Amandori Sold to Yuko Kitai

Dressage

Japan

Simone Pearce's second Grand Prix horse Amandori has been sold to former Japanese team rider Yuko Kitai as her 2022 WEG and 2024 Paris Olympic hopeful.

Amandori is a 10-year old Saxonian/Thuringian warmblood by Ampere out of Niobe (by Ra). He is bred at the Saxonian state stud in Graditz and was owned by Graditz in partnership with Gestut Sprehe.

Licensed Stallion

The bay was licensed as a 3-year old at the South German Stallion Licensing in Munich in January 2014, but he did not do a stallion performance test.

Instead the stallion was focused on sport. He has no offspring registered with the German equestrian federation.

Focus on Sport

Amandori's sport career took a later start in 2016 when the horse was 5. He competed first under Elsa Maulet until 2017.

In 2019 Amandori made his show debut under Australian Simone Pearce at the local show in Wietmarschen at S* level. She rode him at small tour that year at a few competitions and by December 2019 moved him up to Grand Prix.

Second Iron for Tokyo

Amandori was Simone Pearce's second iron in the fire for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The duo made its show debut in Exloo, The Netherlands, in December 2019 and its international show debut in Achleiten in the Intermediaire II where they scored 71.235%.

Pearce and Amandori competed in Le Mans, Ornago and Achleiten in the spring of 2021, bagging no less than four international victories at the latter two shows.

Sold to Japan

Amandori was already tried out by Yuko Kitai before Tokyo, but the horse was retained for Pearce as a reserve ride for Tokyo and only sold post-Olympics

Trained by Thomas Wagner, Kitai now has two horses sourced through Sabine Rueben at Sprehe's stable: Montevideo and Amandori.

"Sabine Rueben introduced me to him last year and I tried Montevideo and Amandori at the same time," Yuko told Eurodressage. "Surely I liked both horses. Amandori makes me feel very comfortable in the saddle when I tested him and he convinced me that I want to try for the 2024 Olympics with him. He is such a sweet stallion."

Amandori will continue onwards as Kitai's 2022 WEG and 2024 Paris hopeful.

"This horse has been so special to me for many years and our journey together has probably been the most satisfying achievement of my career," Pearce wrote on social media. "I started with Dori when he was just a very cheeky chubby 6 year old and now three years later he has become a real international Grandprix star and one of my favorite dance partners of all time. I am so very proud of our journey together- it was an absolute pleasure for me to have the chance to develop such a special horse through the levels."

Kitai has represented Japan at the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games on Rambo and Don Loreon. She also competed at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington.