Chinese Owned Dayman Joins Dorothee Schneider's Ranks

Dressage

Germany

Dorothee Schneider has added a very interesting Grand Prix horse to her ranks, the Chinese owned Dayman.

Dayman is an 11-year old Westfalian gelding by Daily Deal out of Favea (by Flovino x Donnerhall). He is bred by Hermann Gerland.

Beginnings

The horse was first competed as a 4-year old in 2016 by Marcel Schächter before selling to Jurgen Höfler.

He made his show debut on the Westfalian in 2017 at L-level and competed him lightly the next three years up to Prix St Georges level in 2019.

Terhi Stegars

The German company Lian United, managed by Chinese entrepreneur Qiujuan He, purchased the horse. The company is listed as a wholesale trade business of medical equipment and supplies.

They allocated the ride to Luxembourg based Finnish Grand Prix rider Terhi Stegars as her 2024 Olympic hopeful.

Lian United also built a new barn in Mettlach, Germany, to which they ended up moving their horses. Stegars, who was the head rider at the Contern Dressage Center in Luxembourg, did not want to do the daily commute so gave up the ride on Dayman.

Sascha Schulz

In August 2020 German born Luxembourg professional rider Sascha Schulz took over Dayman.

Three months later the pair won gold at the 2020 Luxembourg Grand Prix Championships and in May 2021 they made their international show debut at the CDI Achleiten, where they scored 67.630% in the Grand Prix.

Their second CDI followed only a year later in Troisdorf, where the pair was third in the Grand Prix with 70.283%. They went on to the CDI in Exloo and Crozet.

Dorothee Schneider

Six months ago, the Chinese owner decided on a new rider for Dayman and the horse has been allocated to Dorothee Schneider.

She made her national show debut on Dayman on 30 April 2023 in Mehlingen, winning the Intermediaire II with 75.658%.

"It didn't immediately expect a win, but I was very impressed how he presented himself in our first show," Schneider explained. "We amicably call him duck since he's been in our barn because the stable crew thought his name was Duckman instead of Dayman. Each horse has a barn name here and this one stuck."