Blue Hors Zack Will Have Last Dance at 2023 CDI-W Herning

Dressage

Denmark

Blue Hors Zack, a celebrated breeding stallion and a Danish 2021 Olympic team horse, will be retired from sport after his final dance at the 2023 CDI-W Herning this weekend.

Zack is a 19-year old KWPN stallion by Rousseau out of Orona (Jazz x Belisar). Bred by B. Wilschut.

KWPN Licensing Champion

Zack was the 2007 KWPN Stallion Licensing Champion and named Zagreb at the time. Blue Hors stud's head scout Esben Möller saw talent and potential in the young stallion and purchased him from owner Wim Plaizier in the KWPN Select Sale auction for 430,000 euro.

As a breeding stallion Zack's first offspring did not immediately make a splash at a young age, but more gradually the KWPN stallion got better mares and more prominent offspring started to surface.

Zack as Zagreb at the 2007 KWPN Stallion Licensing

As a breeding stallion he stamped Danish warmblood breeding and has 39 licensed sons so far (The German FN has 32 registered of which 21 are in studbook I), including triple young horse world champion Sezuan, 2016 Westfalian reserve licensing champion Zoom, Pavo Cup winner Jameson, and Hungarian team horse Vincent Maranello, and 2017 Oldenburg saddle Licensing champion Zac Efron (now with Daniel Bachmann). He also sired Skovens Tzarina (Danish Warmblood mare champion 2017, now with Isabell Werth) and Straight Horse Sezuanna (Mare of the Year in Danish Warmblood 2016, now with Imke Bartels).

His most famous offspring in sport is Blue Hors Zepter who won team bronze and GP Special silver at the 2023 European Championships (Nanna Merrald), Zonik (Edward Gal), Blue Hors Zatchmo (Caroline Chew), Bjergsholms Valbonne (Malin Nilsson), and Sezuan.

The Danish Warmblood society proclaimed Zack elite sire and 2014 Stallion of the Year. In 2020 Zack was pulled from active stud duty as his sport career and attempt to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics took precedence.

Sport Career

As a youngster he was shown between 2009 and 2013 at five national shows under riders Sune Hansen, Allan Gron and Maik Kohlschmidt.

Under Daniel Bachmann Andersen Zack made his international show debut at the CDI Hagen in April 2015 and competed at small tour level for one year. They moved up to Grand Prix level in Herning in March 2017.

Their first major claim to fame was finishing 7th at the 2018 World Cup Finals in Paris, while they were 17th at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon. In 2019 they were 7th in the freestyle at the European Championships in Rotterdam.

In 2020 Bachmann left Blue Hors and Nanna Skodborg Merrald took over the ride. She rode him onto the Danish team for her first Olympics in 2021 in Tokyo, where they were 11th individually in the Kur. Merrald and the 18-year old Zack returned on the team for the World Championships in Herning, where they won team gold and placed 22nd in the Special, not making it into the freestyle.

In 2023 Zack's sport career slowed down considerably and he did two more World Cup qualifiers in Amsterdam and Gothenburg. The latter show, where he finished third, was his last in his career.

Retirement

With Merrald at the 2022 World Championships

Zack will compete in his final international competition in Herning this weekend in the World Cup qualifier. He will be retired from sport after that.

"I will ride the World Cup and I will ride a special freestyle with him to share with the people that it is our last time," Merrald told Eurodressage. "He meant everything to my career as well as to the career of Daniel Bachmann. He is really really special. The most special about him is that he has the biggest heart. He wants to give everything inthe arena and that means a lot to me."

A special retirement ceremony is planned, most likely at the Danish Warmblood Stallion Licensing in Herning in March.