Championships
European Championships Hagen a.T.W.
2021
Team gold at the championship premiere of Faustus! Just one week before the European Championships in Hagen we had to change our mind. Actually Showtime was supposed to represent the German colors and show once again after Tokyo in what great shape we are. But Showi got slightly injured. Therefore Faustus got his chance and joined the team. For Faustus it was not only the first European Championship in his life, it was also his first championship. On our side rode Isabell Werth with Weihegold OLD, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with Dalera BB and Helen Langehanenberg with Annabelle.
The motto for the Grand Prix: A good round without any big mistakes. We succeeded in this! There were a few small uncertainties, but also many highlights. Faustus showed himself in a great lateral appearance with an expressive trot and a really great canter tour. Super series changes were among the highlights and in a strong canter the feeling is simply indescribable.
I was very pleased with Faustus and our result of 74.985 percent. Our team was at the top of the podium in the end!!!
In the Special, Faustus really "took off" - the judges gave him a dream score of 10 for his strong canter! Also for the safe tempi changes, the good traversals and the beautifully placed pirouettes there were high scores. In the floodlights of Hagen, Faustus literally shone - it was great how confidently and expressively he showed himself here at his first championship. The start of the test was also top - and the trend even went towards 77 percent. Unfortunately Fausti stumbled slightly in the first passage, which led to a faulty beat. And also the second passage did not succeed as we can actually show it. But the piaffes with a lot of bending of the hanks and diligence. And on the final line again a beautiful pi-pa tour à la Fausti. In the end we received 74.802 percent, whereby the scores of the seven judges varied quite a bit from seventh to 22nd place.
I would have liked to present Faustus in the freestyle as well, but only the three best riders of a nation are allowed to compete. Nevertheless, Fausti did a great job and proved that he has everything that makes a championship horse!
Grand Prix 74,985 %
Teamgold
Grand Prix Special 74,802 %
Individual pl. 14
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020/21
Grand Prix 78,820 %
Team Gold
Grand Prix Special 80,608 %
Individual pl. 15
Grand Prix Freestyle 79,432 %
I could hardly put my feelings into words. Olympic team gold in Tokyo! Our second, after Rio 2016. I was so infinitely proud of Showi. Already on the warm-up arena he felt fantastic, could be ridden with very, very fine connection. He was absolutely with me and it was so much fun to present him! Piaffes, passages, pirouettes, changes ... it was pure goosebumps for me! We made a small mistake in the transition from the passage to the medium trot. That was a pity. But he was then immediately with me again. And completely concentrated also me. Simply a dream!
With 80.608 percent we put our team in the lead and Isabell on Bella Rose (83.298 percent) and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on Dalera finally made the 14th team gold win for Germany perfect. With more than four percentage points we were ahead of the teams from the USA and Great Britain.
As the fourth best pair from the Special, we had naturally expected medal chances for the individual decision in the freestyle of the best 18 pairs. But it turned out to be a disappointment. We had decided before my ride that I would go for full risk. All or nothing - and then it unfortunately became "nothing". Showi was fit, very motivated and felt super relaxed. That encouraged us that risk is the right strategy. But in the end it was perhaps just that little bit too much.
What I would have wished to be able to show Showi with all his grandiose highlights in this incredible final. This so wonderful horse would have deserved it so much!
But we consoled ourselves with team gold. It was almost a miracle that I was able to take part in Tokyo at all. Due to a broken collarbone in the spring, the preparation for the Games went differently than planned and I was infinitely grateful to Showi and my team that we succeeded in making it into the German Equipe with this very few attempts. Another proof that Showi is something very, very special.
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed by one year to 2021 because of the Corona pandemic. And then they were only allowed to take place with the spectators excluded. Not only we riders, but also all other athletes regretted that very much. Another downer: the teams were only allowed to consist of three riders. There was no longer a strike result.
It was - simply indescribable! Madness!! I have already experienced some highlights in my career, but the European Championship in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was once again a new dimension: the goal of my wildest dreams and many years of training rewarded with one team gold and two individual silver medals - my first individual championship medals, by the way. And arrived in the illustrious circle of 90 percent. Thank you Showi! Thank you Gabriele! Thanks to my family and my team!
With Isabell Werth on Bella Rose, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with TSF Dalera BB and Sönke Rothenberger on Cosmo, the gold team of the WEG 2018 in Tryon / USA now competed in the continental test of strength. Only I didn't have Sammy with me this time, but my Olympic champion Showi. He had already shown at the CHIO in Aachen with our new personal record of 89.660 percent that he has matured incredibly and has become even more stable.
