International Grand Prix horse and young riders' schoolmaster Helena van het Goorhof has been sold to the Dutch based Chinese dressage rider Rayona Dai.
Helena van het Goorhof is a 15-year old Belgian warmblood mare by Gribaldi out of Bmarone van het Goorhof (by Camus x Coriolan).
Belgian Start
Bred by Belgian eventing rider Willy Sneyers in Retie, Belgium, Helena is out of Bmarone, who is a full sister to Calypso van het Goorhof, a Belgian international Grand Prix horse ridden by Ronny Coenraerds from 2011 to 2013. The chestnut sold to Swiss international junior rider Lia Garzoni.
In 2011 Helena made her show debut in Belgium on the young horse circuit as a 4-year old. She was selected as one of two horses for a BWP dressage demonstration at the CDI-W Mechelen. Shortly afterwards she sold to Chris Oetzman.
Theo Hanzon
In 2013 the 6-year old Helena van het Goorhof moved in training with Dutch Theo Hanzon.
The pair became Dutch Indoor Champion at ZZ-Zwaar level and Dutch Small Tour Champion in 2015. The duo competed in two international competitions in their career: the 2015 CDI Arnheim, where they were 10th in the Prix St Georges and won the Intermediaire I with 68.684%. A year and a half later they competed in the World Cup qualifier in Mechelen in December 2016, scoring 70.380% in the Grand Prix and 72.800% in the Kur. Mechelen was their second and last international.
As of then, Hanzon only competed the horse nationally. In 2019 they won bronze at the Dutch Indoor Championships and finished 9th at the Dutch Grand Prix Championships in the summer.
Geertje Hoogendoorn
In January 2021 Hanzon's student, young rider Geertje Hoogendoorn, took over the ride.
The pair showed in two international competitions: the CDI Exloo in May 2021 and the CDI Grote-Brogel in July 2021, where they won the team test with 66.882% but were eliminated in the individual
Rayona Dai
The 23-year old Chinese rider Ruiqi Rayona Dai has acquired Helena van het Goorhof as her 2022 Asian Games hopeful.
Dai is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and gets lessons from Adelinde Cornelissen amongst others.
Rayona, who told Eurodressage that she chose to go by the last name "Dan" to avoid confusion for a mispronunciation of Dai, has a wide interest in horse sport and also likes show jumping and got her feet with in eventing. Located in Holland, she focuses on horse sales to Asia. Two years ago she acquired the internationally competed palomino Grand Prix horse Artist (previously shown by Vicky Thompson-Winfield) and resold him to Singapore.
Rayona is yet to make her international CDI debut.
Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Dutch Young Rider Geertje Hoogendoorn Debuts Helena van het Goorhof
Van Dust, Luiten, Donkers, Cornelissen, Nieuwenhuis, Minderhoud Win 2019 Dutch Indoor Championships
Scores: 2015 Dutch Dressage Championships