Hemmer Puts Team Germany In Comfortable Lead at 2025 European Dressage Championships

- Text © Eurodressage (this article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition)  
-- Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

With a beautiful round in which harmony and elasticity stood out did Katharina Hemmer on Denoix PCH put Team Germany in a comfortable lead in the team medal race at the 2025 European Dressage Championships in Crozet, France, on Wednesday 27 August 2025. 

Autumn Party Pooper

The 2025 European Championships are hosted at Ian and Virginia Lundin's fabulous Jiva Hill stables on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland, nestled in the valley between the Jura and Swiss Alpine mountains.

The days leading up to the kick-off class - the Grand Prix - were blessed with gorgeous, sunny summer weather, but autumn is now knocking at the door and  has decided to crash the party.  After a sun-kissed horse inspection and ring familiarization on Tuesday morning and afternoon, the welcome party in the evening was literally blown to pieces with heavy wind gusts and rain as party poopers. 

The Grand Prix serves as Team Championship and with 62 riders representing 14 nations the class is split over two days. The first group went on Wednesday 27 August and the weather turned out better than forecast. A little bit of morning drizzle became negligible in comparison to the sharp, hot sun that blessed the majority of rides.  

Group two will compete on Thursday after which the team standing will be official and a medal ceremony can take place. Who will succeed Great Britain as European Team Champions of 2023? Unfortunately the autumn weather gods have planned to put their teeth into Crozet and tomorrow a miserable day of rain and greyness is expected. Let's hope they change their mind and can postpone autumn by another five days, please.

The Grand Prix is judged by Peter Storr, Raphaël Saleh, Maarten Van der Heijden, Hans-Christian Matthiesen, Christof Umbach, Katrina Wüst, and Janet Foy.

Fantastic Elastic 

Like every (European) Dressage Championships, nothing goes entirely as planned and today it was no different. Germany's fourth rider, Ingrid Klimke, had "the worst grand prix we’ve done,” as she told Horse & Hound after the test. Rudolf Spiekermann's 14-year old Westfalian stallion Vayron (by Vitalis x Gloster) had huge eyes at C and shied at the short side throughout the test. The pair began the test with a halt that was not perfectly square, but then showed a big, first trot extension and sweeping half passes. The rein back was difficult and a break in the second trot extension followed. The first pi-pa was nice and Vayron marched well in the extended walk but did not fully stretch over the back with the nose out. The second piaffe was on the spot but a bit on the forehand. The extended canter was big but crooked to the right, the zig zag well ridden, and the ones were good, but the pirouettes on the centerline were both problematic and the score plummeted to a 69,348%.

This left Katharina Hemmer to pick up the pieces and she did so in a fabulous way. As second German to go at the end of the day she and Nancy Gooding's 13-year old Oldenburg gelding Denoix PCH (by Destano x Pik Noir) gave a masterclass of beautiful riding, presenting an elastic horse that is thorougly trained, the proper (classical) way and is soft and quiet in the contact and poll. The chestnut does not have the best piaffes (he crosses behind and creeps forward) but Hemmer, who is a student of Hubertus Schmid,  delicately navigated him through the test, focusing on rhythm and balance to make it all look easy and flowing, even though it required effort from her horse. They began with a big bang: entering the arena in a beautifully collected canter and delivering the perfect halt that should have scored a 10. Umbach was the only one who dared to give it a 9. The rest kept it at 7.5 to 8.5. The trot extensions and half passes were bouncy and elastic, the rein back a bit crooked to the right. The first passage needed a bit more collection.  The extended walk was ok, but Denoix could have relaxed a bit more. The second passage was more closed and together, the second piaffe needed more sit behind. The canter work was excellent with lovely tempi changes, zig zag, and extended canter. The pirouettes were easy going. They finished on 75.699%, the high score of the day and six out of seven judges had the pair first with not too much spread between them. 

The two German scores combined led to 145,047 points, which put Germany in a comfortable lead in the nations ranking after day one. 

Denmark Chasing

The Danish team is chasing Germany and currently standing second with a total of 141,227 points after two rides. 

