Rosenstolz, 2023 Asian Games Gold Medallist, Moves into Active Retirement

Dressage

Denmark

Rosenstolz, Qabil Ambak's 2023 Asian Games individual gold medal winning ride, has moved into "active retirement" a schoolmaster for a junior rider.

Rosenstolz is an 18-year old Hanoverian by Rotspon out of Dana (by De Niro x Hohenstein). He was bred by Christian Soetebeer.

Dutch Legal Rollercoaster

The black was licensed as a breeding stallion at the 2008 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing in Verden, but never did his stallion performance test.

Instead the horse wound up in The Netherlands. He was acquired by Matthijs Maat of stud farm Geere-Stein, who at the time was together with Aletta Swanborn. Rosenstolz was competed in Germany by Frank Specker and in Holland by Marije Klaassen.

After the Maat couple split up, Aletta took Rosenstolz as well as U-Caro (by Welt Hit II) and sent both to Andreas Helgstrand in Denmark to be sold. The Danish horse dealer sold Rosenstolz to Siril Helljesen in Norway. Matthijs sued his ex-partner Aletta for illegally selling his horse and he won in court. Aletta was ordered to pay a deposit of 300,000 euro while waiting for the final verdict on how much both horses were worth.

Siril Helljesen

Helljesen and Rosenstolz at the 2015 CDI Vestfold
(Photo © Ada Vrolijk)

Rosenstolz made his international show debut under Norwegian Siril Helljesen after she had sold her 2012 Olympic horse Dorina to Evelyn Haim-Swarovski. It was the start of an 11-year long (!!) international show career with five different riders.

Siril and Rosenstolz debuted at the 2013 CDI Hickstead and half a year later competed in Vestfold. Another half a year later they became the triple winner of the small tour at the CDI Oslo in October 2014.

Helljesen ended up riding Rosenstolz at small tour level for four years and did one CDI Grand Prix with him in 2017 before selling him to Malaysia.

Quzandria Nur

Quzandria Nur on Rosenstolz The Ambak family acquired the gelding for Quzandria Nur to ride at the 2017 South East Asian Games in Kuang Rawang in her home country Malaysia.

Nur had retired from equestrian sport in 2012, but the call for medals and glory at the South East Asian Games on home turf became too big and she came out of retirement for this one competition and rode Rosenstolz to the team and individual gold medal. She quit international horse sport right after the Games.

The horse returned to Europe Their trainer Dennis Fisker kept the horse in full training in Denmark, while Quzandria's brother Qabil took over the ride. He flew in and out of Europe to occasionally show the horse while Fisker kept the horse in full training.

Qabil Ambak

With Qabil at the 2019 CDI Zakrzow
(Photo © Lukasz Kowalski)

In May 2018 Qabil and Rosenstolz began their preparation for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta three months later, where he won individual silver. Qabil's busiest season on Rosenstolz was in 2019 when he rode in Sint-Truiden, Kristiansand and Uggerhalne, after which he took a three year break from competing the horse.

Qabil returned to the arena with Rosenstolz in May 2022. Five months later Fisker's student Jeppe Moelgaard Mathiasen rode him once at the CDI Aarhus in October 2022.

After almost a year of not showing Rosenstolz, Ambak was back in the saddle of the Hanoverian with the plan of qualifying him for the 2023 Asian Games. He rode him in one CDI in Herning in March, where they posted 66.088% in the Prix St Georges and retired from the Intermediaire I.

Leading up to the Asian Games Qabil actually intended to ride another horse, Napoli T, in Hangzhou, but the experienced Rosenstolz was called to duty last minute. The pair ended up winning the Intermediaire I kur to Music and claimed the first-ever equestrian gold medal for Malaysia.

Active Retirement

Rosenstolz returned to Denmark and the 43-year old Ambak hinted at retiring from competition sport after his career highlight at the Asian Games

On 5 April 2024, Fisker announced that Rosenstolz has found a new home, where he would enjoy an active retirement as a schoolmaster.

"Rose, has left the stable to start his retirement with Wilma Bornhager, who’s making the transition from pony to junior rider," said Fisker. "Rose has been with us for many years and showed us over and over what riding is all about. Harmony, respect and love for our horses. Throughout his career he has always known his worth. Last year he won the gold medal with Qabil at the FEI Asian Games in Hangzhou. We’ll miss him dearly but we are very happy with Rose being a true friend and junior teacher for Wilma in the future."