Eurodressage made a quick hop and a stop at the 2006 Zwolle International Stallion Show in Zwolle, The Netherlands, on Saturday March 18, 2006. We watched the Promising Stallion class (Prix St Georges), the Best Stallion class (Grand Prix)
and the De Havikerwaard get of sire class. Here is a photo report of our day in Zwolle.
Coby van Baalen won the Prix St Georges aboard the KWPN licensed stallion Kigali (by Wolfgang x Voltaire). Kigali is bred out of Emile Hendrix' Olympic show jumping mare Finesse and he was the World Young Horse Show Jumping Champion as a 6-year old. He later on got reschooled to dressage by Coby van Baalen, who now owns the stallion together with stallion keeper Arend Zoer. In Zwolle, van Baalen rode an immaculate and expressive test aboard this beautiful stallion. The traversal movements were lovely and the extensions well engaged and ground covering. They scored 70.75%
Wendy van der Helm aboard the KWPN stallion Inspekteur (Darwin x Amor). Wendy scored 64.83% in the Prix St Georges after a clean test and won the consolation finals Intermediaire I on Sunday with 64.50%. The 16-year old Inspekteur has been a schoolmaster for many Van Baalen students. Marlies van Baalen won team gold and individual bronze aboard him at the Hickstead European Young Riders Championships. After Marlies, the dark bay stallion was competed by Vincent van Gasselt and Wendy van der Helm. Inspekteur will go back to stable van Baalen where he will be the new teacher for a young rider.
Malaysian Nur Quzundia. Though the organization in Zwolle announced her as Macedonian, Nur originates from Malaysia. She is one of only few international dressage riders from South East Asia and is currently training at Anky van Grunsven's stable in Erp, The Netherlands. Nur has received the ride over the 17-year old Havel, a licensed stallion by Cocktail x Elan, owned by Nijhoff stables.
The Zwolle International Stallion Show is not so international as it aspires it to be. The field of dressage competitors this year is predominantly filled by Dutch riders aboard Dutch stallions. A few Germans and Belgians were there too, but there was only one representative from Sweden (Patrik Kittel) and England (Gemma Green), nations with a large stock of dressage horses. Pictured left is Gemma on her KWPN stallion O'Brian (Flemmingh x Maestro). O'Brian is a former World Young Dressage Horse Championships' participant. Green also competed her newest stallion Showtime, an AES licensed Contango x Democraat offspring.
Florentine Rootveld aboard Up Seven, a OO-Seven x Jazz offspring bred by Stoeterij 't Vierspan. The combination participated in the De Havikerwaard Get of Sire Championship, a class in which five groups of three horses sired by the same stallion entered the ring to represent their sire. The group that won the Championship was the OO-Seven offspring group. Up Seven, a young black KWPN branded dressage star showed outstanding paces and displayed much elasticity and engagement which lacked in the other two OO-sevens who were stiff and slow behind. The most interesting group was no doubt the Jazz group, with the outstanding youngster Valley who had three breath taking gaits, but behaved naughtily in the ring under his new owner Dominique Mohimont.
The Best Stallion class (Grand Prix) was won by Anky van Grunsven on Krack C (Flemmingh x Beaujolais). Krack C (left picture) has been back in the show ring after a long period of injury, but the dark bay stallion looked fresh and willing to work. They earned a very generous score of 70.71% for a test in which no walk was performed (very tense). Nevertheless, Krack C was the most expressive Grand Prix horse in the ring.
Eurodressage was extremely interested to see the Oldenburg stallion Relevant (Rubinstein x Goldlowe) back in the ring. Marlies van Baalen and Relevant competed at the World Cup Qualifier in Mechelen, but Zwolle was their first international performance of 2006. Van Baalen has a tough cookie to ride, but is doing a good job. Unfortunately, their ride in the Zwolle Grand Prix was one of highlights and absolute low points. The highlights were the half passes in trot and the piaffe in which the chestnut shows a textbook example of a sitting piaffe. Very poor, though, was his passage which was uneven and irregular throughout the test. The pair scored 68,50% and placed third.
Anky's newest Grand Prix horse is the 8-year old KWPN Painted Black (by Gribaldi x Ferro). The black stallion started doing the Grand Prix only very recently and can not maintain the same level of push and power in the hindquarters throughout the test (normal for such a green GP horse), but Anky did show some beautiful moments on this horse who displayed good development of his basic gaits since his Aachen performance in August 2005. Painted Black's weak point is his canter which regularly loses its clear 3-beat rhythm, but in Zwolle the canter was more through the body and rhythmical. What pleased us most about Painted Black is that he seems extremely stress-proof. Most of Anky's horses are nervous wrecks but Painted Black seems to keep his cool. We like it!
Norbert van Laak's Warkantos has a new rider and owner. In the saddle is Camille Judet and her mother, judge Isabel Judet, is listed as the owner. Warkantos (by Warkant x Abhang II) is a perfect Grand Prix schoolmaster for the now junior rider who competed at the 2005 European PONY (!!) Championships last year.
By the way, Warkantos is the fourth Warkant offspring that is currently competing at Grand Prix level. Can anyone name a breeding stallion that has so many offspring alive and competing at Grand Prix at this moment? For Warkant, we are counting Wahajama, Wansuela Suerte, Hiscox Karachi, Wat a Feeling, and Warkantos; FIVE international Grand Prix horses by the 2002 Hanoverian Stallion of the Year.
Anne-Lotte Paymans of Dressage Direct told us we also needed to count Wholio (under Canadian Jon Costin) and World Congress (under Heiner Schiergen) which makes seven direct Warkant offspring showing at Grand Prix.
Photos © Astrid Appels - No Reproduction Allowed
Related Link
Scores 2006 Zwolle International Stallion Show
