Eros, Lyndal Oatley's WEG Team Horse, Retired from Sport

Dressage

Australia

Eros, Lyndal Oatley's 2022 Australian WEG team horse, has been retired from sport.

Eros is a 14-year old KWPN bred gelding by Sir Oldenburg out of Selva (by Ferro x Pion). He is bred by Cadre Blanc BV in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands.

Eros du Parme

The grey gelding began his sport career in France after he was purchased by Alexandra Schlenck-Pascal in April 2014 at Stal van Den Hurk, in The Netherlands.

Trained by Vincent Guilloteau, Alexandra competed "Eros du Parme" from 2015 through 2018. The pair finished 13th at the 2016 French Championships for 7-year olds. As of 2018 Vincent trained him to developing Grand Prix level.

In June 2019 the grey was sent to Holland to be sold.

Lyndal Oatley

German based Australian Lyndal Oatley bought Eros in September 2019 and took her time to get acquainted with him.

At the 2022 World Championships in Herning

The pair made its show debut right before the corona crisis at a local show in Warendorf-Freckenhorst on 3 March 2020, scoring 69% in the Grand Prix. Their CDI debut followed in Aarhus in October 2020, where they posted 70.957% to finish fourth in the Grand Prix.

In 2021 the pair competed in Mariakalnok but pulled out from Tokyo Olympic contention: Oatley had two horses in the running, Eros and Elvive. With Eros she finished the Olympic year in Grote Brogel, Ludwigsburg and Herning with consistent seventy percentage marks.

In 2022 Lyndal and Eros truly found their stride and campaigned in Lier (74.370% in the GP), Hagen, Compiegne and Aachen. Although Lyndal was originally selected on the Australian team with Elvive, she swapped her for Eros and represented Australia at the 2022 World Championships in Herning with the dapple grey. The pair finished 25th in the Grand Prix (72.189%) but were rung out from the Special.

Two months later Lyndal and Eros were third twice at the CDI-W Fot and they finished the year at the 2022 CDI Kronenberg in The Netherlands with a 71.804% in the Grand Prix (5th) and were rung out from the Special.

Retirement

On 6 November 2023, Lyndal announced Eros' retirement from sport.

"After Herning we searched and searched to find out what caused you intermittent unevenness," Lyndal explained. "It wasn’t til 6 months later and every Test known to man we found you had a broken rib caused by a truck accident. We tried all available treatments and searched the world for possible options but sadly they did not work and so you are now having the retirement you deserved!"

Lyndal amicably calls Eros "Uncle Ross".

"To this day I am still in awe of your spirit Uncle Ross and the impact you had on people who had and hadn’t met you. So instead of just letting time pass, I will give you the send off you deserve," said Oatley. "I fell in love with your infectious personality from day one when you entered my life to help me come back into the sport after having our daughter Emilia! You went above and beyond from day one and we had the best journey full of laughter and fun. We had international wins, you carried me to the WEG in Herning and you fought for me like the big hearted Unicorn you are, whilst still keeping your cheeky mentality and ability to knick off at a moments notice which I love about you . You were always you .. and I think people fell in love with you a little more little grey unicorn."