Denise Nekeman's Boston STH Recovering from Severe Colic Attack

Dressage

The Netherlands

Boston STH, the number one Grand Prix horse of Dutch Denise Nekeman, has been in critical condition after suffering a severe colic attack on 22 November 2024.

Fighting for his Life

The stallion underwent surgery at the equine clinic in Utrecht. Today Nekeman reported that he's her horse is on the road to recovery.

"We were training and getting ready to compete at CDI5* in Frankfurt but Bostie needed to fight a much bigger and tougher competition this weekend," said Nekeman. "Last Friday Boston had a colic (Lipoma Pensula) and during a 4-hour operation the surgeons removed 6 meter of his intestine and a big lipoma. He was then placed in the ICU and today was the day he came out of the ICU."

The 18-year old KWPN stallion (by Johnson x Quattro B) was in dire straits but proved to be a fighter.

At the 2015 European Young Riders Championships

"I am so happy that the most critical times have passed," said Nekeman. "We are not out of the danger zone so the battle is not over yet. Bostie is the biggest fighter and personality and I can’t wait for him to come back home!"

Career Launching Horse

Boston is bred by J. Temmink and has been owned by the Nekeman family since he was a youngster. He first hit the spotlight under Denise's trainer Hans Peter Minderhoud. They finished fourth at the 2011 World Young Horse Championships in Verden and a year later Boston was 7th under Marieke van der Putten at the 2012 WCYH in Verden.

Boston became Nekeman's career launching horse. After riding juniors on Ridderkerk, Denise debuted as a young riders with Boston in 2014. They represented The Netherlands at the 2014 and 2015 European Young Riders Championships. At the latter Euros they were fourth twice and won team silver. They went on to represent the Dutch flag at three European Under 25 Championships (2017, 2018, 2019) earning triple team silver and finishing fourth in the Kur in 2018. As of 2019 the pair has been competing in the senior Grand Prix division through 2024. They rode in the Nations Cups in Aachen and Compiegne as well as several World Cup qualifiers. Their last CDI was Aachen in July.

Boston has 138 international competition starts to his record.