Denmark's Nadja Aaboe Sloth and Rikke Dupont made consistency count and delivered two very polished tests that cracked the 70 percentage marker, something only seven pairs out of 29 were able to do today. The scoring has been a bit stricter this year with more focus on harmony and better bridle contact. Particularly the lesser gods felt the effect of this "Nouvelle Vague" in dressage judging, the heroes at the top are less affected by the trend, but let's see what happens tomorrow when they are scrutinised by the most prolific seven judges on the globe. 

As fourth rider to go in the morning, prison guard by profession Nadja Aaboe Sloth and her 12-year old Danish bred Favour Gersdorf (by Ferdinand x Leandro) scored high points with a solid canter tour: a clean zig zag, tidy pirouettes, and smooth two tempi changes. They also produced a good rein back, a ground covering extended walk, and a lovely first piaffe. The passage could have the hindlegs more towards the point of gravity and in the second piaffe he backstepped a bit. Also he jogged in the collected walk before the transition to passage. He scored 71.227% for a provisional third place in the class. Sloth trains with Rune Willum. 

Team new comer Rikke Dupont and Gert Buchhave and Allan Hansen's 10-year old Danish gelding Grand Galiano (by Grand Galaxy Win T x Don Schufro) landed sixth place with 70,000%. The halt at entry was not immobile, but the tall, long lined gelding then excelled in his trot extensions and neat first passage. He got a bit tight and deep in the trot half passes and his piaffes are not his forté. Grand Galiano gets wide at the base and does not sit and collect in them, just maintains a rhythm. The tempi changes were so straight and ground covering though, the extended canter rather downhill. He stalled in the transition to piaffe at X. Overall the horse needs to be in a better self carriage and less ridden on the hand, but there are many elements in his ride to be excited about. 

Sweden Follows

If you total the scores of Sweden's two riders, they are currently standing in third place in the nations' ranking as both their riders also cracked the seventies marker. Sweden totalled 140,373 points so far. 

Team routinier and 11-time European Championship rider Tinne Vilhellson Silfven rode Lovsta Stuteri's 13-year old KWPN mare Hyatt (by Apache x Sandreo) to a fifth place with 70.373%.  The pair were last to go today in the bright sunshine. The chestnut mare has an electric passage with lots of airtime and executes neat one tempi changes and small pirouettes, but is often tight in the neck and the half-halting needs to be more subtle. There was a loss of rhythm in the first piaffe, in the second she really showed intention to sit but crept forward. The final passage on the centerline was a little uneven behind, but the piaffe at X the best one of the three shown. Vilhelmson is a long-time student of Louise Natthorst. 

Swedish team newbie Sofie Lexner and Jenny Lindén Urnes' 12-year old Dutch mare Inoraline W (by Johnson x Amiral) placed sixth with 70.000%. They impressed with big, lofty trot extensions and very elegant half passes. The rein back had big steps. Mare "Nora" lifts her legs very high in passage, but was not always even. In the first piaffe she didn't really settle into the rhythm. The extended walk was huge. The second piaffe expressive but not really sitting. The two tempi changes and extended canter were good, but in the zig zag she got tight in the neck and the ones lacked some straightness. The pirouettes were good.

Holland and Belgium In the Top Five

The Dutch team is currently standing in fourth place with 139,767 points based on Thamar Zweistra's 70.932% (4th) and Rowena Weggelaar's 68.835% (11th).

At age 20 Rowena Weggelaar is the youngest athlete at the 2025 Europeans in Crozet and she brought her 17-year old KWPN gelding Don Quichot (by United x Gribaldi) which she competed in 2022 on the Dutch team at the European Junior (!) Riders Championships  and 2023 European Young Riders Championships. Weggelaar rode her bay in a very pleasant, sympathetic frame, never pushing or pulling. Don Quichot is not the flashiest mover, but so obedient and willing. There was a miscount in the zig zag, the ones needed to be straighter and the collected walk was a bit stiff, but the piaffe and passage were soft footed.  Weggelaar trains with Kebie van der Heijden. Thamar Zweistra saddled the 9-year old Luxuriouzz (by Johnson x San Remo) and showed how eager and willing her chestnut is to perform. He lifts the legs up to his belly and chin in piaffe and pasasge and never seems to run out of energy. The pirouettes were small but not so balanced. The biggest issue in the ride is the tightness in the neck and self-carriage, but the panel was quite forgiving, although the judges' individual marks ranged from 69.130% to 73.696%. After the untimely passing of Thamar's husband and trainer Leunus van Lieren in December 2024, Thamar has been training with Rieky Young and team captain Patrick van der Meer.

