Virginia Yarur's Ronaldo Retired from Sport

Dressage

Chile

Chilean Grand Prix rider Virginia Yarur Ready has retired her Olympic ride Ronaldo from competition sport.

Ronaldo is a 19-year old Danish warmblood gelding by Romanov out of Kasey Perry-Glass' Trøstruplund's Scarlet (by Don Schufro). He is bred in Denmark by Søren Clausen.

Christopher Hickey

Originally named Trøstruplund's Ronaldo, the bay sold to American Cecilia Stewart of Oak Meadows Farm, who sponsors Christopher Hickey.

Hickey and Ronaldo made their international CDI debut at small your level in Florida in February 2014 and competed at international small tour level for two years. They finished sixth in the kur at the 2014 U.S. Small Tour Championships. At the 2015 U.S. Championships they were fourth in the Develop Grand Prix Horse Championships.

Ronaldo disappeared from the CDI scene for two years to return in February 2017 at Grand Prix level. They did three CDI's in 2017 and one in 2018 in Wellington with scores in the mid sixties.

Virginia Yarur

In November 2018 Virginia Yarur purchased Ronaldo through her trainer Yvonne Losos de Muniz out of Andreas Helgstrand's dealing yard in Denmark. Betina Jaeger had been riding him there.

The new pair made its debut at the 2019 Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, and spent the summer in Canada competing in Ottawa, Caledon and Thornton, followed by a Euro tour in Herning, Exloo, and Randbol to gain scores for Olympic individual qualification.

The 2020 Olympics were postponed by one year due to corona and in 2021 Yarur ended up making it to the Tokyo Games after Bermuda and Venezuela lost its spot with no certificate of capability delivered. In Tokyo Virginia and Ronaldo scored 66.227% in the Hrand Prix for a 46th place.

In 2022 they showed in Wellington and at the CDI Camarma de Esteruelas in Spain before returning to Wellington in 2023. The pair got selected on the Chilean home team for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, where the team finished fourth. Virginia rode Ronaldo to a 12th place in the Grand Prix Special with 68.000%.

They rode one final Grand Prix test in Wellington on 8 April 2024 after which Ronaldo had a break from showing

Retirement in Chile

Yarur announced that Ronaldo has been retired from competition sport and is moving home to Chile for a quieter life.

Ronaldo in his last CDI in Wellington 2024

"Aldo will stay with me at the place where I train in Chile," Yarur told Eurodressage. "I will still ride him for fun, not demanding at all and maintaining him in good shape. I am so grateful to have ridden in competitions such an amazing horse. I love him to the moon."

Virginia has no plans on giving up show riding herself and is looking forward to the future with new horses.