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Josef Bingesser and his gelding “Hunter”: A well-established team – with one exception.
In the spring of 1957, 24-year-old Josef, whom everyone just calls “Sepp”, rides his gelding “Further” from his parents’ farm on country lanes to the municipality of Neukirch in eastern Switzerland. The local jumping competition is on the program there.
His fiancee bought a new lemon yellow dress with a floral pattern. She stands expectantly at the edge of the riding arena as Josef rides into the course in his cavalry uniform. The first jumps succeed. But then his idiosyncratic horse suddenly refuses the combination of two. Not once, but three times.
Joseph is disqualified. The flush of anger rises to his face. Especially today! The flowery dress of his beloved suddenly looks a little faded. Nothing will come of the joint appearance at the award ceremony. The otherwise so reliable horse has already carried him through the recruit school. At the end of the RS, his father bought it from the military at an auction for 1,200 francs.
Josef’s childhood on the family farm was not easy. As a boy, he has to lend a hand early on. The mother has it on her lungs. She has to go to the sanatorium. Seven children, a large farm, a sick mother and the father was on active service at the border for years during the Second World War. It wasn’t just good times.
Once he goes on vacation. He rides his three-speed bike with the young farmhand from the neighboring farm over the Swiss Alpine passes. In Meiringen they help a farmer with the hay. And in return they receive dinner and are allowed to spend the night in the haystack.
Josef marries, moves to Zurich, then to Aargau. His life is shaped by family and work, but always remains sporty.
He preaches to his boys to go barefoot a lot. This gives a healthy callus on the feet. Josef’s children spend their holidays on their grandfather’s farm. He walks barefoot all year round. In the barn, the cow manure oozes between his toes.
In winter, when it has also snowed in Aargau, Josef takes his children for ten-minute walks through the garden. Barefoot. This strengthens the immune system. He says. Josef prepares a cross-country ski run outside of the village and does his rounds there.
Lots of exercise, don’t smoke and eat from your own garden. “Then you never get sick!” It’s his motto in life. He has been loyal to the gymnastics club for more than 50 years. Even today, he and his colleagues swing their arms and rotate their trunks every week. As gymnastics father Jahn once propagated.
Josef’s last name is Bingesser. He is my father and will be 90 years old on January 9th. He rides his bike a lot, he walks his dog, feeds his eight chickens and spends the whole summer in the garden. He has remained sporty, selfless, modest, full of life.
Happy Birthday! And thank you for everything, dear father! Especially for the athlete gene.
PS: The lapse in the jumping competition had no consequences. He has been married to the woman in the flower dress for 63 years.