Sönke Rothenberger

Sönke Rothenberger with a favorite at the CDI 5 * Whitsun tournament Wiesbaden 2016

Sönke Rothenberger (born October 14, 1994 ) is a dressage and show jumping rider . He starts in sport for Germany.

family

Sönke Rothenberger is the son of the entrepreneur and dressage rider Sven Rothenberger and the dressage rider Gonnelien Rothenberger-Gordijn , who both competed in sport for the Netherlands after their marriage. He has German and Dutch citizenship and speaks both German and Dutch. Like his sisters Sanneke and Semmieke, he competes as an athlete for Germany. Sönke Rothenberger is based at the family-owned stud Erlenhof in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe .

Life

Childhood and youth

Rothenberger sat in the saddle from childhood and grew up in dressage at an early age. Already in 2005 he became Hessian pony rider runner- up with the riding pony stallion Wimbledon and competed in the first international competitions of his age group. In the same year he took over the pony stallion Deinhard B from Anna von Negri , with whom he had become Vice Bundeschampion as well as pony team and individual European champion.

In 2007 Rothenberger and Deinhard B became team European champion in his age group, in the following year he secured this title in team and individual rankings. In 2009 he finished his pony rider time with Deinhard B as German champion in pony dressage, European team champion and European runner-up in individual.

While his top pony Deinhard B led Lena Charlotte Walterscheidt and Semmieke Rothenberger to successes in pony dressage, Sönke Rothenberger turned increasingly to show jumping. With the support of his uncle Yves Houtackers (who, among other things, took part in the European championships in show jumping for the Netherlands in 2005), he also competed in exams up to the advanced level, became Hessian junior show jumping champion in 2012 and was a member of the German ones in the same year Nations Cup team of juniors at CSIOJ Lamprechtshausen.

Grand Prix level riders

In the next two years he was also successful as a young rider in jumping competitions on an international level. Nevertheless, two horses increasingly brought him back into the dressage saddle: the brown gelding Cosmo came to the Rothenberger stable at the age of four, and as a six-year-old horse he competed in M-level dressage for the first time with Sönke Rothenberger . A year later, both took part in advanced level dressage tests and, based on their results, were nominated for two Nations Cups for young riders. As the first joint highlight of the season, they both took part in the European Dressage Championships for young riders in July 2014, winning the gold medal with the team and the bronze medal in the individual ranking. One month later, Rothenberger was also the German Young Rider Champion with Cosmo .

The second dressage horse is the chestnut gelding Favorite , which Sanneke Rothenberger initially took over from Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén in early 2013 as a horse for dressage at Grand Prix level . Since there was not an optimal harmony between rider and horse, she asked her brother to ride Favorite . Since Sönke Rothenberger got along well with the gelding, he took over his riding from the second half of 2014. With Favorite , he competed in the first Grand Prix de Dressage of his career in September 2014 at a national competition in Emmeloord, the Netherlands, and won the test. A week later, at the national dressage tournament in Darmstadt-Kranichstein, he won the Grand Prix against internationally experienced couples with over 73 percent and also won the first Grand Prix Spécial of his athletic career well with over 75 percent. At his first international tournament at Grand Prix level, the CDI 4 * at the CHI Donaueschingen , Rothenberger confirmed these achievements with Favorite , so that he was allowed to compete in a world cup tournament (in Odense) for the first time in October , where he participated in his first Grand Prix freestyle 74.750 percent completed. Further World Cup participation with Favorite followed this winter in Stuttgart, Stockholm, London, Amsterdam and 's-Hertogenbosch, so that he finished ninth in the Western European League.

As part of his studies (International Business Administration (B.Sc.) at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management ), which he began in autumn 2013 , he spent a year abroad at the University of Nijmegen in 2015 . During this time he was resident with Anky van Grunsven and Sjef Janssen and was also trained by them. This year Sönke Rothenberger was allowed to compete for the first time at the major Aachen horse show (that year no CHIO was held, but a CDI 5 * tournament with around 150,000 euros was held as a replacement), with over 77 percent in the Grand Prix Freestyle here in third place. Also Cosmo went in 2015 his first Grand Prix classes: After a victory in the (slightly lighter) U25 Grand Prix at the Nations Cup tournament in Rotterdam reached Rothenberger and Cosmo the second places in the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle at the CDI 4 * Perl with over 77 and 78 percent respectively.

