Even when Katharina Meyer’s last name was still Tietz, she was a passionate eventing rider. Hunt rides in the Lüneburg Heath, where her family lives, are an integral part of her daily life. Just like her training with Claus Erhorn, the 1988 Olympic team champion in Seoul. “My mentor,” Katharina says emphatically.

From the Tidal Flats to the Heath

When a young horse is sidelined due to a Borrelia infection, the search for a replacement begins. “So my father contacted Andreas Dibowski, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a horse, but she’s not exactly easy. She’s a racehorse—Fritz Butt actually rode her himself in the Duhner Wattrennen and won. She’s not exactly easy.’”

Gerd Döscher, who had broken in the horse in question, is the blunt type: “Oh, Katha, don’t do that—she’s totally wild.” But Katharina Meyers’ (then still Tietz) curiosity is piqued. “I got on her, and it worked out great. It felt amazing.” The deal is done. Anakonda—that’s the mare’s name—moves in with the Tietz family.

Anaconda, wild, and “Braxxi’s” niece

The mare was bred by Friedrich Butt, the man to whom the sport of eventing owes horses such as the Olympic team champion Butt’s Abraxxas, “Braxxi” (ridden by Ingrid Klimke), and Butt’s Leon (ridden by Andreas Dibowski). But also Butt’s Avedon/Andreas Dibowski and “the fastest horse in the world,” Anna Siemers’ Butt’s Avondale—both horses that have proven their quality in CCI5*-L—come from the nearly pure Thoroughbred lines that Butt used to breed high-performance Hanoverians.

Best (Full) Blood

Ankakonda is descended from Sir Shostakovich xx, who sired several internationally successful eventing horses. Her dam is Anthea, a daughter of Star Regent xx, out of Kira-Annabell by Kronenkranich xx. The latter is Braxxi’s dam.

Katha and Anakonda are a great match. Katharina Meyer rode Anakonda up to the three-star level—“still under the old format,” meaning today’s four-star level plus the racetrack. When the mare sustained a minor injury, the idea of having Anakonda bred came up. “Use a Thoroughbred,” advised Fritz Butt’s widow at the time, fully in line with her husband’s breeding philosophy.

A Stallion for Anakonda

But the Tietzens have something else in mind. The goal is to improve the mare’s hooves. And some jumping ability wouldn’t hurt either. The choice falls on Canstakko, a Hanoverian sired by a Holsteiner (Canturo). His granddam is the dam of Lars Nieberg’s Esprit FRH, a member of the Olympic team that won gold in show jumping at the 2000 Sydney Games.

The ingredients are just right. The first foal from this mating by Anakonda is approved for Hanover: he is not named “Concours Complet” without good reason. That is the name of the eventing sport in France. That’s also why there’s a “CC” in the CCI5*-L. The stallion—handsome, attractive, licensed, and award-winning—dies quite young. But before that, he sired Clara Bo, for example, whom Anna Siemer rode to victory at the 2018 Bundeschampionat for five-year-olds. And Katha Meyers’ Chapeau Claque, a winner of four-star competitions, is also a son of Concours Complet.

2010 – The Birth of a Five-Star Horse: Aspen T

The year after Concours Complet was born, Anakonda was pregnant again—once more by Canstakko. The idea: “Let’s breed another one like that,” recalls Katha Meyer. Night after night, she waited in the stable for Anakonda to foal. “We didn’t have an automatic foaling monitor—we’re just small-scale breeders, after all.” Then it happened—the big moment: “And then Aspen came out. He was just huge—nothing but legs. It looked like some Irish guy had somehow jumped out onto the pasture.” But here, too, the sire is Canstakko.

It takes a little help before the big colt can stand on his own. “Then we—my mother was there, as were the Borstelmanns—had a whiskey to celebrate.” A whiskey to celebrate a Luhmühlen native who, 16 years later, would help turn his breeder into a five-star rider in Luhmühlen.

Legs, legs, legs

It’s not just since Heidi Klum that the world has known: long legs are one thing, coordination is another. The young Aspen T? A “somewhat unremarkable horse, just plain brown. He was always the lanky one in the pasture as a young horse,” recalls his breeder. “He had such long hind legs—it was truly enormous. His body first had to develop to fit around those legs.”

Schlaks grows up and is briefly broken in at age three. Then it’s back to the pasture. At age four, work should slowly begin. The word “work” precisely captures what Aspen T demands of his rider. “Even back then, he didn’t really like being ridden on the bit, so I just decided to go for trail rides instead.” Dressage never became Aspen T’s favorite discipline. And we’re not talking about complex dressage movements here. “In the arena, I couldn’t ride a single circle. It just wasn’t possible. So I basically always rode cross-country, almost exclusively at a walk and trot, because he couldn’t control his massive canter at all.”

