EEN Students Championship 2026
A Showcase of Excellence in Equestrian Education
equestrianedunetwork
From 17 to 20 June 2026, the EEN Students Championship took place at the prestigious IFCE National Riding School in Saumur, France, bringing together students and educators from the member schools of the European Equestrian Network (EEN). The championship offered a unique opportunity for future equestrian professionals to demonstrate their riding skills, coaching abilities, theoretical knowledge, and international teamwork in a highly competitive yet collaborative environment. The event began on Wednesday, 17 June, with the arrival of participants and an official welcome at the National Riding School. After a guided tour of the famous facilities, students attended the opening ceremony, where teams, horses, and theory topics were assigned by draw. During the afternoon, all competition horses were presented, followed by a training demonstration from the French vaulting team and a welcome reception hosted by the IFCE management. The evening concluded with national presentations and the introduction of each team’s mascot, encouraging cultural exchange among the participating nations. The sporting competition started on Thursday, 18 June, with the first round of the individual and team competition. Before each discipline, experienced test riders demonstrated the required performances while judges explained the evaluation criteria. Students then competed in dressage and show jumping using horses provided by the host institution, emphasizing adaptability and horsemanship rather than familiarity with their own horses. The day ended with team preparations for the theoretical competition while teachers participated in a special cultural visit. On Friday, 19 June, the best riders from each mixed international team advanced to the individual semifinal. Competitors completed more demanding dressage and jumping tests and additionally demonstrated their coaching skills by teaching a dressage lesson, an important component of the championship that highlights educational competence alongside riding ability. In the evening, participants enjoyed the world-famous Cadre Noir Show, one of the highlights of the event in Saumur. The championship reached its climax on Saturday, 20 June, with the individual final and the team theory final. Finalists performed advanced dressage and jumping tests and were assessed on their ability to teach a jumping lesson. Meanwhile, all teams presented their theoretical projects, covering topics such as horse welfare, physiology, coaching, dressage, jumping, eventing, and horse management. These presentations counted double towards the team classification, underlining the educational philosophy of the EEN competition. The championship concluded with a feedback session before the official Awards Ceremony held at the Bouvet-Ladubay Domain, where the individual champion and the winning team were honoured. An additional prize was awarded for the most original team mascot, reflecting the friendly and international spirit of the event. The official dinner afterwards provided an opportunity for participants, teachers, judges, and organisers to celebrate the successful championship together. The EEN Students Championship 2026 once again demonstrated the high standards of equestrian education across Europe. By combining practical riding skills, coaching competence, theoretical expertise, and international cooperation, the competition provides an outstanding platform for developing the next generation of equestrian professionals and strengthening the network between European equestrian schools. The championship's format, using randomly assigned horses and mixed international teams, encourages adaptability, communication, and fair competition while promoting friendship and professional exchange among future leaders of the equestrian industry. The Team winner of the studentcompetition 2026 was Team nr. 1 - Mari Hjellseth, Norway, Viktoria Sebastian, Germany and Barbara Thébault, France with the coaches Mette Henriksson, Sweden, and Titia Dalestra, Belgum. Individual winner of the Studentcompetiton 2026 was Ingrid Løvmo from Flyinge, Sweden
The European Equestrian Network (EEN) warmly thanks Markus Scharmann for his outstanding leadership over the past decade. Markus has served as EEN President since 2011 and has been a driving force in the network’s development and international collaboration. His dedication, expertise, and vision have left a lasting mark on EEN, and he will continue to contribute as Germany’s representative, ensuring continuity and sharing his valuable experience with the network.
Following the General Assembly, Hanne Dahl Lien (Norway) has been elected President of EEN. Hanne previously served on the EEN Management Team and brings valuable insight and experience to the role. She is Head of the Riding Instructor Education at the Norwegian Horse Centre, guiding the network’s continued growth and development of equestrian education across Europe.
Eric Deyna (France) has been elected Vice President, moving from Management Team Member to take over Hanne’s former role. Eric is a riding instructor educator, national course designer, and international relations coordinator at Cadre Noir in Saumur, France. He has served multiple terms as a Management Team Member and brings extensive experience to his new position. His term as Vice President will be up for election next year.
Linda Kristensson (Sweden) has been re-elected as Secretary, a role she has performed with great dedication and competence in previous terms. Linda is Director of Studies for the Equine Science and Professional riders programmes at Flyinge, Sweden, and contributes deep expertise in equestrian education.
