Van Gasselt and Delacroix, Dutch Shooting Stars, Ones to Watch for 2021

Focus

F.O.C.U.S.

The traditional players of Dutch dressage dominated the 2020 Dutch Championships, but there seems to be a new hope for the future of dressage in The Netherlands: 35-year old Vincent van Gasselt.

Aboard Vera Verwelius' 10-year old Hanoverian Delacroix II (by Dancier x Don Crusador) Van Gasselt surprised all and placed fifth in the 2020 Dutch Senior Grand Prix Championship, ahead of Olympic silver medalist and European Champion Adelinde Cornelissen as well as Dutch team rider Madeleine Witte-Vrees.

Van Gasselt was a familiar face in his youth rider time in the early 2000s, on horses from Coby van Baalen's stable, but when he became a senior he disappeared from the international stage. Now 15 years later, Van Gasselt is back.

Youth Rider at Van Baalen's

Vincent-Julien van Gasselt began finding the spotlight with his dressage career as a young rider in 2002.

Vincent and Corleone, 2004 CDI-PJYR Duisburg

Aboard Coby van Baalen's licensed KWPN stallion Inspekteur (by Darwin x Amor) he competed on the Dutch and international young riders circuit through 2003, in attempt to qualify for the European YR Championships, but they did not make the cut. They were 8th in the Kur at the 2003 Dutch Young Riders Championships after which Inspekteur sold to Wendy van der Helm. Van Gasselt had to seek a new horse.

In 2004 Vincent partnered with Corleone for the year and placed 8th in the Kur at the 2004 Dutch Young Riders Championships. In 2005 the former World Young Horse champion Roval Investment became his match. They finished sixth at the 2005 Dutch Young Riders Championships.

2005 was the last year that Van Gasselt competed internationally and it took him 15 years to return to the CDI arena.

"Of course I haven't been quiet in the meantime," Van Gasselt told Eurodressage. "I have my own barn with training horses, but in the beginning I mainly had to sell a lot of horses to keep my stable.

One of the horses that Vincent trained and sold is the chestnut gelding Saint Tropez (by Welt Hit II x Zonneglans), which is now owned and ridden Czech National Champion Sarka Charvatova.

Vera Verwelius

One of the clients Vincent was riding horses for is Dutch Vera Verwelius, whose family runs a big construction company in The Netherlands. Their connection started more than 10 years ago and one of their annual fixtures on the calendar is attending the Klosterhof Medingen auction.

In 2015 they spotted Delacroix (by Dancier x Don Crusador) in the auction and Verwelius purchased him for 80,000 euro.

"Through the years I have become part of Vera's family and each year we go to the Klosterhof Medingen auction, so also five years ago," said Vincent. "I rode Delacroix for 2 minutes and was sold on him. I knew he was the one. He was everything I was looking for in a horse. We both had to cry when Vera succeeded in buying him."

Double Auction Time for Delacroix

Delacroix in the 2014 Klosterhof Medingen auction

Delacroix is bred by Jens Hagemann and was scouted by Klosterhof Medingen's owner Burkhard Wahler as a youngster. The horse was originally licensed for breeding, but gelded to be focused on sport.

The horse did his first competition in his life in a local riding horse test in Tostedt under Theresa Wahler in July 2014. He was meant to be sold at the 2014 Klosterhof Medingen auction and listed in the 2014 catalog, but ended up staying at the yard in Bad Bevensen.

In 2015 he was competed by Belgian Bart Desender, who worked as an assistant rider at Klosterhof Medingen. He rode him at three local shows at L-dressage horse level, before Delacroix returned to auction collection a second time for the 2015 auction, where Verwelius purchased him.

Striving for Harmony

Van Gasselt trained Delacroix up the levels himself and has competed him fifteen times in total between M-level and Grand Prix.

"I rode him mainly a lot in the forest. He's so clever when it comes to the movements. Nothing was hard for him," said Van Gasselt. "I train with Emmelie Scholtens who helps us in a great way and who knows me and Delacroix well. She has been part of it from the start."

At the 2020 Dutch Championships, Van Gasselt and Delacroix only rode their fifth Grand Prix test in their career together. They scored 72.64% in the Special and a whopping 80.03% in the freestyle.

"It was now that I thought the time was there to really compete and it is also that a horse like Delacroix is too good and too much fun not to show to the audience."

Van Gasselt's telephone crashed with an overload of messages after the Dutch Championships.

"Everybody said that the picture was so pretty. That is also my goal: to ride with harmony and to show that. His nose is always in front of the vertical, his mouth is closed and you can put your entire hand in between the noseband. I never ride with a whip," Vincent told De Hoefslag.

To Eurodressage, the rider confirmed that Delacroix is his heart horse.

"He sits so deep in my heart. He follows me all day to see what I'm doing and me too. I want to commit myself 100% to him and the sport. My plan is to really go all in next year and who knows? He has it all to be amongst the best."