Dutch born Grand Prix dressage rider Evelyn van Beuningen passed away in her house near Girona, Spain, on 26 August 2016. She was 68 years old.
Van Beuningnen had suffered from cerebral aneurysms in the past, but the last one was unfortunately fatal.
Descending from the famous Van Beuningen family in Rotterdam, Evelyn was a grand daughter of the renowned shipping magnate Daniel George van Beuningen, whose art collection hangs at the Boiijmans-Van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam.
Evelyn was keen on horses and took up riding at the age of 9. She was initially into show jumping and competed on the Dutch junior jumping team in the early 1960s.
She moved to Paris to become a model and competed in Frnce in dressage up to Prix St Georges level. In the late 1980s she moved to Belgium, where she became an established Grand Prix dressage rider with regular starts at national top level events and occasional international competitions.
Evelyn's last international Grand Prix horse was the KWPN gelding Cozumel (by Voltaire). They showed together in the late 1990s, won bronze at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix Championships and rode their final CDI in May 1999 in Villanova D'Asti.
Van Beuningen sold her farm in Belgium to Arjen Teeuwissen and moved to Catalunya, Spain, in the early 2000s, where she renovated an old mill, La Capcana, and made it into her dream property. She had retired from competition but still kept horses.
Evelyn spent her last years in Spain surrounded by her beloved animals, of which most of them were rescues.
Photos © Private - Dirk Caremans
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