Anu Korppoo (Finland) joins the Management Team as an Additional Member for a one-year term. She is a Master Instructor Level III, professional coach, and experienced trainer educator at Ypäjä Equine College. Anu is actively involved in international cooperation. She also serves as a regional trainer for the Finnish Equestrian Federation, bringing valuable expertise to the team.
EEN is an international network connecting leading national equestrian education across Europe. The strength of the EEN system lies in the active interaction between its members: through shared competence, experience and dialogue, the network enables collaboration and joint projects that support future development. This cooperation benefits students, horses and the wider equestrian sector by promoting high educational standards, knowledge exchange and sustainable professional practice.
Student competitions are an important part of EEN’s activities, fostering learning, skill development, and cross-border collaboration. The 2026 competition will be held inFrance at Cadre Noir, and in 2027 it will take place at the Norwegian Horse Centre in Norway.
With this new Management Team in place, EEN is well positioned to continue advancing high-quality equestrian education and strengthening ties between Europe’s national equestrian centres.
Student Competition 2024
Lambach, Austria
The ‘Equestrian Educational Network’ Student Competition took place from 13 to 16 May at the Austrian equestrian centre Stadl-Paura. The event was organised by the school partners ABZ Lambach and HAK Lambach.
The innovative 4-day concept of the Student Championships consists of conventional dressage and show jumping competitions, theoretical presentations by the participants and assessment of instruction in dressage and show jumping.
The concept for the Championships was developed by the network of leading European Equestrian Education Centres (EEN).
The EEN is an organisation founded in 1999 to promote the exchange of know-how and set Europe-wide standards for the training and deployment of graduates on the labour market.
The annual highlight is the International Students Competition.
This year, eight participating countries (Austria, Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium) sent selected participants. The international competition judges were Eloise Legendre (FRA), Pedro Carmo Costa (POR), Markus Scharmann (GER) and Susanna Kleindienst (AUT). They were supported by Linda Kristensson (SWE).
The Championships in Lambach and Stadl-Paura were embedded in a varied programme: theoretical presentations by the participants, culinary delights from the school kitchen, guided tours of the Lambach Agricultural Training Centre and the Lambach Commercial Academy, the Stadl-Paura Equestrian Centre and a tour of Lambach Abbey with Abbot Maximilian, as well as carriage rides formed the framework.
After the horses and teams - consisting of riders from different nations and coaches - were drawn, the championships started with dressage tests at A** level. This was followed by a show jumping course at A** level for all participants. As the Championships progressed, the level of the dressage and show jumping competitions increased to L** level.
The specialty: All riders were allocated lesson horses in advance. Most of them were Austrian-bred and used as training horses at the Austrian Horse Centre and the nearby Berger Riding Stables in Lambach.
EEN Student competition 2022
Summary of European Educational Networks annual Student Competition 2022 at Aeres MBO Centre in Barneveld, The Netherlands.
Finally, the EEN Students Competition took place again, this time in the wonderful School of Barneveld/Netherlands, on the 11th to the 14thMay, after two years waiting for the Covid 19 situation to allow us all working together.
A very good organization by staff, teachers and students from Barneveld, provided a pleasant stay and a professional environment, offering great conditions for competitors and trainers. Wonderful horses and great weather, a successful couple of days!
The winning team of 2022 was team number three with Jana Schoupal - Germany, Anna Olsson - Sweden Strömsholm and Lisa Klopman - Netherlands. Congratulations on well performed team effort!
The individual winner of the students competition was Maria Schulte-Spechtel – Germany closely followed by Lisa Klopman – Netherlands finishing second. Never have we had such a close final round and it was exciting down to the last canter stride!
Final results summarized:
Individual final:
1. Maria Schulte-Spechtel – Germany
2. Lisa Klopman – Netherlands
3. Paul Magré - France
4. Sofia Roos - Finland
5. Mariella Dobianer - Austria
6. Cilla Gavell - Norway
Team final:
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Team number three with Jana Schoupal - Germany, Anna Olsson - Sweden Strömsholm and Lisa Klopman - Netherlands.
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Team number four with Merel Vandebroek – Belgium, Paul Magré – France and Stphanie Lager Andersson – Sweden Flyinge.