Member of the championship squad

The squad of the German dressage squad was redefined in December 2015, with Sönke Rothenberger and Cosmo joining the A-squad (championship squad). In the winter half of 2015/2016 he did not take part in the World Cup and instead competed in his first open-air tournament in February 2016 in southern Spain, where he won both tests with Cosmo by Carl Hester and his championship horse Nip Tuck . At the traditional season opener for German dressage riders, the CDI 4 * Hagen aTW , both came second in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Spécial.

At the German Championships in 2016, which were characterized by a very high level of performance (dressage judge Dr. Evi Eisenhardt: "I can't remember having judged a German championship at this level") he came in the Grand Prix Spécial with Cosmo with over 80 percent to fifth place, in the Grand Prix Freestyle both narrowly missed the bronze medal with a margin of only 0.025 percent.

“The youngest horse in the field impressed with its light-footed dance. The trot reinforcements are hard to imagine, but in the other gaits, too, he is on the move with ease and always uphill, with the finest support from his also still young rider, Sönke Rothenberger. "

- Katrina Wüst, chief judge of the Grand Prix Freestyle at the German Championships 2016

Based on the results of this first screening for the Summer Olympics , Rothenberger and Cosmo were nominated for the German team at the Nations Cup in Aachen . In the first partial test, the Grand Prix, both showed a good ride, but instead of the two-man changes planned as the 19th lesson , Cosmo made buck leaps. For the second part of the test, Rothenberger brought the gelding back on his side and got a result of 75.600%. In the Grand Prix Spécial, the second partial test of the Nations Cup, they achieved 76.412%. Due to the high performance density of his teammates (all three in both tests over 80 percent each) he did not qualify for the Grand Prix Freestyle (in which only a maximum of three riders per nation are allowed to start), but was nominated as the fourth rider for the Olympic Games .

At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Rothenberger won the gold medal with the team. Although he was the team's discarded result in both tests with Cosmo , he was one of the ten best couples in both Grand Prix and Grand Prix Spécial. Since a maximum of three riders per nation are allowed to start in the individual finals of the best 18 riders (the Grand Prix Freestyle), he will be ranked 19th in the final result of the individual ranking.

For winning the gold medal in Rio, he was awarded the silver bay leaf on November 1, 2016.

A year later, Rothenberger and Cosmo got their first individual medals in the “Rider” age group : At the German Championships, both rankings were awarded the silver medal. This success was repeated at the European Championships in Gothenburg , and Sönke Rothenberger was only beaten by Isabell Werth against international competition. In the Grand Prix Freestyle in particular, the decision was extremely tight, both riders achieved results of over 90 percent with their horses. At the German Championships in 2018, Rothenberger and Cosmo trumped Werth and their mare Weihegold OLD for the first time , Rothenberger was German champion in both ratings. At the World Equestrian Games in 2018 , he just missed an individual medal.

At the end of February 2019, a fire broke out at the Rothenbergers stud, in which Sönke Rothenberger lost his young horse, Zum Glück, and five other horses, and suffered minor burns even when attempting to rescue him. At the first tournament start with the largely uninjured Cosmo , Sönke Rothenberger won the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Spécial at Horses & Dreams 2019.

Rothenberger achieved his best world ranking to date from September 2017 when he was second in the world for several months with Cosmo . In May 2020 Rothenberger was 58th with Santiano R and 63rd with Cosmo in the world rankings of dressage riders.

