All Horses Pass the Inspection at the 2025 European Dressage 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 have passed the horse inspection at the 2025 European Dressage Championships in Crozet on Tuesday morning 26 August 2025. 

Welcome to Jiva Hill

The 2025 edition of the European Championships was initially set to take place in Samorin, but the venue backed out of their commitment as hosts for the third time in a row and the Lundin family of Jiva Hill Stables in Crozet came to the rescue, taking over the baton.

The equestrian facility lies right near Geneva airport, but in France, and is a state of the art horse center with two major indoor arenas, a wonderful sitting area inside and outside, two Olympic size outdoor rings, and plenty of paddocks and fields. It's a private facility that has been hosting CDI's since 2017. It's horse heaven, but not truly the size for a major sporting event. 

The Organizing committee did its best to include bleachers and covered sitting areas on both short sides and one long side while a huge VIP lounge is on the other long side. It leaves little room for the ring and while horses can still travel round the arena before entering, the feeling is quite tight. Nevertheless, it all looks nice, maybe could have done with a bigger pop of colour to make it prettier, but all the ingredients are there for a good competition to unfold.

The Trot Up

The trot up started early on Tuesday morning at 8 AM under a totally blue sky, the picturesque mountains in the back drop and flooding sunshine. A str

The trot-up strip was in between the 10-minute ring and the grassy paddocks, leaving very little space for spectators or press to stand. The "real" equestrian photographers came in on time for this show and gathered with the ground crew to discuss their positioning for the job to shoot the horse inspection from a good vantage point. The "digital content creator" wannabees will join later as of tomorrow to produce fleety slow-motion reels for its 3-second attention span Instagram audience. Cool, but the impact gone in a flash. Nothing saved for posterity. Maybe that's my old school opinion of the new generation of "media" coverage. I don't dig it.  I was told Fifty photographers  have been accredited for these Europeans. I only count 15 serious ones.... but that's just me. Maybe I'm too dismissive…time will tell.

Either way, the reel pros all huddled together on the steps of the VIP lounge to photograph the trot up. There was no announcer to introduce the horses or the verdict of the FEI veterinarian and ground jury. It was a bit of a guessing game from the distance, but we double checked on the verdict and here it is:

All Horses Pass

More than a handful of horses had to be trotted up twice or three times: most often because they behaved badly, or they were poorly presented, or just didn't show a clear gait. Maxima Bella and Sertorius de Rima Z looked iffy, Dettori really had the head very low or otherwise this stallion-in-need-of-gelding clawed out dangerously with the front leg, attempting to strike its handler. Indigro was simply wild and bucked and reared and needed to trot up three times before hearing the words "accepted". Some horses came right out of sickbay to qualify on a limited amount of shows. They were ready, but in-hand maybe not looked in their prime.. at least in this jog. Dinja van Liere's Hermes was one of those.

Four horses were sent to the holding box: Amica (Dalia Katinaite-Pranckeviciene - LTU), Dior S (Aniko Komjathy-Losonczy HUN), Don Quichot (Rowena Weggelaar NED), and Zagal Azores (Jenni Matilda Schmechel - FIN). In the end all fourwere given a good to go, which means that all 62 horses are ready for the competition on Wednesday and Thursday.

Familiarisation

One hour after the horse inspection the familiarisation took place in the main competition arena. Each team got 20 minutes to train, school, or walk their horses in the competition ring in a group of four horses. Some nations chose to send in their horses one by one for a 5 minute period. Some went per two for 10 minutes. The individual riders were grouped together or either joined smaller teams of three.

The familiarisation lasted all day until 6 PM with a long afternoon break of one-hour to just chill and enjoy the fabulous low(er) pressure day in Crozet. The weather was the talk of the town. While today was totally glorious, hot summer weather, a low pressure zone is heading towards the Jura mountains and Swiss Alps and rain has been forecast for every (bloody) single day of the European Championships. Toes and fingers are crossed that it won't be as bad as predicted as everyone is hoping for a smooth, sunny and great Europeans in France.

Eurodressage is taking photos of (pretty much) all competitors in Crozet. No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025 European Dressage. Championships