By Claartje van Andel and Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: FEI/Lafrentz, FEI/Juilliart

This year’s World Equestrian Games is the first since 1990 whereby the various disciplines were once again disconnected, with Herning, Denmark, hosting showjumping, dressage, para dressage and vaulting, and eventing coming from Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, in September.

The first showjumping day in Herning started with 103 combinations from all over the world, including for the very first time a rider from China at the World Championships – Ella Yunjing Wang. She was riding one of the two direct offspring by Quidam de Revel (Jalisco B - Dirka x Nankin, breeder: Amaury de Broglie), being the SCSL bred mare Quidamia D (out of Remember D’Enfer x Cassini I, Stamm 7126, breeder: Philippe Berthol). There was no doubt that Quidam de Revel’s influence was omnipresent, with one out of every three horses descending from this legendary sire.

BWP claims studbook honours

Belgian Warmblood was the leading studbook in Herning with 19 horses, including their gelding King Edward (Edward - Koningin de Lauzelle x Feo de Lauzelle, breeder: Wim Impens) who carried his Swedish rider, Henrik von Eckermann to both team and individual championship titles.

Wim Impens looks back at an emotional journey: “Breeding is a family business with us; I learned so much from my father and grandparents. Now my sons are more knowledgeable than I was at their age. I am breeding only one or two foals each year, so I realize very well that luck plays an important part in this success.
“I planned carefully the Hanoverian-bred stallion Edward (Embassy I - Fabienne x Fabriano, breeder: Hans-Heinrich Dittmer) for my mare Koningin de Lauzelle (Feo de Lauzelle - Gloria x Garibaldi II, breeder: Frans Hemeryck). My partner in breeding was a dressage rider, so the stallion I picked had to be versatile. I carefully read all the available data about stallions, and take the Hanoverian Year Book every year. I thought that Edward would be a good match, and am very happy about the innovations in breeding, because if we didn’t have frozen semen there wouldn’t have been a King Edward.
“As it happened, the foal was a colt and his movement was not that good for a dressage horse. It was when he came under the saddle of Janika Sprunger that I realized he was a good jumping horse, but when he went to Henrik von Eckermann I thought we had bred an outstanding jumping horse. I never thought our own-bred horse would become number one in the world. I’m so very proud of him and don’t think I’ll ever breed such a successful horse again.”
The chairman of BWP, Jozef Bauters, is also delighted and shares a very interesting initiative in which he is involved, although in a different function. “King Edward was a fluke. I hope that the future will bring us more of these types of flukes – that great champions will come from these flukes, because otherwise we’ll move in the wrong direction with our breeding. I cherish our small breeders who only breed one or two foals each year... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

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