Matilda Tietje Paving the Way to Junior Level with Zwetcher and Feingefühl

Dressage

Germany

German silver medal winning children rider Matilda Tietje has taken a strong start in 2022 with two proven winners - Zwetcher and Feingefühl - who will help her pave her way to junior level.

Owners have put their trust in Tietje and given her a schoolmaster and young talent to ride and compete.

Zwetcher and Feingefühl

Zwetcher is an 18-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Sir Sinclair x Jetset D owned by Albert Sprehe. He made his international show debut at small tour level in 2013 under then owner Sheila van Bregt before selling to Sprehe in 2014. His daughter Kirsten Biermann rode the horse on to the German team for the 2015 European Junior Riders Championships in Vidauban, where they won team gold and finished 6th in the individual test. A three year break from international showing followed. Biermann returned to the CDI ring in the summer of 2018, riding him in Cappeln and Aachen that year, following by Riesenbeck and Aachen in 2019. Their last CDI was in May 2021 in Grote Brogel, Belgium, where they were second in the Prix St Georges with 71.794%

Tietje's second ride is the 7-year old Hanoverian mare Feingefühl (by Furstenball x Farewell III), bred and owned by Gaby Heye-Hammerlage. She was the reservee champion at the 2018 Hanoverian Elite Mare Show. Under Sandra Kötter, the dark bay mare was the 2018 Bundeschampion as a 3-year old and Hanoverian young horse champion. She was 8th and 7th at the 2020 and 2021 Bundeschampionate.

Matilda Tietje

Tietje received the ride on Feingefühl already in 2021. They made their show debut in May and piloted her to a silver medal at the 2021 German Children Championships in Darmstadt in September. Zwetcher joined the ranks in the summer of 2021.

Tietje and Feingefühl at the 2021 German
Youth Championships

"I am very lucky to receive such support from the owners of these two amazing horses by allowing me to ride and compete with them," Tietje told eurodressage. "This opportunity they are giving me and their trust mean a lot to me."

Matilda's first show of 2022 was in Vechta on 15 - 16 January, where she got her feet wet at M/junior level. She placed second on Zwetcher with 70.606% and third on Feingefühl with 67.424%. The next day she won with Zwetcher with 70.263%, but had a few hiccups with her ride on the younger Feingefühl.

Tietje trains with Sandra Kötter and devotes all her extra time to horses.

"2022 is my first year as a junior rider so my main goal for this year is to gain experience at this level and grow as a rider," said the level-headed Matild. "I'm in the 9th grade of a local high school and every day after school my parents drop me off at the stable to work the horses with Sandra. She is a great support and she knows both horses and me inside out."