Linsenhoff/Rath Family Honoured with Graf Rantzau Trophy of 2023

Dressage

Germany

The Linsenhoff-Rath family has been honoured with the Graf Rantzau Trophy of 2023 at their show, the CDI Frankfurt, on Sunday 17 December 2023.

This year, the German Equestrian Association (FN) has begun to honour major national competition organizers for their above-average commitment and their role model effect.

CDI Frankfurt

The newest winner of the Graf Rantzau Trophy of 2023 is the International CDI/CSI Frankfurt, which celebrated its 50th edition shortly before Christmas.

For their great contribution to sport, the maintenance of tradition and the openness to innovation, FN President Hans-Joachim Erbel presented the award before the Grand Prix on Sunday to the organizing family - Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff, Marie Linsenhoff and Matthias Alexander Rath.

Frankfurt has been star-studded from the start. In 1956, the newly crowned team Olympic champion Fritz Thiedemann was the first to enter the winners' list of the Grand Prix in Frankfurt with his legendary Meteor. In 1967 the Grand Prix de Dressage was added to the show program. After a 17-year break from tournaments (1971 to 1988), the indoor show experienced its renaissance and has since steadily developed into today's top event.

This was also ensured by the inclusion of the Nurnberger Burgpokal Finals in the program, the final of which has been held in Frankfurt since its premiere in 1992. In 2012, Germany's best young Grand Prix horses came to the festival hall to determine the final of the Louisdor Prize.

Since 2016, the life-sized purple horse has been an ambassador for the IFRF and the charity campaign 'Hand in Hand for the Region'.

Family Hands

One of the special features of the indoor show is that the organization has been in family hands for generations.

The entrepreneur and two-time team Olympic champion in dressage, Josef Neckermann, was the founder of the competition. But the Frankfurt show stable Schwarz-Gelb e.V. (TSG), founded in 1956, was also closely involved in the organization of the show from the start.

The TSG founding board included Adolf Schindling, his daughter Liselott Linsenhoff and her husband Fritz Linsenhoff, the grandfather and parents of Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, who was responsible for the show for a long time. In the meantime, Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff's stepson Matthias Alexander Rath, the fourth generation, has “inherited” the show management. Since 2019, Rath has been managing the competition with the Schafhof's event agency, Schafhof Connects.

And not only that: he also continued the family's sporting successes in Frankfurt. Liselott Linsenhoff was able to win the Grand Prix in Frankfurt three times, and her daughter Ann Kathrin achieved this twice. They also won the final of the Nuremberg Burgpokal in 2002 with Wahajama-Unicef. In 2014 and 2020, Matthias Rath dominated with Samba King and Destacado FRH respectively.

Graf Rantzau Trophy

The trophy for show organizers, which was awarded for the first time this year, bears the name of the FN honorary president Breido Graf zu Rantzau, who died in 2022.

With the CDI/CSI Frankfurt, the number of organizers who have been honored so far has increased to six. The awardees also include the national and regional shows in:

Equestrian sports community Lähden, Weser-Ems
Schimmelhof riding community in Bremen
RFV Illtal and the Welvert Stud, Saarland
RV Bad Liebenstein/Sorga, Thuringia
Balve Optimum, Westphalia