Title: Excitement Builds for the 2025 International Marbach Eventing Competition
Ingrid Klimke pilots a high-octane Equistros Siena Just Do It. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“The number of entries is impressive,” says Dr. Anna Fecke (BadGrönenbach) from the tournament management, “we have more registrations than last year!”
Over 120 riders from eleven nations, bringing approximately 170 horses, will saddle up and compete at the International Marbach Eventing on the beautifully situated grounds of Baden-Württemberg’s Marbach State Stud from May 15 to 18, 2025. The organizers of the Interest Group of Eventing Riders in Baden-Württemberg (IGV-BW), which has been responsible for the event in Marbach for years, are using the 2025 event as a dress rehearsal, as the Official German Nations Cup is expected to be held in the Alb region in 2026.
Dr. Danièle Vogg (Radolfzell) will be the first-time Sports Show Director, and the new IGV Chairman Holger Sontheim (Veringendorf) will also be a member of the show management team.
Each country is only allowed to hold one official Nations Cup (CCIO4) per year. This “normally” takes place at the CHIO Aachen, the “World Equestrian Festival.” However, because the World Championships in the disciplines of show jumping, dressage, eventing, vaulting, driving, and para-dressage will take place there in 2026 (August 11-23), the Nations Cups for the various categories will be organized at other locations next year. If the final award is made by the FEI (Finance Equestrian Federation), the CCIO4 would take place from May 14-17, 2026.
The four-star competition for the iWEST Tiernahrung Prize, the two-star competition for the OutletCity Metzingen Prize, and the one-star intro competition for the fischer Prize are now open for the 2025 International Marbach Eventing, starting Thursday, May 15. Once again, the competitions will determine the winners and runners-up of the German Professional Equestrian Championship, the Baden-Württemberg Equestrian Championship, and the U25 Sponsorship Prize.
The defending champion of the Professional Rider Championship, held in Marbach for the 22nd consecutive year, is “local hero” Michael Jung (Horb). The riding master is a four-time Olympic and World Champion since Paris 2024, as well as a seven-time European Champion, and has already secured the Professional Rider Championship in Marbach nine times. Last year’s winner was Münsingen-born horseman Dirk Schrade (Heidmühlen), who was the team Olympic champion in London in 2012. Sonja Kirn (Altensteig) won the 2024 State Championship, and Libussa Lübbeke (Warendorf) took home the gold ribbon in the U25 sponsorship prize.
At the top of the entry list, alongside Michael Jung, is Ingrid Klimke from Münster. Like Michael Jung, she holds the very rarely awarded title of “Reitmeister,” which she was awarded in 2012, making her only the second woman to do so. In the same year, then-Federal President Joachim Gauck presented her with the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany’s highest sporting honor. With the German eventing team, the 57-year-old won two gold medals (2008 Hong Kong, 2012 London) and a silver medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro at five Olympic Games. She was twice Team World Champion (2006 Aachen, 2014 Normandy), and in 2018 in Tryon (USA) she won individual bronze at the World Championships. The daughter of dressage icon Dr. Reiner Klimke has collected six gold, two silver, and three bronze medals at nine European Championships. In dressage, she won team bronze in Herning in 2022.
Other well-known names and special performers are also on the starting list. For example, Malin Hansen-Hotopp (48). She lives in Gransebieth, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and won silver at the European Championships with the German team in Le Pin au Haras, France, in 2023. Sofia Sjöberg (27), a Swede with a Swedish father and an American mother, was born and raised in South Kensington, London. From 2016 to 2019, she trained with Michael Jung and competed for Sweden at the European Championships in 2021 and 2023. Competing in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was the highlight of her career so far. Felix Vogg, a native of Waiblingen, who competes for Switzerland, pursues equestrian sports as a professional at his own facility near Überlingen. The 34-year-old competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, finishing eighth in the individual rankings at Paris 2024. He also participated in three World Championships and five European Championships. In 2012, the holder of the Golden Riding Badge won the overall World Cup and was the first Swiss rider in over 70 years to win the five-star competition in Luhmühlen. Fouaad Mirza is a native of India who won the individual and team gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. He competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The 33-year-old is coached by Sandra Auffarth (Ganderkesee-Bergedorf), who won team gold and individual bronze in London 2012. Fouaad Mirza is also enrolled as a psychology student at the University of Northampton, Great Britain.
Since January, the “construction team” led by Gottfried Seitter and Holger Deifel, in coordination with Michael Gola and Clemens Santschi, has been busy preparing the route.
Course designer Bernd Backhaus (Gladenbach), who is now responsible for the course layout for the third time, was also involved throughout. Steinmetz, 54, used to ride in Marbach himself and finished fifth in the then CIC2* in 2004. He has been “in the business” for almost 20 years, having designed courses for international eventing tournaments in Wiesbaden and as part of the CHIO Aachen, among others, and has also designed courses up to four-star level, for example, at the Polish eventing center in Strzegom.
A total of 24 participants from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Thailand, and Germany will be competing in Marbach. The schedule lists the disciplines in the traditional order: The dressage will take place on Thursday and Friday, May 15 and 16, 2025, in the stud’s large arena; riders will saddle up for the cross country on Saturday, May 17, and the concluding show jumping will take place on Sunday, May 18, again in the arena. The show jumping of the one-star competition is already scheduled for Saturday morning, with the award ceremony planned for around 6 p.m. in the stadium. Fifteen candidates have been stabled for the DSP Eventers Auction, which can be tested for a week before being put up for sale via online auction the following week. A spacious exhibition area and a diverse range of culinary offerings complete the four-day program.
Tickets for the cross country day on Saturday cost €20 at the box office (reduced price €15 for young people aged 18 and over, seniors aged 65 and over, schoolchildren, students, and people with disabilities, each with ID). Children and young people up to 18 years of age are admitted free of charge. Advance tickets cost €15 (reduced price €10), and group discounts for ten or more people are ten percent off. All prices include VAT, plus shipping, and are available from Easy Ticket Service, www.easy-ticket-service.de, the ticket hotline at +49 711 2555555, or at the box office. Admission is free for the dressage (Thursday and Friday) and the show jumping (Sunday). Accompanying persons of disabled people with a B on their ID receive free admission.
Don’t miss EN’s own Tilly Berendt on commentary from Marbach this weekend! View the live stream here.
Marbach CCI4*-S (Germany): Website, Entries/Timing/Scoring, Live Stream on ClipMyHorse.TV.