Footwork makes the dream work

The key to better coordination: footwork—cross-country, over hill and dale. Not metaphorically, but literally. Branches, thickets, always off the beaten path. A kind of occupational therapy off the saddle. “We had this incredibly awesome hill in Niendorf—the Ahrberg. I used to scramble up and down it all the time. Over and over again, so he’d learn to just figure out what he needed to do.”

It’s going better and better out on the trail. But the indoor arena is still a challenge. Circle work? At a canter? “To be honest, that didn’t happen until he was six or seven years old.” But cantering out on the trail—that works. And how!

No one who bumps into you

Even though coordination isn’t exactly young Aspen’s strong suit, this “gentle giant” isn’t rough around the edges, says his breeder—quite the opposite! “Just bumping into someone with his shoulder—that’s not Aspen’s style. He’s always very careful. He sniffs around very cautiously at first. He’s always very considerate when interacting with everyone.”

The sniffer even has a passion: shampoo! He’s also very aware of the smells around him—and of what people are trying to slip past him. “When you put the travel boots on him and they’re not his own, he sniffs them first because he has to check them out.”

First Hunt—A Leap That Changes the World

Terrain + Lüneburg Heath + Luhmühlen = hunting rides. As simple as the equation may sound, it’s absolutely true. In fact, you’ll find nearly all eventing riders—plus their trainers and “ground crew”—somewhere on a hunting trail in the fall. Katha Meyer and Aspen T are no exception. That said, the gelding will ride his first hunt—better safe than sorry, “he was already quite strong”—under Carl Bolten. He doesn’t see any problems.

A “Hedge Festival” with a twist

Katharina Meyer and Aspen tackle the next course in the jumping arena. Things are feeling good. Then comes the first hedge, the rider recalls. “It was set really high—about 1.35 meters. A really substantial obstacle placed right in the woods.” Aspen sees his chance to showcase his talents. He takes off! Soaring toward the sky.

There’s a photo (below) that captured the scene. “In this photo, someone in front of me is jumping over that obstacle, and my horse’s hooves are flying right over the helmet of the rider jumping next to me.” Even today, Katha Meyer looks back on it in disbelief. “He really just jumped two or two and a half meters over it, and then all of a sudden I had this feeling where I thought, ‘Wow!’”

Started competing at age six

Hunts are one thing, but competitions are another. Aspen competed in his first competition at age six. A Class L cross-country event in Luhmühlen—8.8, victory! “That’s when I decided, ‘That’s enough.’ He didn’t need to compete anymore at six, and then, when he was seven, I started riding him in two-star events.” “

Katha is accompanied by Claus Erhorn. Hans Melzer, the former national team coach who lives in Salzhausen, a small town near Luhmühlen, is also there alongside Katha and Aspen. “Hans has kind of taken me under his wing; he’s always encouraged me and said, ‘Come on, I’ll be at the tournament too, so I’ll coach you, you’ll ride with us, and you’ll be just fine.’”

Manager Mom Monika

There’s one more person who’s an indispensable factor in the success of the Luhmühlen duo: Katha’s mother, Monika. “I always affectionately call her ‘the manager,’” says Monika. She’s the one who makes the plans for the horses. “She knows exactly which horse is suited for which competition. And she’s always there to keep an eye on us when we’re doing cross-country training.”

Monika Tietz herself competed in Grand Prix dressage. Katha’s father, Norbert—a businessman and, until his 80th birthday, the driving force behind the Lüneburger Heide Wildlife Park—is better known for his expertise in breeding. He enjoys buying foals and “has a special knack for it,” as his daughter attests.

Now it’s going global

On April 30, 2017, the seven-year-old Aspen competes in his first “international” event. It’s the CCI1* in … Luhmühlen—where else? In July of that same year, he becomes a two-star horse. In Sahrendorf, the pair completed the competition without any jumping faults. After several starts in 2018—including their first appearance in Strzegom—they reached the next level on their path to top-level competition in March 2019: the CCI3*-S in, of course, Luhmühlen.

Four-star hotels in the Netherlands

Three months later, in Rendswoude, came my first four-star competition. In the short course in the Netherlands, things weren’t quite clicking yet in the cross-country combinations. A “missed flag” at a combination in the first half, then a refusal at the takeoff of another combination—the second-to-last obstacle. But once I crossed the finish line, it was over.

Incidentally, this competition was won by Aspen’s “half-niece,” FRH Butt’s Avondale by Nobre xx—the daughter of Aspen’s half-sister, Heraldik’s Amelie—ridden by Anna Siemer.

The first Top 10 finish

In April 2021, the next milestone was successfully achieved. In Strzegom, the duo from Luhmühlen finished fourth in the CCI4*-S, their first top-10 placement. And the journey continued with their first Nations Cup appearance later that same year. At the end of June, Team Germany won the Nations Cup in Poland, once again in Strzegom. Katha and Aspen were part of the team.

