Dear Rita,
Carola Koppelmann is one of Germany’s most talented and well-trained riders. She’s made her way to the top of international dressage sport with hard work, dedication and commitment to good riding.
Carola was born in 1978 in Stade, a city located near Hamburg in northern Germany. She grew up not far from there in a small town called Freiburg. The family business—a training and sales stable run by her parents Willi and Barbara Kopplemann—was also Carola’s playground in her younger years.
Ponies dominated Carola’s life until she was 12 years old and made the jump to horses. In 1996, when Carola was 18, a special youngster arrived at her parents stable—Le Bo, a 3-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Lauries Crusador x Wolkenstein. This horse is still with Carola today and has carried her to success from young horse materials classes to the international Grand Prix arena.
The horsey world is a small one, and I met the Koppelmann family in 1995 through friends of Bodo Hangen, whom I had trained with in Michigan before moving to Germany. My first meeting with the Koppelmanns resulted in the purchase of a mare by Prince Thatch who prompted my long-standing love affair with the offspring of that stallion.
Ten years later, I ran into Carola and ‘Babs’ again at the Frankfurt CDI-W where both Maximus and Le Bo were newcomers to the international scene. Since that time we have seen each other at dozens of shows—celebrated together, commiserated together, and slowly but surely advanced our careers against riders who had many more resources available to them than either of us.
Carola has succeeded with sheer talent, determination and a willing horse. In March, she and Le Bo (now 17 years old and just reaching his peak) finished seventh at the World Cup Final in Den Bosch. Last weekend at the Hamburg CDI***, they won both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special. Le Bo also won the Hamburg Dressage Derby—scoring the highest points with all three riders that participated in this horse-switch competition.
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Carola, congratulations on a very fine and successful training job with your first Grand Prix horse, Le Bo. And good luck to you in the future with your up-and-coming star, Rom, the 10-year-old mare from Rotspon x Wolkenstein.
Listen in while Carola talks about her horses and her sport:
I’m Catherine Haddad, and I’m sayin it like it is from Vechta, Germany.
Training Tip of the Day: Never forget that a Grand Prix horse can continue to develop and improve well into his later years. Build strength, increase suppleness, and keep working on it!
