Two Wins for Young Horses from the Klimke Stable in Arville

The highlight in Arville was the CCI4*-L, which, however, with the World Championships in Aachen just around the corner, drew only five starters, three of whom completed the competition. This made it an easy ride for host Lara de Liederkerke-Meier on her nine-year-old Belgian Heraldik xx granddaughter La La Land d’Arville (by Herald). After the dressage, they were still in fourth place, but worked their way to the top with the fastest cross-country round (3.6 time penalties) and held on to the lead despite 4.4 penalties in the show jumping course.

Felix Etzel took second place riding Benoit Bold, a son of Bonaparte AA who is also only nine years old. The pair was the top-ranked combination after the dressage, took a little more time on the cross-country course (12.8), and incurred one knockdown and 0.8 time penalty points in the show jumping course.

The only clear round was ridden by Belgian rider Valentine Emsens on the 10-year-old Irish horse Maplevalleys Concorde. However, they were in fifth place after the dressage and played it safe in the cross-country, finishing third with 19.6 time penalty points.

Greta’s “Gift”

In 2021, Ingrid Klimke’s daughter, Greta Busacker, became a double European champion in the Young Riders category. Since then, she has primarily drawn attention in the dressage arena, such as at the 2025 Burg-Pokal Final. On that occasion, she also mentioned that she had by no means given up on eventing, but that she currently did not have a horse of the caliber of her European champion, Scrabble. But perhaps she will again soon.

In Arville, the 23-year-old presented a young horse, the six-year-old Hanoverian gelding Cadeau JS. “Cadeau” refers to the French word for “gift,” and “JS” stands for breeder Johanna Friederike Stuthmann. The Stuthmann name is closely linked to the Klimke family. After all, Ingrid Klimke’s former championship horse, Escada, came from their breeding program. This Escada is Cadeau JS’s dam. The sire is the star sire Conthargos. So Cadeau already has what it takes to be a winner, genetically speaking. And not only that, as he demonstrated this weekend.

Four weekends ago, the pair made their international debut in the CCI1* Intro at Kronenberg. That was more of a learning experience, with two riders cutting corners on the cross-country course and eight faults on the show jumping course. But this weekend, things went well. Unlike in the CCI4*-L, a total of 60 pairs competed in the one-star Intro class, including several championship riders with their top young horses. But Greta and Cadeau secured an excellent starting position right from the dressage, finishing third with 29.9 penalty points. And then they crossed the finish line clear of faults in both the cross-country and the show jumping, with no problems at the obstacles and within the time limit. This secured their first international victory. Hopefully not their last!

One mistake too many

The Klimke family almost had two victories to celebrate. Two-time European champion Ingrid Klimke entered one of her promising young horses, the eight-year-old Hanoverian mare Candy by Carridam, in the CCI3*-S. The pair took the lead in the dressage with a strong score of 22.8 penalty points. In the cross-country, they were the tenth-best of the 66 pairs with only 0.4 time penalties. As a result, they entered the show jumping course today as the leaders—and thus as the last pair to compete. Thanks to mistakes by the pairs ranked ahead of them, she could have afforded one fault. But she ended up with two. As a result, the pair finished third.

The victory went to Belgian rider Julia Schmitz on Catan-H Z, ahead of Lara de Liederkerke-Meier and her Luhmühlen winner and European Championship mare Hooney d’Arville, who had taken a break after finishing 19th at Badminton in the spring and proved this weekend, with a clear cross-country round, that she is ready for bigger challenges.

Behind Ingrid Klimke, Anna Siemer, riding her nine-year-old Holsteiner mare Kiss Me, took fourth place.

The CCI4*-S

For Lara de Liederkerke-Meier, it was a weekend of second-place finishes. She also took second place in the CCI4*-S, riding the 10-year-old Diarado son Quintus, behind the Swedish championship pair Frida Andersen on Box Leo. Third place also went to Belgium, to Tine Magnus on Dia van het Lichterveld Z.

After the dressage and jumping, Ingrid Klimke had been in the lead on her new horse, Kallista. But today, the pair had a pass-by at obstacle 12c, a vertical jump combined with a ditch as the “b” element. As a result, they dropped to twelfth place.

You can find all the results from Arville here.