Germany Takes the Lead at the Junior European Dressage Championships in Olomouc, Czech Republic

After both Eve Catherine Bartels’ Villeneuve and Ava Osing’s Destacado were ruled out of the Junior European Championships in Olomouc, it was the reserve riders’ big moment. They were Greta Louise Wagner on Vanessa H and Birte Niessing on Destino. Today, the two of them had the task of giving the German team a strong starting position. They mastered their job with flying colors.

The Rider on the White Horse

The first pair to compete for Germany were 17-year-old Birte and her gray horse Destino by Destano. For the two of them, the European Championships mark just their second international competition. Their first was at the Future Champions in Hagen, where they scored 70.121 percent in the team event—the same event ridden today. Today, with a harmonious and precisely executed performance, they managed to top that: a personal best of 70.243 percent.

Greta in the Lead

The second alternate, Greta Louise Wagner, who will celebrate her 16th birthday in August, was already part of the silver-medal-winning team in the Children’s division in 2024, so she’s bringing championship experience with her to Olomouc. However, she and her 10-year-old Hanoverian mare Vanessa H—a daughter of Vivaldi—don’t have all that much international experience yet. The mare was primarily trained by Vera Nass, who rode her from Dressage Level A to S. In the spring of 2025, the chestnut mare then went to Greta, who presented her for the first time this year at the “Preis der Besten” and the “Future Champions.”

In Hagen, at their international debut, they finished the team event with a score of 70.879 percent. Today, they significantly improved on that: 72.333 percent. That was the best score of any rider in the arena in Olomouc today. As a result, the first two German riders finished Day One of the European Championships in first and third place, more than fulfilling their mission.

Junior Team Standings

Squeezing in between the two German riders—also with a personal best (70.273)—was Switzerland’s Mica-Ladina Gysau, riding Mattheo, a son of the Hanoverian Morricone. The Swiss riders had already impressed with beautiful rides at the European Championships in Pilisjaszfalu, and this pair’s performance was no exception. Gysau’s home, however, is not in Switzerland but in Hesse. She left Switzerland after graduating from high school to focus entirely on her riding career.

With this result, Mica-Ladina Gysau and her teammate Sina Willener—who also set a new personal best (69.485) riding Fürst Laurie’s H—helped Switzerland secure second place in the team standings behind Germany, ahead of the Netherlands and Denmark.

Children – Go Belgium!

The children also compete in three classes, but the first one is a warm-up class. They do not have a freestyle test. Part one of the warm-up test took place today and saw a pair from Belgium clearly in the lead: Shirley Vanerom with her Belgian-registered but purely German-bred Ogami van het Beukenhof (by Sir Donnerhall out of Fidertanz from a Hanoverian mare line). For their riding performance, they received 89.1 percent from the E-class judging duo, Thomas Lang and Knut Danzberg. Combined with the technical scores for the test, the pair achieved a total of 81 percent.

Second place went to Nele Cordt from Austria and her Bavarian gelding Fauntleroy by Fiorano-Piaster (85 percent/77.322). Third place went to Antonia Hansmeyer, representing the German delegation, riding her 15-year-old KWPN mare Gentle van Wittenstein V by Wittenstein, with 83.250 percent in the E class and 76.625 percent overall.

You can find all the results from Olomouc here.

Germany is done. The team medals will be awarded tomorrow.