In the Grand Prix Showi was a bit nervous at first. But as he went on, he focused more and more, and ended up with a 9.9 for the last passage. The final line was just wonderful. We contributed 80.233 percent to the team result - and thus contributed our part to the 24th German triumph in an EM Nations Cup (ahead of the Dutch and the Swedes). It was also the sixth team gold medal under the aegis of the national coaching team Monica Theodorescu and Jonny Hilberath.
European Championships Rotterdam/NED
2019
After the special I really couldn't find the words. I never thought for a moment whether I would be first or second. I just enjoyed the ride. It felt like we were flying. I only lost my stirrup in the single changes. Maybe I have to practice a bit on the lunge with Monica again ... I have been training Showi for ten years and I am so infinitely happy and grateful that we were able to walk this path together.
The single silver just behind Isabell in the special (85.456 percent) was then added to the single silver in the freestyle. 90.561 percent - at this point just five other couples have ever done that. A total of 58 times within the tournament there was a 10 for Showis passage.
In the end I had three medals hanging around my neck and really had to pinch myself if I was just dreaming about all of this. I can hardly put my thanks to everyone who made this success possible: Thank you, all of you !!!
Team Gold
Grand Prix 80,233 % (2. Pl.)
Individual Silver
Grand Prix Special 85,456 %
Individual Silver
Grand Prix Freestyle 90,561 %
World Equestrian Games
Tryon/USA 2018
Sammy and I traveled as reigning European champions to North Carolina / USA to the World Equestrian Games at the Tryon International Equestrian Center - together with Sönke Rothenberger with Cosmo, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with TSF Dalera BB and Isabell Werth with Bella Rose. And again it was team gold for the then twelve-year-old black horse from the possession of Matthias Herbert, who had just finished his first “real” Grand Prix season in 2017. Wow! Wow! Wow! What has this horse outgrown itself!
The combination of high temperatures and high humidity in Tryon was not easy either for the horses or for us riders. So I was all the more proud of Sammy, who was the second German horse in the Grand Prix with 75.062 percent overnight third and brought our team on course for gold. Sammy went fantastic! Unfortunately, a “misunderstanding” in the first piaffe cost us a lot of points. But immediately afterwards it was another safe lap with many highlights at the gallop and on the last middle line.
Gold went to Germany for the twelfth time since the first World Dressage Championships in 1966 in Bern / SUI. With 242.950 points, we relegated the riders from the USA (233.229 points) and Great Britain (229.628 points) clearly to the places.
In the Grand Prix Special, Sammy even put a briquette on top. He was perfectly fit and showed a great test that secured us eleventh place (75.608 percent) and thus clearly the right to start in the freestyle of the top 15. Unfortunately this was canceled by the organizer because of the approaching tropical storm "Florence" ... It's a shame, because Sammy was really in fantastic shape and he loves the freestyle ...
Team Gold
Grand Prix 75,062 % (13. Pl.)
11. Pl. Individual
Grand Prix Special 75,608 %
Grand Prix Freestyle not held due to weather conditions
What a terrific development: Sammy started his first ever international Grand Prix season in 2017 and trotted across the squares in Herning / DEN, Mannheim, Munich and Aachen directly into the German EC team for Gothenburg / SWE. There he more than worthily represented his boxing neighbor Showi, who was injured at the sighting tournaments at that time.
In the team Grand Prix, the eleven-year-old Bavarian gelding, owned by Matthias Herbert, delivered a great performance. The pirouettes are great, we worked harder on them after Aachen. And the final line was enormous again, I had a really good feeling about it. Two or three things could have gone even better, for example the transitions to the passage and the single changes. But I was absolutely thrilled. He had never seen such a stadium backdrop ... With 74.586 percent (6th place) we contributed our part to the superior win of team gold by the German team with Isabell Werth on Weihegold OLD, Sönke Rothenberger on Cosmo and Helen Langehanenberg on Damsey FRH a total of 237.072 percentage points ahead of the teams from Denmark (224.643 percentage points) and Sweden (221.143).
In the special I was able to present Sammy even more closed. Unfortunately, the mistakes in the pirouette and in the last piaffe were very expensive. But it was only his third international special ever. And as twelfth (73.249 percent) and third-best German couple, we even had the ticket for the freestyle in our pockets.
