Destano, Australian Olympic Team Horse, Retired from Sport

Dressage

Australia

Destano, Australia's double Olympic team horse and breeding stallion owned by Gestut Sprehe, will be retired from competition sport.

Rider Simone Pearce announced that the Olympics were the stallion's last high performance competition start.

Gestut Sprehe

Destano is a 17-year old Hanoverian stallion by Desperados out of Bella Navonna (by Brentano II x Imperator x Wenzel). He is bred by Heinrich Giesselmann.

He was licensed at the 2009 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing in Verden and approved for Oldenburg two months later. In 2011 he became the Oldenburg Main Premium title winner.

He did his first shows as a young horse in 2010 under Heike Klausing. He has been trained and competed by Lukas Fischer, Eyal Zlatin, and Sabine Rueben. Swedish Michelle Hagman rode him in his first Grand Prix tests.

Simone Pearce

In the winter of 2019-2020 Destano was matched to Sprehe's new head rider, Simone Pearce. They made their international debut at the CDI Dortmund the weekend of the corona outbreak in Europe. Three months later they were second in the Grand Prix at the CDI Mariakalnok in Hungary with 71.239%. At the CDI Achleiten that Grand Prix score rose to 74.152% and in Brno they posted 76.261% for the victory.

They were nominated for the Australian team for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where they placed 36th with 68.494% in the Grand Prix. Their final CDI was in Gossendorf in April 2022 with a double victory. Their Grand Prix score was 73.435%

Simone lost the ride on Destano when she decided to ride for Gestut Bonhomme and the stallion became a schoolmaster for Sprehe's daughter Kristin Biermann.

Reunion

In May 2023 Pearce moved to Thomas Ritzinger's barn in Bavaria and received the ride again on Destano from Gestut Sprehe two months later.

At the 2023 CDI-W Motesice in November the reunited duo swept the board, winning the Grand Prix with 73,217% and the World Cup qualifier kur with 79,510%.

In 2024 they showed in Basel, Stadl Pauyra, Hamburg and St. Margarethen to qualify on the Australian team for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. They pair finished 32nd in the Grand Prix with 70.171% and then rode to a 10th place with Team Australia, scoring 67.340% in the Special.

Retirement

Paris was the stallion's swan song. Pearce announced this the day before the Special.

Pearce and Destano at the 2024 Paris Olympics

"With a heart completely full of so many emotions, we have decided that tomorrow will be my best friend Destanos final dance in the big sport arena," she said. "While he is completely fit and healthy and still loving his show life, I feel like at the age of 17 he is such an absolute legend that deserves to finish his sports career on the highest of highs."

She continued, "what better way to celebrate him than to dance in this magical arena, in front of the world, in the team final of our second Olympic Games together! He is my absolute heart horse and after so much success together; two Olympic Games, 4 Australian records, second in the 5* of Aachen (2021)."

Destano will not go back to Gestut Sprehe in Benstrup but will stay with Pearce, who is now based in Aach.

"Very generously Albert and Sabine are letting him stay with me so that i can go on riding him and spoiling him like the big boss and total champion he is. And we will still get to make some special public appearances with Team Sprehe later in the year," she explained. "I think there comes a time in every sportsman’s career where they deserve to be immortalized and honoured in all their glory. I don’t think any horse deserves to be celebrated more than Destano. With his heart of absolute gold and his ability to make dreams come true. He is my horse of a life time, my best friend and forever my dance partner."