Horses

Current horses (dressage)

Cosmo 59 (* 2007), bay KWPN- Wallach, father: Van Gogh (internationally successful jumper, ridden by Marco Kutscher ), mother's father : Landjonker
Santiano R (* 2008), brown DSP gelding, father: San Amour, mother's father: Lord Sinclair
Fendi (* 2014), dark brown Danish warmblood gelding, father: Franklin, mother's father: Diamond

Former competition horses (dressage)

Deinhard B (1999–2015), German riding pony palomino stallion, father: Dornik B, mother's father: Golden Dancer
Favorite (* 1999), Rhenish dark chestnut gelding, father: Fidermark I, father of mother: Worldchamp
Wimbledon 35 (* 1994), German riding pony chestnut stallion, father: Waldemar, mother's father: Patrick, later ridden by Joy Albeck

Former competition horses (show jumping)

Liza Minelli 16 (* 1999), bay Oldenburg mare, father: Fortinbras, mother's father: Landadel

successes

Championships

Olympic Games (dressage):

2016, Rio de Janeiro : 1st place with the team and 19th place in the individual ranking with Cosmo

World Championships (dressage):

2018, Tryon : with Cosmo 1st place with the team and 4th place in the Grand Prix Spécial (The Grand Prix Freestyle was canceled due to the weather )

European Championships (dressage):

2007, Freudenberg (pony rider): with Deinhard B gold with the team and bronze in the individual ranking
2008, Avenches (pony rider): with Deinhard B gold with the team and gold in the individual ranking
2009, Moorsele (pony rider): with Deinhard B gold with the team and silver in the individual ranking
2014, Arezzo (Young Riders): with Cosmo Gold with the team, bronze in the individual ranking and 9th place in the individual freestyle ranking
2017, Gothenburg : with Cosmo Gold with the team, silver in the Grand Prix Spécial (82.479%) and silver in the Grand Prix Freestyle (90.614%)
2019, Rotterdam : with Cosmo Gold with the team and 6th place in the Grand Prix Spécial (78.116%)

German championships (dressage) :

2008, Hanover (pony rider): with Deinhard B 2nd place in the individual ranking (behind Sanneke Rothenberger with Konrad )
2009, Munich (pony rider): with Deinhard B 1st place in the individual ranking
2014, Zeiskam (Young Riders): 1st place in the individual ranking with Cosmo
2016, Balve: 5th place in the Grand Prix Spécial (80.235%) and 4th place in the Grand Prix Freestyle (84.050%) with Cosmo
2017, Balve: with Cosmo 2nd place in the Grand Prix Spécial (80.804%) and 2nd place in the Grand Prix Freestyle (87.600%)
2018, Balve: with Cosmo 1st place in the Grand Prix Spécial (83.706%) and 1st place in the Grand Prix Freestyle (88.425%)

German championships (show jumping):

2014, Zeiskam (Young Riders): 12th place in the individual ranking with Liza Minelli

Best international results (since 2014)

Grand Prix de Dressage

2014: 72.720% (7th place at CDI-W Stuttgart with Favorite )
2015: 77.140% (2nd place at CDI 4 * Perl with Cosmo )
2016: 78.600% (2nd place at CDI 4 * Hagen with Cosmo )
2017: 78.940% (1st place at CDI 3 * Valencia with Cosmo )
2018: 81.444% (3rd place at the Grand Prix of the World Equestrian Games Tryon with Cosmo )
2019: 81.370% (1st place at CDI 4 * Aachen with Cosmo )
2020: 71.783% (13th place at CDI-W Amsterdam with Santiano R )

Grand Prix Spécial

2014: 73.235% (3rd place at CDI 4 * Donaueschingen with Favouit )
2015: 70.667% (7th place at CDI 4 * Hagen with Favorite )
2016: 77.941% (1st place at CDI 3 * Jerez de la Frontera with Cosmo )
2017: 82.479% (2nd place at the European Championships in Gothenburg with Cosmo )
2018: 84.362% (1st place at CDI 4 * Donaueschingen with Cosmo )
2019: 82.213% (1st place at CDI 4 * Aachen with Cosmo )
2020: so far no start in an international Grand Prix Spécial

Grand Prix Freestyle

2014: 77.825% (6th place at CDI-W London with Favorite )
2015: 78.850% (2nd place at CDI 4 * Perl with Cosmo )
2016: 76.375% (2nd place at CDI 4 * Frankfurt with Favorite )
2017: 90.614% (2nd place at the European Championships in Gothenburg with Cosmo )
2018: -
2019: 80.040% (2nd place at CDI 4 * Wiesbaden with Santiano R )
2020: 79.285% (6th place at CDI-W Neumünster with Santiano R )