Great opportunity for dressage rider Franziska Stieglmaier

Franziska Stieglmaier (33) first really made a name for herself in 2016. Back then, she won the final of the Piaff-Förderpreis with her self-trained Lukas. By then it was clear: this is someone who not only sits nicely in the saddle, but can really ride.

Since then, she has confirmed this time and again by successfully presenting trained horses at Grand Prix level. Some of them on the international stage.

Cross-generational passion

Stieglmaier’s parents already ran a riding stable. She grew up there, learned to ride and graduated from high school.

She didn’t just learn at home. After completing her A-levels, Franziska Stieglmaier gained impressions and experience at the Max-Theurer family stables and with national coach Monica Theodorescu before taking her examination to become a horse trainer as a career changer.

She is now the boss on her parents’ farm and still has big goals. She wants to gain an international foothold with her self-trained (of course) eleven-year-old Zack son Zahin, having already shown the Hanoverian twice in CDI3* competitions last year.

It helps that her mother is a vet in the family and that her brother is a farrier and vet. Her father Walter Stieglmaier is a riding instructor and has been successful in dressage and show jumping up to advanced (S) level. He still works in the stables every day and is there to help and advise her.

Support from above

Franziska Stieglmaier has now been accepted into the talent pool of the Stiftung Deutscher Pferdesport. This means that she will soon be able to benefit from a sponsorship, as the FN reports: “A sponsor and mentor will be at her side in the future and will support her financially over the next two years as well as with a promising young horse.” It is not yet publicly known who this sponsor is.

Stieglmaier is delighted: “I am incredibly grateful for this support. It is something very special to be accompanied on my path not only financially, but also personally. It really motivates me to keep working towards my goals.”