The KWPN Magazine is full of great stories about sport and breeding! Today one of these informative stories is highlighted. 

As a child, Marina Burger asked for a horse for every birthday, but she had to wait until her fortieth birthday for this dream to come true. Gelder horses were her favourite at the time and now she has a stable full of them. Time for a visit to the Breeder of the Year 2020 for the Gelders horse.

"The versatility is an important asset of the Gelder horse. For me, it also has to look good: long-lined with lots of front, show and action in the movement from a strong hind leg. And of course with a lot of size and with strong and solid legwork. In recent years, stallions have been getting less and less bone and I think that is a pity. I find it creepy that so much is crossed with luxurious dressage horses, which makes the type more and more riding horse instead of Gelderlander. I would rather backcross occasionally with a more old-fashioned type of harness horse than with a dressage horse."

Gelder stallion
"In the plan 'Gelder horse 2030' it is precisely written how a Gelder horse should look like, and that plan should remain the guideline for the future. Although I have considered breeding a Gelder horse based on colour, for example falcon, palomino or spotted, I almost always come back to a real Gelder stallion. I used to prefer black, but now chestnuts are my favourite; they only get more beautiful in the summer. I am very happy with a beautiful chestnut with four white legs and a blaze! Our Joris comes close to our breeding goal: he is clearly Gelder, big, beautiful, moves well and is a real presence in the competition ring. In the future, Sander wants to compete him in the Subtop, that seems very cool to me: our own bred Gelder horse at high level!"

Motivation
Of course, 2020 was a different year than any other year and the usual celebration of the Breeder of the Year for the different breeding directions could not take place due to the Corona measures. A nice alternative was thought of and the chosen breeders were put in the spotlight publicly by means of a video report, which was shown during the online stallion selection in February. For the Gelder horse, the honorary title for 2020 was awarded to Marina Burger from the Betuwe. Inspector Gelder Wim Versteeg explains the choice of the committee: "Marina is a real Gelder breeder. Her approach is always to bring her breeding to a higher level. She visits the selections with her mares to have them tested for quality. She has her horses professionally prepared for this. Meanwhile, she has a self-bred keur and Z2-sport mare in her stable and a ster sport mare, both of which descend from the recently deceased stallion Rubus B. These two mares are bred from the preferent star mare Rolexia, a daughter of Bazuin out of a Strawinsky mother. Both mares are in foal to KWPN-approved Gelder stallions. She also has horses with a lot of quality brought out in the sport by a professional rider. Neither trouble nor expense is spared. All the more reason to reward her this year with the title Breeder of the Year!"

Text and images Gemma Jansen