Where Are They Now? Mowgli VOD

Focus

F.O.C.U.S.

At the 2025 KWPN Stallion Licensing, the 2017 born breeding stallion Mowgli VOD sired his first licensed son, Street Art. A few years ago, much was expected of the chestnut sire, particularly when it was announced that the ride was allocated to European Young Riders Champion Marten Luiten. The stallion, however, totally disappeared from the spotlight.

Where is he now?

Proven Damline

Mowgli VOD is by Desperado out of Zoriana (by Jazz x Juventus). He is bred by Ad van Os at Van Os Dressage (VOD).

Dam Zoriana produced 21 foals between 2008 and 2024, several via embryotransfer. Her most famous offspring is Kjento (by Negro), competed at medium tour level by Charlotte Fry.

Premium Stallion

Mowgli became a premium stallion of the 2020 KWPN Stallion Licensing in 's Hertogenbosch, but his licensed status was then revoked because a veterinary issue: one of his testicles was underdeveloped. In 2020 all recently licensed stallion received permission to breed despite not having done a performance test because of the special corona circumstances.

Mowgli's health "issue" resolved over the year and he was allowed to participate in the 2020 KWPN Stallion Autumn Performance Testing, in which he scored 80 points. He received 7.5 for walk, 8 for trot, 8.5 for canter, and 8 for suppleness, self carriage, rideability and potential.

Mowgli was owned by the breeder's son, Jorg van Os, who sold a half ownership share to Sjaak van der Lei in 2021. So far he has sired 91 KWPN registered foals and Street Art is his first selected son from the second crop born in 2022 (sired 51 foals that year of which 27 were colts).

Sport Career

Mowgli VOD began showing up in sport and under Franka Loos competed on the 2021 - 2022 KWPN stallion competition circuit to finish fourth in the Finals in February.

In the spring of 2022 it was announced that the ride on Mowgli had been allocated to Dutch young rider Marten Luiten, who trained at Christa Larmoyeur's stable at the time. The stallion however did not appear in the competition arena and all went quiet.

Where Is He Now?

Marten did not have the ride on Mowgli very long. The stallion was sent into training with Rob van Laarhoven and Arno Pullens, who also became share holders in the ownership of the horse.

In February 2024 Van der Lei announced that Mowgli had been fully sold to Dutch rider Joey van de Grijp, who is based in Friesland.

"He is a super talented horse and he also does super well in training," van de Grijp told Eurodressage. "He has done some small competitions at Z2 level. And from there the goal is to train him up to the highest level. We bought him mainly for sport and we are keeping him available for breeding. Last year we didn't pay much attention to that because I wanted to spend time on becoming a combination first.

When asked if the 2025 Dutch Championships at small tour level are the target for the 8-year old stallion, Joey replied, "no, the focus is mainly on quiet training and taking him to competitions a little bit and just building up some routine that way first. He has not been to many competitions in the past. He is an incredibly sweet horse with a lot of talent. I think the trick is to be careful with him and to keep such a horse in one piece."

Van de Grijp trains with Christa Larmoyeur. "It's all about training and fortunately we have all the time and freedom to do so because we own him completely," Joey added.