By: Claartje vanAndel
Photography: FEI/Libby Law; FEI/Leanjo de Koster

The winners of the Dutch National Dressage Championship in 2025 (ZZ-Zwaar level – just under intermediate), were Diederik van Silfhout and Dinja van Liere, twice, riding Zaragon, Mauro Turfhorst, and Hermès, respectively.

Van Silfhout rode the Westfalian-bred black-brown Zaragon (Zoom - Jasmin x Just Perfect), breeder/owner Norbert van Laak), while Van Liere rode eight-year-old stallion Mauro Turfhorst (Glock’s Zonik NOP x Negro x Scandic, breeder Jan Greeve, Haaksbergen) and the very well known 13-year-old stallion Hermès (Easy Game x Flemmingh, bred by G. Gijsbers, owned by Joop van Uytert).

Fond memories

Who doesn’t remember the historic team gold of the Netherlands at the European Championships in La Mandria near Torina in Italy 2007?
As a reminder, Dutch star Anky van Grunsven won Freestyle gold on the final day of the show, while the Dutch team in the previous days had historically beaten Germany. At that moment Germany hadn’t been beaten since 1965 and were certainly expected to win team gold. However Anky van Grunsven and Salinero had already won the Grand Prix with a score of 77.458%, and Imke Schellekens-Bartels and (Olympic) Sunrise had placed fourth with 74.167%.
These Dutch championships were a reminder of those happy days and recalling fond memories once again, as this 2025 edition of the event certainly took you back to another era, but also provided an optimistic glimps of the future, and possibly forthcoming moments in Dutch dressage. Will it be possible to beat Great Britain again, Germany, Denmark? It’s still in the stars ofcourse, however it’s a fact that new, younger horses are definitely on the rise...

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