Jochen Arl Sells Two Paris Olympic Hopefuls for Adrienne Lyle to Ride

Dressage

U.S.A.

German horse dealer Jochen Arl has been able to sell not one but two Paris hopefuls to the U.S.A. on the brink of the FEI Olympic ownership deadline of 15 January 2024.

Charlotte Fry's Lars van de Hoenderheide as well as Marina Mattsson's Helix were sold to an American investor as Adrienne Lyle's U.S. Olympic team potentials.

Lars van de Hoenderheide

Lars van de Hoenderheide is a 2011 born Belgian warmblood gelding bred by Negro x Layout. He is bred by Jan Sips and Tinne Van Deuren in Loenhout (BEL).

Lars was first trained and competed from young horse to M-level by Stijn Rombouts in Belgium. In 2019 the pair became National LRV Champions. In January 2021 the chestnut sold to Van Olst Horses in The Netherlands and Danish Olympian Anne van Olst produced him to Grand Prix.

Under Van Olst's head rider Charlotte Fry the horse made its international show debut at the CDI Leeuwarden in October 2022, where he placed sixth with 70.761%. From there the horse competed in six CDI's in 2023 and scores have only gone up. At their last show, the CDI Kronenberg Indoor in December, they placed second in the Grand Prix with 75.109% and won the kur to music with 78.475%.

Helix

Helix is a 2012 born KWPN gelding by Apache out of Zeester T (by Jazz). He was originally named Handsome Zee T and is bred by Dutch breeder A. Toonen Arts.

Helix was licensed at the 2015 KWPN Stallion Licensing but did not complete his KWPN stallion performance test in the autumn of 2015. In 2018 the breeder sold Helix to Swedish horse investor Patrik Hannell in a package deal with the one year older sibling Gladstone Zee T (now in U.S.A. with Chase Shipka). Helix was produced to Grand Prix level by Marina Mattsson.

The pair made its international show debut in February 2023 at the CDI Le Mans, where they first scored 69.848 % in the Grand Prix. From there they went to the CDI's in Herning, Hagen, Rotterdam, and Falsterbo. In Rotterdam they posted their personal best, so far, of 71.761% with much more in the tank. As Mattsson decided to leave Hannell after a 10-year collaboration, Helix was sent to Cathrine Dufour to be sold.

Two Paris Promises for Adrienne Lyle

With Salvino at the 2022 World Championships

Belgian based German horse dealer Jochen Arl was able to headhunt two top U.S. Olympic team potentials for American Olympian Adrienne Lyle to campaign in 2024.

Lyle is a stalwart of U.S. Dressage. She rode her first Olympics in 2012 and the World Equestrian Games in 2014 aboard Perry Thomas' Wizard, sourced in Belgium. Her second career making Grand Prix horse was Salvino (by Sandro Hit x Donnerhall), also scouted by Jochen Arl in 2015 for a U.S. dressage syndicate headed by Akiko Yamazaki. In 2018 Betsy Juliano obtained full ownership of the stallion.

Lyle and Salvino have been a fixture on the U.S. dressage team from 2018 till 2022. They won team silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and at 2021 Olympics. At the 2019 World Cup Finals in Gothenburg they were 7th. At the 2022 World Championships, team U.S.A was sixth and individually Salvino finished 6th in the freestyle. They competed in two World Cup qualifiers in December and January 2022-2023 after which Salvino injured himself and has not yet returned to the competition ring.

Lyle and Juliano are both aiming for the rising 17-year old Salvino to be fit for the U.S. team selection trials. However, a different American sponsor is now backing Lyle with two further options - Lars and Helix - for Adrienne's run to Paris.

(Editor's note: the next day after the publication of this article, Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite equestrian center confirmed she bought Lars and Helix. In December she also bought Bohemian and Fleau de Baian).