My name is Lillian Grepne and I was born and grew up in Bergen, Norway where I started my riding at the local riding club.
In 1986 I took my Bereiter Prüfung in Warendorf at the German Riding School and followed up with my Master degree there in 1991.
I have competed successfully in Germany up to Grand Prix level and up to 1.30 metre in Show Jumping.
I have also obtained good results competing in the young horse championships both in Belgium and Norway.
In 1990 I passed exams to be able to train pupils with disabilities.
In 2002 and 2003, I was coach for the Norwegian Team of ponies, junior and young riders in dressage.
From 2003 until 2021 I was a regular member of the board responsible for all education of our trainers in Norway.
In 2013 I passed more exams to become a trainer grounded in the teachings of the well known German professor Eckart Meyners who specializes in movement therapy for riders.
In 2014 I was voted in to become a board member in the Club Xenophone whose aim is to keep classical riding up to date.
In 2020 I moved to Denmark and during Corona I had the pleasure to work together with one of Denmarks leading dressage riders Daniel Bachmann Andersen.
My riding career started at the local riding club when I was 13 years old. After finishing my school education at 18 I left for Germany to learn more about horses and riding.
My first job was with the legendary Hans Günter Winkler most winning showjumper of all time. He had a very nice way of handling horses, was very accurate and his love for horses was genuine. I think this has influenced me for life.
From left Lillian, Franke Sloothaak and Pia Hamren Aragao during the Global Dressage Forum 2016.
Diploma awarded by Hannes Müller
Lillian passed the exam at the German Riding School in Warendorf for the movement trainer EM.
I spring 2014 I war voted in to the board of the club Xenophone in Germany. They aim to look after the classic Principles of riding and hereby animal welfare.
In 2016 until 2020 I worked as an instructor for the mounted police in the center of Oslo. I do admire this policedepartment – they do a lot of good work in the city and they have to be skilled so that they can read their horses in different situations.
At the end of 2020 I decided to buy a farm in Denmark together with my girlfriend Karin. We moved all our belongings during Covid and settled nicely into Grenaa, Karins hometown. Here we a building a small yard for 5 horses, fields, riding hall and an outdoor arena. It is an ongoing project and it is nice to see dreams come true if you work on it.
During covid it was difficulty to travel and teach so I got into contact with Daniel Bachmann Andersen. He is on the Danish Dressage team and has been on the international circuit for the past 10 years.
I worked and rode his horses over a time of 8 months. It was so inspiring to be together with a young man wanting to reach for the stars in the sky. He is a horseman and very eager to learn more. Now he has sadly moved his stabels so it is too far for me to go there on a daily basis. I still go to see him and help him in the school as he is training his talented horses. These days are my favorite days.
I travel a lot teaching in Germany, Sweden and Norway. I also do quite a lot of webinars from my little studio here at home. Many people call me the horses lawyer – a thing I am proud of to be called. Spreding good knowledge within horse welfare has become my task in life.
Horses are the best!
During the next 12 years I worked and rode the horses of Franke Sloothaak, Hans Heinrich Quellen, Detlev Brüggemann, Paul and Alwin Schockemöhle.
The education of the horses in both Schockemöhles yards was very well planned and the daily work went smoothly. Brüggemann and myself both got trained by Lutz Merkel who came an a regular basis to our yard. He was very concerned about how to use your aids in a nice way to communicate with your horse. Franke Sloothaak was always quiet in his work with the horses and a very good teacher for both horse and rider. I rode young horses up to 1.30 meter classes. It was a fun time in my life that I would not have wanted to miss out on. The feeling of riding a nice course is something that can not be measured by other things in life.
Whilst I was working with show jumpers I took my «Reitwart Prüfung» in the Westfäliche Reit und Fahrschule in Münster. The legendary Paul Stecken was our teacher. The way he addressed himself to us and the horses made a big impression on me.
” The way you express yourself in words will influence a lot
the way you handle these fantastic animals. ” – Paul Stecken
He was a real horseman and he trained Ingrid Klimke and her father until he died in 2016 at the age of 100 years.
After a visit to the big international show in Stuttgart in 1985 where I saw the historical Pas de deux with gold and silver medallist Anne Grete Jensen riding Marzog and Reiner Klimke riding Ahlerich I made up my mind that I wanted to learn more about dressage.
In 1986 I took my Bereiterprüfung at the German riding school in Warendorf. The next 4 years I spent being a professional rider in the stables of the Danish rider Palle Thomsen situated in Germany. He was a very good rider and had good horses in for training.
In 1991 I passed my Master degree at the German riding school in Warendorf and the title became
« Pferdewirtschaftsmeisterin» I was often in the stables of Gabriela Grillo, as I at times helped her out riding. At the time Nicole Uphoff trained her horse Rembrandt with Harry Boldt to win the gold medal at
the Olympics in Barcelona. The US team trained in the same barn so there was a lot going on at top level.
During on of my holidays in 1990 I took part in a 14 day course at the Dillenburg Stud organized by the German federation. It was learning about riders with disabilities. I took a finishing exam and obtained my license for teaching Para riders.
In the following year I rode together with Heiner Schiergen in his parents stabel. We educated young horses and had customers come in for lessons. At the time Heiner was a pupil of Dr. Schulten Baumann for 3 years, The trainer that helped Nicole Uphoff and Isabell Werth to their big victories. Today Heiner is one of the most successful trainers in Germany.
In 1993 I became acquainted with Dacia de Pauw from Belgium. She offered me a job at her estate close to Bruxelles. For 4 years I educated and competed her horses up to Intermediaire I level. « Ralph Lauren» I rode for 3 years and we finished in 2 place at the Belgium Championships. He later became Madame de Palms best international Grand Prix horse.Srthur Kottas – Heldenberg from the Spanish riding scholl in Vienna, Patrik Lorain from the Cadre Noir and Christilot Boylen were our trainers, I learnt a lot from all of them am I am very grateful to Decia de Pauw that she gave me such a great opportunity.
Lillian trains Biraldo, one of Decia de Pauw’s horses.
After this I was very lucky to get a 6 months arrangement with the Waaler family in Norway. I borrowed their horse Star Eddison and got to compete at Grand Prix level at national shows in Germany as well as small international shows.
In 1998 I rode for a year with Martina Hannöver – Sternberg. She took her master degree at the same time as me and was in training with the legendary Herbert Rehbein for 10 years. She was the rider that brought the famous stallion Rubinstein into international Grand Prix sport. We had 16 stallion in training and we had to be focused all the time to keep the boys in line.
In 2002 I took over for Andreas Helgestrand as team trainer for the Norwegian teams – ponies, junior and young riders. I took the team to two Nordic Championships and individual riders to two European Championships.
Anne Cecilie Ore and Lillian at the award ceremony
From 2001 until the Paralympics in London 2012 I trained Anne Cecilie Ore from the Norwegian Parateam with different horses. The work with her and the horses gave me a lot of understanding how fantastic horses are if you treat them well. Anne Cecilie is blind and I had to learn how to explain riding feelings to a person who couldn’t copy anything by looking at it.
From 2003 until 2021 I was on the board of education of our trainers at the Norwegian Federation. I was responsible for the dressage part.
In June 2013 I took my exams at the German riding school in Warendorf to become a Eckart Meyners Trainer. This again gave me a new perspective to help riders and horses come into perfect balance with one another