Jeanine Nekeman's Vlingh Gets New Role, Schoolmaster for Children Rider Flore Woerts

Dressage

The Netherlands

Jeanine Nekeman has decided that it's time for her Under 25 ride Vlingh to shift down a few gears and continue as a schoolmaster for children rider Flore Woerts.

Vlingh is an 18-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Flemmingh out of Krista (by Donnerschlag).

He is bred by P. Fase from Sint-Anneland, The Netherlands, and was originally named Vieux du Manoir.

In 2011 he was competed at international small tour level by Yvonne Snieder. In 2012 the Nekeman family acquired the gelding for daughter Jeanine to ride.

Six European Youth Medals

In 2013 Jeanine and Vlingh made their international show debut at the CDI Drachten. Their first year at junior level was highly successful and resulted in Dutch team selection for the European Junior Riders Championships in Compiegne, where they scored team silver and individual bronze. They returned on the team the next year for the 2014 European Junior Riders Championships in Arezzo and scored another individual bronze alongside team silver.

Vlingh at the 2013 European Junior Riders
Championships

In 2015 the pair made the transition to Young Riders' level and represented the Netherlands at the European Young Riders Championships in Vidauban, France, where they won team silver and were 10th in the individual test. At the 2016 European Young Riders Championships in Oliva Nova, they got team silver again and landed 12th place in the Kur.

Vlingh and Nekeman only did one CDI in 2017 and had a long break from international competition.

They returned to the arena at Under 25 Grand Prix level a year and a half later in October 2018 at the CDI Exloo, where they won both classes. They did not make it to the Under 25 for the Europeans, but gained experience and mileage for another two years. The duo's last international was the CDI Lier in February 2020 right before the corona lockdown.

At the Dutch Championships, Nekeman and Vlingh won silver (2015) and bronze (2013). They did not compete at the nationals in 2014, 2016 and 2018. They were sixth in 2017 and 8th in 2019.

Professor at Children's Level

The Nekeman family has now decided that the 18-year old Vlingh can take it a bit more easily and he can be a schoolmaster for Children rider Flore Woerts.

"Thanks to Vlingh I arrived where I am now. I have the nicest memories with him and achieved many successes, too many to name, including six medals at the European Championships," said the 23-year old Jeanine. "Vlingh is 18 now and has always done his best for me. Now it's a nice moment to give something back to him and he can take it a bit more easily with Flore Woerts at children's level. He gets all the attention in the world and he can still do what he loves doing the most, to compete."

Trained by Yessin Rahmouni and Nicole Werner, the 23-year old Jeanine will continue with her younger Under 25 ride, 10-year old Ferrari STH (by Apache x Jazz). She also aims to bring the small tour level trained 9-year old Game Boy STH (by Andretti x Lennard) to U25 level this year.

Nekeman has a Bachelor in Business Management and almost completed a propaedeutic year in Law. However, the rider decided to return to her first interest. "I want to focus on business management and in February I started my Masters in Marketing at the University of Groningen," Jeanine told Eurodressage.