Ingrid Klimke's Franziskus Retired from Sport

Dressage

Germany

Ingrid Klimke and Wimhelm Holkenbrink have decided to retire Franziskus from competition sport.

Franziskus is a 16-year old Hanoverian stallion by Fidertanz out of Antara (by Alabaster x Rubinstein). He is bred by Elisabeth Ahlers.

A Winner from the Start

Franziskus was a winner from the start. He was the 2008 German Foal Champion and became a premium stallion at the 2010 Westfalian Stallion Licensing in Munster-Handorf.

He did his 30-day stallion performance test in Munster in the autumn of 2011. He scored 8.4 for dressage and 7.90 for show jumping to total 8,37 points.

Under Johanna Klippert he won the 2012 Bundeschampionate for 4-year old stallions. Franziskus also sired the 2012 German Foal Champion.

Ingrid Klimke

At the 2014 World Young Horse Championships

At the end of 2013 Franziskus moved to Ingrid Klimke's yard for training, where he remained for 11 years.

Ingrid debuted him at M-level in January 2014 at a local show in Südlohn and their first big event were the 2014 World Young Horse Championships in Verden, where they finished 13th in the 6-year old finals.

He was only lightly competed in 2015 but in 2016 he contested the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualifiers for developing PSG horses and finished second in the Finals in Frankfurt.

In 2017 she moved him up to Grand Prix level, first in a few Inter II - Short Grand Prix tests at national level. His international Grand Prix debut followed at the 2017 CDI Munich Indoors competition, where they won the Grand Prix and Kur. They finished the year placing third in the Louisdor Cup Finals in Frankfurt.

German Team Horse in 2022

At the 2022 World Championships in Herning

As of 2018 Ingrid put mileage and experience on the stalliony stallion and went in pursuit of German team selection, although recurrent injuries interrupted the smooth flow of Franziskus' career.

In 2019 the duo was nominated on the German A-squad and in 2020 finished fourth at the German Championships in the Kur but an injury forced Klimke to pull him out of the race for the Tokyo Olympics. A long break from international showing followed until his CDI come back in October 2021 in Herning.

Their career highlight year was 2022 when they won bronze in the Kur at the German championships and with a 72.217% score in Aachen they were nominated on the German team over Dorothee Schneider on Faustus. At the 2022 World Championships in Herning they won team bronze and placed 19th in the Special (73.526%).

Team bronze at the 2022 World Championships

In the winter of 2022-2023 Klimke and Franziskus rode the World Cup qualifiers in Zakrzow, Stuttgart, London, Amsterdam and Neumunster and made it to the 2023 World Cup Finals in Omaha, where Franziskus did not appear super fit in the Grand Prix (despite his 75.543%) and was withdrawn from the Kur. Two months later he returned to the arena at the 2023 German Dressage Championships where they won Kur bronze. At the 2023 CDIO Aachen, which counted as second German team selection trial for the 2023 European Championships, they were forced to withdraw before the horse inspection as the horse had "knocked" himself. They were out of the running for the 2023 Europeans. In July 2023 Franziskus was operated on for a hairline fracture.

Come Back Kid

Franziskus made another come back to the highest level of sport in March 2024. He scored at the Aachen Festival 4 Dressage and went to the CDI's in Hagen, Munich and Aachen. They also won bronze at the 2024 German Dressage Championships, which counted as first team selection trial.

The pair was a serious candidate for a German Olympic team spot and Klimke was asked to put her eventing career on hold not to risk personal injury. At the 2024 CDIO Aachen the pressure was on as she had to ride for her team spot against Isabell Werth (Wendy) and Frederic Wandres (Bluetooth). In the Grand Prix she beat Wandres (76.043%), but in the Special she was behind him (74.596%) as well as in the freestyle (81.385%).

Klimke and Franziskus were named reserve. Unfortunately the pair could not go into training camp in France as he re-injured himself.

Retirement

Today Klimke and Holkenbrink announced Franziskus' retirement from sport.

"After 11 intense, emotional and unforgettable years, Franziskus FRH and I are saying goodbye to the big sport," said Klimke. "Together with Wilhelm Holkenbrink and his family, we have experienced many highs and lows and have come a long."

Ingrid continued, "we came pretty close to the dream of participating in the Olympics twice, but sometimes things turn out differently than you think! Thank you Franz, thank you Holkenbrink family and team for the many unforgettable moments we were able to experience together! "

Franziskus will continue to stand at stud. So far he has sired 38 licensed sons (of which 16 are in studbook I) and 38 state premium daughters. The German equestrian federation has 729 of his offspring registered for sport.