If Aspen hadn’t been born in Luhmühlen, he might have been born in Strzegom. The big Hanoverian seems to feel just as at home there as he does in his birthplace. In August 2022, the pair made it onto the podium there for the first time, taking third place. This tournament was a very special moment for the Tietz family, as Katha won the class riding the Hanoverian Chapeau Claque—a horse she bred herself, descended from Aspen’s full brother, Concours Complet. That’s not something you see every day.

Boekelo – Four stars!

In October, the pair will make their debut in a long-distance event—and not just anywhere, but in Boekelo, the Netherlands. Their dressage score of 41.6 was supplemented by just four penalty points for a knockdown on the course. Suddenly, names like Jonelle Price, Laura Collett, and William Fox-Pitt find themselves trailing Katharina Meyer and Aspen in the rankings.

A New Addition to the Family

In the first half of the following year, Aspen takes a back seat for a while. That’s because Katharina Meyer gives birth to her first son in July 2023. She delivers by C-section—but despite the surgery, she’s back in the saddle before long.

She’ll be back at competitions as early as September. In October, she placed third at the CCI4*-S in Strzegom. Riding is important to Katha Meyer. It’s her “me time”—time for herself. The 2024 season has been a mixed bag. Still, there’s that feeling that says, “Katha, if you want to compete at the five-star level, you now have a horse for that in Aspen.”

The Dream of the CCI5*-L and Child Number Two

Her inner voice finds expert support in Luhmühlen. That will already be the case as early as winter 2024. “Everyone wanted me to ride that horse. But I already knew I was pregnant. It wasn’t until relatively late that I finally said, ‘Oh, by the way, in April—four months from now—I’m having my second child.’ Everyone was completely taken aback.”

In April 2025, Katha’s second son is born, again by C-section—but who cares! Her first competition is scheduled for the end of June. Four more follow. The season ends in October in Poland. “I rode a four-star event in Strzegom with Aspen because I wanted to qualify and keep all my options open for Luhmühlen. That’s exactly why I tried to pull it off.” The effort pays off.

A Goal and a Plan to Match

In January 2026, Katha met with national team coach Peter Thomsen and his predecessor, Hans Melzer. “We came up with a plan.” One that, as the 2026 season would show, was destined to succeed: “The three-star event in Luhmühlen went well (7th place, 42.9 penalty points), then Strzegom was great—we placed there (14th). In Marbach, he performed sensationally on the cross-country course, which was very, very difficult.”

As is so often the case, this success is also due to effective teamwork—thanks to the “Mom Manager” and “Mr. Maternity Leave,” Horst Wente. During the times when pregnancy made riding impossible, cross-country rider Horst Wente stepped in. He keeps the horses in shape. “Whenever I basically came back from maternity leave, I was actually able to get on horses that were already prepared. They were in such good shape that I could jump right in and get started with everything.”

Reaching the Top Flight

The CCI5*-L event is underway. The big day is drawing closer. Katha Meyer has no doubts that it won’t work out. “I have Aspen. Thanks to our long partnership, I know for a fact that he never takes any risks. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and he always makes sure everything goes smoothly and safely.” It’s not just Katha who has this deep trust in “her” Aspen—the rest of the family does too: “My husband knows that, my mother knows that, because this horse is really, really predictable in what he does. And I just know that he can actually do anything—he’s got so much talent. My favorite saying is, if you were to put a car—a Touareg or something like that—out in the open, he’d jump right over it. If I say, ‘You have to jump over that,’ then he does it.”

The big day is here

That’s exactly how it goes on the cross-country course at the 2026 CCI5*-L. It feels like there’s not a single person on the course who isn’t cheering on Katha and Aspen’s ride with particular enthusiasm. All of Luhmühlen is cheering them on. Except for Katha’s two sons. They’re spending the weekend with a good friend of their mother’s. That way, she can focus on her lifelong dream.

In the end, it was the fourth-best of the 20 show jumping rounds the pair completed. The rule of thumb: when in doubt, let Aspen take the lead. He’s careful—even on the Irish Banks, for example, which have only been part of the Luhmühlen course since 2025. Approach, narrow brush, takeoff—that’s the motto of the Luhmühlen duo: only flying is better! “We let him do as much as possible on his own,” Katha Meyer reveals after the cross-country round. It was exactly the right strategy.

“I’ve never jumped that high before”

Anyone who thinks the five-star cross-country course is the toughest challenge is mistaken. At least as far as Katharina Meyer and Aspen are concerned. Because even with all the focus on the demands of the cross-country course, the final jumping competition has taken a back seat. “What was on that course—I’ve never jumped that high before.” But everyone’s keeping their fingers crossed here, too. Show jumping expert Marcus Döhring says that if he were to ride this course with a horse, it would be with Aspen. The Hanoverian understands what matters and makes big leaps. All the poles stay down.

Two time penalties are added to the total. Seventh place—and a flood of emotions. The people of Luhmühlen celebrate “their” Katha. And Olympic champion Julia Krajewski offers her congratulations. When Katha tries to play it down a bit, Julia makes it clear what’s what: “Five stars! First of all, you have to step into the starting box and have the courage to even do it.”