Rider Lucas Wenz is leaving the Holsteiner Verband; Andreas Künnemann will become an instructor at the stud farm

According to the Holsteiner Verband, Lucas Wenz will be leaving at the end of September “by mutual agreement.” He will be taking on a new professional challenge. Wenz worked in Elmshorn for exactly three years training stallions and achieved a number of successes during that time.

He really made a name for himself in competition with the stallion United Way, achieving international success with him up to 1.55 meters. For example, the pair placed fourth in the 2025 Sires of the World Jumping competition in Lanaken and also placed in events in Lier, Herning, and Hohen Wieschendorf. He also rode the stallions Union City, Charaktervoll, and Vigado.

According to the association’s statement, Wenz joined the Holsteiner Verband “during turbulent times” and “contributed to the work with the stallions with great dedication, helping to strengthen the ‘Holstein’ brand once again.”

Association Executive Director Felix Flinzer emphasized that they had “always greatly valued” the collaboration and wished Wenz all the best.

New Trainer

One leaves, another arrives. In this case, it’s trainer Andreas Künnemann, who will take on the role of trainer and instructor at the stallion stable on October 1. He will be responsible for both training the young horses and coaching the riders.

With 67-year-old Künnemann, Elmshorn is gaining a staff member who knows the sport from every angle. The equine management specialist has more than 250 victories in young horse show jumping to his credit, is a recipient of the Golden Riding Badge, and has coached his students all the way to the European Championships. In Denmark, in addition to his work as a trainer, he also served as an event organizer. Furthermore, he was jointly responsible for the development of show jumping at the Danish Equestrian Federation for two years. In 2024, the Danish Professional Riders’ Association named him “Trainer of the Year.”

“The goal is to lay a solid foundation and help both horse and rider develop step by step. Especially with young horses, it’s important to give them time, but at the same time to teach them the right fundamentals from the very beginning,” says Felix Flinzer, explaining the idea behind the association’s decision to hire Künnemann. But the vision goes much further than that.

Elmshorn as a Training Center

The association writes that Künnemann’s appointment is part of a “broader strategic development.” The Elmshorn location is to be developed more into a training center—not only for stallions and horses for sale, but also, for example, as part of a kind of “after-sales service.”

“In the future, we want to place even greater emphasis on training as a central component of what we offer,” explains Felix Flinzer. “For us, this includes training our horses as well as developing our team of trainers. At the same time, we also want to offer our customers an even more comprehensive range of services related to auctions and sales.”

In practice, this means that anyone who buys a horse from the association will also find a point of contact here for the horse’s ongoing development. In the long term, there will be a wide range of training courses available. Additional training opportunities—which will help make Elmshorn a “hub for training, breeding, and sports”—are in the works.