Timor, Belgian and French Youth Team Horse, Passed Away

Dressage

France

Timor, the small tour horse which competed at three European Youth Riders Championships for Belgium and France, has passed away on 4 July 2022.

Timor was a 22-year old Dutch warmblood by Matterhorn out of Odessa (by Indoctro x Joost). He was bred by P. Deinum in Franeker, The Netherlands

Alexa Fairchild

Initially owned by Dutch Kim Ferwerda, the bright bay gelding was competed by Dutch Peter de Boer up to national Grand Prix level.

NIcknamed Tum Tum, Timor sold to Belgian junior rider Alexa Fairchild in 2013. The pair made its international show debut at the CDI Vidauban and went on to get nominated on the Belgian team for the 2013 European Young Riders Championships, which Belgium won a historic team bronze medal.

In 2014 they returned to the European YR Championships in Arezzo, where Fairchild had a difficult first ride in severe windy conditions with fences blown over. After a disappointing ride and score, the pair had a career best in the individual round (8th) and placed 10th in the Kur finale.

In 2015 the duo moved up to Under 25 level and Fairchild rode her first internationals at U25 Grand Prix level in Vidauban, Nieuw en St. Joosland, Saumur, Rossendaal, Compiegne, and Rotterdam

Lea Bonifay

In the summer of 2015 Timor sold as a junior rider horse to the Belgian based French rider Lea Bonifay, who at the time trained with the same coach as Fairchild, Virginia Deltour.

Bonifay and Timor at the 2017 CDI Sint-Truiden

Bonifay and Timor made their international show debut in Le Mans in October 2015 and first gained experience in 2016. In 2017 they were nominated on the French team for the 2017 European Junior Riders Championships in Roosendaal, where the pair finished 55th in the individual test with 66.210%.

Bonifay moved to Young Riders level in 2019 with two international starts in Saumur and Hagen.

Retirement

In the summer of 2019, the then 19-year old Tum Tum was retired from sport and spent his retirement in the field at Bonifay's yard near Nice, France.

"He had a great retirement under the sun with his friends and near us," Bonifay told Eurodressage. "He spent (the last) four years walking in the garden with Daykiri and two shetlands. In the evening he would come back to the box."

Unfortunately on Monday 4 July, Timor suffered a several colic attack and could not be saved.