The European Championships in Rotterdam let to a team gold medal for Cosmo, silver for the Dutch with the KWPN Stallions Desperado N.O.P., GLOCK’s Dream Boy N.O.P. and GLOCK’s Zonik N.O.P. and newcomer MDH Avanti N.O.P., and bronze for Sweden with the Ramel sisters on Buriel KH and Brother de Jeu. Vancouver had the competition of his life and gave the Irish team a ticket to Tokyo, and many medals were won in the para dressage by KWPN horses.

In the dressage the gold was for Germany with in the team Sönke Rothenberger who rode Cosmo (Van Gogh out of Lady ster prest by Fruhling, breeder S. Serrarens of Weert), with some errors to 79.084%. The Dutch team seemed to be heading for bronze. All hope was based on the ride of Edward Gal and his KWPN-recognized Glock's Zonik N.O.P. who went in as the very last rider, and scored 78.75%. Due to the unfortunate disqualification of Charlotte Dujardin, the orange team could take the silver medal.

The Dutch team consisted of three KWPN’s. The KWPN stallion Desperado N.O.P. (Vivaldi from Sarita elite pref prest D-OC from Havidoff, breeder of the Andeweg family from Randwijk) showed that he has made a lot of progress under Emmelie Scholtens. “Desperado has made a great contribution. You always have points for improvement, but my goal was to ride a smooth test and that worked out well.” The experienced Hans Peter Minderhoud rode Glock's Dream Boy N.O.P. (Vivaldi from Resia elite prest PROK by Ferro, breeder Tim Coomans from Oud-Beijerland) and Anne Meulendijks, debutant at this championship, looks satisfied back on her performance with MDH Avanti N.O.P. (United from L’Amusanta keur pref perst by Farrington, breeder: R. Arts from Escharen).

Foreign KWPN’s go for medals

The sixth position was for a British debutante. Charlotte Fry rode Dark Legend (Zucchero from Zoë keur IBOP-dres by Tango, breeder family Nobus - de Potter from Eede) to 74.31% and with that helped Great Britain to fourth place. Buriel K.H. (Osmium out of Ronja KH ster pref perst of Krack C, breeder of the P. Bakker family of Otterleek) did good business again under the Swedish Juliette Ramel (76.19%) and Brother de Jeu (Voice from O. Esther de Jeu elite pref perst D-OC), who is bred by Emmy de Jeu and Goffe-Nill van der Zijden, came with her sister Antonia to a nice 74.22% which made the stripe result for the very strong Swedes that won bronze.
Irish rider Judy Reynolds rode a great championship with her 17-year old Vancouver K (Jazz from Phantastia by Ferro, breeder G. Korver from Harmelen). Under her leadership, Ireland managed to qualify a dressage team for the Olympic Games for the first time in history.
In this championship we also saw Bonzanjo (Jazz from O.Bertje keur pref prest by Tango, breeder Huub van Helvoirt from Rosmalen), the former horse of Diederik van Silfhout, who came into action with Israeli Eyal Zlatin, and Charlie (Florencio from Vinora star of Osmium, breeder fam. Van der Heijden) that went with Simon Missiaen to 67.31%. The Russian Evgenija Davydova rode with her Sandreo offspring Awakening (out of Remember prest of Welt Hit II, breeder E. J. Bakhuis of Geesteren) to 67.28%.

Para riders

With two golden, two silver and one bronze medal, the European championship ended well for the Dutch para-riders. In Grade V, Frank Hosmar and Alphaville N.O.P. took the gold, they were followed by the British Sophie Wells and her British bred C. Fatal Attraction (by Fidertanz). Sanne Voets and Demantur RS2 N.O.P (s.Future) proved in Grade IV their inviolability. Rixt van der Horst and Findsley N.O.P. (s.Bellissimo) ended with silver in Grade III and for Nicole den Dulk and Wallace N.O.P. was the bronze medal.
Under Belgian flag, Kevin van Ham and Eros van ons Heem (by Johnson) came in at 73.13% and fifth. And Federico Lungh, who rides for Italy, rode in the top 10 with Dance Valley M (by Spielberg). In the lowest grade. Mari Durward-Akhurst and the Welt Hit II descendant Sky O'hara just missed out on the medals.

 

Media-guide KWPN-horses

 

SR/YBF for KWPN;