Lucky Dance, Former Belgian Team Horse, Passed Away

Dressage

Belgium

Lucky Dance, Julie de Deken's former Belgian dressage team horse and a licensed breeding stallion, has passed away on 17 May 2026. He was about to turn 25 in June.

Lucky Dance was a 2001 born Hessian stallion by Lucky Lionell out of Petit Fleur (by Placido Sun x Pik Bube) He was bred by Klaus Plönzke.

Licensed Stallion

He became the reserve champion at the 2003 Hessian Stallion Licensing. He did his 30-day Stallion performance Test in Adelheidsdorf scoring 8,75 with 8.96 for dressage and 8.20 for show jumping. He has 46 offspring registered for sport or breeding with the German equestrian federation and no licensed sons.

Tannenhof's former young horse trainer Katrin Luze first competed Lucky Dance in the young horses classes as of 2004. They placed 7th at the 2004 Bundeschampionte and 7th at the 2005 Bundeschampionte.

In 2006 Oliver Luze took over the ride and placed 38th with him at the 2006 Bundeschampionate.

In 2009 Anja Plonzke took over the ride and showed him in his first Prix St Georges tests.. At the CDI Neuhofen in May 2009, they won the Intermediaire I and placed third in the Prix St Georges and Inter 1 Kur to Music.

Julie de Deken

Lucky Dance sold to Belgian Under 25 Grand Prix rider Julie de Deken, who after a successful career in youth sport on Watershof Marc, Romero, and Widor, had made the transition to U25 Grand Prix level with Fazzino.

Trained by Tineke Bartels in The Netherlands, De Deken debuted the stallion at national Inter I level in the spring of 2010 and debuted him internationally at small tour level at the CDI Munich in May 2010 followed by Rotterdam. They stayed at small tour level through the summer of 2012 with starts at the CDI Vidauban. They rode their first national Grand Prix test in Decelver 2012 in Massenhoven.

After a successful campaign in 2013 at the CDI's in Vidauban, Hagen, Saumur and Aachen, the pair was nominate on the Belgian team for the European Championships in Herning, where they finished 37th in the Grand Prix with 67.629%.They were fourth at the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix Championships.

Their key year was 2014. After starts in Vidauban, Joosland, Villach, Kapellen, Perl and Aachen; as well as winning silver at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix Championships, they returned on the team for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, where they were 67th in the Grand Prix with 66.486%. At the CDI Mechelen at the end of the year they won the Grand Prix Special with 72.7675%.

They continued for two more years with a handful of shows in Amsterdam, Doha, Joosland, Mechelen and Drachter. De Deken's last start on Lucky Dance and in her career was in Doha in 2016.

De Deken had acquired stallion D-Day as successor, but the pair never competed internationally. De Deken quit equestrian sport all together and D-Day went into training with Jeannette Haazen.

Michele George

In 2016 De Deken allocated the ride on Lucky Dance to Belgian paralympian Michele George as her 2016 Rio Paralympics hopeful.

George competed Lucky Dance once internationally at the CPEDI Waregem and won all three Grade IV tests with him. George ended up going to Rio with FBW Rainman.

Schoolmaster

De Deken then passed over the ride and care of Lucky Dance to Belgian junior rider Tess Wouters, who showed him in four national shows between December 2016 and March 2017.

Lucky Dance moved to his forever home with 15-year old Belgian rider Amber Wuyts, who showed him on the LRV circuit as her schoolmaster. Lucky Dance spent the rest of his days with Amber until he passed on 17 May 2026.

"You were my first horse," Amber wrote in a tribute to Lucky. "I started riding you when I was 15yo and you have taught me EVERYTHING!! You taught me how to ride with a double bridle, to ride in a big arena, first time national champion, first time riding in Jumping Mechelen. I am soooooo thankful for you. You were my everything, my hero, my best friend, and my partner in crime. You were able to enjoy your retirement for 4 years, of course, together with your best friend Mil. Lucky, we miss you so much. I can write a book about you, but I think everybody knows how special you were. You were a tough horse and that’s why we knew that now it was time to let you go. You had too much pain."