Dutch Olympic Team Horse Indian Rock Sold to the U.S.A.

Dressage

U.S.A.

Emmelie Scholtens' Dutch Olympic team horse Indian Rock has been sold to the U.S.A.

Indian Rock is an 11-year old KWPN stallion by Apache out of 2010 KWPN Mare Champion Crisjena (by Vivaldi x ). He is bred by Jan de Bruin.

Licensing Champion

Originally named Igor, the dark bay stallion was named champion of the 2016 KWPN Stallion Licensing and renamed Indian Rock to stay in the Indian theme of sire Apache. Horse dealer Ad Valk sold half ownership of the stallion to Jan Vink of Black Horses BV during the licensing.

It was initially announced that Indian Rock would be doing the 14-day Stallion Performance Testing in Germany to seek approval there as well but that didn't happen and he ended up going to the 50-day KWPN Stallion Performance Testing in Ermelo in the autumn of 2016, where he scored 81 points as 6th scoring stallion out of a group of 9.

As a breeding stallion he has sired seven licensed sons, of which 4 are listed in the German studbook 1 (Incredible, Indian Summer, Indianapolis, Oberon, Madnes, Manhattan and Sorcerer Supreme). Indian Rock is WFFS positive.

Emmelie Scholtens

The stallion was trained up to Grand Prix level by Valk's head rider, Emmelie Scholtens.

At the 2018 World Young Horse Championships, Indian Rock finished ninth in the Finals for 5-year olds. He was re-selected on the Dutch team for the 2019 WCYH but had to be withdrawn due to an injury. Since Ermelo 2018 Indian Rock had not appeared in an international arena.

In February 2021 KWPN hosted its annual stallion licensing in a semi-online format due to corona and a video of Indian Rock schooling the Grand Prix work and playing with piaffe and passage was shown. His international small tour debut was at the CDI Exloo in May 2021 and they won. From there they did the small tour on Aachen where they were second and third.

Dutch Team Horse

Their international Grand Prix debut was at the 2022 CDI Kronenberg, where they posted 74.369% in their first GP test That year they competed in Exloo and Rotterdam and the 9-year old stallion took over the baton from Emmelie's former number one, Desperado, as her team ride. They represented The Netherlands at the 2022 World Championships in Herning, where they were 12th in the Kur to Music. The pair finished the year in Stuttgart.

A seven-month break from international showing followed as Scholtens had sustained a personal injury. The pair returned in Rotterdam, where they won the Grand Prix Special. They confirmed form in Kronenberg before heading to the 2023 European Championships in Riesenbeck, where they were 12th in the Kur.

This year Scholtens and Indian Rock campaigned in the World Cup qualifiers of Lyon, Amsterdam, Neumunster and Den B Bosch, as well as competed at the 5* in Fontainebleau, where they won the Grand Prix. They secured their spot on the team at the CDIO Rotterdam and headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they were 11th in the Kur to Music.

Sold to the U.S.A.

Already last year rumours had begun floating round that offers were being made on Indian Rock and that a sale to Spain was in the wings, but the horse remained in Holland and went to Paris instead.

Now after Paris, Wellington based Dutch horse dealer Micha Knol of MRK Dressage brokered the sale of Indian Rock to the U.S.A. Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite Equestrian Center has purchased the stallion for American Under 25 rider Christian Simonson to ride.

“Indian Rock is one of the most incredible horses I have ever felt, he has an amazing heart and willingness to work,” Simonson told Eurodressage. “From the moment I sat on him, I felt a connection that’s hard to put into words. I am so incredibly grateful to Heidi Humphries for entrusting me with such a special horse.”

Exactly one year ago, Humphries already bought Adelinde Cornelissen's Grand Prix horse Fleau de Baian for Simonson, but the pair has not yet competed. Simonson has also been riding the 9-year old Danish bred Guinness MT (by Grand Galaxy Win x Romanov) for Humphries and made his show debut last weekend. Simonson trains with Adrienne Lyle,