Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley compete for the US Equestrian Open of Eventing title at Morven Park in 2025. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
The next CCI5* on the docket for 2026 comes to us from Germany at Longines Luhmühlen, which has its own unique style and flavor and also features the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy German Championship each year. On a championship year, Luhmühlen is generally the final qualifier for most countries, which means we typically see both the 5* and 4* lists full of team hopefuls as selection looms. That’s very much par for the course for this year’s entry lists, which feature 30 CCI5* entries and 63 CCI4*-S combinations.
Now, before you say it, yes this IS a low figure for the Luhmühlen CCI5*. This number somewhat syncs up with the 38 we saw during the year of the last World Championships (2022), but is generally lower than usual for this event. We’ve seen entry lists ranging up into the 70s but also as low as the high 30s and 40s; in 2025, we had 55 entries pre-competition, and 50 entries for the most recent Olympic year (2024). Luhmühlen plays a unique role in the 5* landscape, providing a good launching pad for horses and riders starting at the level for the first time and also frequently serving as a re-route option for those who did not find success at previous events like Kentucky or Badminton. This year, we have fewer of the latter; just a couple of “re-routes” to the 4*-S from Badminton and one or two to the 5* (really, I think this is a positive in itself, that we had a strong completion rate at Badminton that resulted in fewer reroutes), as well as a couple of horses who completed Badminton also coming for the 4* and that all-important World Championship qualifier. We also have nearly 50% of the CCI5* field (14 horses) made up of rookie horses (as well as four 5* first-timer riders), and while I do not have the comparison numbers of rookie horses from previous years at my disposal currently, I do think that’s another big positive for anyone who has negative feelings about the sheer number of entries themselves.
Ros Canter and Izilot DHI: your 2025 Luhmühlen champions. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Now for the list itself, here are just a few highlights from the list, which can be found in full here. The full CCI5* entry list is also listed below.
- 2025 winners Ros Canter (fresh off a third consecutive MARS Badminton victory) and Izilot DHI will return to defend their title. Ros has had a strategic run up to this point of the season, lightly competing the 13-year-old KWPN gelding at National levels and most recently finishing third in the 4*-S at Belsay International last weekend.
- Reigning European Champion Laura Collett, who brings forward 2025 seventh-place finisher Hester to seek an even better finish.
- World #1 Harry Meade debuts a new 5* horse for his string, the 11-year-old British Sport Horse gelding Jet Fighter, who has two strong 4*-L finishes (Ballindenisk and Bramham) under his belt to this point.
- Rookie horses include: Guess Star (Ben Massie), Mighty Spring FRH (Heike Jahncke – also a 5* rookie rider), Aspen T (Katharina Meyer – also a 5* rookie rider), Mister Big Ears (Sam Ecroyd), Cooley With Ambition (Harry Hortion – also a 5* rookie rider), Jet Fighter (Harry Meade), The Buzz Factor (Emma Thomas), Carrowgar Je Taime Max (Sian Coleman – also his first 5* since 2018), Dallas 13 (James Avery), Cutting Edge (Vicky Browne-Cole – also a 5* rookie rider), Delarado (Samantha Lissington), Kitsch Couture HPK (Lucienne Bellissimo), Lucky Fortuna (Hallie Coon), Shanroe Cooley (Boyd Martin)
- For the USA, four pairs have sent in their 5* entries: the aforementioned Lucienne Bellissimo and Kitsch Couture HPK, Hallie Coon with Lucky Fortuna, Boyd Martin with Shanroe Cooley and Grace Taylor re-routing from Badminton with Game Changer. The USA is also sending two riders — Tommy Greengard and That’s Me Z as well as Jack Curtis with Luska Candy Clover — to contest the 4*-S.
Hallie Coon and Lucky Fortuna. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The full CCI5* list is as follows (view both full entry lists here):
| Australia | Levett, William | RNH Tom Tom R | Elisabeth Murdoch, Keith Tyson & Rider | CCI5* |
| Australia | Levett, William | Sligo Candy Cane | Elisabeth Murdoch, Keith Tyson & Rider | CCI5* |
| France | Massie, Benjamin | Guess Star | Alain Real | CCI5* |
| Germany | Jahncke, Heike | Mighty Spring FRH | Carsten Küst & Rider | CCI5* |
| Germany | Meyer, Katharina | Aspen T | Monika Tietz & Rider | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Bryce, Elspeth | Lacoste | Jim Spiers & Rider | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Canter, Rosalind | Izilot DHI | Alex Moody & Rider | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Canter, Rosalind | MHS Seventeen | Lady Milnes Coates & Deirdre Johnston | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Collett, Laura | Hester | Lucy Nelson | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Ecroyd, Sam | Mister Big Ears | Julie & Michael Hall & Penelope Ecroyd | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Edmundson, Mary | Lionel II | Joy Soar | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Gillespie, Sam | Bit Not Till Now | Rider | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Harris, Caroline | D Day | Lucy Matthews, Fiona Olivier, Marie Anne Richardson & Heather Royle | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Heal, Stephen | Hagonda | Heather Chapman & Stephen Heal | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Horton, Harry | Cooley with Ambition | Harry Horton & Ambition Syndicate | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Meade, Harry | Jet Fighter | Abigail Bernard | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Thomas, Emma TV | The Buzz Factor | Zoe Bardey, Arthur Thomas & Rebecca Velarde | CCI5* |
| Great Britain | Tordoff, Alexander | Cool Jack | Cool Jack Syndicate | CCI5* |
| Ireland | Coleman, Sian | Carrowgar Je Taime Max | Gina Heaps | CCI5* |
| Ireland | Furnell, Dominic | Ivanhoe | Thomas Jones | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Avery, James | Dallas 13 | Karie & David Thomson | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Browne-Cole, Vicky | Cutting Edge | Vicky Browne-Cole | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Jones, Abby | Henton Audacious | Abby Jones | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Lissington, Samantha | Delarado | Rachel Bessell, Ella & Magnus McGrigor, Kate Maitland, Braydon Lissington & Rider | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Price, Jonelle | Grappa Nera | The Grape Syndicate & Rider | CCI5* |
| New Zealand | Price, Tim | Happy Boy | Susan Lamb, Therese Miller & Rider | CCI5* |
| USA | Bellissimo, Lucienne | Kitsch Couture HPK | Horse Scout Eventing | CCI5* |
| USA | Coon, Hallie | Lucky Fortuna | Rider | CCI5* |
| USA | Martin, Boyd | Shanroe Cooley | Dallas LLC | CCI5* |
| USA | Taylor, Grace | Game Changer | Ann Taylor | CCI5* |
Longines Luhmühlen will get underway on Wednesday, June 17 with the First Horse Inspection and conclude on Sunday, June 21. The live stream will be carried exclusively on Horse & Country, and you can bookmark this page to follow along when things get underway. Stay tuned for much more from our German CCI5*!
Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Schedule] [Entries] [Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]
