Simone Pearce Reunited with Olympic Team Horse Destano

Dressage

Australia

Australian professional Grand Prix rider Simone Pearce has been reunited with her 2021 Tokyo Olympic team horse, Destano. Owner Albert Sprehe agreed on a reunion of the pair.

Destano is a 16-year old Hanoverian stallion by Desperados out of Bella Navonna (by Brentano II x Imperator x Wenzel). He is bred by Heinrich Giesselmann.

Gestut Sprehe

He was licensed at the 2009 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing in Verden and approved for Oldenburg two months later. In 2011 he became the Oldenburg Main Premium title winner.

He did his first shows as a young horse in 2010 under Heike Klausing. He has been trained and competed by Lukas Fischer, Eyal Zlatin, and Sabine Rueben. Swedish Michelle Hagman rode him in his first Grand Prix tests.

Simone Pearce

In the winter of 2019-2020 Destano was matched to Sprehe's new head rider, Simone Pearce. They made their international debut at the CDI Dortmund the weekend of the corona outbreak in Europe. Three months later they were second in the Grand Prix at the CDI Mariakalnok in Hungary with 71.239%. At the CDI Achleiten that Grand Prix score rose to 74.152% and in Brno they posted 76.261% for the victory.

They were nominated for the Australian team for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where they placed 36th with 68.494% in the Grand Prix. Their final CDI was in Gossendorf in April 2022 with a double victory. Their Grand Prix score was 73.435%

Simone lost the ride on Destano when she decided to ride for Gestut Bonhomme and the stallion became a schoolmaster for Sprehe's daughter Kristin Biermann.

Reunion

After one year at Bonhomme, Pearce left the Berlin area based stable for Bavaria to ride for a new sponsor, Thomas Ritzinger.

With no ready to go Grand Prix horse to ride, as Fiderdance stayed behind, Pearce went in search of a new horse power and has brought her back to the base where her Grand Prix career took flight, Gestut Sprehe.

After a try-out this week, it has been decided to allocate the ride on Destano back to Pearce. The stallion has moved south.

"The try out worked really harmoniously. Simone can ride and of course compete Destano as long his health and well-being allows it," Sprehe's dressage stable manager Sabine Rueben told Eurodressage. With the 2024 Paris Olympics looming large, "at this point of her career it’s just perfect for Simone to get Destano back," Sabine added.

The black will not be available to breeders with fresh semen, but there is plenty of frozen in store.

"Destano will come back for breeding to Gestüt Sprehe when this new chapter with Simone comes to an end."