The following article contains portions of a press release that has been translated from Dutch and lightly edited for style. Please forgive any translation errors. To read the original release, click here.
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville, 2025 Boekelo champions. Lara returns this year with three entries for the title. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The organizers of Military Boekelo-Enschede can once again look forward to the arrival of numerous world-class riders for the 55th edition of the event, taking place Thursday, October 1 to Friday, October 4.
The list comprises a total of 85 riders from 15 countries with a combined 106 horses. Great Britain will provide by far the largest share of the starting list, with 19 riders and 23 horses.
Among the British is the 2022 World Champion Yasmin Ingham, fresh off top six finishes at Burghley and Blenheim’s 8/9-Year-Old CCI4*-S Championships, which were used as a set-up for the 9-year-old Kinda Corvette to contest his second CCI4*-L. Yasmin’s joined by British World Championships representatives Tom McEwen with Isa and Caroline Harris with Lester CKV, as well as teammate and Burghley winner Gemma Stevens with the Chilli Morning clone, Chilli Morning IV and Cooley Park Muze.
Jack Curtis and Luska Candy Clover. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
For the USA, the four-member team of Hallie Coon (Sirius SB), Jack Curtis (Luska Candy Clover), Allie Knowles (LS Crown Royal and Montpellier Scais) and Lauren Nicholson (Landmark’s Jungle Gold) will compete for the FEI Eventing Nations Cup competition while also doing the double duty of providing experience and depth to its roster as a home Olympics in Los Angeles loom two years from now.
Germany is led by Julia Krajewski, who already stood on the top podium in Boekelo in 2018 with Samourai du Toit and in 2024 with Uelzeners Nickel. She was recently part of the Germans’ silver quartet in Aachen with the 2024 Boekelo winner. This year, she’s brought the 12-year-old Selle Francais Ero de Cantraie, who’s just won the 4*-S at Strzegom earlier this month. Ingrid Klimke has an exciting 4*-L debutant in the 10-year-old Kallista, who’s been in Ingrid’s stable for a little over a year.
Belgian Lara de Liedekerke-Meier makes her twentieth appearance at Boekelo in the Twente classic as the defending champion. Last year, she was the first in the event’s history to secure an individual victory for her country. She’ll have three shots at the title this year in La La Land D’Arville, Call Me Senorita and Quintus.
[View the current entry list – current as of September 24]
Military Boekelo-Enschede has been the regular venue for the FEI Nations Cup final for years. This year, the team competition is getting a different setup, with the final being run according to a new format. Nine selected teams start the decisive competition with a clean slate, guaranteeing significantly more excitement than before.
Context: The Series will continue to feature CCI4*-S qualifying legs followed by the CCI4*-L at Boekelo in October but the overall title will no longer be decided by cumulative points across the season. Instead, the new structure is designed to reintroduce jeopardy and reduce predictability, creating a true winner-takes-all Final.
Across the five qualifying legs at Marbach, Bicton, Strzegom, Avenches, and Lignières, nations can compete as often as they choose, with only their best three results counting towards qualification. After the five legs, the top 10 nations will progress to the Boekelo Final, where all scores reset to zero and every team starts again on equal footing to compete for the 2026 FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ title. View the current Nations Cup standings (which won’t include the final qualifier leg in France that’s happening this weekend) here.
The title is being defended by Germany, which had to settle for second place behind England at the most recent World Championships on home soil in Aachen and finished ahead of the Americans in the battle for silver. In addition to these countries, the teams from Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland will also be competing in Boekelo.
Ema Klugman (AUS) and Chiraz compete at Boekelo in 2025. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Adrian Ditcham is starting his seventh edition as course designer for Military Boekelo-Enschede. The 55-year-old Englishman succeeded his compatriot Sue Benson in 2019, who fulfilled the important role of designing obstacles to full satisfaction for no less than 19 years. This time, the Brit is presenting a course that is run in the opposite direction to previous years.
“Boekelo is a very important event for the sport of eventing,” Adrian said. “Many riders test their horses there at the end of the season, with which they want to compete in an international championship such as the World Championships or the Olympic Games the following year or two years later. You hardly see young horses from around nine years old at this level internationally anywhere else.”
That is certainly the case for the upcoming edition, as the participants are now riding in the opposite direction, meaning that not a single one of the 26 obstacles is exactly the same as last year. A significant difference compared to previous years is that the most important of the two water combinations must now be overcome early in the course. By tradition, it is the most selective decider on the approximately six-kilometer course, where by far the largest crowds of spectators invariably gather.
Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L (Netherlands): [Website] [Entries/Schedule]
