Norwegian Grand Prix rider Anne Lene Holmen hopes to make her come back on Rainbow Dancer, the Grand Prix horse which took her to her first senior international championship at the 2015 European Championships in Aachen.
Rainbow Dancer is a 13-year old Hanoverian gelding by Rubin Royal out of Alina (by Alabaster). The tall bright bay was originally owned by Mara Hufendiek, but in 2016 the ownership on paper got shared with Willi Rolf.
Norwegian Anna Lena began competing Rainbow Dancer in 2007 in Germany. They competed at the 2009 Bundeschampionate, where they were 37th in the consolation finals. In 2014 they made their Grand Prix level debut at the CDN Bielefeld, where they won the Short Grand Prix. They made their international debut at the CDI Roosendaal in May 2015 and drew the attention of the Norwegian selectors.
Holmen and Rainbow Dancer represented Norway at the 2015 Nordic Baltic Championships, where they were fifth in the freestyle (71.175%), and at the 2015 European Dressage Championships in Aachen, Germany, where they finished 55th in the Grand Prix (66.214%). They kicked off the 2016 season with numerous starts in Drachten, Amsterdam, Neumunster and Doha, but then the pair disappeared from the scene.
Rainbow Dancer was initially offered for sale, but in August 2016 he injured himself in a freak accident in the stable.
"We have a rather small door to use getting out of the indoor arena. After one training session I wanted to go for a hack and he spooked in the door, jumped to the side and his right hind leg slipped out backwards," Holmen told Eurodressage. "We will start training him again at the start of February, hoping to get him back to the show ring early summer. The plan is to get him back in to work and hopefully do some CDI in early summer."
Holmen runs a sales and training facility with her partner Hubertus Hufendiek. Anne Lena admitted that her focus is more on sales than pursuing an active competition career, striving for team representation.
"I would love to ride CDI again but most of the horses we sell," she explained. "At the moment Rainbow is the only horse I have for CDI level, all the other ones are sales horses."
Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Eurodressage Photo Database: Rainbow Dancer
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Scores: 2015 Nordic Baltic Championships
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Scores: 2009 Bundeschampionate