With her apppointment as Danish team trainer, Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein has put her own competition career on the back burner. Her top Grand Prix horse Fabienne has been allocated to Danish Under 25 rider Victoria Vallentin.
Fabienne is a 15-year old, home bred Danish warmblood mare by Future Cup out of Racine (by Rubinstein).
"I love to ride Fabienne," an ecstatic Victoria told Eurodressage. "I feel that we have a very good connection, even we only have been together for two weeks. I feel very lucky to ride such a experienced horse. Now we have to learn each other better so there will be no misunderstandings doing the tests."
Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein made her international Grand Prix debut on Fabienne at the CDI Hagen in April 2013. The sensitive mare had quite a few ups and downs in the Grand Prix ring, not always producing consistent performances, but Nathalie kept chiselling on the horse and in 2016 the black mare produced more steady performances. Last tear they contested the CDI's in Doha, Herning, Hagen, Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Fritzens, Donaueschingen, Mallorca, Randbol and Frankfurt.
The 19-year old Victoria Vallentin will now continue the mare's career in the Under 25 division. Victoria won kur bronze at the 2015 European Junior Riders Championships in Vidauban and since then has jumped straight into the Under 25 division with Anna Kasprzak's schoolmaster Select. She only did one CDI last year at Young Riders level on Dona Rush.
Vallentin is a very experienced youth rider and seems able to tune into Fabienne's sensitive nature easily.
"Fabi is so sweet and easy to handle and every day I look forward to my training with her. I have noticed that she sometines can be a bit tricky but so far it has not been a problem for me," she explained. "At the competition this weekend she was very relaxed and cooperative."
The new duo made its national show debut at the 2017 CDN Sundeved, where they scored 68.465% in the Intermediaire II to finish third. Vallentin is careful about planning her near future with the horse, although for any ambitious Under 25 rider the 2017 European Under 25 Championships are the season highlight.
"First of all we need some time to get acquainted," said Victoria. "We will join some training sessions with Nathalie, the national coach. We will compete in some national shows and hopefully we will be ready for the international competitions."
Related Links
Eurodressage Photo Database: Fabienne