Heiline's Danciera Receives HRH Princess Benedikte's Perpetual Prize

Breeding

Just five months after receiving the "Competition Medal" in gold from the Danish Warmblood Society, Danish Olympian team horse Heiline's Danciera got decorated with the HRH Princess Benedikte's Perpetual Prize.

The HRH Princess Benedikte's Perpetual Prize was established in 2005 and is awarded each year to a horse that is registered in Danish Warmblood, and which by its own performance or as the sire or dam of a competition horses has made itself especially noticeable in the calendar year before.

Danciera Honoured

The 11-year old Heiline's Danciera (by Furstenball x De Niro) is bred by Heine Bonde Mikkelsen and Line Husum Jensen of Stald Heiline and owned by Ingrid and Poul Thøgersen. Under Carina Cassoe Kruth she represented Denmark at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo and finished 7th in the freestyle.

The perpetual prize was handed to the owners and rider of the horse during the gala show at the 2022 Danish Warmblood stallion Licensing in Herning last weekend. The mare performed a freestyle to Dirty Dancing's Time of My Life.

Breeders in the Dark

Unfotunately the ceremony at the Gala Show celebrated only the rider and owner of the horse, and left the actual breeders in the dark.

DWB president Jan Pedersen, owner Poul Thøgersen,
rider Carina Cassoe Kruth, Princess Benedikte, and
owner Ingrid Thøgersen at the award ceremony

The Danish Warmblood Stallion Licensing is at its core a breeding event, although sport continues to play a bigger role there every year. Remarkably the breeders of Danciera were not invited to this special tribute moment.

"Unfortunately, we only became acquainted with the honour when several good breeding colleagues called us in the middle of the gala show and asked where we were," said Mikkelsen and Jensen of Heiline on social mefia. "A little sigh of relief: Such an honor is an experience of a lifetime for us as breeders. So a little call for Danish Warmblood in the future: remember the breeders. They are passionate about their offspring and follow them closely from the sidelines."