German professional dressage rider Kim Pfeiffer married former international youth rider Marc Lingelbach. The 33-year old Pfeiffer and the 33-year old Lingelbach had their wedding at the start of August and then went on to celebrate their union in Rome (ITA). Pfeiffer's top horse is the Hanoverian Ferdinand (by Floricount x Embassy), which she brought from young horse level to Grand Prix. Lingelbach's greatest successes were on his youth horse Rolex (by Rodgau x Matterhorn). Since then he has briefly shown Dream Girl (in 2015) and Feurtanz (in 2022) at a handful of CDI's. Lingelbach now works as a lawyer for the public prosecutor's office in Wiesbaden. Pfeiffer has changed her last name to Lingelbach.
Not surprisingly Martin Richenhagen has agreed to run for president of the German Equestrian Federation. The experienced businesmann (former CEO of Fendt/Agco), dressage judge and chef d'equipe told Eurodressage, "after an initiative of the heads of the German regional associations and the top athletes I have decided to give back to equestrian and apply officially for the position of the FN - President." The FN is currently without as Hans-Joachim Erbel resigned from the post at 2024 German FN Extraordinary Assembly on 11 July 2024.
Once again, forage at Gestut Lewitz was destroyed by fire, this time on 16 July 2024. This time lightning struck a huge lot of hay bales and set them ablaze. In 2004, 3000 bales of hay caught fire and got ruined. Between 2010 and 2012 there were three further incidents of fire at the stud 2010 an arson caused fire three times at the stud: first 4000 bales of hay burnt and three months later 10,000 bales of hay were destroyed. During a third incident, the culprit, 22-year old Fabian T, got caught red handed. He was found guilty in court and sentenced to five years in jail. His two accomplices were minors and were also convicted. In 2018 an automatic feeder short-circuited and caught fire. There was damage for 300,000 euro. In September 2022, a 500 meter row of 20,000 straw bales caught fire. In March 2023 another 20,000 straw bales burnt.
The Cadre Noir in Saumur announced that Mireille Belot-François has passed away. She was of the two first women to be accepted at the Cadre Noir in 1984 alongside Florence Labram. "She left an impression with her discretion, her elegance on a horse and her desire to pass on her knowledge," the Cadre Noir posted. Belot-François retired from her role in 2006.
In Japan dressage horse owner and sponsor Tsunehiro Shimoda has passed away. Originally from Kumamoto, Shimoda was a Japanese businessman and major investor in Japanese dressage sport. He studied at Nihon university and ran the Irish Arran Riding School in Gotemba. He sponsored Japanese Grand Prix rider Shingo Hayashi. Shimoda lost his son, dressage rider Akihori Shimoda, unexpectedly in March 2020.
The Danish court in Aarhus has confirmed the decision of the Danish warmblood's disciplinary committee to suspend Anders Sjobek Hoeck for one-year after he was found aggressively riding a 3-year old mare at the DWB mare performance test on 19 August 2023. Hoeck disagreed with the suspension and sued Danish warmblood. The court has now ruled in favour of DWB. It stated: "based on the witness statements given and in part the video recording shown, it is assumed that the claimant rode his horse in a way that did not harmonize with the considerations for horse welfare that were written down in the "Code of Conduct", regardless of the fact that it cannot be established with certainty that the plaintiff rode his horse into the wall. On that basis, the defendant's disciplinary committee was entitled to impose a sanction on the plaintiff. The court also found no basis for changing the suspension imposed by the Danish Warmblood's disciplinary committee. The plaintiff Anders Uwe Sjøbeck Hoeck is also ordered to pay Dansk Varmblod's legal costs."