Princess Benedikte Celebrates 80th Birthday

Dressage

Denmark

HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark celebrates her 80th birthday today, 29 April 2024.

Benedikte's involvement in the horse and dressage world has been paramount over the years.

She is the patron of the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses (WBFSH), the Danish Equestrian Federation (DRF), the Danish Warmblood society, and the Danish horse welfare organisation Hestens Værn. She also presided the Global Dressage Foundation.

In 2006 she ran for president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) but Princess Haya of Jordan got elected.

Princess Benedikte lives at Schloss Berleburg in Germany. She is the younger sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and the aunt of Margrethe's son, the current King of Denmark, Frederik X.

Together with her late husband Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, she has three children, Gustav, Alexandra and Nathalie. Nathalie is a Danish Olympic dressage rider and current board member of the Danish Equestrian Federation.

Princess Benedikte is a small-time, successful sport horse breeder with Nathalie's Danish Olympic team horse Digby as the most successful one.

Since 2005 the Danish warmblood society annually bestows the "HRH Princess Benedikte Perpetual Prize" to a horse that is registered in Danish Warmblood, and which by its own performance or as the sire or dam of competition horses has made itself especially noticeable.

Princess Benedikte's 80th birthday has not gone unnoticed and it's being celebrated on several occasions with a birthday dinner at Sølyst organized by Hestens Vaern on 19 april, followed by the opening of the exhibition "“Princess Dresses” at Koldinghus on 24 April. Her actual birthday is spent with her family while on 2 May the Princess will hold a reception for her patronages at Rosenborg Castle.