By Claartje van Andel
Photography: Wilma Frentz
The most elegant, most consistent, and most powerful horses won the five-, six-, and seven-year-old titles during the dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses 2022 in Ermelo, the Netherlands.
In fact, the final rides produced the golden gleams of sunlight and evoked the thrilling atmosphere in Ermelo, alongside the remarkable dominance of stallion owner and breeder Gert-Jan van Olst and his wife, Anne. The current-day dressage power couple stamped all the classes in which their horses appeared with their stable rider, Lottie Fry. But there were, of course, others who placed well at this World Championships.
Lyngbjergs St Paris: 91.20%
In the five-year-old class the story belonged to Denmark’s Victoria Vallentin and her remarkable mare, Lyngbjergs St Paris (Blue Hors St Schufro x Blue Hors Rockefeller, breeder Bente Børjesson), who twice came out on top and earned a tremendous score of 91.20% – including 9.50 for trot and perspective.
Vallentin was naturally over the moon with the title having acquired the mare as a three-year-old when her boyfriend, Jesper Bisgaard, saw her for the first time in March 2020, then with the Børjesson family in Brønderslev. Young and not so big, but the young couple had no doubt that the mare had to be theirs. So together with their business partner United Dressage A/S, they acquired her, saddled her one year later, when she was awarded a silver breeder’s medal.
Later that year Paris and Vallentin achieved an extremely good result at the Danish Warmblood suitability test, and in March 2022 were the runners-up in the Danish Young Horse Championship during the stallion evaluation in Herning; “With the help of Ingrid and Poul Thøgersen of Four Oaks we are able to keep the mare and now I look forward to producing her up to Grand Prix,” Vallentin explained.
Chairperson of the judges, Dutch Monique Peutz, reiterated the compliments mentioned earlier by her colleague Hennin Lehrmann: “It was elegance throughout the whole test, lightfooted in trot, and an amazingly good hind leg.”
As the final rider in the qualifying class, Frederic Wandres and the Oldenburg-bred stallion Fashion Prinz (Fürst Romancier x Sarkozy, breeder Gestüt Lewitz) overtook Vallentin and her mare, but dropped to third overall, albeit with the highest score for his walk again at 9.70. Certainly, the canter in the final test could have shown more energy. However Frederic Wandres was more than pleased with the performance of his stallion: “I have seen so many good and promising horses here. To come out in the top three is fantastic. Fashion Prinz gave his best and I am so happy with him. He measures over 190cms (18.2hh) and, for his age and size, his level of elasticity and the way he handles his body is unbelievable. His biggest plus no doubt is the walk indeed. In my eyes he leaves nothing to be desired.”.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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