Spaniard Juan Manuel Acosta Makes it on German WCYH Team: "A Dream I Did Not Dare to Dream"

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F.O.C.U.S.

Spaniard Juan Manuel Acosta realised a "dream that I didn't dare to dream" when he trailered his horse Saltes TR to Warendorf in a "wild" attempt to qualify his Hanoverian Saltes TR for the German team. The rider could not believe his ears when he found out he was selected and tomorrow he'll ride down the centerline at the 2023 World Championships for young dressage horses with the German eagle on his saddle pad.

Don Quichot

Lily Forado held an interview with the Spaniard, who had to stop the phone conversation as he couldn't control his emotions and excitement.

Lily wrote, "the story of Juan Manuel Acosta and his selection for the World Young Horse Championships in Germany is worth telling. His sporting career on the German team has not followed the usual pattern; that is to say, he is not a rider of great renown, with a powerful (stallion) stable or big sponsors behind him. Quite the contrary, it's a story marked by humility, one taken step by step, thousands of kilometers up and down. It's the story of the rider from Lepe (Huelva) Lepe's who against all the odds has achieved the impossible."

Family Company in the Morning, Riding in the Afternoon

The 32-year old Juan Manuel Acosta is not the typical professional rider one usually sees at the World YH Championships, i.e. young professionals who usually skipped high school or college to ride 12 horses a day for big stallion owners or sales yard. Acosta works in the morning in his family's construction company and spends the afternoons in the saddle of his own horses in his own small stable.

He is not a WCYH first timer, but already competed in Ermelo in 2016 on the now 12-year old Oldenburg Salobre TR (by Self Made) and in 2017 on the now 11-year old Hanoverian Columbus TR (by Conen). In those years he represented Spain which carried out a selection of foreign bred horses over the domestically bred PRE and CDE horse at that time.

This year, if he wanted to go to Ermelo, he had to trailer his candidate Saltes TR all the way to Warendorf to qualify via the highly competitive German system.

Saltes TR

Acosta scouted Saltes TR (by Secret x De Niro x Weltmeyer) himself, buying him at the 2018 Rhinelander foal auction in Wickrath in August 2018. He was named Suarez in the catalogue at the time and is bred by Dirk Lohmann.

"Saltes TR is the horse of my life because from my point of view he has it all," said Acosta. "He is a very beautiful horse, with a spirited character, very noble at the same time very very smart and then on top of that he is very charismatic. He has three very good gaits."

Juan trained the horse himself and his talent was noticed by the judges straight away. As a 4-year old the black stallion won silver at the Spanish Young Horse Championships and this year the pair won the international 5-year old tests at the CDI Camarma de Esteruelas.

The idea began to try for Ermelo grew at the beginning of April, when Acosta contacted Ursulla Muller, the representative in Spain of Caballos Hannoverianos. What at first seemed like utopia and something very distant, developed months later into an actuality. The results of the CDI3 * Las Cadenas and thousands of videos sent to the selection committee gave ground for the trip to Germany, which Juan did together with his father.

Disbelief

The first German selection trial was on 19 - 21 June 2023. As the event is completely German spoken, Acosta had no clue what was happening or being said. When Helgstrand Germany director Ulf Möller came over to shake his hand at the end of the day, he assumed he was saying well done for the ride, but little did he know he had actually qualified for the second round. He couldn't believe his ears.

"I went to Warendorf to live the experience. At no time did I expect this and beforehand I had no expectations of anything, I just knew what a good horse I had and that it was going to make a good impression. I honestly didn't think they were going to select me."

At the second trial on 3 - 4 July 2023 Acosta sealed the deal: he impressed the selectors and was chosen for the team.

“In the second trial, the were the 14 best horses, one better than the other," Acosta explained. "I faced it like the first time, I was not under any pressure. If it went well, great, and if it went wrong, well, nothing happened. Once I found out the result, I didn't stop crying with happiness."

A Gift

The selection in itself was already a gift after a difficult year for Acosta. He will now give it his all in Ermelo.

“I have had a somewhat complicated year for personal reasons, and all of this is a gift, well, a better gift as I did not imagine this," he said. "I am still not realising it. That our stable has gone to Ermelo with four horses in all these years makes me very excited, not for me alone, but because of all the work of all the people. I am very moved by all this that I am experiencing, especially for all the work of the people who work with me. The day to day life is not visible, but the truth is that, without my trainer, Isidro, my veterinarian David, without my farrier Antonio, my groom Luis, my cousin Antonio, my sponsors, the support of family and friends this would not be possible."

Acosta will be busy in Ermelo as he also qualified a second horse for Spain: D'Huelva TR, a Baden-Wurttemberger by Daily Deal x Sir Donnerhall, which he will ride in the 6-year old division.

Read the full story on Lilyforado.com