The 2026 Hanoverian Cross-Country Championship
Hanoverian Cross-Country Championship – Diacontinus Festival: Repeat Performers and All-Around Talents
from Dominique Wehrmann 
The first repeat winner in the—admittedly still relatively short—history of the Hanoverian Eventing Championship: Butt’s Liam, ridden by Antonia von Baath. Next to him: silver medalist Diabellina with Nadine Marzahl in the saddle, and in the center, Marco Krüger representing the Hanoverian Association.
Photo: Hannoveraner.com Gold, silver, and bronze—all three medals in the five-year-old Hanoverian cross-country division went to offspring of the Celle state stud stallion Diacontinus, who is ranked eighth in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) sire rankings.
It comes as no surprise that the offspring of this former premium stallion—who was himself successful at heights up to 1.50 meters—are well-suited for cross-country. His sire, Diarado, tops the rankings of the world’s best eventing sires. His maternal grandsire, Contendro, sired, among others, Michael Jung’s Chipmunk, as well as three other five-star horses, 61 that jump over 1.60 meters in show jumping, and nine that compete in Grand Prix events. The third sire is none other than the legendary sire Argentinus, who produced championship horses in dressage and show jumping.
Top Three Among the Five-Year-Olds
This concentrated dose of champion blood runs through the veins of all three medalists in the five-year-old division of the 2026 Hanoverian Cross-Country Horse Championship, a Class A** cross-country competition. The victory went to the gray gelding Do it Together by Diacontinus-Waitaki, who scored a 9.6. He was presented by his breeder and owner, Alexandra Paulini, who had previously competed with the mare Kaitika M at the German Young Riders Championships.
The silver medal went to the winner of the second division, DiaLotta so Well by Diacontinus-Perigueux (breeder: Georg Müller, owner: Beate Hohnfeldt), ridden by Ayleen Stuhr, who received a score of 9.5 from the judges.
The Bronze-adorned Diacontinus offspring is still a stallion and goes by the name Dialario R. The “R” stands for the Reinstorf family. Dr. Susanne and Enno Reinstorf bred Dialario; their daughter Lena presented him to a score of 9.2. The dam is none other than the Inliner daughter Ilara W, who carried the other Reinstorf daughter, Paula, to two silver and one bronze medals at three U21 European Championships.
Repeat Offenders Among Six-Year-Olds
The six-year-olds competed against each other in a Class L cross-country event. Last year, it was Butt’s Liam by Grey Top-Heraldik xx, bred and owned by Prof. Dr. Volker Steinkraus, who won the championship with Antonia von Baath in the saddle. He achieved the same feat again this year. The Hanoverian Cross-Country Championship has been held for five years, but this was the first time a title had ever been defended. With a score of 9.4, Butt’s Liam placed second in his division but was the best six-year-old Hanoverian. Incidentally, Butt’s Liam comes from the same Hanoverian maternal line as Liebeslust, which—in addition to Andreas Dibowski’s Olympic champion Butts Leon—has also produced, among others, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour’s World Championship favorite in dressage, Mount St. John Freestyle.
Diacontinus was also a key factor among the six-year-olds. The silver medal went to Diabellina by Diacontinus-Black Jack, presented by Nadine Marzahl, bred by Dr. Ariane Latz, and owned by Myrtha Kuhn, who scored 9.1.
Silver in 2025 and bronze in 2026—that’s the haul for Alfie Undervover, a Rhinelander by Asagao xx-Chakiris xx (breeders: ZG Thomas and Maja Eichhornd, Heilshoop), at the two Hanoverian Championships in which he competed. He, too, was ridden by Antonia von Baath, who had also enjoyed success in competition with the Irish dam, My Avatar. He received an 8.9 for his round.
This put him one-tenth of a second ahead of his stablemate Butt’s Adagio by Grey Top-Heraldik xx, who, although he shares the same sires as the champion, also comes from the breeding program of Prof. Dr. Steinkraus and is trained by Antonia von Baath, descends from a different maternal line. One of his half-siblings is Anna Siemers’ Butt’s Avondale.
Four-Year-Olds – Aptitude Test with Cross-Country
The four-year-olds also had the opportunity to showcase their abilities in Luhmühlen as part of a Class A aptitude test that included cross-country. It was striking how many dressage stallions were represented on the sire’s side here, including the champion, Ruby by Raven-Heinrich Heine (breeder: Jennifer Schweig, owner: ZG Schweig GbR) under Annika Behr. The pair earned an overall score of 7.933—7.5 for their performance in the arena, 8.5 for jumping, and 7.8 on the cross-country course.
That was the second-best overall score behind the winner, Deanna o’Conner MF (breeder and owner: Marianne Fiebig), ridden by Nadine Marzahl, who posted the highest score of 8.633 but is already six years old. The daughter of Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s promising young horse Dancier Gold (dam: Connery) shone with an 8.4 in the arena, a 9.0 on the jump, and an 8.5 in the cross-country.
Most of the horses in the competition were already five or six years old. The second-best four-year-old mare with Hanoverian lineage was Blümlein, who scored 7.0; her sire, Belvedere DB, was bred by the de Baey family (Ahlerich, Rembrandt, Rubinstein), who placed seventh in the final for five-year-olds at the 2021 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses with Steffi Wolf and has since gone on to enjoy international success representing the United States. Blümlein’s dam is by Sir Calypso. The breeder and owner is Dr. Franziska Wehrenpfennig. The mare was presented by Marie Claire Maaß.
You can find all the results here.
