Breido Graf zu Rantzau Passed Away

Dressage

Germany

Breido Graf zu Rantzau, the honorary president of the German Equestrian Federation, passed away on 6 November 2022 after a long battle against cancer. He was 73 years old.

"The news of his death shocked us all very much," said FN president Hans-Joachim Erbel. "With Breido Graf zu Rantzau we lose an exceptional personality who stamped the last decades in horse sport and breeding."

Success in Sport and Breeding

Count zu Rantzau was the third president of the German Equestrian Federation since its restructuring in 1968. In 2001 he became vice president and in 2005 he succeeded Dieter Graf Landsberg-Velen and Jürgen Thumann as president.

Count zu Rantzau was a renaissance man. He was successful as a rider in sport until he was 60. In 1965 he was third in the German Junior Riders Championships in dressage before he switched to show jumping. In 1967 he won silver at the German Junior Jumping Championships and gold at the European Junior Championships. In 1985 he was fifth in the Hamburg Derby and a year later he won gold at the German Jumping Championships. He competed in numerous international shows and Nations Cups.

He was equally successful as a breeder and bred no less than 60 sport horses that competed at international level. He was chair of the Holsteiner breed society from 1986 till 2007 and vice president of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses from 1999 till 2005.

President of the German FN

In 2005 he was elected president of the German Equestrian Federation and had the difficult task of bringing the federation on the same line with the regional members groups. He showed great commitment and offered agreeable solutions for all. He displayed great diplomacy and resourcefulness on controversial topics within the federation.

Doping Crisis

Career highlights for the German FN were the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen and the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, even though the federation went through very rough weather with many doping cases with the jumpers, as well as in dressage. He established an independent evaluation committee, the German squads were suspended until anti-doping measures were instated. At the international level, it was thanks to his intervention at the 2009 General Assembly that the FEI reversed the initially planned watering down and weakening of the very strict doping and medication rules in equestrian sport.

Promoting Horse Sport

In 2013 he was one of the founders of the "German Top Horse Sport Foundation" for which he attracted sponsors. From the very beginning, Graf zu Rantzau was committed to mass sport, campaigned against the introduction of a horse tax and was one of the first to warn of the consequences of an uncontrolled spread of wolves in Germany, but he also had to deal with issues such as the prevention of sexual violence and deal with binge drinking.

Equestrian Sport and Politics

During his term of office, the "Vorreiter Deutschland" campaign was initiated, which focused on the future of clubs and associations, as well as the first parliamentary evening in Berlin. Under his leadership, an FN capital office was set up in Berlin in order to be able to recognize important political decisions in good time and act accordingly.

The good contact with politics paid off at the latest at the beginning of the Corona crisis, when it was possible to obtain a special regulation for equestrian sport in no time at all. Riders and drivers fared better than millions of other athletes in Germany who had to give up their sport completely for months.

Stepping Down

In 2020 he was diagnosed with cancer and decided no longer run for re-election in 2021. He presented Hans-Joachim Erbel to the board as his preferred candidate and six months later Erbel was elected his successor at the FN General Assembly in Fulda.

Graf zu Rantzau received many awards for his services, including the City of Aachen Prize (2013), the Peace Rider Prize of the Westphalian Riding Association of 1835 (2013) and the Meteor Prize (2017).

At the FN GA in Fulda, the association thanked him for his 16-year tenure and his services to sport and breeding with the highest award it can give: the German Rider's Cross in gold with diamonds. In the same context, then DOSB President Alfons Hörmann awarded him the DOSB Badge of Honour in gold.

He was also made an honorary member of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) and honorary president of the FN.