BELGIUM (by Adriana van Tilburg) Jos Lansink participated in seven Olympic Games, six World Equestrian Games, nine World Cup finals and 10 European Championships. His list of accomplishments are to numerous to list them all in this article. His first international horse was Felix (Maykel - Norma x Farn, bred by T. Koeling), with whom he competed with at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games for the Netherlands.
Twenty-four years later, with Valentina van’t Heike (Nabab de Reve - Quanina van’t Heike x Lys de Dar- men, bred by Karel Boonen) he represented Belgium at the London 2012 Olympic Games. With Cumano (Cassini I - Chanel II x Land- graf I, stamm 318D1, bred by Willi Lührs) he became world champion at 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. As a decade has since passed, it seemed a good time to speak to Lansink about the developments in sport and breed- ing in the interim.
Q What has changed for you in the last ten years since you became World Champion in Aachen?
In depth the sport has become much stronger. The classes haven’t become tougher or more difficult as, back then, that was always the trend. Now, the time allowance is becoming tighter and tighter. That is good luck for the course designer, who doesn’t need to build higher, but by making the time tight you will get more faults. Riders need to think more about going clear by avoiding time faults. Other than that, nothing has changed much – it is really that the top riders be- came much stronger in depth.
Q Could Cumano still jump today’s tracks?
I wouldn’t know any reason why not? With horses like Cumano you can ride on certain distances between the jumps, one stride less because of the length of his stride. You need to make shorter turns. At a major championship like WEG or an Olympics, everything is a bit more extreme. He could really still do the tracks of today.
Q How about Cumano as a stallion?
I have a few of his offspring. I have one five-year-old that is being started under saddle in Poland. I have a few young horses in Poland. I don’t have many offspring by him, the problem is, of course, to get mares in foal by him. It seems to be improving now and getting easier with new ICSI technology. Okay, it is a bit more expensive, but you have more guarantees that you will get a foal.
Q How many broodmares do you have?
Well I try to not have too many broodmares but to use ICSI for the mares I do have. This year I have seven foals. I had Valentina van‘t Heike in Italy and we flushed 17 embryos that are now in the freezer. Just recently they have put a few embryos in re- cipient mares, so now we need to wait and to see what the result will be.
I have one two-year-old out of Valentina van’t Heike by King Julio (King Kolibri - Victoria x Vulkano, bred by Arend Kamphorst). His name is King Valentino Z and he looks very promising. Using ISCI to get some off- spring from Valentina van‘t Heike looks positive. King Julio sold to Victoria Fargas from Venezuela who is training with Markus Beerbaum...