Belgium completed the provisional top five with 137,127 points. At the 2025 CDIO Aachen a Belgian wrote history by winning the Aachen Grand Champion's title and beating Isabell Werth on home turf, in the lion's dion. Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus are the sensation of the year and much pressure is on the pair's shoulders to scratch off Belgium's label as a "developing dressage nation" and be counted amongst the big players in Europe. Verboomen took the spot that Olympian Flore de Winne left vacant by selling her stallion Flynn to Switzerland for the big bucks. The other three Belgian team riders (Pauluis, Michiels and Defalque) are still identical to the 2023 Europeans in Riesebeck. Today Charlotte Defalque and the oldest horse at the 2025 Europeans, 19-year old KWPN gelding Botticelli (by Vivaldi x Koss), kicked off Belgium's push to the team podium with a 68.478% earning ride. The judges had her between 66.739% and 69.891%. The long-legged chestnut gelding is so safe and established in all the Grand Prix work and did not really make a big mistake, but it all looked a bit quick and rather less "springy". Domien Michiels and Marc Steeno's 17-year old Belgian warmblood Intermezzo van het Meerdaalhof (by Gribaldi x Balzflug) finished on 68.649%. The black gelding still has his ears pricked, but today he had some difficult with the rhythm in the transitions out of the piaffe and there was a big hiccup in the two tempi changes. The pirouettes were good as well as the zig zag and one tempi changes. Pauluis and Verboomen will have to give it their all tomorrow if they want Belgium pursuing bronze.  Defalque is coached by Jeroen Devroe, while Michiels is a long-time student of Devroe's life-partner, Carmen de Bondt. 

And what about Britain?

According to David Stickland's team medal predictions the battle for gold would be between Great Britain and Germany. So far, title defenders Team GB were not off to a great start as their first rider, team newcomer Andrew Gould got eliminated when Tatiana Skillmann's 12-year old KWPN stallion Indigro (by Negro x Jazz) took uneven steps in the trot extension and half passes. The judge at C, veterinarian Dr. Hans-Christian Matthiesen rang the bell and excused the pair from the test. This left the team with only one score counting after day one. Great Britain is currently standing 11th, but everything can change tomorrow with Fame (Carl Hester) and World Champion Glamourdale (Charlotte Fry) slated to compete.

Britain's Olympic team rider Becky Moody placed second today with a score, slightly above par, 74.829%. Her own and Jo Cooper's 11-year old Dutch warmblood gelding Jagerbomb (by Dante Weltino x Jazz) were not yet on peak performance in Crozet.

At the CDIO Aachen the tall bay gelding did not stand immobile, but in Crozet he stood quiet on all four legs. The trot out of halt didn't look as supple but the extensions were ground covering and the half passes were fluent. Did the pair take too many steps in the rein back than the prescribed five? It seemed like that to me.  The first passage was really nice and regular but today "Bomber's" piaffe often had the right hind backstepping. The extended walk did not show the most generous overtrack and clarity in the rhythm but still got a 7.0. The collected was okay. The two tempi changes were a highlight and there was a counting error in the zig zag. In the extended canter Jagerbomb threw in two flying changes unasked for (4.1). The pirouettes were small but not the most elastic. One of the strong points of the ride was the very steady contact and Jagerbomb produces text book foam - a lipstick amount - as indicator of a consistent and pleasant contact with the bit.

The Grand Prix continues tomorrow, Thursday 28 August 2025, with the second group of Grand Prix riders. Eurodressage is there to report on how the dice rolled. 

Eurodressage is taking photos of all competitors in Crozet. No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025 European Dressage. Championships