Birgit Popp

It was a long-kept secret between Olympic gold medalist Isabell Werth and the German Equestrian Federation that Werth’s ride El Santo NRW tested positive for cimetidine at the 2012 Rhineland Championships, held at Langenfeld (Germany), June 21-24. But the secret came out on Feb. 8 in the online edition of the leading German equestrian magazine St. Georg, after the disciplinary commission of the German FN had its most recent meeting on the case about three weeks ago. The result of the A sample was made known to the rider a short time after the Rhineland Championships.

While most equestrian enthusiasts know the Spanish Riding School in Vienna is a place dedicated to classical dressage, until now that education has only been available to a select few. For the outside world the SRS has mainly been a tourist attraction—a place to see the famous Lippizans.

On Sept. 20, in the first ever Global Champions Tour event in Austria, U.S. show jumper Jessica Springsteen made history by winning the opening two-phase class of the Vienna Masters in front of the iconic “Rathaus,” the nearly 180-year-old City Hall of Vienna.

The 20-year-old rider partnered with Vornado van den Hoendrik for the win ahead of 82 other seasoned competitors. She just started competing in the GCT tour this season.

Monica Theodorescu has been named the new head coach for the German dressage team starting Oct. 1. She will be the first woman in this function in Germany in any equestrian discipline.

July 5, Nations Cup day of the CHIO Aachen (Germany), brought good and bad news for German dressage. The good news was that the young German team easily won the Nations Cup ahead of Denmark and the Netherlands. The bad news was that Matthias Alexander Rath said he definitely wouldn’t be able to ride in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong’s “Wonderful World” got the 9,000 spectators in the Schleyer Hall into the right mood for the emotional highlight of the 27th Stuttgart German Masters: the good-bye ceremony for Isabell Werth’s World and Olympic Champion Satchmo.

The German Federation confirmed on Nov. 17 that Mr. Medicott, the Olympic mount of German 2008 Olympic team gold medalist Frank Ostholt, has been sold to top U.S. eventer Karen O'Connor.

Lauren Hough suffered a fall during the first qualifier of the Stuttgart German Masters on Nov. 17. Her 9-year-old mare Blue Angel got too close to a wall and attempted to jump anyway, crashing through the fence. In the fall, the mare stepped on her chest.

As Totilas and Matthias Rath cantered down centerline at the beginning of the Grand Prix Special test, a sudden and complete hush fell over the crowd. As the test concluded at the Nürnberger Insurance Company Dressage Festival in Munich, Germany, 6,000 spectators burst into frenzied applause.

The weekend of June 2-5 marked the long-awaited debut of the World Champion Dutch Warmblood stallion with his new rider, Germany’s Matthias Rath.

Two weeks ago, a press presentation of Totilas and his new partner Matthias Rath was canceled because the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games champion had a hoof abscess and inflammation in his leg. That’s now healed, and the 11-year-old stallion has worked in walk and trot since the Easter holidays.

But because of the medication he received, he’s been scratched from his first show appearance with his new rider at the CDI Hagen (Germany), May 6-8.