Behind the scenes, tension is dispelled with friendliness and coffee
When Waltraud Schnellenberg gets on her bike early in the morning over the next few days and cycles the two minutes to her workplace, she doesn't just cover the few meters she travels until the end of the day. On her bike, she can be seen cheerfully waving at everyone she passes. Waltraud Schnellenberg is one of the most important contacts on the Riesenbeck International grounds.
She is the stable manager at the international 5-star Longines Global Champions Tour equestrian tournament and is responsible for ensuring that her 400 four-legged overnight guests have everything they need. The storage room is stacked with 50 large bales of straw, 1,000 bales of wood shavings, and 300 bales of hay, which are needed in addition to the feed brought along. Night after night, the prominent customers should be able to sleep peacefully in the solidly built, spacious stalls on fresh straw beds or other bedding with the windows open. Because nothing is more important to the grooms and riders of the million-euro show jumpers than the accommodation and the perfectly prepared ground in the grass and sand stadium and also on the training grounds. The horses should feel comfortable, as the top athletes are also competing for a share of the prize money totaling 765,000 euros.
“Over the next two days, the large trucks with the horses will arrive, then it will be peak season in the stable area and our stable team led by Waltraud Schnellenberg will hardly have a minute's break,” says tournament director Karsten Lütteken. Then, in the hermetically secured and guarded stable wing, not only will the heavy tournament boxes and all the equipment be unloaded and placed in such a way that everything can run smoothly, but the horses will also be exercised after their long journey, the mandatory veterinary check will be carried out, the first special requests will be made to the team, and the initial tension will be palpable. The team in the stable area and the registration office stationed there already have experience with this. A friendly welcome and a bistro equipped with coffee, tea, and all kinds of sandwiches help to get through the first few days calmly and relaxed until the tournament mode has set in.
150 employees throughout the Riesenbeck International facility will ensure that this major event runs smoothly: parking attendants, security, the German Red Cross, the course service, judges, and many more also need to be catered for. When the employees of the TV stations present, journalists, and grooms are added, there are 420 people to feed every day. This will be taken care of by the caterers in the specially erected helpers' catering area.
It's not just Waltraud Schnellenberg's guests who should be able to sleep well: the organizer has booked 246 rooms in 16 hotels in the region for the riders, officials, and their companions. By the final day on Sunday, 900 overnight stays will be required.
On Thursday, admission to the grounds is free. From Friday to Sunday, attractive strolling tickets are available, which allow access to the covered grandstands directly adjacent to the grass stadium.
For more information, visit: www.Riesenbeck-international.com
