The 1999 European Championships have been a success for the Belgian Young Riders' Team. Even though no medals were awarded to any of our young riders, some very good performances have been set by Lawrence Raemdonck and Veronique de Baecker.
While the Dutch Young Riders' team claimed that in Ksiaz the situation was "as primitive as Europe looked like 50 years ago", the Belgian team was full of praise towards the organisation of the 1999 EUYRC. "The organisation was super, although we feared for it as the event was in the east-block country Poland," Veronique de Baecker commented.
All medal chances disappeared when triple Belgian Young Riders' Champion Vicky Smits withdrew her 13 year old Belgian warmblood from the competition. Illuster, who is known for his typical stallion behaviour, enjoyed crawling over the trellies of his stall during his stay in Ksiaz. With two swollen knees Illuster could not compete at his usual top level. Vicky chose to pull Illuster out of the competition. The pair only rode the preliminary test and scored 63.67%. 1999 was Vicky's last year as young rider and she never won an individual medal as young rider (she won silver as junior rider in Helsinki). Last year's individual fourth place could thus no longer be turned into a medal position. Vicky Smits told junior-riders that she is aspiring to start at Grand Prix level the upcoming year.
It was Veronique de Baecker and Lawrence Raemdonck who eventually stole the show for Belgium. Veronique de Baecker made a successful come-back during the 1999 national show season by winning the Prix St. Georges at the CDN Brussels. In Ksiaz she and her Dutch warmblood gelding Herrzas scored 64.44% in the preliminary test, 65.17% in the team test and later won the consolation finals with a 67.06 percentage.
Lawrence Raemdonck, who is borrowing his sister's horse Mozart while she's in college, was the only Belgian competitor who made to the individual finals. With a 63.42% the combination set for thirteenth position and became best performing Belgian Young Rider in Ksiaz.
Ona de Wagenaere competed below her usual level as she didn't get over a 63.38% score. While she won the consolation final at last year's European Championships, the Oldenburger Apollo could not find the right condition in Poland.
The Belgian Championships for Pony, Junior and Young Riders are being held 11th and 12th September 1999 at Domaine Mon Souhait in Braine L'Alleud
Complete scores of the 1999 European Young Riders' Championships