Patrick van der Meer's Zippo Passed Away

Dressage

The Netherlands

Zippo, Patrick van der Meer's international Grand Prix horse, has passed away. He was 21 years old.

Zippo was a Dutch warmblood gelding by Rousseau out of Niky (by Haarlem). He is bred by W. van Rooij.

Multi-Starter

Patrick discovered the liver chestnut as a yearling and trained him from novice to Grand Prix himself. They competed in the Pavo Cup qualifiers and selection trials for the World Championships but did not make it to the actual Championship.

Van der Meer and Zippo made their international show debut at small tour level in April 2012 and he moved him up to Grand Prix level in May 2013. The horse has competed non stop at international Grand Prix level for seven years in a row, being presented in no less than 111 international classes!

In 2014 they won the CDI Roosendaal, they won the 2013 and 2015 CDI Mechelen Grand Prix Special, the 2017 CDI Mechelen Grand Prix.

Their career highlights were representing Holland at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg, where they stepped in for Scholtens and Apache and ended up 19th in the Special, and at the 2018 World Cup Finals in Paris, where they were 16th in the Kur.

Schoolmaster

With Luijten at the 2021 CDI Sint-Truiden

In 20198 Van der Meer sold Zippo to his student, Kimberley Luijten, who had been working with Patrick for the past eight years.

Zippo did one more season at international Under 25 level. The new pair made its CDI show debut in Sint-Truiden in April 2021 in the Under 25 division. From their they went to Mannheim, Grote-Brogel, Compiegne and Waregem, winning the Kur to Music at the latter show. The pair finished 7th at the 2021 Dutch Under 25 Championships.

After Kimberly, Isabel and Carolien Lavooij got to experience the wealth of knowledge Zippo had to offer.

Van der Meer announced the passing of the 21-year old Zippo on 19 February 2025. "Thank you for everything you have done for us," said Patrick.