Gottlieb Polak

Polak was a multitalented individual who played the violin as well as being an extremely talented rider, described as having a gift for working with horses that occurs only rarely throughout history.

When he was a young man, his love for horses was so great that he dropped out of the Music Academy in Prague after a year and in 1900 became a pupil at the Kladruber Stables.

After military service with the 11th Lancers in Pardubice from 1904 to 1907, he was transferred, in 1908, to the Campaign Riding School (Hofstallungen) in Vienna, where he served Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria as one of his many duties.

[1] Polak's outstanding dressage skills were honored with the award of the German Riding Badge in Gold and the Swedish Order of Vasa.

[1] On 10 May 1942 Polak was beginning a public performance on his young stallion Pluto Theodorosta, but fell from the horse, unconscious, after only a few strides, possibly due to a heart attack.