Prize money for the 2020 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials will be increased by 25,000 to EUR 125,000 and, not surprisingly, Event Director Julia Otto says she is ‘excited to see the effect this significant raise in prize money will have on the Luhmühlen entries’
This is the second year of sponsorship for the event by Longines, who also sponsored last year’s FEI Senior European Eventing Championships at the venue, but other sponsors have stepped up too
In addition to the ongoing partnership with Longines, the contract extensions and renewals with main sponsors LVM insurance agency Bernd Bamberger (Seevetal), Lotto Niedersachsen and Meßmer (Seevetal) as well as the ongoing contract with Charles Owen (GBR) have provided financial security.
‘Most of these sponsors supported both events last year and thus contributed significantly to the great success. We are very pleased that everyone has decided to keep up their support’
As well as the feature CCI5*-L class, the approaching Olympic Games means that many German and international top riders may use the CCI4*-S as a preparation for Tokyo
“We’ve had more international enquiries for the CCI4*-S. As it’s a shorter test with great conditions and a championship backdrop a lot of riders hope to recommend themselves for the Olympic Games”
After their great success at the 2019 European Championships, the German squad is planning to compete in Luhmühlen but, as always, it remains to be seen who will compete in which competition.
Course designer Mike Etherington-Smith was on site on February 6th and 7th to position some complexes together with Team David Evans, who are also building the Olympic cross-country course in Tokyo
“Both courses have a slightly different feel to them, especially in terms of where the questions are distributed. I am trying to manage the speed a bit better whilst maintaining the flow and so I have come up with some new lines to hopefully make the time more influential. The flow and balance of the course is very important since they encourage horses to jump well” says Mike E-S
