UAE's Bianca Schütz Sets Milestone at 2026 Aachen Dressage Days on the Way to Asian Games

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2026 Aachen Dressage Days

Dutch born UAE rider Bianca Schütz posted a personal best score in the Prix St Georges at the 2026 Aachen Dressage Days CDI on 4 - 6 May 2026 and has marked a new milestone on her path towards the 2026 Asian Games.

Twenty-four riders were entered for the Prix St Georges in Aachen, representing 16 different nations of which 11 were from the Asian continent.

"Better Than I Could have Imagined"

Schütz and her 10-year old KWPN bred Le Grand Ayden HB were the runners-up on the Prix St Georges with a personal best score of 68.529%. In the Intermediaire I they landed fifth place with 67.108%. She trains with Belgian Olympian Jorinde Verwimp.

"That worked out better than I could have imagined," a thrilled Bianca told Eurodressage. "Le Grand felt really amazing. I had a short warm up with him and said to Jorinde, 'I hope we can keep this same feeling in the arena.' Inside the arena he was really focussed on the riding, very willing to do his best, and I enjoyed the ride."

Bianca has been extensively competed the black stallion in Europe since the autumn of 2025, debuting him in Troisdorf last October and going to Le Mans, Lier, 's Hertogenbosch, and Hagen before Aachen.

"I feel we have a good partnership now and he start being confident," said Bianca. "I finished the test with a big smile and was so proud of him trying his best for me. Than the score came up and I was so happy that the judge saw the same as what I felt. "

Bianca added that, "it was a dream to ride in Aachen and than to be able to secure this score, with a second place on my dream horse, that’s was really incredible."

From Endurance to Dressage

The 37-year old Schütz is Dutch despite her German sounding last name.

"I am born and raised in Holland but moved 9 years ago to UAE and representing now proudly the UAE at shows," she explained. "I rode all my life dressage in Holland but not really competitive, mostly training and selling youngsters. I started working at Al Wathba stables in the UAE as flatwork rider for the showjumping horses. One of the other (main) disciplines in our stable is endurance, and it’s a very big sport. It was interesting to try something different and to get a stronger connection with my team."

The Al Wathba stables in Abu Dhabi are a hub for endurance sport and Bianca's first international start inher career was in the CEI 1* in Butheeb in October 2019. A month later she finished second in a 1* on the Anglo Arab Handyr.

"Dressage at that time was coming up in the UAE. In first place we started with re-schooling an ex-endurance horse for dressage," Bianca explained. "Things were getting more serious and we were lucky that our boss, HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, supported us. We started buying dressage horses and start training at a higher level."

In 2023 she ventured into competitive dressage and debuted the now 12-year old Westfalian mare Fearless WS (by Franziskus x Paradiesvogel) at the CDI Crozet, followed by Waregem. They represented the UAE at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou and placed 21st in the Intermediaire I. with 63.118%.

Dreaming Bigger

The Asian Games sparked her desire to dream bigger and get serious about dressage in the UAE. To prepare for the 2026 Asian Games in Tokyo the black stallion Le Grand Ayden was bought.

Le Grand Ayden HB is a 2916 born KWPN stallion by Grand Galaxy Win out of Danita (by Uphill x Metall). He is bred by H van de Beek and listed as owned by Yas Horse Racing Management LLC. He was accepted at the 2019 KWPN stallion licensing but never did the performance test. He was licensed with the AES studbook and shown in The Netherlands as a youngster by Spaniard Curro Benitez Sanchez for trainer Kirsten Beckers.

Upon sale to Al Wathba in May 2025, the horse did not fly to the Middle East but has taken up residence at Jorinde Verwimp's barn in Wiekevorst, Belgium.

"We don’t have a trainer in UAE and the competitions in Europe are much stronger, so we decide to keep him in Belgium with Jorinde," said Bianca. "She is riding the horse while I’m away to our home base in Abu Dhabi and when I travel to Europe she helps me with him. It seems to really work well."

Busy Times

Schutz has a barn full of dressage horses to ride, four of them she recently showed at the first CDI's in the UAE.

They are 8-year old Hanoverian St. Georg (by Sir Donnerhall x Fidertanz), listed as owned by Italian Aurora Piccinelli; Al Wathba stables' 11-year old KWPN bred Kavallo (by Desperado x Apache), previously owned by Schelstraete; the 14-year old KWPN bred Heathrow B (by Andretti x Gribaldi); and Aurora Piccinelli's 18-year old KWPN bred Dandy L (by Wynton x Haarlem), previously shown by Belgian Diete Vos.

In November 2023 Al Wathba also bought Ilse van Cranenbroek's KWPN bred Emerald S (by Ampere x Jazz) which Indian Hriday Chheda had leased and rode to team gold at the 2023 Asian Games. Bianca has not yet shown the horse.

"I’m staying in Europe this summer to spend my time and compete with Le Grand," said Bianca. "In the winter I spend most of the time with our horses in UAE but try to travel often as I can to Europe."

She concluded, "to prepare for the Asian Games we are riding now some CDI’s. I was planning to fly back to UAE but decided to stay longer and competed at Aachen, that wasn’t in the planning but it was a good opportunity."