Fabienne Lutkemeier's D'Agostino Passed Away

Dressage

Germany

Fabienne Lutkemeier's career-making Grand Prix horse D'Agostino has passed away. He was 26 years old.

D'Agostino was a Hanoverian gelding by De Niro out of XX (by Shogun xx x Wenzel I). He was bred by Klaus Lahmann and named after the world famous Italian DJ Gigi D'Agostino.

Martin Waldvogel

At the time a stallion he was trained, produced and competed by Martin Waldvogel to small tour level.

Waldvogel debuted him in 2003 as a 3-year old and competed him at local shows as a young horse in the next few years. The pair's first big event were the 2006 Bundeschampionate in Warendorf, where they were 27th in the 6-year old consolation final.

Waldvogel moved "Daggi" up to small tour level in 2007 and took the horse out to many national shows at S-level through October 2008. Their last competition was in Giengen, where they won the PSG Special.

Fabienne Lutkemeier

D'Agostino sold to Gina Capellmann-Lutkemeier for her daughter Fabienne to ride in November 2008. Due to D'Agostino's "sensitive" behaviour he was gelded for a better focus on sport.

In 2009 Fabienne planned to ride her first show at a small local event in Greven in order not to attract too much attention, but paradoxically all the big names were there. She won her first test ever and the same year got selected on the German team for the 2009 European Young Riders Championships in Ermelo, where they won Kur gold. In 2010 Fabienne rode a World Record score at the 2010 CDI Wiesbaden in the young riders kur to music, claimed triple gold at the 2010 European Young Riders Championships in Kronberg and won the Young Rider World Cup Final in Frankfurt.

In 2011 the pair made its international Grand Prix debut at the CDI Vidauban in France. They went on to represent Germany and win team gold at the 2013 European Dressage Championships in Herning and at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, France. They also won kur bronze at the 2013 German Championships and Special bronze at the 2014 German Nationals. They were 6th in the 2016 World Cup Final in Gothenburg.

Lutkemeier showed D'Agostino through 2017 with more international starts in Gothenburg, Den Bosch, Fritzens, Lyon, Stuttgart and their final retirement show in Frankfurt. At the 2017 German Championships they were 9th.

Retirement

D'Agostino was retired from sport in Frankfurt with a special ceremony and spent another 8 years enjoying his retirement.

"And all of a sudden, you're gone. Your box and your field are empty. Thank you for waiting for me yesterday morning and letting me hold you one last time and talk to you before you went on your final journey," Fabienne stated. "We’ve been a team for 18 years. You are my best friend, my soulmate, the one who always knew how I was doing and was there for me. I am grateful for all that I had the opportunity to experience with you and that I was lucky enough to be your rider. You will be forever in our hearts."