Sönke Rothenberger: From Jumper Rider to German Dressage Team in Three Years

At just 21, Sönke Rothenberger (GER) is the greenest rider on the German Olympic team. His horse Cosmo, just nine, is the youngest competing in dressage. Together, they beat a field of veterans in Rio to land firmly in the top 10 after the Grand Prix.

Here’s the thing: Two years ago, neither existed on the dressage world rankings.

The unlikely rise of a show jumper and an unproven dressage horse in the world of dressage—they’re currently 16^th in the world—began in 2013. Rothenberger was competing in show jumping at the time. But there was something about the then-six-year-old horse being trained by his father that caught his eye.

“I always had the feeling, if you ride over a 1.60m oxer you can’t get these goosebumps with dressage. Cosmo proved me wrong,” said Rothenberger.

“When he starts walking and you take up the reins it’s like turning a Ferrari motor on. He starts trotting and you get goosebumps down your back.”

The former-pony dressage champion decided to return to his flat riding roots. It’s been a string of successes down the centreline since.

In 2014, Rothenberg and Cosmo contested their first Young Riders CDI in Vidauban, France and swept the division. Two months later, they repeated the performance in Samur. Their Grand Prix debut at Perl CDI4* in 2015 found them finish second behind world number one Isabelle Werth.

Thirteen victories (in 23 FEI starts) later and they were named to Germany’s notoriously competitive senior team for the Rio Games.

“We rode our first M Class in Germany together, we did our first S Class together, our first Grand Prix. And now we ride our first Olympics together!” enthused the young rider. “I’m really happy I have him.”

The focus now is to prove they belong on that storied team, said Rothenberger. He and the KWPN gelding the scored 77.329% in the Grand Prix yesterday. It was good enough for seventh individually. (Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and US riders Laura Graves and Steffen Peters were the only non-German riders to beat him.)

“Because his father is a jumper and he’s bred like a jumping horse, he’s like a flexible ball [in] the way he moves. That’s certainly the way it feels. I think that’s what makes him to do these difficult parts of the test in such an easy manner.”

There’s just one hitch…

Cosmo doesn’t like the water in Rio. Rothenberger has been giving him bottled water instead.

“Some have named him already gourmet Cosmo,” laughed Germany’s rising star. “We said, okay, it’s the Olympics, he deserves the best.”

While Rothenberger may don the coat and tails now, the former-jumper still rides in his field boots. Naturally, he’s popped Cosmo over a few fences, too.

“He’s a good jumping horse. He jumps really high, but he needs to go a little more forward. I think he could have been a really good jumping horse. Some of the eventers said he could have been a really good eventing horse,” said Rothenberger.

“I think he’s just a superstar.”