Semmieke Rothenberger continued her family tradition of winning gold medals when she and her pony Deinhard B were crowned dressage champions at the FEI Championships for Ponies in Millstreet. Fourteen-year-old Rothenberger lives near Frankfurt in Germany and has been competing at the European championships since the age of 12. Her brother, Sonke (19), is a previous gold medal winner at pony and young rider levels, while her 21-year-old sister, Sanneke, is a three-time pony gold medal winner, twice a junior medal winner, and is now competing at grand prix level.

Rothenberger scored an impressive 78.341% to win the competition ahead of Lisanne Zoutendijk on Champ of Class for the Netherlands (74.976%), with Alexandra Hellings on Der Kleine Lord (74.756%) in the bronze medal position for Britain.

The three chefs d’équipe of the medal-winning riders were unanimous in their praise for the standard of the organisation at Millstreet.

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From an Irish perspective, it was the first time that an Irish team has competed at the championships under the modern equestrian structures and in that respect it shows a sign of progression in this discipline.

The Irish riders scored as follows: Alana Cazabon Sullivan (Schermers Hof) 65.366% in 40th place, Katie Burns (Caracas II) 63.976% in 44th place, and Linnea Larkin (Goofy) in 45th place.

In the team classification Ireland finished in 11th position overall.