Denoix Continues Sport Career Under Katharina Hemmer

Dressage

Germany

Denoix PCH, Hubertus Schmidt's number one Grand Prix horse in the barn, will continue his sport career under assistant trainer Katharina Hemmer.

The new duo has already made its show debut and in an imposing way: the pair won the Grand Prix with 73,533% at the Freckenhorst national indoor show at Hof Schulze Niehues.

Denoix PCH

Denoix PCH is an 11-year old Oldenburg gelding by Destano x Pik Noir. He is bred by Friedrich Kuhlmann and owned by American Nancy Gooding, member of the Pepsi Cola family and owner of Plum Creek Hollow (PCH) farm in Colorado.

Denoix was licensed at the 2014 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing and acquired by the Celle State Stud at the auction for 70,000 euro. Celle named him "Denoix" after the famous French veterinarian and lameness expert, Dr. Jean-Marie Denoix. He did his 30-day suitability test in Neustadt/Dosse and scored 8.09 for dressage and 7.04 for jumping to finish on a total of 7.96 points.

In 2016 he began his show career under Janina Tietze as a 4-year old and was reserve champion at the 2016 Oldenburg Young Horse Championships in Rastede. Nancy Gooding purchased Denoix at the 2016 Oldenburg Autumn Elite Auction for 300,000 euro.

Denoix was sent to Hubertus Schmidt's Fleyenhof, where Schmidt's student and assistant rider Katharina Hammer took on the ride and competed him in 2018. In 2019 Schmidt made his show debut on the 7-year old stallion at the 2019 CDI Hagen, placing second in the Prix St Georges with 71.647% and winning the Intermediaire I with 73.147% on the 7-year old. The pair were fourth in the 2019 Nurnberger Burgpokal, the German Developing Prix St Georges Championship. In 2020 he was second in the Louisdor Cup Finals for Developing Grand Prix horses. In 2021 the horse made its CDI debut at Grand Prix level.

In the winter of 2021-2022 Denoix was gelded so he could focus on sport. He competed internationally through July 2022.

From Schmidt to Hemmer

Hubertus Schmidt has now returned the ride on Denoix to his assistant after the riding master decided to put his tails in the closet and retire as an active competition rider due to health issues.

When asked what her future plans with Denoix are, Katharina told Eurodressage, "We are just getting to know eachother better and better every day. Now we have a good national result and are also allowed to compete international. So that will be the next step for us. And then we will see how it is going. We will do step by step."

Denoix was on a light training schedule over the summer when Hubertus tried to recover from his injury. Katharina only kept the horse fit and in light work.

"We really started to do the movements just from January when we realised that Hubertus would unfortunately have to retire," Hemmer explained. "I am really thankful Nancy is giving me the ride on Denoix and thankful for Hubertus' support. He knows Denoix perfectly so that is helping me a lot to get a good team with him."

Katharina Hemmer

Screenshot of Hemmer competing Denoix last weekend

The 28-year old Katharina Hemmer has been a long-time rider of Hubertus Schmidt's team. Her international dressage career began in 2019 at the CDI Mannheim aboard Terri Kane's Don Angelo (by Don Larino x Rubinstein) in the Under 25 division. She was 7th in the 2019 Piaff Forderpreis finals on Capo.

In 2020 she rode Signorina (by Sandro Hit x Ehrenwort) to a 9th place in the Louisdor Cup Finals for Developing Grand Prix Horses. In 2021 she rode the mare in the senior Grand Prix tour at CDI's in Verden, Herzlake and Ludwigsburg. Signorina sold in January 2022 to Israeli Micah Deligdish.