By Claartje van Andel
Photography: Claartje van Andel
It’s not often we publish an extraordinary story of a breeder with just one mare who has experienced such success. But Claartje van Andel – a long-time correspondent with World Breeding News – is one such person who has provided a feel-good read and hope for everyone.
This is Claartje’s story in her own words: I bought Vinea as a foal at an auction organized by the Dutch Sports Federation KNHS in Nijkerk in September/fall 2002. The auction was held to raise funds for the Dutch equestrian team’s participation in future Olymic Games.
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games had taken place two years earlier and had been very successful for the Netherlands: two individual gold medals for Anky van Grunsven and Bonfire in dressage, and Jeroen Dubbeldam with De Sjiem in showjumping. ‘They were all in one box on the long plane flight, and they’d already marked the [fundraiser] appointment,’ Anky would later tell me.
Anky’s gold-medal-winning white gloves were being framed to be auctioned off, plus one of De Sjiem’s horseshoes was gilded and similarly framed. The swimsuit which Inge de Bruin wore to win gold in Sydney was likewise being auctioned off.
Finally, Vinea M. She was the only foal to be included as she was considered a very suitable candidate for the auction with her pedigree: Ferro x Silvano N. Both of these stallions were members of the Dutch dressage team in Sydney with their riders Coby van Baalen and Ellen Bontje, respectively.
An Olympic trip like no other
In 2000 I traveled to Sydney, Australia, as a journalist – then still working for the KWPN magazine In de Strengen and the KWPN. Given the eight-hour time difference between Amsterdam and Sydney, I wrote a daily newsletter in Sydney that I emailed to a few KWPN addresses. This was then forwarded from the Netherlands to KWPN member readers who had signed up in advance and were interested in receiving daily news. Back then the system of a digital newsletter was still quite new, but it had been purchased by KWPN specifically as a trial for this occasion.
In hindsight, I think it was destiny that Vinea came my way. I was very familiar with writing interviews with breeders and people who made decisions related to the KWPN or training. Although I wasn’t raised with breeding or horses, as a Dutch language and literature expert I naturally became increasingly interested in those topics. And what a world lies beyond the studbooks.
I was accompanied to the auction by my husband, Vincent, as he was then working as a PR officer for Rabobank, the main sponsor of KNHS. It made perfect sense that I explained to some guests at our table in Nijkerk why Vinea’s was such a special pedigree, a Ferro out of a Silvano dam. A foal with very high expectations for the sport. Vinea was almost the last item to be auctioned. A small bay filly next to her dam, the chestnut mare Paerel II ster pref prest prok, out of Je Reviens elite prestatie sport-(dres), sport (spr) prok, provided by Els and Ronald Nowee of the Maalwater stud in Nieuwe Niedorp...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE ONLINE EDITION OF BREEDING NEWS
