In February of 2012 Christian Kukuk began his work in Riesenbeck as an exercise rider. At the beginning he worked mainly on the training and showing of young horses in competitions, though he had also ridden successfully at the international level, both in Germany and abroad. Christian’s childhood dream was to become a professional football player. In the beginning it was not obvious that the born Warendorfer would have a career as a professional equestrian. He always had contact with horses, as both his parents are avid riders, but his football dream stood in his way. When there was no football, Christian accompanied his father to horse shows in order to help him in the warm up ring. As he has always had large ambitions, Christian soon wanted to show his father how it could be done better. And so began the horse virus. Christian finished his education in commerce with the highest grade in the county of Warendorf, after which he moved to Riesenbeck. Through much talent, discipline and training Christian has rapidly achieved large amount of success, and is seen as Germany’s future talent in the highest level of the sport. He is not only known for his talent and drive for success, but also for his feel and compassion towards the horses. Christian gives one hundred percent in everything he does, and because of this it is easy to imagine that one day he will take the next step, and be able to compete in the highest level of the sport, like Ludger, his boss and mentor. We are sure that Christian will not forget the day he received his "Godenen Reitabzeichen" in March of 2015 at the opening crimoney of Riesenbeck Interantional. He was not only congratulated by family, friends, and collegues, but also recived a special congratualtory video from the football- Wourld Champion Thomas Müller, projected on the big screan in the new riding arena.

Due to his huge talent, a lot of discipline and hard training successes set in quickly and today he is one of the biggest upcoming young talents in Germany. Not only his motivation and striving for success, but also his sense and passion for horses distinguishes him.

Well known professionals like former colleague and top-class show jumper Marco Kutscher (Germany) praises Christian’s diligence and his talent. After a heavy accident at CHIO in Aachen in 2016, where he broke his shoulder three times, he returned to the show grounds with flying colours:

Just before Christmas 2016 he won the Grand Prix in Frankfurt with Limonchello, beginning of 2017 he became second in Neumünster with Cordess, was third at the Grand Prix in Dortmund with Colestus – and won the Grand Prix in Braunschweig with Cordess in March!

Ludger Beerbaum speaks in high terms of Christian as a rider and his ability to perform on different horses. He brilliantly adapts to his partner horse, regardless if they are young and unexperienced or more experienced in a show jumping arena. Equally striking is his work ethic: he trains up to ten horses a day without complaining and focuses on every single horse.

His well-intentioned colleagues already speculating that the international breakthrough is just a matter of time. Who knows, maybe Christian Kukuk will become the talking point on that stage …