By Jean Llewellyn / press release
Photography: FEI/PSV Photo

Since 2000, Le Lion d’Angers in north-western France has played host to the most prestigious championship for young eventing horses: The FEI-WBFSH World Breeding Championships for Young Horses.

Many of the past winners progressed to become household names at the highest level, including championship performances. There is no doubt that this event highlights the connection between breeding and performance, as well as the stallions and breeders of eventing horses from around the world.
This year, a very wide range of studbooks were represented in both the six- and seven-year-old championship, with top prizes going to a British-bred six-year-old mare and a French-bred seven-year-old mare.

Mares dominate

Overall, the seven-year-old class proved to be a hard-fought contest throughout, with less than one penalty point separating the top five horses on the final leaderboard. But it was a fairytale win for Golden de Beliard AA (Upsilon AA x Vieusinge du Maury AA x Jalienny AA) and Thomas Carlisle in the seven-year-old World Championships. Bred by Elevage de Beliard, this elegant Anglo Arab mare was sired by Upsilon whom Carlisle successfully campaigned to championship level and appeared on a number of French national teams. A very athletic little mare, Golden de Beliard has also been produced by Carlisle and, after a clear showjumping round, finished on her dressage score of 28.3 penalties.
Speaking after his victory Carlisle was emotional about her performance. “She gives everything she has. This little mare is a ray of sunshine. I am a little exhausted but I am really happy. She had a great season, everything she has done she has done really well. I am not thinking what comes next for her, we will see what happens next season. She is exceptional because she her chassis is a little small, but she has a lot of desire. With her breeding she’s not one we intend to sell, and because she’s a mare.”
The runner-up, Kiarado d’Arville (SBS/gelding: Diarado [Holst] - Nooney Blue (73.53%) x Jet Set du Rezidal [SBS])was ridden by Lara De Liedekerke for Belgium, who was narrowly defeated by Carlisle after picking up 0.4 of a time penalty in the jumping phase. This tiniest of errors cost her the victory as she wound up just 0.1 penalty adrift on a final score of 28.4. The striking Belgian gelding was sired by top jumping stallion Diarado, and Lara De Liedekerke has future Olympics in mind with this horse. “He is a fantastic horse, I am so happy. He’s a horse I plan very strongly for Los Angeles. He is very efficient in all phases.”.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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