Luxembourg junior rider Emma-Lou Becca has added a new horse to her string, the 11-year old Danish warmblood bred Atterupgaards Final Kiss.
The black Final Kiss (by French Kiss x Diamond) is bred by Kristine Sinding and was last trained and competed by Cathrine Dufour.
Final Kiss began its competition career in 2011 under Sanne Henningsen. The pair represented Denmark at the 2011 World Young Horse Championships in Verden, where they placed 11th in the Finals. They were also 5th at the 2011 Danish Young Horse Championships.
In 2012 the black was competed by Jens Kristian Østergaard but the horse missed out on Verden selection as reserves. They did win silver at the 2012 Danish Young Horse Championships.
From the spring of 2014 until 2017 Final Kiss did not compete a single show in Denmark. Dufour presented him once at M-level in January 2017 and scored a winning 75.833% at the time.
The 13-year old junior Emma-Lou Becca has now acquired Final Kiss. The Luxembourg youth rider, who is trained by Danish born Fie Skarsoe, is currently competing internationally in no less than three divisions.
Emma's most steady horse has been the 16-year old Hanoverian Wyomi (by Weltmeyer) with which Emma has been competing in the Children's division since 2015. She represented Luxembourg at the 2015 and 2016 European Children's Championships. Aboard the 7-year old Tackmann's Nougatherz (by Heidbergs Nancho Nova x Champion de Luxe), Becca recently made her CDI debut at FEI pony level in Mariakalnok. With the 13-year old Hanoverian Komet (by K2 x Wolkentanz I) she has moved up to international junior level competitions this year.
Emma's coach Fie Skarsoe told Eurodressage that the goal for this year are the European Junior Riders Championships and Emma will now have two irons in the fire for them, Komet and Final Kiss.
"We will see which horse will be her number one this year," said Skarsoe. "Komet is just being better and better at the moment, but Emma is 13 years old and still have five years as a junior, so we decided to get one more top horse for the junior tour, even though she also has Wyomi for Children and Tackmanns Nougatherz for the FEI pony tour. Emma has a huge talent and we decided to concentrate on juniors."
Young Emma now combines school with heavy program of riding two to three horses every day. "Emma has understood the staying 'no reward without effort' ("ohne Fleiß kein Preis), which is what Jan Bemelmans taught me," Skarsoe added.
Photos © Astrid Appels
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