Emily Raff Wins the National Junior Pony Dressage Championship in Darmstadt
For the fourth consecutive year, the national junior champion in pony dressage from Baden-Württemberg is coming
from Dominique Wehrmann 
Stock photo of pony dressage
Photo: Sportfotos-lafrentz.de Not many of the 25 U14 pairs who, following a selection camp with national team coach Caroline Roost, qualified this year for the National Junior Pony Dressage Championship at the L level managed to improve their performance in the second of the two final competitions in Darmstadt-Kranichstein. Not so for 12-year-old Emily Raff from South Baden and her pony Dolittle.
They had established a solid foundation on the first day with a score of 8.4 and a fourth-place finish; in the second round, they took to heart the feedback the judges had given them on the first day and stepped it up a notch: A victory with a score of 8.7, which—since both rounds are weighted equally in the final tally—amounted to 17.1 points. That was more than enough to secure the title of 2026 National Junior Champions.
Emily is thus continuing a winning streak for her home state of Baden-Württemberg. In 2023, Maya Wächter came out on top; she was part of this year’s European Championship gold-medal-winning team. In 2024, the winner was Martha Louisa Temme, who was also from Baden-Württemberg. In 2025, Franka Müller took the title. And quite some time ago, the winner was Ann-Cathrin Rieg. She still rides ponies, now at the Grand Prix level, as you can read about here.
The other placers
. Taking second place was a duo from the Hanover Equestrian Association: Romy Mortfeld with her pony Wutz. The pair seized their last chance to compete in the National Junior Championships, as Romy turned 14 this year. They were the second-best pair in the first round and finished the second round with a score of 8.1. That was enough to secure second place with 16.7 points, a margin of 0.1 points.
The competition for the remaining spots was even tighter. Both Paulina Schnabel (12) from Schleswig-Holstein, riding Madison, and Sophia Brenninkmeyer (14) from the Rhineland, riding Golden Diamond W, finished with 16.6 points. But when riders are tied on points, the result of the second test is decisive—and Paulina had the edge there. Consequently, she took bronze, and Sophia finished fourth.
