Matchball Sold to the Rothenberger Family

Dressage

Germany

Matchball, the Oldenburg gelding which Stefanie Wolf produced to Grand Prix level, has been sold to the Rothenberger family.

Matchball is a 10-year old by Millennium out of Wenira (by De Niro x Westminster x Zeus) . He is bred by Helga Lütje.

Triple WCYH Finalist

Owned by Thomas Voss, the black was first competed as a 4-year old by Christina Voss in 2016. In the late spring Andreas Voss took over the ride and by the autumn of that year it was Stefanie Wolf who piloted the horse in its first dressage horse A-level tests.

In 2017 Johann Hinnemann bought an ownership share in Matchball and his head rider Stefanie Wolf continued to train the tall black to Grand Prix level at Gestut Krüsterhof in Voerde. The pair represented Germany at the World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo, where they finished 11th in the 5-year old finals. A year later they returned to the 2018 World Championships and this time the pair was fourth.

In 2019 Wolf and Matchball did their first S-level and at the World Championships for 7-year olds, they were again fourth.

Burgpokal, Louisdor Cup

In 2020 Wolf and Matchball competed on the Nurnberger Burgpokal circuit and in the finals in Kronberg they were fifth.

In 2021 they competed at medium tour level, including an international start in Troisdorf where they won the Inter A and B with 73.235% and 72.243%

In 2022 Wolf gradually introduced the talented gelding to Grand Prix level competition and they won the Louisdor Cup qualifiers in Haftenjamp, Balve and Kronberg. At the finals this weekend in Frankfurt, they were

Sold to Rothenberger, Sönke to Ride

Today the news became known that Matchball sold to the Rothenberger family, but the horse in fact sold before the Louisdor Cup Finals.

In an interview with Eurodressage, Semmieke confirmed that Sönke will be his new rider.

"Matchball was secured for Sönke before Frankfurt and we are very excited to see them become a team soon," she said.

The Rothenberger family is stocking up on trained horses for their "children". While Sönke just won the 2022 Louisdor Cup Finals on the Danish bred Fendi, his second Grand Prix horse Santiano R has not been shown internationally in 1.5 years and Cosmo never returned to the arena after the 2019 European Championships. Semmieke Rothenberger has Flanell to ride, as well as Dissertation, but the family purchased Farrington last week as her new iron in the fire.