Danielle Houtvast's Rambo Passed Away

Dressage

Holland

Daniëlle Houtvast's former Dutch young riders team medal winning horse Rambo has passed away.

Rambo was a 21-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Gribaldi out of Tamora (by Amor). He was bred by J. van den Oord-Verwijst.

Rambo first come into the spotlight as owned by IPS horse group and competed by Hans Peter Minderhoud. The pair placed sixth in the 2003 Pavo Cup Finals and they were 10th in the finals of the 2004 World Young Horse Championships in Verden

In 2009 Houtvast was a junior rider and already a semi-professional, working as an assistant trainer at Leida Collins-Strijk's yard in Riethoven, The Netherlands. Danielle began competing Rambo that year.

They competed at four Dutch Championships in a row: they were 1!th in the first round as juniors in 2009, they won silver as juniors in 2010, they were sixth as young riders in 2011, and they got bronze as young riders in 2012.

The pair also competed at three European Junior/Young Riders Championships. In 2010 in Kronberg they won team silver and double bronze in the Junior division. In 2011 and 2012 they won team bronze as Young riders.

They were selected on the Dutch team for the 2013 European YR Championships, but an injury one week before the event forced them to withdrawn. The CDI Moorsele in May 2013 ended up being the pair's last international.

Houtvast didn't want to move Rambo up to Grand Prix level as it was too heavy for the 15-year old at the time. The horse became a schoolmaster for three more riders

"First I had a Dutch rider ride him and he did some more junior competitions," Houtvast told Eurodressage. "At a certain moment I wanted to sell him and he ended up staying in Holland via Carolyn Kooijman. Then I met him again with Angelique Verspuij and she rode some novice level shows with him. He was a real schoolmaster for her."

Rambo was euthanized as he had developed health issues that comprised a good life.

"Until now he was still being ridden, but he started to suffer from epileptic attacks," Houtvast explained. "At a certain moment it was decided in the best interest of the horse to put him down."