Dutch Olympic Horse Foundation (NOP) Signs Zantana

Dressage

The Netherlands

The Dutch Olympic Horse Foundation (NOP) has signed a dressage horse again to its sponsorship plan: Zantana.

NOP

The NOP Foundation provides financial support to the owners of the horses that have Team NL potential to prevent these horses from being sold. The NOP foundation is chaired by Hidde Frankena and has Andre Cats, Emile Hendrix, Joyce van Rooijen - Heuitink and Janneke Petrie (who replaced Bram de Feijter) as board members.

The project was initiated in the 1980s and carried out through the 1990s. Horses competed with the "Olympic" prefix at that time. The project ended due to lack of funding, but was rekindled in 2013.

The last NOP Grand Prix horses were Hermes (Dinja van Liere), Torveslettens Titanium, and Habibi DVB. All three have dropped their NOP status. They were all dropped from NOP status in 2024.

Zantana

Zantana is an 11-year old Oldenburg mare by Zonik out of renowned top producing broodmare Sondra (by Dir Donnerhall). She is bred by Paul Schockemöhle and was acquired by Marieke van der Putten's loyal sponsors Saskia and Jacques Lemmens at the 2019 PSI Auction for 955,000 euro.

The pair premiered at CDI small tour level in July 2023 in Kronenberg and did Leeuwarden three months later. A 1.5 year break followed to prepare Zantana for Grand Prix. Their international Grand Prix debut was at the CDIO Lier in May, where they finished second in the Grand Prix with 72.522%. Two weeks later they scored a double win at the CDI Exloo. At the CDIO Aachen they posted 73.239% in the Grand Prix and were nominated on the Dutch team for the 2025 European Championships in Crozet, where the talented mare was still a bit overcome by the electric atmosphere. They got 70.264% in the Grand Prix and 70.395% in the Special.

By signing Zantana to the NOP programme, the owners are not allowed to sell the mare until after the 2026 World Championships in Aachen, if they wish to do so.