall, and the big outside riding arena, the dogs stick to Monica. If they could, the horses would do the same.