Valentijn van Weering Died Unexpectedly

Dressage

The Netherlands

Valentijn van Weering, a Dutch Grand Prix rider, sponsor, yard owner and judge, died unexpectedly on Sunday 24 January 2021. He was 50 years old.

Born on 9 November 1970, Van Weering was a dentist by profession and owned the large dental practice VarioDent.

VarioHippique

He was an amateur Grand Prix rider and owner of stable VarioHippique in Velsen-Zuid, The Netherlands. He purchased the yard, which was previously known as De Groene Heuvel, in 2006.

Since 2018 the manager of the stable was Nicole Hoogduin, who became his life partner and the mother of his 1-year old, Sophie Leynne.

For the Love of Horses

Valentijn began riding seriously at age 36.

In October 2015 he purchased the small tour horse First Class (by Florencio x Contender) from Joop van Uytert and competed him up to Grand Prix level.

He trained Sir Hudson (by Sir Fashion x Gribaldi) to small tour level himself.

Van Weering was passionate about his riding and self-improvement, but had no ambitions to compete internationally.

Vingino

Van Weering came into the spotlight when he purchased Tommie Visser's internationally competed Grand Prix horse Vingino (by Polansky x Variant).

Visser and Vingino were rising Grand Prix stars in The Netherlands in 2014, but a major dispute with the horse's owner Margriet van Beelen resulted in one of the biggest Dutch dressage soap operas. The drama included legal disputes, bickering, fighting, shots being fired and punches thrown.

Van Weering bought Vigino, but as soon as the purchase was finalized, the horse moved back to Tommie Visser, who rode him for three more years. In 2018 Van Weering took over Vingino as a schoolmaster.

Scaling Down

Van Weering on Sir John (by Sir Donnerhall)
at the 23016 CDN Amsterdam

In 2019 Valentijn began scaling down his own riding, apparently as he was too busy with his dental practice. He sold his top horses First Class and Westwind (by Jazz x Zeoliet).

Valentijn was a very outspoken person, with clear opinions about horse sport, politics and life. He was very detailed and passionate to defend his visions. For instance, he openly discussed and disagreed on Facebook with how the Dutch government was handling the corona crisis.

Valentijn developed a grim view on life and saw no way out. He died suddenly on 24 January 2021.

Horses.nl first reported the news of Valentijn's sad passing. Condolences can be posted here.