Press releases

For 30 years now, the "Prize of the City of Aachen" has been awarded at the CHIO to a personality, a group, a family, an association or an aid organization that has rendered outstanding services to the CHIO Aachen. This year, the award will be presented with a new statuette on July 4th during the jumping competitions. In a competition, the Aachen artist Odine Lang won against four artists and one artist with her design. She will produce it in cooperation with the Carlier company in Aachen. The brass statuette on a stone pedestal was presented by Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen together with the artist, ALRV board member Birgit Rosenberg and Daniel Real, branch manager of Carlier Blechbearbeitungs GmbH, on site at Carlier.

"The new statuette is a wonderful joint effort by an artist from the region and Aachen's craftspeople. I am delighted with what has emerged from the process, which began just under a year ago with initial discussions about a new statuette," said Keupen. The Lord Mayor is already looking forward to presenting the statuette at the "Prize of the City of Aachen" at the CHIO in just under two weeks' time.

"For the new horse statuette, the local reference was also important to me in the materials used: brass, as the metal with a long history in the Aachen region, and a base made of local stone," said Lang, introducing the artistic design of the horse's head. Real added: "As a company with deep roots in Aachen, we are proud to be able to make a contribution to this special project. It is a pleasure for us to open our doors and give an insight into our work. The collaboration with the artist Odine Lang shows how innovative manufacturing expertise and artistic design can go hand in hand. Carlier stands for the highest quality in sheet metal production, and it is precisely this claim that we are bringing to the new statuette for the 'Prize of the City of Aachen'."

"The new statuette is far more than just a work of art - it is a visible sign of appreciation for people who enrich the CHIO Aachen with their commitment. We are delighted that Odine Lang and the Carlier company have managed to combine creativity and craftsmanship so successfully. This award thus remains something very special in its form - for the prize-winner and for us as the CHIO Aachen," said a delighted ALRV Board Member, Birgit Rosenberg.

The previous statuette was made by sculptor Klaus Schmetz from 1995 until 2023. Last year, there was a turning point: Schmetz declared that he no longer wanted to continue his work and the Grooms group had too many award winners to be honored with a pin. At the same time, there was the idea of finding a new statuette. To this end, an artistic competition was launched in February 2025, in which five female artists and one male artist from the region took part. The five-member jury, consisting of Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen, Dr. Jürgen Linden, ALRV Honorary President and equestrian sport expert Carl Meulenbergh, ALRV President Stefanie Peters and Eliane Vonhoegen from CHIO Aachen CAMPUS, judged Lang's design to be the best proposal.

The winner of this year's "Prize of the City of Aachen" will be announced at a later date.