Our final CCI5* of this half of 2026 is on tap this weekend at Longines Luhmühlen, situated in the northern parts of Germany just to the south of Hamburg. We have a small-but-mighty CCI5* field and a quite competitive CCI4*-S field full of riders vying for a coveted FEI Eventing World Championships berth. As is tradition, our Form Guide will follow on Wednesday, but for now use/bookmark our Ultimate Guide so you’re well-informed on how to follow along. We’ll also keep the section at the bottom of this Ultimate Guide updated with the latest articles we’ve published throughout the week.
Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Entries] [FEI Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]
The Schedule
For this Ultimate Guide, we typically focus on the CCI5* schedule, but don’t forget you’ll also be able to follow along with the Meßmer Trophy CCI4*-S, which also serves as a World Championships selection trial for many nations, all weekend. We’ll list both divisions here for your convenience. The full schedule can be found here. As always, this schedule is subject to adjustment. We’ll do our best to keep this Guide updated with schedule changes, but we also recommend following the official scoring platform here for the latest scheduling.
Wednesday, June 17
- 5:00 pm CEST / 11:00 am EST: CCI5* First Horse Inspection
Thursday, June 18
- 8:00 am CEST / 2:00 am EST: CCI4*-S Dressage Day One
- 1:00 pm CEST / 7:00 am EST: CCI5* Dressage Day One
Friday, June 19
- 8:00 am CEST / 2:00 am EST: CCI4*-S Dressage Day Two
- 1:00 pm CEST / 7:00 am EST: CCI5* Dressage Day Two
Saturday, June 20
- 8:00 am CEST / 2:00 am EST: CCI5* Cross Country
1:00 pm CEST / 7:00 am EST: CCI4*-S Cross Country
Sunday, June 21
- 8:00 am CEST / 2:00 am EST: CCI5* Final Horse Inspection
- 9:00 am CEST / 3:00 am EST: CCI4*-S Final Horse Inspection
- 10:00 am CEST / 4:00 am EST: CCI5* Show Jumping
- 1:00 pm CEST / 7:00 am EST: CCI4*-S Show Jumping
How to Watch and Follow
Horse & Country is the livestream provider for this week’s action, and they will be carrying both the 4* and 5* divisions. You do need a subscription to tune in both live and on-demand, with options starting at $19.99 per month. Click here to view the livestream schedule and to tune in.
You can also follow along on a few social media channels (and we always recommend giving the riders a follow as well!):
The Players
€150,000 (about $174,000) is on offer for the CCI5*, with €50,000 of that going to this weekend’s winner. We are down to about 21 horses and riders at the time of publication, and while we won’t go too far down the speculation rabbit hole about the numbers, we can tell you that Luhmühlen does tend to fluctuate (although yes, this is lower than other historical down years) with its timing close to whatever Championship is coming up. We do have a significant number of first time 5* horses and/or riders, which is also typical of this event, which should be a positive in terms of the future.
With the announcement this week that 2025 Luhmühlen champions Ros Canter (GBR) and Izilot DHI (along with MHS Seventeen) were both withdrawn, the winner’s spot is truly wide open. British 5* winners (Pau – 2024) Caroline Harris and D. Day are currently the top-ranked pair in the EquiRatings Prediction Centre, with a 25% pre-competition win chance and a 50% chance of a podium finish. Tim Price (NZL) and Emily King (GBR) are also in with strong chances for at least a podium finish, and the USA’s Boyd Martin is ranked fourth on the Prediction Centre with Dallas LLC’s Shanroe Cooley, earning a 12% win chance and a 38% chance for a top three result.
Officiating this week in the 5* are:
- Nick Burton (GBR) – Ground Jury President
- Christian Steiner (AUT) – Ground Jury Member
- Edith Schless-Störtenbecker (GER) – Ground Jury Member
CCI4*-S Officials:
- Joachim Dimmick (GER) – Ground Jury President
- Joanne Jarden (IRL) – Ground Jury Member
The Netherlands Gert Gaber is serving as this week’s Technical Delegate, assisted by Hanno Vreden (GER). Mike Etherington-Smith (GBR) returns to design cross country for his ninth year in Germany, assisted by Kai Steffen-Meier (GER), Marco Krüger (GER) and David Evans (GBR), with Christian Zehe (GER) serving as course builder. Germany’s Marco Behrens will design the show jumping. All officials can be found in the FEI schedule here.
Up about midnight on Thursday, you can select your EquiRatings Eventing Manager team, which provides a (fictional, unfortunately) $10 million budget to select a team of five. If you want to join the Eventing Nation league, use code PCTD to join. Shoutout to horse selector extraordinaire Sharon Ridgway (who sourced, among others, Kentucky winner Diabolo for Will Coleman) for currently ranking #1 in the EN league so far this season!
Our full Form Guide to the CCI5* entries will be published on Wednesday of this week, but in the meantime you can view all entries across divisions here. For our U.S. fans, don’t forget we have several combinations competing in the CCI4*-S so you’ll want to tune in to follow their weekends.
EN’s Coverage
We’ll keep this section updated as we publish articles leading up to and during competition. Tilly Berendt will be our eyes on the ground, while Cheg Darlington and I run remote updates and our 5* cross country live blog. Allie Heninger has assisted with the maintenance and publication of our Form Guide and horse database.
PRE-EVENT COVERAGE
