The Schafhof in Kronberg hosted the European Championships for U21 and U25 dressage riders at the weekend. The Germans cleaned up across the board. But none of them to the same extent as Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel and her wonderful Escolar daughter Emma.
The young riders in the U21 age group compete against each other at their European Championships at Prix St. Georges level. The FEI team competition will decide the team medals, the FEI individual competition will decide the individual classification and to top it all off there will be a freestyle competition.
For Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel, who has just celebrated her 19th birthday, it was the first year in which she and the eleven-year-old Westphalian mare Emma by Escolar were allowed to represent the German colors at a Young Riders’ European Championship. Their debut could not have gone better. They won all three tests with personal best performances, were seen as the undisputed leaders by all the judges and thus secured team gold for the German team and two individual gold medals for themselves. Their freestyle to a 1980s medley was a firework of difficulties, which Lana-Pinou and Emma performed with accuracy, correct riding and plenty of power. A highlight that earned them a score of over 80 percent. The silver medal won by Lana-Pinou’s older sister Lucie-Anouk with Hugo made the family’s happiness perfect.
National coach Hans-Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen could only rave: “Lana-Pinou’s horse Emma has an incredibly dynamic trot and presented herself excellently in all three tests,” he praised. Lana-Pinou becomes much more emotional when she talks about Emma: “She is an absolute dream horse!” she said in the interview. “She always gives 100 percent in the test. She makes it super easy for me. It was unbelievable fun,” continued the newly crowned three-time European champion.
About Emma
Emma’s sports name is ZINQ Emma FH. ZINQ stands for the Baumgürtel family company. FH stands for the family’s Freiberger Hof. However, Emma was born to Winfried Albers, whose breeding has produced countless successful sport horses. Emma is a half-sister to the Nuremberg Burg Pokal finalist Scarlett O’Hara by Scuderia (Lena Haßmann) and the Grand Prix-successful Felix Westfalia.
There is a connection to Hubertus Schmidt not only through his sire Escolar, who was trained by Schmidt, but also through Aquarell by Artwig, who was also bred from the successful Albers line. Riding master Schmidt once became professional rider champion with the Grand Prix-winning gelding. His dam, Follow Me by Frühlingstraum I, is Emma’s great-granddam.
Emma completed her first competition outings under Kira Wegmann. The pair won consecutive ribbons in tests for young riding horses. In 2021, the rider at Freiberger Hof Stud and trainer of the Baumgürtel sisters, Marion Wiebusch, first presented Emma in medium (M) level tests for young dressage horses. However, in the same year, Emma was already successfully competing with Lana-Pinou at medium level. They worked their way up in the junior camp, winning European Championship gold with the team as well as silver and bronze in the individual class. But they really took off in the advanced class for young riders, see above. But Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel emphasized in Kronberg: “I’m sure our journey will continue.”
