Belgian Team Horse Aranco V Passed Away

Dressage

Belgium

Aranco, Isabel Cool's Grand Prix career starting Belgian team horse, has passed away on 22 November 2024.

Aranco was a 19-year old Dutch warmblood by Ferro out of Baranka (by Ramiro x Solaris xx). He was bred by P van de Vleuten.

Found In a Jumping Barn

Cool discovered Aranco as a 3-year old in 2008.

"He didn’t like the jumping fences so we started early on his dressage career," Cool reminsced. "We did some young horse shows together and gained a lot of experience in the small tour level."

Their international show debut was in 2015 at the CDI Compiegne at small tour level. They did one international at this level. In the late spring of 2015 she rode Aranco at national medium tour level and his first Inter II was in August 2015. Cool's first Grand Prix test in her career, as well as Aranco's first GP show, was in Massenhoven in March 2017.

They returned to the CDI ring at the 2017 CDI Waregem for their international Grand Prix debut, scoring 68.200% in the Grand Prix. They scored bronze at the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix Championships.

Belgian Team Horse

The sensitive Aranco had a two-year Grand Prix career. At the 2017 CDI-W Mechelen he scored 70.060% which put him on the radar of the Belgian team selectors.

In 2018 he had several highs and lows. At the CDI Lier they got eliminated, but in Leudelange four months later they posted 69.913%. They got bronze at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix Championships and were nominated as first reserves for the Belgian team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon. They were called up to travel when Jorinde Verwimp's Tiamo was withdrawn. In Tryon, they had to retire in the Grand Prix test.

They finished the year in Mechelen with two confidence building rounds. In 2019 they competed successfully with 69-70% scores in Amsterdam, Doha, Saumur and Compiegne, posting one international victory in the GP Special in Saumur with 71.319%.

At their last show before the 2019 Europeans in Compiegne he got 69.043% in the Grand Prix but was retired from the Special. Team trainer Sjef Janssen, who personally coached Cool at the time, selected the pair for the Belgian team for the 2019 European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam, but they were eliminated from the Grand Prix because Aranco was not level. Janssen's contract as Belgian team trainer also ended prematurely after Rotterdam.

Rotterdam was Aranco's last international.

Retirement

Aranco recovered from injury after Rotterdam and two years later he returned to the national show ring in April 2021 at the CDN Dentergem, where they got 68.207%. Three weeks later they did the CDN Pottes and got 67.066% in the Grand Prix. It was the pair's last show.

Aranco V was retired from sport at age 16 and spent his retirement at home with Isabel.

"Today I needed to say goodbye to my sweet Aranco. His time had come," Cool announced on 22 November 2024. "I will miss him a lot . This horse showed me the world in dressage."

She continued, "Aranco was at his best in the Grand Prix. He gave so much to me. The road to it was not always easy. He had quit some caracter, but that also brought us so far."