GERMANY (by Claartje van Andel) Jeannette Nijhof is all smiles thanks to last month’s results of Nijhof stallions Johnson (Jazz - Roxane x Flemmingh) and Verdi (Quidam de Revel - Clarissa x Landgraf I) at the European Championships in Aachen.
Johnson and Hans Peter Minderhoud collected a team gold team and added an individual bronze medal for the Grand Prix Special. In the showjumping arena, Verdi and Michael van der Vleuten won team gold following a thrilling Nations’ Cup competition. “I don’t think I will ever experience this again”, Nijhof exclaims. “Two gold medals and a bronze won by our own stallions that were raised by us and are still in our possession. That’s something you don’t even dare to dream of!”
Thirteen years ago, her father Henk Nijhof bought the two foals from their breeders Piet van der Vleuten and Musterd respectively. Coincidentally they both were named Verdi. So from the age of four months old the two foals grew up together at the Nijhof farm in Geesteren and were prepared for the stallion selection shows. “As he was big and we like to spread our possibilities, we decided to take the dressage Verdi to Oldenburg to get se- lected. He therefore needed to change names, as in Germany foals are named starting with the first letter of the sire. Which was Jazz! Therefore one Verdi was renamed Johnson, the name we all know now”, Jeanette recalls...
TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE OCTOBER EDITION SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
