Anna Christina Abbelen Joins Hof Kasselmann

Dressage

Germany

Anna Christina Abbelen, a young German Grand Prix rider and the 2014 European Junior Riders Champion, has started a new chapter in her career as a professional rider and joined the riders' team at Hof Kasselmann in Hagen.

The soon to be 26 year old Abbelen made the move from Bonn to Hagen a month ago.

Coming of Age

Abbelen is the 2014 European Junior Riders Champion (on Furst on Tour) and won double silver at the 2017 European Young Riders Championships (on First Lady). In 2018 she made the transition to Under 25 Grand Prix level with Henny Hennessy and mainly competed on the national Piaff Forderpreis circuit for Under 25 riders in Germany.

In the spring of 2020 she made the move to independence and set up her own business at her former partner Christoffer Lindenberg's yard in Rodderberg, near Bonn. In the past two years she competed Isabella Tovek's Sam Donnerhall at international medium tour and Grand Prix level.

Hof Kasselmann

Having finished her Masters degree in Business and Communication, Abbelen realized that she wants to ride full-time but without the pressure of running her own business on top.

"I definitely want to ride but not be self-employed," she explained. "I noticed that it’s too much responsibility at this young age. I want to learn really to ride and educate horses because when I was riding junior and young rider classes, I always was in the lucky position to have had super nicely educated horses and super high quality horses, but it’s something different to build them up from scratch. I don't want to do that alone and for sure want good help which I get at Hof Kasselmann."

Abbelen has been coached by Heiner Schiergen for the past 13 years but her move to Hagen means that she will get coaching from the Kasselmann team.

"I decided to also experience new input," she said. "Here at Kasselmann I can ride plenty of different horses and of course show them and get help from the ground every day. I am really lucky that I got super nice horses to ride."

Francois Kasselmann added, “I’m very happy to welcome her here and have her as part of our team.”

Anna-Christina brought her own 10-year old Hyatt (by Apache x Sandreo) to Hagen as well as Sam Donnerhall with whom she won the Grand Prix (71.167%) at the regional show in Hamm-Rhynern on 10 July 2022.