Felicitas Schröter Retires as a Competition Rider

Dressage

Germany

American born German based Grand Prix rider Felicitas Schröter will be hanging up her tailcoat and ending her career as a competition rider.

The 74-year old Schröter can look back on a very lengthy show career which started in 1980 and ended in 2025.

Backgammon

Born in New York and grown up in The Netherlands, Felicitas Schröter moved to Bavaria, Germany, where she wed doctor Peter Schröter.

She made her show debut in Germany in March 1980 at L-level with a horse named Charmeur. She bought her first horse aged 23 after saving money with jobs on the side.

She rode her first S-level test in 1987 on the 1979 born Bavarian warmblood Backgammon (by Benito x Einfall) and in 1989 the pair moved up to Grand Prix level. Backgammon became the horse which took her to her first international shows in the early 1990s, including the 1993 World Cup Final in 's Hertogenbosch, where she represented the U.S.A.

String of Grand Prix Horses

In the 1990s she produced several more FEI level, internationally competed dressage horses such as the Bavarian warmblood Rummikub (by Report II x Lukas) and the Hanoverian Astrotime (by Akzent II x Archimedes). In the 2000s her main Grand Prix rider was the Oldenburg Charleroi (by Classiker x Figaro), followed by Hanoverian Waldiano (by Walt Diseny x Gardeulan).

In the 2010s a few years break from showing followed, but she still kept consistently producing and competing horses up the levels, including What Else (by Welt Hit II x Gervantus) , Loxley (by Londonderry x Don Gregory), and Grand Prix horse Bluebell (by Bertoli W x Londonderry). The latter sold to Candoit farm in the U.S.A.

In most recent years the now 16-year old Hanoverian Bonprix (by Belissimo M x Lavaro) kept her in the game, all the way up to Grand Prix.

And of an Era

Schröter has now decided to call it quits. "Sometimes it's time to be honest with yourself. At almost 74 years of age, I realise that it's not my horse but his rider who is reaching her limits," she said.

Based in Landshut, Schröter will not say goodbye to horses entirely. She continues to train students, including her daughter Saskia Bader (née Schröter). She is also a national dressage judge and organizer of competitions in Landshut.