Globetrotting Dornkaart, New Young Riders Horse for Charlotte Wensing

Dressage

The Netherlands

The 18-year old Dutch Young Rider Charlotte Wensing has a new horse in the barn, the internationally competed Dornkaart.

Dornkaart is a 14-year old Hanoverian gelding by Don Primero out of Piroschka (by Pik Bube).

Globetrotter - To Australia

Dornkaart is a real globe trotting horse, born in Germany and sold to Australia at the 2006 Hanoverian Elite Foal Auction in Verden.

Imported by Karen and Martin Waterman of Karingal Equestrian, the bay stallion was licensed for the Australian Warmblood Horse Society and began competing in 2010.

In 2011 Melissa van den Berghe took on the ride and based on their competition results they were selected on the National Futures Squad for 2012- 2013.

In 2014 Dornkaart sold to Australian Young Rider Ian Smith, based at Thistle Park. Smith made his international show debut on the stallion at the CDI Brisbane. They finished fourth in the Kur with 64.400%. It was Ian and Dornkaart's first and only CDI in their carer. In December that year they made the final top three in the prestigious Aachen Challenge.

To The Netherlands

Ian Smith left Australia to further his education in Europe. He brought along Dornkaart and after 6 months riding youngsters in Scandinavia, he moved to the U.K. to work for Vicki Thompson-Winfield at Oldencraig, followed by a stint riding for Australia Briana Burgess in Germany.

In 2016 he settled in The Netherlands to become the in-house rider for KWPN Breeder Emmy de Jeu.

In December 2016 Smith and Dornkaart began competing at national small tour level in Holland. In September 2017 they showed in an Intermediaire II class at the national show in Erica and scored 63,95%.

To Indonesia for Singapore

In the spring of 2018, a gelded Dornkaart sold to Singaporean Alla Poloumieva, who trains in The Netherlands with Annemiek Vincourt.

Poloumieva and Dornkaart at the 2018 Asian Games
(Photo © Foto Trailer)

The pair qualified for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, where they were 19th in the Prix St Georges and 24th in the Intermediaire I.

To Germany for Holland

Dornkaart has now found his forever home on the Dutch-German border, where the Dutch young rider Charlotte Wensing is based at Reiterhof Wensing.

The 18-year old made her international show debut as a junior in 2018 aboard the former medal winning Dutch Youth Team horse Flash (by Fidermark). Gaining mileage and experience for the first two years, Wensing stepped it up in 2020 with new ride Gingko, a 9-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Florencio.

Charlotte is now preparing for her Young Riders debut at small tour level in 2021. She can rely on the experience of Dornkaart, alongside Gingko.

She has, in fact, two more high potentials in the barn, Blackbird (by Sinatra Song), who is the spitting image of Edward Gal's Undercover, and Zambesie (by Urkel). Aboard Zambesie she was invited to the 2020 KNHS Talent Day and got to train with Marlies van Baalen. They scored almost 70% at this training and competition opportunity organized by the Dutch Equestrian Federation.