Ulla Salzgeber

Ulla Salzgeber

Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1958-08-05) 5 August 1958 (age 58) Oberhausen
Website	www.ulla-salzgeber.de
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Equestrian
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	2000, 2004
Medal record Equestrian Representing  Germany Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Team dressage 2004 Athens Team dressage 2004 Athens Individual dressage 2000 Sydney Individual dressage World Championships 1998 Rome Team dressage 2002 Jerez Team dressage 2002 Jerez Individual dressage European Championships 1997 Verden Team dressage 1999 Arnhem Team dressage 2001 Verden Team dressage 2001 Verden Individual dressage 2003 Hickstead Team dressage 2003 Hickstead Individual dressage 1999 Arnhem Individual dressage

Ulla Salzgeber (born 5 August 1958 in Oberhausen) is a German equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of dressage. Competing in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, she won two team gold medals, one individual silver and one individual bronze. She also won numerous medals at the World Equestrian Games, Dressage World Cup and European Dressage Championships. After the retirement of her Olympic horse, Rusty, after the 2004 Games, and unexpected death of her second international-level mount in 2005, Salzgeber struggled to find a new Grand Prix-level horse.

In 2005, she took time from competition to act as the dressage training adviser to the Australian national equestrian team, but resigned from that position in late 2006. In 2008, she began riding Herzruf's Erbe at major events, but the horse has been plagued by injuries that have required him to miss many competitions. Salzgeber announced a change in her training base in July 2016, moving to new stables in Ettringen, Bavaria. In 2013, after returning Herzruf's Erbe to competition, Salzgeber was again named to the German equestrian squad's A-team.

Born 5 August 1958 in Oberhausen as Ulla Helbing, Salzgeber began riding at age 10, competing in the sport of vaulting. In 1977, at age 19, she was the Young Riders European Championships. She attended college, graduating from law school before building a training stable in Bad Worishofen, Germany, that focuses on dressage. Salzgeber is married to Sebastian Salzgeber, and has one daughter, Kim.

Salzgeber rode the same horse to all of her Olympic, World Equestrian Games and European Championship medals. Rusty 47, nicknamed Rusty, was a Latvian warmblood gelding who was named Rotors when he was purchased by Salzgeber from a German show jumping barn. The pair came to international attention at the 1997 European Championships, with a sixth place individual finish and a team gold. They repeated team gold at the 1998 World Equestrian Games, while also taking a bronze medal in individual competition. The German team, with Salzgeber, rode to another team gold at the 1999 European Championships, and Salzgeber and Rusty also took individual silver. After Gigolo, a horse ridden by Isabell Werth, was retired in 2000, Salzgeber and Rusty became the top dressage pair in Germany. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the individual dressage competition. She also rode as part of the gold-medal winning German team, but as the lowest-scoring member, her score was not used to determine the team's standing. During the finals, in her musical kur performance, Salzgeber's selected music stopped playing, but she continued riding and finished the event. The music to which the pair performed, Carmina Burana, was used by Salzgeber and Rusty in all their competitions and became "tightly linked to the horse with its signature pirouettes and to date still best one-tempi changes ever."

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