Pferdewirtschaftsmeister Reiten FN
Licensed Judge
- Coached many riders to success at regional, national, and international competitions, including FEI World Cup Finals/ Las Vegas 2007, Worldchampionships of the Young Dressage Horses/Verden, German Bundeschampionate/Warendorf
- Trained numerous horses to Grand Prix
- Chef d’Equipe at the 2006 North American Young Rider Championships in Virginia/USA
Serious from the Start
Jürgen’s interest in horses was serious from the start. Born in Krefeld, Germany, he started riding at age 14 when he traded a local trainer horse grooming for riding lessons. At age 18, he decided to take his horse experience to the next level and become a professional.
Jürgen Hoffmann has considerable knowledge and expertise which he brings to the dressage community. He is a Reitlehrer FN (Pferdewirtschaftsmeister), a licensed judge in Germany, and has brought many horses from the lower levels up to Grand Prix, both as a coach and as a rider. In addition, both he and his wife Jennifer, whom he also coaches, have been very successful in the show arena. Jürgen was named “Most Successful Rider” at the July 2000 Luxembourg International Horse Show on his Hanoverian gelding, Endor, and continued his successful partnership in the U.S. where Jürgen and Endor were virtually undefeated in 2001 at I-1, I-2 and Grand Prix , qualifying Jürgen for a USDF Gold Medal.
Jürgen himself learned from the very best. After his apprenticeship with Reitmeister Jean Bemelmans, former German Champion of the Professionals and former trainer of the Spanish Dressage Team, today National Coach of the French Dressage Team, Jürgen passed his Bereiter exam at Warendorf at the top of his class. Subsequently, he worked as a Bereiter at Norbert Koof’s stable, World Champion Show Jumping Rider in Dublin in 1982. Here Jürgen showed horses in jumping and dressage from First Level to Prix St. Georges.
From there, Jurgen moved to Eberwein Stable in Frankfurt where he worked with Reitlehrer Georg Prause, former trainer of the Japanese Dressage Team. It was there that Jürgen trained a sale horse named Nepomuck who went on to win the individual Bronze Medal in Jumping at the Seoul Olympics under rider Karsten Huck. But, his heart was still in Krefeld. He eventually moved back to his roots and took a job at Siebenlinden Dressage Stable in Krefeld. He acted as Bereiter and Manager for the facility. During the 6 years he spent at Siebenlinden, Jürgen trained with Reitmeister Robert Schmidke, who also trained Olympic and Grand Prix riders Margit Otto-Crepin and Josef Neckermann. Together with Mr. Robert Schmidke, Jürgen produced multiple Grand Prix horses which were sold through the Siebenlinden Stable. In 1987, he became one of the youngest to successfully pass 12 weeks of Reitlehrer (Pferdewirtschaftsmeister) testing at the German Riding Schools in Münster and Warendorf.
Dressurstall TopsHof
In 1991, Jürgen and his wife Jennifer, also a very accomplished rider, opened their own dressage stable in Krefeld called Dressurstall TopsHof. There, along with their regular training and sales business, he and Jennifer prepared young stallions for 100-Day Testing and Keurings, they trained, showed and managed stallions for other stud farms, they stood their own stallions, and bred outstanding crops of foals. The Hoffmann’s “premium” success continued in the United States with their stallions Pik’s Pride’s 2002 foal crop all receiving Gold Medal Premiums from the Rheinland-Pfalz-Saar Pferdezuchterverband. Their Trakhener stallion Herzberg had “premium success” too, with his 2004 foal crop receiving Premiums from both the German Oldenburg and the Rheinland-Pfalz-Saar Verbands.
During his time in the USA Jürgen actively worked together with Jennifer in riding and training. Together, they have advanced a large number of their own horses, as well as those of their clients, to the FEI levels. Jürgen is a highly sought after clinician and coach for some of the top dressage riders in throughout the United States. His students have been successful in state, regional, and international competitions. He coached Leslie Mores with “Tip Top” to a 10th place finish at the FEI World Cup Finals 2007 in Las Vegas/USA, Susan Walker and her stallion “Facet” to a Team Gold Medal and individual Bronze Medal in the North American Junior Championships and his wife Jennifer among others to numerous national and international successes.
Stud farm Gestuet Letter Berg
In December of 2010 Jurgen and Jennifer decided to move back to Germany due to family reasons. During this time they focused at first on developing horses, especially stallions. They were based out of the stud farm Gestuet Letter Berg, in Westphalia where Jurgen also managed the breeding business and they had their own stallion Rubinio NRW at stud. Here they had a lot of success at the German Bundeschampionat, winning Silver Medal with the 5 year old Stallion Florentinus with the score of 9.2 and bronze medal with the 4 y old stallion Hofmarschall with the score of 9.0. Jennifer also represented the US again in 2011 and 2012 at the World Young Horse Championships in Verden/ Germany, where she made US history. For the first time, one rider had two horses in the finals, Florentinus and Ratzinger. During their time at Letter Berg they also developed horses again to FEI level, like the stallion Rubino NRW, with whom Jennifer was quite successful internationally in the small tour.
From this time on to present, Jurgen and Jennifer trained multiple horses to S and Grand Prix level and Jennifer showed them successfully nationally and internationally, just to name a view: Rubinio NRW, Farinelli, Donna Argentina, Egistar, Sommerhit, Florentinus V, Herzberg, Piks Pride , Endor, Acapulco, Delacroix, all Grand Prix, Instertanz V, Ramon, Fairytale OLD, Zidane, D‘Cour Noble, which all have won S (small tour ) level.
During this time Jurgen was the head trainer and manager of the prestigious Gestut Lindhof in Austria, which was Jennifer‘s sponsor XXXL. There he was able to successfully help multiple riders there to achieve their goals up to international successes.
Jurgen was also coaching riders in Germany, England, USA, Austria and Italy during his time in Germany.