Zoutendijk and Vosskotter in Case of Dual Domination at 2013 CDN-P Beek

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2013 CDN-PJYR Beek

In a case of dual domination of the Pony classes at the interntional invitational CDN-PJYR Beek on 1 - 3 November 2013, two names stood out amongst a tough field, with Holland's Lisanne Zoutendijk and Champ of Class coming home gold ahead of exciting new German talent Anna-Lena Vosskotter and Steverheides Wulkano.

The golden girl in both the Pony Final and Consolation Final, European Pony Championships silver and bronze medallist Lisanne Zoutendijk blitzed the field with three of her star ponies, Amaretto, Champ of Class, and Oosteind's Rocco. She had her pony troika in super condition. "All three felt very good and they were all very fit," Lisanne told Eurodressage.

Her leading man Champ of Class is a 9 year old pony gelding by Champion de Luxe who, according to Lisanne, is a very special pony with excellent movement. "Plus a great character," she added quickly. Lisanne's second pony Amaretto (by Alfred) is the old professor and at 19 years old he is certainly her number one in terms of schoolmaster. "He is a pony who always wants to work for me," she explained. Finally, coming in at number three is Oosteind's Rocco, a 15 year old gelding by Anjershof Rocky, who also has excellent movement and was a former Dutch European team pony under Lotte Jansen. "Sometimes he can be not so easy to ride," she admitted.

Lisanne Zoutendijk on Champ of Class Having a home that doubles as a professional dressage stable, the obvious choice for Lisanne was to pursue dressage and while she dabbled in some jumping, she discovered early on that dressage was what she really wanted to do. "When I was 4 years old I had my first pony and from then I always wanted to practice a dressage test," she stated.

Trained at home by Jeroen Okkema, Lisanne also travels to Brakel to receive lessons from Coby van Baalen. She is also lucky to have a horse to ride along side her fledgling pony career. "I ride my mom's horse Ringo Star, a 10-year old gelding by Riccione, at junior level, but my ponies will stay with me until the Dutch championships next September," she explained.

With Champ of Class and Oosteind's Rocco likely to go up for sale, there is one old man who will stay in the family. "Amaretto will stay with us. He will be 20 years old then and he deserves to enjoy his retirement from that time on." As she feels her pony time coming to an end, Lisanne will begin to look for another junior horse, hoping to go much further in Junior level at the end of next year. "For now, I hope to ride at the European Championships in Ireland with Champ of Class and with Oosteind's Rocco and with Ringo-Star I will try to reach the Dutch A- or B-team," she said about her 2014 goals.

Vosskotter to the Fore

German Anna-Lense Vosskotter stayed close on Zoutendijk's heels placing second in the team championship test with Steverheides Wulkano on 71.880%. Aboard her second pony Uniek, she was also fourth with 69.573%. The German talent won the Individual test with Wulkano on 73.110% ahead of Zoutendijk and finished third in the Finals with 69.000%. On Uniek she took out another second place in the consolation class with 70.000%.

"Beek was a great weekend for me and the highlight was the winning test on Steverheides Wulkano," said the 15-year old.

Wulkano is an 8 year old German riding pony by Werwolf x Vulkan x Amir ox and is, according to Anna-Lena, a nice pony, but one that is not so easy to ride. "He often tries to take over the control and has a very strong will of his own," she confessed. "However he is also a very great pony with lots of talent for dressage."

Her second ride Uniek is an 11-year old New Forest pony (by Klootwijkhoeve's Walter x Heidhof's Primeur) from The Netherlands, which Anna-Lena purchased from her trainer. "He is a great pony and he is very very lovely, and my brother sometimes also rides him in E and A level dressage," Vosskotter explained.

With two older sisters who also ride, Anna-lena comes from a very horsey family and she is grateful to now have the ride on Wulkano after her parents handed him down to her three years ago for one of her other sisters. "I have two other ponies as well, my jumping pony Django, a 12-year old German riding pony which was my first pony and my other dressage pony Light which is also a German Riding pony and is 9-years old."

In love with all her ponies, Anna-Lena would not give them away for anything and will enjoy her limited time training her ponies as her 16th birthday approaches. "I took up riding because my father rode also and right now I train with Heike Ingebrand and Kathrin Brückner," she said. "I hope to stay riding ponies until I am 16, which is only one more year, and maybe I will ride horses too next year if I have time, or otherwise begin on the horses when I really turn 16," she said still quite undecided about her future.

By Sarah Warne for Eurodressage