By Jenneke Smit / KWPN
Photography: Dirk Caremans; Digishots

Karin and Gerrit Huisman have proven that small-scale breeders can achieve great things. From a single dam line, they have bred several international showjumpers and the KWPN-approved stallions Power of Zsazsa and Rock Me Zsazsa. By focusing on sport aptitude and health from the beginning, rearing the young horses themselves, and actively competing their mares internationally, they have laid a solid foundation for their breeding program.

As breeders, Karin and Gerrit have made a name for themselves thanks to successful international sport horses like the 1m60 jumper D’Angelo (Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve), La Zsa Zsa (Cornet Obolensky), sold to Gerco Schröder, and Zsa Zsa (Sam R), who performed well with Siebe Kramer. Their breeding journey began with the Aram daughter Francien, and since then they have continuously raised the bar. By gathering information, critically evaluating their horses, and using sport performance as the ultimate benchmark, this couple consistently makes the right decisions.

Finding out on your own

Over the years, horse breeding has become a shared passion for Karin and Gerrit. Karin previously rode dressage with great pleasure, and her enthusiasm rubbed off on Gerrit, who brought in a business-minded approach. “If you’re going to plant a tree”, Gerrit says, “I’d rather plant an apple tree so we can literally and figuratively reap the rewards.”
That was the same for buying a horse, adds Karin. “My first horse came from the market in Hedel, and in 1989 Gerrit and I decided to buy a foal. That was a gelding, but by age three, he turned out to have health issues. So Gerrit suggested buying another foal, this time a filly, so one horse could become two. We had some space around the house, enough for a mare and foal.”
After an extensive search for a promising filly, they eventually came across Francien, a two-year-old daughter of Aram. “She moved and jumped well but looked a bit rough because she’d rubbed her mane off. It was late summer, and an article in In de Strengen that mentioned her grandmother convinced us to buy her. The article was about the performance predicate for mares, and Francien’s grandmother already had double 'preferent' and 'prestatie' status, which was the reason why she was mentioned.”
That winter, Francien improved significantly, and at three, she was saddle-broken. “We were curious about breeding and had to figure everything out ourselves. I used to study In de Strengen front to back. When Francien was saddle-broken, my instructor advised us to take her to the studbook inspection. That was all new to us, and we were over the moon when she was awarded ‘ster’ status ‘just like that’. We thought it was amazing. After that, we consulted inspector Rob van Ruitenbeek about what we needed to do to get her ‘keur’ status as well. He recommended having Francien do an IBOP test. So said, so done, we took her to Faan Pompen, and it turned out she was a very talented jumper.”..

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