Bartle and Melzer managed to win seven (!) Olympic medals, five of them were gold. Therefore the future for the German eventers looked very bright, having the Olympics of 2020 in mind. "This is a very hard decision for me. I really liked working with the team and the horses. Hans Melzer always supported me and I really liked the job I did for the last 16 years. But this application involves a very interesting and challenging job and I will be able to work closer to home. I will be closer to my family. Because of that I decided to quit the job I'm doing right now," Bartle says.
The German FN states: "We're very surprised and very sad that Bartle took this decision. We really wanted to keep the 'golden duo' to train our eventing team for the Games of Rio. But after all we respect his decision and we're thinking about alternatives for the future," says Dr. Dennis Peiler.