Semmieke Rothenberger Retires Dissertation From Sport

Dressage

Germany

German young Grand Prix rider Semmieke Rothenberger has announced the retirement of her Junior/Young Riders' European Champion Dissertation.

Dissertation is a 16-year old Hanoverian mare by Don Crusador out of Gotenfee (by Gluckspilz x Graphit). She is bred by Hans-Heinrich Schmidt.

Koch, Boening, Riffel, Waldmann

The black mare began her competition career as a young horse under Roswitha Koch and Ilka Boening. Natalie Riffel took over the ride in 2013.

In 2015 owner Martin Schorsch put Dissertation in training with Lena Waldmann and she showed her first at M-level and then up to Intermediaire I the same year. Waldmann won the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualifier for Developing Prix St Georges horses in Neu-Anspach, but did not make it to the Finals in December.

In the autumn of 2015 the mare sold to the Rothenberger family as a junior/young riders' horse for daughter Semmieke.

Semmieke Rothenberger

Rothenberger made her debut on the mare in January 2016 at M-level at the Munster Indoor competition and won the subsequent Preis der Besten qualifier in Kronberg. Their international debut followed in Saumur in May 2016, where they won the junior tests. At the 2016 Preis der Besten they were fifth.

At the 2016 European Junior Championships

They won team and individual and Kur silver behind Hannah Erbe on Carlos at the 2016 European Junior Riders Championships in Oliva Nova, Spain.

For the 2017 and 2018 European Young Riders Championships Semmieke picked Geisha instead of Dissertation, but she returned on the team with Dissertation at the 2019 European Young Riders Championships in San Giovanni in Marignano (ITA), where they won team, individual and Kur gold and broke two Young Rider world records. They won the 2019 German Young Riders Championships in Zeiskam.

Dissertation disappeared from the international show scene for two years, making a come back at the 2021 CDI Mannheim in April 2021 in the Under 25 division. They posted 71.412% in the Inter II (9th) and 69.128% in the Short Grand Prix (12th). It was the horse's last international competition in her career. They did two more national Grand Prix tests, first in Balve and then at Hof Bettenrode in July 2021.

Retirement

Nearly two year after the black mare did her last show, the decision was made to retire her from sport.

At the 2019 European Young Riders
Championships

Rumours were rife a month ago that Dissertation was retired from sport, but Rothenberger told Eurodressage that the decision only fell "in the last few weeks."

" I have still been riding her the entire time," Semmieke explained. "It was really a gut feeling that made me decide it was enough. She no longer had to do it for me. And I didn't feel like passing her on to another rider for the youth classes."

On Instagram Semmieke added, "everybody knows that Daisy is my dream horse. If I could “bake” a horse, it would be her. Daisy has the biggest heart and she always fought for me. I was able to break world records, win medals and celebrate a lot of victories. But more importantly she was my best friend."

She continued,"I look forward to admiring her in her new job and hopefully see her trot in the field with a foal. She and Geisha are now united to enjoy their "old" days in the field."

Semmieke has moved on with horse Flanell which she rode to team and kur gold at the 2021 European Under 25 Championships. She used Dissertation as her prize giving horse at the Championships and got bucked off in all the commotion of the team lap of honour. She recently added Farrington to her string of Grand Prix horses and qualified him for the 2023 Piaff Forderpreis circuit.