Lyndal Oatley Debuts New Grand Prix Horse, Eros

Dressage

Australia

Australian Olympian Lyndal Oatley has made her show debut on her newest acquisition, the 11-year old Dutch warmblood bred Grand Prix horse Eros.

Eros is a KWPN bred gelding by Sir Oldenburg out of Selva (by Ferro x Pion). He is bred by Cadre Blanc BV in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands.

Eros du Parme

The grey gelding first made headlines under the name "Eros du Parme" in France.

He was purchased by Alexandra Schlenck-Pascal in April 2014 at Stal van Den Hurk, in The Netherlands. Trained by Vincent Guilloteau, Alexandra competed Eros from 2015 through 2018. The pair finished 13th at the 2016 French Championships for 7-year olds.

As of 2018 Vincent trained him to developing Grand Prix level.

"We found him in an eventing stable. He was very 'green' and quite shy and fearful when he arrived," Pascal told Eurodressage, "but Eros is a lovely horse with a golden heart. He loves humans and giving kisses to humans."

In June 2019 the grey was sent to Kirsten Brouwers in Holland to be sold. "In in Holland because it's a better international market place than our small regional stables in France," Alexandra explained.

Lyndal purchased the sympathetic gelding in September 2019 and has slowly been getting acquainted with him.

The pair made its show debut right before the corona crisis at a local show in Warendorf-Freckenhorst on 3 March 2020. The pair scored 69% in the Grand Prix.

"Ross is so sweet and offers all he can and was so focused on me," Lyndal told Eurodressage. "We made a lot of little mistakes but he fights for you from start to finish. I went out earlier than I wanted to as he was only just starting to put the Grand Prix together but I needed to test the waters. He would have been really ready for the summer season but that’s life."

Three Grand Prix Horses Lined Up

Oatley now has three potential Grand Prix horses lined up for a possible Australian Olympic team selection campaign in 2021: Eros, the 12-year old Swedish mare Diva (by Richfield x Silvano) and 11-year old KWPN mare Elvive (by Tuschinski x Don Schufro).

After giving birth to her daughter Emilia in 2018, Lyndal returned to the arena in January 2019 with Diva, a mare she has owned and trained since 2013. Diva is out of Patrik Kittel's Grand Prix horse Deja, whose Grand Prix career halted in the summer of 2018. In 2019 Lyndal showed Diva five times at the Ankum Riding Club indoor events to put Grand Prix mileage on the mare. With Elvive she is yet to make her Grand Prix debut but the pair has shown at small tour level once in 2017 before Lyndal got pregnant.

Lyndal competed Sandro Boy at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and aims to have a third one under her belt. Eros seems to be the most ready for the challenge.

"I just love riding and working with him," said Lyndal. "Whenever we can compete again I will be really happy to get out there. With a few more shows under our belt we can really put together a good test and he has a lot of strengths that can give him strong points so I am very curious and excited fo see what we can achieve together."