Tölzer Leonhardi ride: 72 teams and good-humoured “Rosserer”. – Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

For Anton Mayer that is Tölz Leonhardi ride extraordinary this year. Not only because the traditional pilgrimage with horse and rider, chest and table wagons has been allowed to take place again for the first time since 2019 after the corona-related break. The 66-year-old farmer and CSU city councilor is also celebrating a big anniversary this time: he is the team leader for the 50th time. And then he got a new job. Together with council colleague Michael Lindmair (FWG), he is now a Leonhardi loader after Anton Heufelder and Ludwig Bauer gave up this office before Corona. The joy of Leonhardi is written all over Mayer’s face when he describes in one sentence at the kitchen table on the Manghof in Ellbach what the pilgrimage means for him, for Bad Tölz, for the surrounding area: “That’s the day of the year that goes, that is the public holiday in the Isarwinkel.”

It is also unusual that the Tölzer Leonhardifahrt is scheduled for November 7th – and not as usual on November 6th, the day of Saint Leonhard. But because Sundays have never been driven before, this time it will be postponed to Monday. Nevertheless, 72 teams are registered, only four fewer than before the pandemic. In all probability, Prime Minister Markus Söder, who had already come to Tölz for the horse pilgrimage in 2017, will be among the guests. He will presumably follow the blessing of carters, wags and horses up on Calvary and greet the pilgrims. Well, says Mayer with Bavarian composure, it’s okay that he’s coming as the father of the country. Stoiber had also been there a few times before.

Mayer clearly enjoys his new job as a Leonhardi loader, even if he has enough to do as a farmer and city councilor. In the Leonhardi committee, he advises on the safety concept, he helps select the Leonhardi badges, he directs the raffle for the sequence of moves, which was recently held in the Tölzer Kurhaus. All this together with Michael Lindmair, with whom he forms “a very harmonious team”, as the 66-year-old says. And that’s not a platitude: “No really, that’s nice and a pleasure.” The cooperation is “wonderful”.

According to Mayer, there is also an untroubled mood among the carters after the long Corona break. On the one hand, he noticed that during the raffle in the Kurhaus: “The Rosserers are in a good mood, as are the people who come with them. Everyone is on vacation, they’re really in a good mood.” He also notices this when he and Lindmair go from farm to farm in front of Leonhardi on ten to twelve days to personally deliver the town’s invitation to the farmers. The visits from the two loaders are very much appreciated, says Mayer. “We have been received very hospitably.” There is sometimes a real snack, as well as coffee and cake, or sometimes a beer, sometimes a schnapps.

Meanwhile, Mayer has to prepare himself for the Leonhardi ride. Since he took part with two ponies as a boy at the age of 13 or 14 and then led a large team of Haflinger horses from the Manghof at the age of 18, the tension before the pilgrimage has never completely subsided for him. Not even after half a century. He says he’s always nervous. “That’s a certain responsibility.” That’s why he practices in the two or three months before Leonhardi with eight Haflingers – “four broodmares plus offspring” – in the woods around Ellbach, on the paths or even across the village. And wherever there could be sources of danger, as he says: “Wherever I discover something that could be frightening, I go there.” This time he has a very young horse with him. It was only three years old, but was “very relaxed so far”.

Open detailed view

Veteran Mayer takes it usual route from the Kurviertel to the Isarbrücke, through the Marktstraße, the Jägergasse and the Maierbräugasteig up to the Kalvarienberg, back to the Marktstraße, from there through the Khanturm up the Salzstraße to the Mühlfeldkirche, not alone. Twelve virgins from Ellbach are traveling in his light-blue trunk car, which he got for his birthday six years ago. It’s been like this at the Manghof since 1974, says Mayer. These are unmarried girls in corsetry. It is reasonable to assume that young women are less interested in this in the age of smartphones and social media. On the contrary, Mayer replies: “Today’s young people are really waiting until someone gets married so that a place becomes free again – we even have a small queue for that.”

The Tölzer Leonhardifahrt, which first took place in 1772 and has been on the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage since 2016, is essentially a pilgrimage – and not a photogenic traditional event for tourists. More than ten years ago, this essence of the procession on horseback seemed to get out of sight when so many guests were lying drunk corpses in the streets and alleys at the end of the Tölz national holiday. “It was steered in the wrong direction,” says Mayer. However, it is not true that Leonhardi drivers would have made people drunk with their custom of handing their neighbors and friends liquor to warm themselves up from the wagons. According to Mayer, the pilgrimage got back on track when the city closed the public serving areas. Incidentally, it is anchored in the statutes of the Leonhardifahrt that no alcohol may be served on the pilgrimage route.

Open detailed view

But such excesses are long gone. Those drivers who let their horses gallop through the Khan Tower up the Salt Road despite all the warnings have remained more of an issue. This creates an impressive noise on the cobblestones, but is dangerous for participants and spectators. “We have arranged for this to be stopped this year,” says Leonhardi-Lader Mayer. “In the market street is only driven step.” Just like in the painting of the large certificate of honor that hangs in Anton Mayer’s hallway. In 2018, the city of Bad Tölz congratulated the 80th participation in the Leonhardi ride. 80? Yes, says Mayer, “Manghof was there 80 times.”