Belgian Under 25 Team Horse Farrington Sold to Germany

Dressage

Belgium

Farrington, the Belgian Under 25 team horse that competed under Nico Nyssen, has been sold to Germany. The chestnut will continue his sport career under German Semmieke Rothenberger.

Farrington is a 12-year old Dutch warmblood by Jazz out of Belalussi (by Samba Hit x Ramiro Z) . He is bred by Th. Gelink in The Netherlands

Michael Pineo

The chestnut stallion was trained up to Grand Prix level by American Michael Pineo.

In 2018 he offered the horse for sale on Eurodressage, but no-one took a chance on the talented chestnut, so Pineo decided to compete him at international Grand Prix level himself.

They made their CDI debut in January 2018 and competed in Wellington, Tryon and Devon that year with mixed results. In 2020 and 2021 Pineo rode the horse at two more Global Dressage Festivals with more consistent scores and finished at the CDI Tryon on a 63.370% Grand Prix score

Nico Nyssen

Pineo and Farrington at the 2020 CDI Wellington

The Belgian based German horse dealer Jochen Arl spotted the quality in the horse in Florida and convinced Pineo to bring Farrington to Europe, where he was put in training with Jochen's protegé at the time, Belgian Under 25 rider Nico Nyssen.

Nyssen and Farrington gelled and after achieving 69.487% in the short Grand Prix and 75.110% in the freestyle at the CDI Exloo the pair was selected on the Belgian team for the 2022 European Under 25 Championships in Pilisjaszfalu, where they finished 9th in the Kur to Music.

This autumn the pair has been unstoppable winning both U25 classes at the CDI Troisdorf and scoring a hattrick at last weekend's CDI Kronenberg with a 75.294% Inter II score and 73.803% in the Short Grand Prix

Semmieke Rothenberger

After Kronenberg the deal was immediately made and Farrington sold to the Rothenberger family in Germany as a second iron in the fire for Semmieke Rothenberger.

"I'm very happy that my parents have given me the opportunity to start another horse in the U25/GP in the future alongside Flanell," Semmieke told Eurodressage. "Farrington is not unfamiliar to us. We've been following him for a few months and I'm very happy to finally have him in the stable here."

Nyssen warming up Farrington at the 2022 CDI Kronenberg

Rothenberger is the 2021 European Under 25 champion on Flanell (by Apache x Don Schufro) and in 2022 has been competing in the senior division at CDI's in Le Mans, Hagen and Mannheim. She became squad listed with potential for German team selection for the 2022 World Championships but illness stopped her in her tracks.

The 23-year old Semmieke had to pull out of the German Championships with an achilles heel injury, followed by a covid-19 infection. She then developed myocarditis twice and could not ride until September. She has only slowly gotten back into a riding routine.

"Last week I had a check-up for my heart but now I'm allowed to build my fitness again and really get going," Semmieke said about not being able to ride Flanell for half a year, even though she never quit horses and has been training and riding the ponies of her students. "We are now training like normal. Mum (Gonnelien Gordijn) helped me enormously to keep Flanell in work when I really wasn't able to ride and now it's getting my fitness back to the same level as Flanell's. She's a real rocket, so I have to start working out. Be as fit as you expect your horse to be."

She added, "I'm looking forward to the future and after this difficult year with my health, I hope 2023 is only upwards from here."