All Horses but One Pass Inspection at the 2025 European Young Riders / Under 25 Championships

- Text © Eurodressage (this article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition)  
-- Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

All horses but one passed the vet inspection at the 2025 European Young Riders / Under 25 Championships which are about to begin at Gestut Schafhof in Kronberg, Germany.

Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff welcomed Europe's best youth riders to her gorgeous, historic farm for the first time in 2010, when Charlott Maria Schurmann and Fabienne Lutkemeier won, and staged a similar event in 2023 with Children and Junior Riders. Two years later Europe's elite young riders and Under 25 Grand Prix riders gather again at Schafhof for their European Championships from 8 - 13 July 2025.

Abuzz

The Europeans at Kronberg follow the CDIO Aachen with one day intermission. With everyone still abuzz from the extraordinary break-through of an underdog beating the German establishment in Aachen, there was absolutely no time to absorb the historicity of the feat and to offer rest for the weary. After a five consecutive nights of maximum 5 hours of sleep, Monday was a full work day of writing articles and processing photo requests. I ended up going to bed at midnight, but didn't put my phone away until well past 1 AM with my alarm clock set for 4h40. 

I was in a deep sleep when the alarm went off and pressed the snooze button. I normally don't fall back asleep but this time I was gone in 3 seconds. At 4h49 the phone beeped again and I rolled out of bed, got ready in the bathroom, went downstairs, counted two live horses in the field, fed two absent cats at the crack of down, and jumped into my car for the 3h10 min drive to Kronberg.

It was a smooth drive with the seat heating full blast, two chewing gums chewed into oblivion, and one can of Red Bull downed after I passed Cologne.

Legacy of the Sport

I arrived at the show grounds at 8h20 and all was still peaceful and quiet. I picked up my wristband as accredited press, explored the competition area, which is slightly different from two years ago. No stands on the grass (so more beautiful green for the photos), but also no tent with VIP tables. Just bleachers in an L-shape near the arena. The ring at Schafhof is probably one of the most beautiful in the world as the backdrop has a professionally landscaped Japanese garden, while on the edges there are rose bushes everywhere. Try to beat that!

The indoor school is tall and so impressive, but what really blows my mind is the history of the place as the founding "mother" is Olympian Liselott Linsenhoff. Everywhere there are cabinets with ribbons, trophies, medals, boots, plaques , and photos in celebrating of Linsenhofff's career, but also a corner dedicated to legendary trainer Otto Lörke, as well as flags from Seoul Olympics where Ann-Kathrin won team gold.  The stalls are all tiled with Schafhof's original yellow tiles. The walls are plaster with show plaques dating back to the 1950s. It is UNBELIEVABLE !  Most people walk by without even properly taking a look or realizing the importance of all this memorabilia, but it's an absolute treasure trough for those interested in the history and legacy of the sport! 

Horse Inspection

The horse inspection was held in a training ring near the stables across the street from Schafhof. The barrista of Prego Café had set up his coffee bike and made me a cup of cappuccino, which on top of the Red Bull, made me feel nauseous for half a day because of the caffeine kick. It could also be that a protein bar with bad chocolate (as lunch) contributed to that... When will I learn my lesson not to eat protein bars? My stomach can't process them.

The official part of the Championship began with the horse inspection for the Under 25 riders. The delegation of officials lined up (Hennig Lehrmann, Isobel Wessels, Bill Warren, Christine Prip and TD Mariette Withages) together with the FEI vet and the show began. Some of the more experienced horses had to trot up twice (Robinvale, Drombusch, Vamos Amigos) but only Destiny OLD was sent to the holding box and then passed upon a re-run.

Meanwhile the young riders had their arena familiarisation moment in the main stadium, so I ran from one ring to the other to photograph as many horses possible. The sky was overcast but it wasn't that cold and only a 5 minute drizzle took place. Not too bad.  During lunch time I had a long chat with USDF president George Williams before I headed back to the training ring for the inspection of the Young Riders horses.

A new crew of officials handled the job and this time five horses had to run twice before hearing the liberating "accepted": they were Korefan, Let It Go T, Saparaday, Furst Fernando OLD and Emma FH. One horse was sent to the holding box: Denmark's Egelund Yurrell. He was not trotted up again but invited to the re-inspection at 8 AM on Wednesday morning.

Training Time

During the Young Riders' jog the Under 25 riders had their ring familiarisation moment and I also photographed that as much as I could. It was very interesting to see the difference between the schooling of the Young Riders and the Under 25. 

While most of the young riders had a lovely training session, or just a walk in the arena, with the Under 25 training there was all of a sudden a lot more kicking and pulling, squeezing, and agitating of horses to get them cooked ready and sharp for tomorrow, mainly because collection in piaffe and passage are required. It wasn't always a pretty sight but no steward had to intervene. Fortunately there were also a big group of U25 riders showing it can be done without force.

Feeding Time

As soon as the training finished, I went to my car and drove to the hotel, skipping the opening ceremony all together to get work done. I prepared three news articles, downloaded the photos and then headed downstairs for a dinner solo. I was so hungry and ordered a hamburger that I devoured to the last crumb.  I felt so stuffed and but ordered a dessert nonetheless from the three rather unappealing choices which were creme brulée (boring), kaiserschmarrn (a carbohydrate and fat bomb) and Wiener iced coffee (a smaller carb and fat bomb). I decided for the latter because I was not ready to go upstairs to my room to work. I instantly regretted the choice when the coffee with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream on top arrived. Why did I order that? If it wasn't in a horse show environment I would never order this. It's totally not my cup of "coffee". Still I ladled the entire cup into my mouth, regretting the bad choice I made.. I went to my room bloated and promised myself that tomorrow it's salad time.

I first wrote this blog before I even tackled 2766 photos I took today, double the normal amount I shoot in a day just because I'm squeezing my three-day trip to Kronberg like a lemon, getting the most out of my short time here. I had planned on being in bed by midnight, but once again that was a pipe dream. It's 1 AM now and I still have to upload the entire photo gallery. New goal: 2 AM sleeptime.

Tomorrow the competition starts with Group 1 of the Young Riders Team test in the morning, followed by group 1 of the Under 25 Inter II team test.  Let the Games begin.

-- Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS

Eurodressage took photos of all competitors in Aachen. If you are interested to buy photo prints or digital files for social media, email us.

Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the  2025 European Young Riders and Under 25 Championships