In the freestyle, Sammy did a great job and showed many highlights. He really gave everything. And I was so proud of him. So young and still rather inexperienced in three such difficult tests - that was really great! I would have liked that his discoverer Dr. Cornelia Herbert could have seen it. She always believed in this horse - and she should be spot on with her assessment.
Team Gold
Grand Prix 74,586 % (6. Pl.)
12. Pl. Individual
Grand Prix Special 73,249 %
11. Pl. Individual
Grand Prix Freestyle 76,289 %
European Championships
Gothenburg/SWE 2017
Olympic Games
Rio de Janeiro/BRA 2016
Team Gold
Grand Prix 80,986 % (3. Pl.)
Grand Prix Special 82,619 % (3. Pl.)
6. Pl. Individual
Grand Prix Freestyle 82,946 %
Rio 2016 - Showi's first championship (and my second), his first flight and our first gold. I always believed in this shy horse at first - so I was all the happier about our great success!
It was the first Olympic Games in South America. In the Olympic Equestrian Center in Deodoro just outside the Brazilian metropolis, 60 riders from 26 countries competed, with eleven nations forming a team. For Germany these were, besides Showi and me, Isabell Werth with Weihegold OLD, Kristina Bröring-Sprehe with Desperados FRH and Sönke Rothenberger on Cosmo. So four of us were allowed to compete again and not just three, as was the case four years earlier in London / GBR.
Showi felt visibly at ease from the start and was wonderfully positive and attentive.
In the Grand Prix, which was ridden in its classic form again, he piaffed and passed an incredible 80.986 percent. In the special (82.619 percent), the judges drew a dream grade of 10 17 times, among other things for my seat and my influence. So we were on a promising third place before the freestyle of the best 18 - and could even hope for an individual medal. In the team ranking, the hope of the 13th Olympic victory for a team from Germany had already been fulfilled - with an average grade of 81.936 percent!
Showi really enjoyed presenting himself in the stadium, which unfortunately was hardly occupied by spectators. For me it was very emotional. After all, I've been training him myself for seven years - and of course Olympia is the big dream that came true for us here.
In the freestyle, where Showi danced to “his” music by Freddie Mercury, we risked a lot, but unfortunately not everything went perfectly: 82.946 percent meant sixth place in the end. In the end there was a little missing the very last strength, but I say that without any disappointment.
Rio was a terrific experience and I am extremely grateful to everyone who made this possible: Gabriele, my family, my team, ...
Even as a child I had the dream of riding into the Olympic dressage arena for Germany. To this day, I can hardly believe that this dream would come true in London / GBR in 2012.
For a long time I thought this goal was unattainable - but then everything happened very quickly. In December 2011 I competed in my first World Cup freestyle with the then nine-year-old Diva Royal of my student Stella Charlott Roth at the Frankfurt Festhallen tournament ... In 2012 I rode into the 26,000-seat Olympic equestrian stadium at London's Greenwich Park. Pure goosebumps!
There were four of us: Helen Langehanenberg with Damon Hill NRW, Kristina Sprehe with Desperdos, Anabel Balkenhol with Dablino and I with Diva. But only three of us were allowed to start in the team competition according to the new regulations. So there was no deletion result. That increased the pressure on Helen, Kristina and me enormously.
But it ran! Diva Royal was fit to the point and even managed to improve on her performance at the CHIO in Aachen. With her own unshakeable tact and lesson security, she scored points in the highest difficulties again and again and so I was able to contribute 76.27 percent from the Grand Prix as the eighth best and 77.57 percent from the Special as the sixth to win team silver behind the team from Great Britain and in front of the team from the Netherlands.
Olympic Games
London / GBR 2012
Team Silver
Grand Prix 76,277 % (8. Pl.)
Grand Prix Special 77,571 % (6. Pl.)
7. Pl. Individual
Grand Prix Freestyle 81,661 %
I was able to enjoy my rides in the Grand Prix and in the special of the team classification to the full. In the freestyle there was already a bit of sadness that after the Olympic Games my time together with Diva Royal would come to an end, as previously agreed with the Roth family.
That was an emotional roller coaster and there was no stopping the tears at the press conference. The two small mistakes in the gallop tour could be got over, the farewell in the first moment not. The Olympic dream of London came to an end with 81.66 percent and eighth place in the individual freestyle ranking.
I just have to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the “Adventure” London 2012! Without you, this dream would never have come true for me - THANK YOU !!!