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Team number two with Cilla Gavell – Norway, Franziska Stürzlinger – Austria and Kristina Lindblad - Finland
Some photos to illustrate this great Competition:
The Extra Qualification (EQ) has been developed as a product of the Erasmus+ SPINE Project (Schools’ Project to Increase employability in the European Equestrian Market). The partners of this Project are nine member schools of EEN (Equestrian Educational Network).
The future of the Extra Qualification
The partners of the SPINE project are proud to announce that the project has reached its initial aims and goals. During the last three years we have worked together to create an education which aims at enhancing the employability for equestrian professionals in educating horses and riders in the international equestrian labour market. This education we named Extra Qualification (EQ). In the first stages of the project (October 2017 – November 2018) we created a first draft of a curricula for the education. It was decided to divide the education into three different modules, with the last one containing an exam in both theoretical and practical subjects. The modules are made to be held at any of the schools within the Equestrian Educational Network (EEN). When attending each of the three modules the candidate will gain experience from three different schools withing the EEN. One module is approximately 4-5 days depending on the number of candidates. The basic knowledge, skills and competences demanded of an Extra Qualification Candidate are the minimum requirements of IGEQ Riding Instructor, Level 2 (Horse management, Riding and Teaching).
Among the project partners we also discussed and decided what subjects and training the EQ should contain, and each school/partner picked a topic which they were responsible to develop with learning material, curriculum and guideline manual. We discovered that some subjects were more suitable to deliver as a unit and this created even more cooperation between the schools than we knew at the beginning. This even further enhanced the exchange of good practices and the social and cultural exchange.
The EQ was tied together by a joined curriculum, containing information on the education, a plan for all subjects, the outline of the exam and the learning outcome of all subjects. In addition to the Curricula and the learning material created there is also a Guideline manual that describes how to conduct each module in the EQ, this is to ensure that all future modules are carried out with the same learning outcome, indifferent of what school holds each module.
To test implementation and quality of the EQ each partner chose a student from their school to participate in the pilot modules of the education. These nine candidates were offered to do all three modules and help us to evaluate and improve the education. All nine completed the education and the end Exam. Our candidates were an essential part of the project and their efforts and input helped us in the process of creating the EQ. The pilot modules were carried in Germany, December 2018, France, March 2019 and Norway, November 2019.
After each pilot module the students and teachers gave their opinion, and the partners of the project discussed and made improvements for the next module to come. At the end of each module the students were offered to evaluate both anonymous in a questionnaire and in a group together with the teachers. During their ongoing education the students trained and performed homework at their home schools, resulting in them spreading their new knowledge at home with classmates and other students.
From December 2019 until now the original plan was to have three physical meetings with the partners of the project to finalize the structure and material for the EQ. This was an important work to be able to disseminate our projects results and hold a Multiplier event in Finland in May 2020. The purpose of the Multiplier Event was to present our EQ to important stakeholders in the equestrian business as well as relevant media and of course the target group - future candidates for taking the EQ. This presentation was planned to be both practical and theoretical. Unfortunately, all travel and physical meetings had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and all our meetings in 2020 has been in digital form instead. This has been a challenge for us, but with good communication between the partners we managed to finalize the material and hold a webinar in august 2020. We invited people in our target groups, important stakeholders in the industry such as the FEI, EEF, EHN and IGEQ and relevant media to join. All in all people from 10 different countries were invited to take part in the webinar where we presented our intellectual outputs produced, the outcome of the project and the future of the EQ in a shorter Multiplier event than originally planned. The Multiplier event was successful, and the participants left positive comments on the outcome of the project.
We are now in the process of finalizing the end report of the project, and later this autumn/winter anyone interested can view and use all our project results at
If you are already now interested to read more about the Extra Qualification here you can find the Curricula of the EQ and the presentation used in the Multiplier event when presenting the EQ at our website: https://www.equestrianeducationalnetwork.net/spine
The first modules of the Extra Qualification:
The original plan was to start the first round of the Extra Qualification with module 1 in Starum, Norway in the beginning of 2021. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainties on travel restrictions and possibilities to join from different countries it was decided to postpone the first round of the EQ to the beginning of 2022. This is to ensure that the education can be given and that as many nationalities as possible are able to join safely.
When the registration for the first EQ is open you apply via the EEN website: https://www.equestrianeducationalnetwork.net
News on the first EQ start will be announced at our EEN facebook page as well as the EEN partners social media channels.