Rose Oatley new German U25 dressage champion

The investment in the twelve-year-old Westphalian mare Alive and Kicking has already paid off for the Oatley family. With 78.30 percent, she carried the 19-year-old Rose Oatley to her first U25 title today, having already won silver in the short Grand Prix.

The two quickly found each other after Rose took over the All at Once daughter from her trainer Charlotte Dujardin a few weeks ago. “She’s already a family member, a mixture of my two other horses Moony (her pony Daddy Moon, with whom she set a new world record, among other things) and Sommi (the mare Sommernacht, who made her European Junior Champion, among other things),” Rose describes, adding: “She’s a real lesson horse. I can rely on her incredibly and just enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, she never expected things to go as well as they did this weekend. “Everything works really well at home and I always try to take the feeling from home into the arena. Today I was able to take that feeling from home back a little. I’m just incredibly proud of her.”

Silver on tree belt

Lucie-Anouk Baumgürtel and the ten-year-old Hanoverian mare First Vienna have known each other for much longer, namely for five years. Lucie, who is spoiled by success in the pony, junior and young rider camps, trained the mare herself up to Grand Prix level – her masterpiece, so to speak. This is the first U25 season for the pair and they were already the best pair at the Piaff-Förderpreis. They confirmed this impression yesterday with the title in the short Grand Prix and today with silver in the freestyle, this time with 77.125 percent.

At home, Lucie-Anouk Baumgürtel trains with her mother, but also with former U25 national coach Sebastian Heinze. On her way to Grand Prix with First Vienna, she already had an experienced S*** horse to learn on. However, she also says that she benefited from her time as a pony rider, where she was able to gain experience in bringing young horses and ponies into the sport.

Even though she has already collected 20 gold medals in her junior years, she “never expected” to get off to such a flying start in her U25 season. “We’re going down this path together and it’s a lot of fun,” said Lucie. “Vienna is totally caring and very ambitious. The special thing is that we’ve known each other for so long, from the Bundeschampionat, where we won bronze, to here now. We know each other inside out, it’s a lot of fun and I’m super grateful that we’re going all this way together.”

The constant on the podium: Pia-Carlotta Gagel

Pia-Carlotta Gagel took home her second bronze medal of the weekend with a score of 74.950 percent with her 16-year-old veteran Riccio. Trained by Martin Pfeiffer, the Rock Forever son already had Grand Prix successes when Pia took him on. That was in 2023 and since then the pair have already collected a number of successes. Which is hardly surprising, as Pia’s father is the Olympic judge Henning Lehrmann. Although she mainly trains with Cora Jacobs, Pia revealed, she also trains with her father, who explains the judge’s perspective to her.

Pia is quick to sum up what makes her Riccio special: “He loves going out to pasture. If he doesn’t come out first, he gets uncomfortable.”

The 2026 European Championship team

These three, who shared out the national medals this weekend, are unsurprisingly part of the team competing at this year’s U25 European Championships in Pilisjaszfalu, Hungary. The German line-up is completed by Katharina Schuster from Bavaria with her mare Qence L.

The two also know each other inside out, even a little better than Lucie and First Vienna, because when 23-year-old Katharina took over the Quantensprung daughter Qence L, she herself was 15 years young and the mare was three years old and had only been under saddle for a few months. The two are the exception to the rule of “young rider – old horse, old rider – young horse”. The budding teacher revealed how this came about in an interview that we will be publishing online next week. This much can be revealed: The story of the two goes beyond sporting success.

The highlight of their career for the time being: their nomination for the European Championships after finishing third in the Intermédiaire II, the competition in which the team medals are awarded at the European Championships, on Thursday with a score of 70.921 percent.