who are much more real people, and real horse people, in my experience. 
I rode in one clinic with Robert Dover, back when I was a working student. I did it as a favor to the barn owner, since they needed to fill a semi-private. It turned out the semi-private was one of his regular students who got a private lesson at my expense. Mr. Dover very simply pretended I didn't exist. I was mortified. I honestly didn't know what to do. Quietly dismount and leave? Or just ride on. I rode on in silence for the full hour, ignored and red-faced, in front of the very full audience. Afterwards, the barn manager approached me and before I could ask for a refund, she told me the BO was very upset about what happened and wanted to give me her private hour with Dover the next day. Personally, I would have preferred to simply get a refund...it was 6 weeks of grocery money. But that option seemed pre-empted, so I returned the next day and spent a second miserable hour with Dover. At least during that hour he actually gave me a piece of advice that helped with my horse's particular issue. You could not pay me to ride in a clinic with that abusive DQ jerkoff again. I stopped supporting the USET went they sent him to yet another Olympics so he could ruin the very young and once-promising Metallic. I heard that he forced that poor horse to piaffe for something like 3 hours straight the day before his ride. If he was willing to do something like that in full view of the world's top trainers, I can only wonder what went on in his barn behind closed doors...
On the other hand, when I was 17 I had the chance to ride in a 4-day clinic with Fritz Stecken. At one point, just as we passed the arena door, a single ray of light hit my horse in the eye and he leaped in a perfect capriole. My years of bareback riding paid off, and I rode through it and kept my seat. When I turned to smile and shrug (oopsie!) at Mr. Stecken, his face was absolutely ashen. At the end of the clinic he said, in front of everybody, that I had an excellent seat on a horse. I try to hang on to memories like those. Otherwise, after all the DQ abuse, I'd just give up.
Yes, you are right about the Germans, at least the few I know. I remember hearing from students who went over to Germany to train, that everybody would be out hand-raking the arenas. Everybody. Nobody was above the work.
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