The British Equestrian Federation and British Eventing confirmed Christopher Bartle as performance coach, a newly created role, on Nov. 25. Yogi Breisner is the current eventing performance manager, and he’s stepping down after 17 years with British Eventing.

Bartle’s appointment introduces a new coaching program to the eventing squad. He will be a key component of a wider plan to continue to optimize performance for the upcoming Olympic cycle.

“We are incredibly lucky to have found such a strong and inspirational performance coach to take the British eventing squad forward,” said British Eventing Chief Executive David Holmes. “As you can appreciate the process of making senior appointments involves detailed and confidential discussions and is why we have been unable to make any announcement until this time, but are delighted to announce this news today and look forward to working with Christopher as we head towards Tokyo 2020.”

Bartle, who’s been coach for the German team since 2001, will step into his new role in January 2017. Hans Melzer, who’s worked alongside Bartle for 15 years, will take over Germany’s program.

“We are very sorry that the ‘dream team’ [of] Melzer-Bartle will no longer exist, and we would like to thank Chris Bartle for his work,” said Dr. Dennis Peiler, managing director of the German Olympics Committee for Equestrian. “He was instrumental in the outstanding and, above all, continuous successes of German riders over the past 16 years.”