Words of Wisdom - Tim Coomans

Focus

F.O.C.U.S.

Tim Coomans is a Dutch dressage horse breeder, stallion owner, trainer and horse dealer. He bred Steffen Peters' 2008 Hong Kong Olympic mount Ravel, 2021 Dutch Olympic team horse Dream Boy, as well as breeding stallions and sport horses Blue Hors Monte Carlo TC, amongst others. He has been involved as (co)-owner or trainer of horses such as Lancet, Esperanza, Brother de Jeu, etc. In 2012 he was proclaimed KWPN Breeder of the Year. He is based in Oud-Beijerland (NED).

The KWPN society interviewed Coomans for its magazine and wrote: "Horse people are not born, they are made. By trial and error, by making mistakes, taking out the positives and continuing 'with the horses', these people built up an enormous amount of knowledge.

Trick Riding

"With five and six year olds you often see that they have learned 'tricks' from their riders and the natural way of moving has disappeared. I am in favour of leaving the horses in the field for a long time and not starting too early with training them. That is why I would also argue in favor of doing the performance test only in the autumn. It is so important that a horse is given time to grow. It will hurt the stallion owners for one year, but after that we can continue with a system in which horse welfare has improved.”

Influence on the result

“In our neighbouring countries breeding as well as the training of riders has improved enormously. A few years ago I was in Herning and thought: 'They ride so well here!' The Danish riders have now overtaken us. I was recently at a competition and noticed that the development of riding in the Netherlands is somewhat stagnant. What strikes me is that nowadays training has to be faster and faster, with the danger that if you don't pay attention you will skip parts that you will encounter later."

A lot of discipline

"In my time, you were out of the picture for two years after the Small Tour in the lead-up to the Grand Prix, and then you arrived at that level prepared. You couldn't buy this success, but it meant very hard work and a lot of discipline. When riders now have to go through a low point in their career, they quickly run to another trainer. In the past, you tried to solve problems together with your coach. The field has become large and wide, but a lot of work needs to be done when it comes to (good) instruction.”

Half a century of experience

At 74 years old, Tim has been in breeding for half a century and has undoubtedly developed a preference for certain bloodlines: “Jazz has done an incredible amount of good for breeding, but at the time those were not horses for amateurs. I still absolutely love Contango in the dam line. He produced strength and hard workers. They didn't always win a beauty contest, but they were such fine horses to ride."

Good broodmare

"You saw (Contango's influence) in Ravel," Coomans stated. "Ferro or Charmeur are also excellent in the dam line. In my experience, sometimes the mare has more influence and then at other times it's the stallion. You have to keep looking for improvements. Some mares always produce a good foal. A good broodmare is always the start of it all."

The full interview can be in the KWPN magazine. Purchase it online in the webshop.