Luis Kompatscher began training western riding in the late 1980s. However, he discovered his love for horses much earlier.
There was a horse on his father’s farm, but it was only allowed to be used to help with the farming. His great wish for a riding horse came true much later, at the age of 19. His first horse was an Argentine. At that time, he and his fellow riders mainly went for cross-country rides. However, he found this rather boring in the long run. He began to look for something new, but horsemanship was still a foreign word in South Tyrol at that time.
It was only by chance that he came across a video cassette of Jean Claude Dysli, the old master of western and ranch riding. Luis was so enthusiastic about this style of riding, which was new to him, that he acquired a lot of knowledge through books, videos and also training in America, and began to train western riding. Soon, however, he realized that his horse did not have the desired characteristics for this demanding training, and also a suitable training ground in his village was missing.
Luis Kompatscher - the road
A good friend, Arnold Tschager, had a barely three-year-old Haflinger mare named Nikita in his stable, for which he had little time. He offered Luis to ride his horse.
So he began to ride and work with the mare on an old gravel parking lot.
Luis could hardly contain his enthusiasm when he saw the results he could achieve with this new way of riding. He competed in shows like the South Tyrol Cup, which he won for three years in all disciplines (Pole Bending, Trail, Barrel Racing and Reining). Especially the clean and precise riding in Reining fascinated him.
So Luis continued to work with Nikita to be able to compete at higher level tournaments and after successfully participating in international tournaments abroad, the fascination of reining did not let him go.
The big breakthrough in the public certainly came with the performance on the occasion of the national exhibition for the 120th anniversary of the stallion Folie. Kompatscher had been invited as a long-time South Tyrolean Cup winner with Nikita and showed the show number, which the public also saw with small changes at the Euro-Haflinger Gala. The audience was enthusiastic! The decisive factor was certainly the fact that riding without a bridle was still something completely new at that time.
The spectators came in droves to Luis Kompatscher to find out how this worked and whether he could possibly take their horse in for training.
This was the beginning of Luis Kompatscher’s career as a trainer and instructor.
He started in Welschnofen with a small training stable and modest training facilities. There was only one meadow as a working place, which had to be used for riding even in winter. Luis specialized in training horses, performing with Nikita at shows such as the Fieracavalli in Verona, the World Show in Ebbs, the European Show in Luxembourg and also at various events in South Tyrol as well as breeding Haflingers.
He bought a 2A Haflinger stallion named N.Teddy in Verona, who was able to achieve 1B at the re-pointing a year later and was then licensed as the most beautiful stallion in South Tyrol in the spring. In the fall, this stallion went on to become the Italian Champion at the Fieracavalli in Verona.
After two years of breeding, Luis switched stallions with an excellent young stallion from Germany named Adonis, whom he brought to the licensing after half a year of preparation. There he emerged as the best rated stallion in Italy with one very good and three excellent. This had never happened before in the history of the Haflinger. Accordingly, the success also increased Luis’ level of popularity.
After two breeding seasons, he sold the stallion to an Italian state stud and tried to find new horses again, but the modern bred Haflinger no longer brought the desired prerequisites: namely a clear head and appropriate physical conditions.
Luis became aware of the American Quarter Horse, which was particularly well suited for reining due to its muscular, athletic build and strong-nerved nature, and slowly spread to Europe.
During this time, he tried to find a larger stable near his hometown. So the Stallerhof in Deutschnofen was found, where Luis could continue his diligent work and dedicate himself more and more to the Quarter Horse. The first Futurity and Maturity competitions followed and immediately his first successes, which he can still build on.
His daughter Elena followed his example at a young age and is now one of Italy’s elite western riders.
His son Elia is also attracting more and more attention in the scene with good performances.
Today Luis looks after about 30 horses at Stallerhof. The majority are Quarter Horses, which he also breeds himself in cooperation with X-Metall-Quarter-Horses. The training is completely focused on reining, but on request he also trains horses for leisure riders. Beginners and experienced riders alike appreciate his experience and pleasant manner and learn from him not only correct riding but also respectful handling of the horse.